# 32
32
It is said that someone who is going through an experience that is both shocking and incredibly beautiful, somewhere hears the ringing of distant bells.
At that moment, Angelica felt as if this hidden bell had rang deep inside her.
A strong pulse, like an internal explosion, made her forget how to breathe.
It was as if she was stuck in tangled threads of roses, unable to move even an inch.
The scene was surrounded by a red glow from the intense light, but she felt no pain.
“Oh my God… how beautiful…”
His smile was much more beautiful than I imagined.
Warm... soft... even the air around him seemed to smile with him.
Angelica subconsciously raised the corner of her lips, so while she was melting at that moment, Hugo's lips moved slowly.
“…Huh?”
Her confused mind suddenly woke up. She quickly followed the shape of his words with her eyes and read them from the movements of his lips.
His lips spoke a familiar word, but she did not understand it immediately.
“Uh...chim?”
She repeated it to herself in a low voice:
“Chem… you mean morning?”
Then Hugo nodded calmly.
“Did he say good morning? Or did he ask if I had breakfast?”
He didn't finish talking, making her tilt her head with childish curiosity.
But Hugo turned his face silently, then turned suddenly and walked away with a determined step.
"Huh? Where to...?"
Did he give up just because she didn't understand? Or did he leave angry?
I quickly got up and followed him out of the room.
“Where did he disappear?”
Even though she left right after him, she saw no sign of him.
She bit her lower lip nervously, then glanced out the window before deciding to go down to the first floor.
-patter.
She was barefoot, and had not put on her slippers in a hurry.
The cold of the marble ran through her feet until she shivered.
“Should I wear them again?”
But she hesitated. She is now the duke's wife, and it is not appropriate for her to walk around barefoot in the palace.
“But… what if Hugo disappeared at that moment?”
That was a painful scenario in itself.
She hesitated for a long time, until anxiety began to plague her heart again.
She walked around aimlessly, until...
“Ah!”
She suddenly felt a warm touch on her ankle.
She gasped, her shoulders shook, then she looked down at the ground.
“Huh!”
Hugo was there.
When did he appear? She didn't even hear his footsteps.
He knelt down on one knee in front of her...with his fingers around her ankle!
“Ahh!”
She froze, her face burning with embarrassment.
‘He… he looks so handsome even when he is kneeling! No, that's not important, I just washed my feet, they're not clean enough!'
“H-Hugh… I-I…”
She stuttered, unable to produce a complete sentence. She did not know if it was the situation itself or the warmth of his hand wrapped around her ankle.
“Stand still.”
He said in a low, dry voice, while clenching his fist slightly to prevent her from dragging her foot.
His heat was different from his voice, so warm, so human.
Angelica stopped resisting.
“You better not walk around barefoot.”
His tone was stern, but full of interest.
He extended his hand slightly, gently placed her foot on his knee, then pressed his thumb on her sole.
"Hugo! T-stop a minute!"
His calloused fingers - cracked from training and wounds - ran lightly over her soft skin, eliciting a slight shiver and a stifled laugh.
“No, I have to make sure there are no wounds.”
“But... it just tickles!”
There was no pain at all, but a light, warm sensation that made her stifle her laughter in vain until she slumped forward, gripping his shoulder tightly.
“The wooden floor has fine splinters, I have to inspect it carefully, otherwise the wound will become infected.”
“H… how long do I have to put up with this?”
She tried to hold back her laughter, but her voice came out shaky and weak, and she bit her lip to sound uselessly serious.
She looked at him with eyes teary from laughter, and a face flushed with embarrassment.
“Almost done.”
He said in a low voice, raising his eyes to hers for a moment.
When their gazes met, he quickly hid a small smile that crept onto his mouth.
“This amount of screening seems to be enough for now.”
In fact, Hugo had realized from the first moment that there was nothing wrong with her foot, and yet he couldn't stop.
It had been a long time since he had last seen Angelica laugh so pure, a laugh that made him forget himself for a moment.
Then he got up and brought her one of the room shoes that he himself had placed around the palace early in the morning, and knelt down in front of her to put it on her carefully.
As for the other foot, he resisted the urge to extend it, and contented himself with examining it quickly.
