Silence engulfed the room.
Jane looked down at Cain with trembling eyes. He repeatedly apologized to Jane in a voice that sounded like burnt-out ashes.
What was he apologizing for?
Why was he apologizing now of all times?
Jane’s green eyes flickered with sadness.
“Do you even know what you’re apologizing for?”
Jane asked. Cain, as if in agony from the alcohol, hugged a cushion and exhaled, “Phew, phew”. It wasn’t an answer to the question.
“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry, Jane. Jane… I’m sorry…”
The apology that she thought had ended continued again. Tears streamed down his long eyes.
The apology and tears of the arrogant man once again pulled out a cornerstone from the wall Jane had painstakingly built up.
Jane covered her eyes with one hand.
“Why are you doing this to me? What do you want me to do?”
After expressing a resentment that he couldn’t hear, Jane pulled her hand out of his grasp.
Cain groaned and groped the air, trying to find Jane’s hand.
Was he conscious or not?
“Jane, Jane…”
As Cain whimpered like a child searching for his mother, Jane reluctantly gave him her hand, pretending to be unable to resist.
He tightly grasped Jane’s hand. He interlocked his fingers firmly between hers.
Jane stared at him silently, then opened her mouth.
“I have something I want to ask, Cain.”
“Mm, Jane, mm.”
Cain’s consciousness was somewhere in the ambiguous boundary between sleep and reality.
Jane saw it as an opportunity to ask for the truth.
Even if she couldn’t get a proper answer, she could make guesses based on his reaction.
The most important question for Jane.
Did Cain know that it was the previous Duke of Hastings who had falsely accused Count Whitney 7 years ago?
“Do you know anything about the execution of our parents?”
“…”
There was no answer. Instead, only the sound of Cain’s agonized breathing gradually grew louder.
It was difficult to tell if it was a drunken sound or if there was another reason.
Jane bit her lower lip.
It seemed impossible to get information out of him while he was drunk.
“Let’s talk again when you’re sober.”
Jane forcibly detached her hand and opened the bedroom door.
Norbert, Nathan, and Vincent, who were in the hallway, were startled. They looked like people who had been engaged in some secret conspiracy. Jane swept a glance over them and spoke.
“His Grace will be staying at Somnium House from now on. Whenever he sleeps, it will always be at Somnium House, so keep that in mind.”
In other words, it meant that from now on, if he hangs around the gentlemen’s club, send him straight home.
Vincent and Nathan replied, “Yes,” to Jane’s stern attitude.
* * *
“May I have a moment of your time?”
Nathan grabbed Jane as she was coming out after laying Cain in the bedroom.
“It’s too late. Nathan, you need to rest too. You must not have been able to rest properly while taking care of His Grace.”
Although not as much as Cain, Nathan also had a decent appearance. His strengths were his healthy-looking skin and refreshing smile, but now he had lost both.
“I’ve slept and eaten well. Compared to His Grace, that is. It will only take a very short while, so please.”
When Nathan bowed down to his waist and pleaded as if he had something important to say, it became difficult for Jane to refuse as well.
“Let’s go to the drawing room.”
There was no need to go far, so Jane entered the drawing room attached to Cain’s room. Hailey followed to attend, but was sent out.
It seemed best to send Nathan home as quickly as possible after serving him tea.
“It’s all due to my negligence.”
Nathan apologized out of the blue. A look of bewilderment flashed across Jane’s exhausted face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Speak slowly. And raise your head.”
Despite Jane’s words, Nathan spoke with his forehead practically glued to the table.
“It’s because of my incompetence that His Grace couldn’t come home. He has so much work to do.”
In other words, Nathan was making excuses on Cain’s behalf. Jane’s eyes narrowed. It was different from the rumors she had heard.
“I heard he was meeting a woman.”
“That… is just a cover.”
“To avoid whose eyes?”
Nathan’s internal conflict intensified.
When he grabbed Jane, he had intended to lay everything bare. To explain for whose sake Cain was running around like that.
In Nathan’s view, it was all because of Jane.
Of course, Cain said he had to set things right and only wanted to know the truth, but in Nathan’s opinion, that was absolutely not the case!
In the end, Cain’s words about being swayed by Jane became true.
Nathan had stopped her because he wanted to at least spare Cain from Jane’s blanket criticism.
