The place where Edric obtained grapes, braving the blizzard of a midwinter night, was inside a food storage at a dawn market.

He was able to get his hands on the grapes that the owner had frozen to make jam, only after paying ten times the original price.

Though exhausted from the cold and lack of sleep, seeing Melly devour three bunches in succession where she sat completely dispelled his fatigue.

It was a moment when the fact that she was his woman carrying his child hit him more clearly than ever before.

When Melly set aside the bare grape stem and picked up another bunch with plump, ripe grapes, he asked.

“Was it like this with Jade too?”

Melly looked up from the bunch of grapes.

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking if you craved grapes when you were pregnant with Jade too.”

Melly’s eyes curved like crescent moons as she finally understood the meaning.

“It wasn’t like that with Jade.”

“Then what did you crave back then?”

Melly retraced her memories and said with a faint smile.

“Meat.”

At those words, Edric recalled where she had lived when pregnant with Jade.

A remote mountain village, an old and shabby house, dried herbs and vegetables hanging on the clothesline.

A wave of poignant emotion swept over him.

“It must have been difficult to eat.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

Melly quickly shook her head and said.

“Aunt Louisa made meat out of beans for me. Surprisingly, it tasted exactly like meat.”

Melly recalled that time happily as if it were a fond memory.

But Edric felt even more distressed.

To think that meat, so common at the duke’s residence, was hard to come by and they had to make do with beans disguised as meat. It was obvious she couldn’t have eaten as much as she wanted even then.

Judging by the speed at which Melly was devouring the grapes now, there was no way that household could have provided the amount she desired.

Moreover, Melly wasn’t the type to be brazen.

‘It’s so delicious, Mrs. Louisa. But I’m full and can’t eat anymore. Thank you.’

She probably said something like that after eating just a bite or two.

As the words and expression Melly likely used vividly appeared in his mind, Edric felt his heart break.

With eyes full of remorse, he said.

“I’m sorry, I’ll do better, Melly.”

“What do you mean? How could you do any better than this?”

She smiled, saying this was more than enough.

But for Edric, it wasn’t enough. The thought occurred to him that this second child, which he had found so disagreeable, might be a gift sent by God to give him a chance to do properly what he couldn’t do for Jade.

“I’m not doing enough.”

Edric said with a resolute face.

“From now on, tell me if there’s anything you want to eat. I’ll buy it all for you.”

“It’s really fine.”

Melly winked one eye and put a grape in his mouth.

“This grape is enough for me.”

The grape in his mouth burst with juice as refreshing as her smile.

She ate the rest of the bunch of grapes and fell asleep feeling satisfied. However…

‘This grape is enough.’

A few days later, those words of hers proved to be false.

‘I want to eat bread filled with warm red bean paste.’

‘I want to eat freshly fried banana sprinkled with cinnamon powder.’

She started making increasingly specific requests, and always in the middle of the night.

If she had said it during the day, he could have prepared, but she always blurted it out just as they were getting into bed at night.

Moreover, she wouldn’t let him wake the cook.

‘It’s inconsiderate to wake sleeping people. I’ll just endure it.’

So Edric had to go to the night market in the middle of the night to buy freshly baked red bean bread and banana fritters sprinkled with cinnamon powder.

For this reason, today too he went to bed with a tense face.

‘I wonder what she’ll ask for today.’

He was even wearing a knit sweater under his robe so he could go out immediately.

Sure enough, as soon as he lay down, she spoke again.

“Suddenly, I want to eat a souffle filled with custard cream…”

“…”

Until now, the things Melly had asked for were troublesome, but he just had to drive out and buy them.

But what she just said was a completely different category.

What she wanted was a warm, puffy souffle, not one that had deflated like a flat ball and gone cold.

“No, please forget I said anything. I’ll try to endure it today.”

Melly pulled up the blanket with an embarrassed smile. But somehow it seemed like she was about to turn her back on him again.

Edric thought there was only one solution in this situation.

“I’ll try making it.”

“You?”

Melly looked at him as if to say, is that even possible?

“Just wait and see.”

Edric answered simply and left the bedroom.

First, he went to the study. There should be a recipe book there with simple dishes he could make. When he was deeply involved in social circles, he used to refer to that recipe to entertain guests he invited home.

“…”

At last, he was able to find a spiral notebook in the far corner of the bookshelf. The custard cream souffle recipe that filled half a page among them deeply relieved him.

He found his glasses and put them on. Then, without taking his eyes off the notebook as if studying, he headed to the kitchen.

First, he mixed butter, flour, and milk as instructed in the recipe, and finally beat the egg whites for meringue.

Rolling up his knit sleeves, his hand movements whisking were fast and smooth, as well as consistent.

As if he had become a machine.