She said smiling:
“Thank you.”
Her words crept gently into his ears, her voice mixed with a slight laugh from the tickling effect.
She wasn't laughing directly because of him, and yet he felt like his heart was being squeezed with a strange heat.
He said in his usual calm tone, as if trying to hide any turmoil inside him:
“I wasn't able to check at dawn, so I had to check now.”
Then he looked at her steadily, afraid that she would notice his disturbance and that the familiar tranquility between them would be broken.
“Um… I drank a lot of alcohol yesterday.”
"Know."
“I mean...everything I said or did yesterday was because I was drunk, just so...”
“…”
“Usually when I drink, I say the opposite of what I mean.”
She was lying, of course. But she had no other way to deal with what happened last night.
‘What if he thought I was serious when I said I wanted to go home?!’
She remembered how she cried like a child in his arms, and how he tried to calm her down, but every time she repeated the same sentence: “I want to go home!”
Even after she calmed down, she would suddenly get up and try to get out, then start crying again.
This scene has been repeated many times...
‘No way, I can’t file for divorce while I have Hugo with me!’
For this very reason, she decided to clarify the situation from the beginning so that it would not be misunderstood.
She said with a relieved smile to herself:
"What I mean is...don't think too much about my actions yesterday. They didn't mean anything."
"Understood."
But something in his voice was not normal. She felt his features become darker, as if she had said something wrong without realizing it.
‘Why does he look upset? Did I make a mistake?
However, he was still being nice to her as he straightened the edges of her dress after he finished putting her shoes on.
Is it just a feeling? Or an intuition that should not be ignored?
She hesitated for a moment, then extended her hand to grab his sleeve as they were about to go down to the first floor.
“What's wrong?”
“Ah…”
Her first thought was that she had done the right thing by stopping him, but the problem was that she did not know exactly what to correct.
'I definitely said something stupid...'
But apologizing without reason might make the situation worse, so she bit her lip and decided to tell the truth directly.
“Actually, I don't remember much from yesterday, but…don't take my word for wanting to go home seriously!”
“…?”
“I didn't really mean to leave, it's just… my instinct to come back, because I'm still not used to the palace. After a while, I will truly consider it my home...”
Perhaps because the crying and arguing that her drunkenness had caused yesterday had removed some of the barriers between them, she was now able to speak in front of him without trembling or tearing up.
'That's good, at least I didn't collapse like the previous times.'
If her tears had preceded her today as well, the future would have been truly dark.
'At this rate, maybe one day I'll dare to call him just by his name… 'Hugo'…'
Just the thought of him looking at her and answering her in that deep voice was enough to make her heart skip a beat.
He suddenly said:
“So... about what happened in the bedroom...”
“Huh?!”
Her eyes widened in amazement.
‘Bedroom? What… happened there?!’
I shouted nervously:
“Did you do something in the bedroom too?!”
‘But my back doesn’t hurt… so what does that mean?!’
He asked her quietly:
“Do you remember anything?”
“Just a minute, just a minute... I'll try hard to remember!”
She put her hands on her head and closed her eyes forcefully, but nothing changed.
‘Damn it…nothing, nothing at all!’
She looked like she was about to cry, and when Hugo saw her like that, he looked at her features carefully.
When he was sure that his face did not bear any distaste for her, he finally felt at ease.
He said in a low voice:
“Nothing important happened, Angelica.”
"Really? I wasn't crying and screaming that I wanted to go like dawn, was I?"
"never."
“Thank God...this is the most important thing.”
Yes, the important thing is that she did not say anything that might be interpreted as an intention to separate.
The matter is simple, as long as she does not mention divorce, she is fine.
‘And on top of that… Hugo’s face seems calmer than before too…’
She didn't remember anything, but she convinced herself that last night had been productive.
‘Maybe we talked about our future… about how we would cope as a couple?’
She was quick to push any 'vague' thoughts out of her head, even though a small part of her wished they were true.
'Unless he also got drunk and thought I was Cyril...'
She laughed lightly inwardly, then unconsciously touched her lips.
But she noticed his voice again when he continued speaking, and she returned to focusing on him with full attention.
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