Jane’s expression hadn’t been good the whole way back from the gentlemen’s club.
But when he actually tried to speak, he began to doubt whether he had the right to say anything.
As he hesitated, Jane asked.
“Quickly tell me whose eyes Cain is trying to avoid by spreading false rumors.”
At the coldly subdued voice, Nathan’s mind cleared.
“…His Majesty. His Grace is doing something that His Majesty does not want. It’s absolutely not a bad thing. It’s for you and the family, should I say.”
Jane pressured Nathan into silence to make him say more.
But Nathan’s mouth didn’t open again.
The silence lasted for quite a while. During that time, Nathan remained motionless with his head buried in the table.
Jane, who suddenly felt sorry for him, bit the inside of her mouth.
What sin did that person commit to apologize to her? It must have all been on Cain’s orders.
“I understand. So go and rest now. If it’s too hard to go home, you can stay at Somnium House.”
After saying that, Jane realized her thoughts made sense and called for Hailey to prepare the guest room.
“I’ll be staying for a day, though it’s presumptuous of me.”
Nathan bowed and withdrew.
Jane let out a long sigh, leaned against the sofa, and turned her head. There was a door right in front of her. It was the door connecting Cain’s bedroom and drawing room.
Did the man inside know?
That everyone was making excuses for him.
First, it was Norbert who spoke.
“He says he’s busy with work.”
Next, Mary came to visit.
“He wouldn’t be… playing around at the gentlemen’s club. If he did, I’ll give him a good scolding on your behalf.”
And just now with Nathan, and finally herself.
Even Jane didn’t think Cain would have enjoyed a life of debauchery at the gentlemen’s club.
It wasn’t because she heard Nathan’s words, but because she had directly seen the office that resembled an underground prison.
And.
Jane rummaged through her pocket and took out a piece of paper.
The crumpled paper was a newspaper article covering the downfall of Count Whitney’s family 7 years ago.
On it was a word written in Cain’s handwriting.
Truth?
As Jane rubbed her finger over the letters, she raised her head.
It was too early to declare that Cain was unaware of the inside story of the incident 7 years ago based on just one word.
But there was now a possibility that he didn’t know.
So Jane’s question went one step further.
‘If you find out the truth before me, will you tell me?’
* * *
Cain, who woke up from the stinging sunlight, lifted his upper body and immediately buried his head back into the bed.
It was the first hangover he had experienced in his life.
‘Did I drink this much?’
Cain tried to pronounce the names of the whiskeys he could remember, then gave up. He remembered drinking more, but couldn’t recall the names of the whiskeys.
‘I got properly drunk.’
At times like this, sleeping is the best. Cain pulled up the fluffy blanket.
Then he paused.
“Fluffy?”
There was no way there would be fluffy bedding in the underground office of the gentlemen’s club.
Using that place meant a very serious problem had occurred and needed to be resolved urgently.
So he had furnished it with all uncomfortable sofas and chairs, not even allowing the thought of rest to enter his mind.
So the existence of fluffy bedding meant…
A memory like a shattered fragment surfaced in Cain’s mind.
Jane’s face looking down at him pathetically.
‘Don’t tell me yesterday…’
The moment Cain opened his eyes, he abruptly sat up. He looked around.
It was his room.
The next thing Cain checked was his own body. His clothes had been neatly changed and he didn’t feel grimy. It bore the marks of someone’s touch.
Drinking until he lost consciousness and not even remembering how he got home was something that had happened only once in Cain’s life.
When he parted ways with Jane.
He thought such a thing would never happen again, but it did. And because of Jane, at that.
Cain’s chest tightened at the thought of Jane witnessing his pathetic appearance.
Jane would surely ask why he drank so much.
‘Wait. Isn’t this the important part?’
The fact that Jane came to the underground office of the gentlemen’s club yesterday meant…
Cain ruffled his hair.
Did Jane possibly see the scattered documents? Did he put them away properly?
Usually, he was good at organizing, but these days, even Cain himself was embarrassed to call his condition normal, so he wasn’t confident.
As Cain grew anxious and repeatedly rubbed his face with his dry hands, it was then.
“Did you sleep well?”
Jane entered the room. With the hangover remedy drink Cain had given her last time.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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