Well, in reality, he was ordering his hands to beat the meringue regularly while his mind was thinking of other things.

Somehow, he wondered if Melly still hadn’t forgotten the things he had done to upset her.

Or maybe she thought she had forgotten, but in her weakened physical and mental state due to pregnancy, memories of the past were unexpectedly resurfacing without her realizing it.

‘Is this her way of getting revenge?’

His train of thought, briefly interrupted to check the consistency of the meringue, resumed as he poured the well-mixed souffle batter into cups and put them in the oven to wait.

‘No, that’s not it.’

She was just haunted by something that had suddenly come to mind. And what would normally have been a manageable appetite had become uncontrollable due to hormonal influences.

In fact, even if it really was revenge, Edric had nothing to say.

He knew well that he should be happy even with this…

He rubbed his stiff eyes under his glasses and placed the finished souffle on a tray.

‘I should learn to cook more.’

Because tomorrow night she might want something else.

Oddly enough, Melly never wanted to eat the same thing twice.

‘I think the baby wants something different today.’

With an embarrassed smile, that’s what she would say.

‘Is it really the baby in her womb that wants these things?’

Unable to shake off his doubts, Edric returned to the bedroom with the tray.

Knock knock−.

Edric knocked lightly so as not to startle Melly.

Since becoming pregnant, Melly was easily startled. Once, she was so startled that Edric was even more surprised.

She had become not just like a fragile glass, but like a soap bubble that might burst at the slightest touch.

And a soap bubble that changed shape unpredictably at that.

He carefully opened the door and entered the room. The sweet scent of souffle followed him in.

“Did you wait long? Try eating this.”

He wanted to quickly see Melly enjoying it. He wanted to dispel the fatigue that had permeated his entire body.

But.

“…”

Melly’s chest was rising and falling regularly under her flannel pajamas.

She was in deep sleep. After making him make souffle for her…

With a sigh, his shoulders slumped. Edric set the tray down on the table and approached the bed. Then he pulled up the blanket to cover her chest.

Suddenly, Melly’s lips moved slightly as if suckling like a baby. Her expression looked happy too.

‘She must be eating something delicious in her dream.’

Not the real souffle.

Edric carefully pulled out Melly’s lower lip caught between her teeth, smiling silently.

Her plump, reddened lips were tempting. Tempting enough to kiss.

But he wouldn’t do that.

Because when Melly woke up, she might say she wanted to eat something again.

And it might not be souffle this time.

‘Sleep well, I love you.’

Edric mouthed the words and lay down beside Melly.

It had been an exhausting day.

Yesterday, today, and… probably tomorrow too. But even so, he thought.

‘I’ll do better tomorrow.’

He fell asleep holding Melly’s hand tightly, feeling fulfilled.

“Surely, you’re not planning to do it yourself?”

On an early spring evening when the chill in the air was beginning to fade.

Melly, who was soaking her feet, gave Edric a puzzled look as he entered, rolling up his sleeves.

“No, I am.”

Edric said, kneeling on one knee in front of Melly.

No matter how accustomed she was becoming to his queen-like treatment, to think he would even give her a foot massage.

“Just call Rena. That would be easier.”

“It’s easier for me now.”

He flatly rejected Melly’s words, lifted her feet from the basin, and dried them. Then he gently spread lavender-scented oil over her entire legs and began to carefully apply pressure.

She resigned herself and entrusted her feet to him.

Looking down at Edric gave a different impression than usual.

If the usual him was an arrogant duke, the current him was a devoted knight. One swearing love to a lady against the backdrop of a sunset sky.

Was that why?

When he asked, “Does it hurt?” she didn’t answer like this:

‘It doesn’t hurt at all.’

At this moment, she felt she had the right to be a little honest with herself.

“It hurts.”

“Where?”

“Where you just pressed.”

“Is this pressure okay?”

“It’s too light now.”

She chided herself for acting uncharacteristically picky.

‘Why am I being like this? I should just let this slide.’

But he accepted all those demands without complaint, and adjusted his touch as fluidly and delicately as if playing the piano.

The touch that gently stroked upwards along the grain of the muscles, the deep and pleasant pain, and… the ticklish breath on her skin.

Suddenly, moments when she felt exactly the same sensations flashed through Melly’s mind. Back then, the tools and body parts were different. And the intensity of the pressure and the degree of ecstasy…

Melly was taken aback by the desire that suddenly reared its head within her.

‘Is it okay to feel this way while pregnant?’

But thinking about it, there was no reason why not. She had seen it in the book the physician had given her to refer to recently. The part that said it was okay to have marital relations without overdoing it once you reach the stable period.

She was in the stable period now.

“…”

Melly’s eyes grew moist as she looked down at Edric.