“Mrs. Taylor, this is Khanna.”

Khanna had guessed Ann could be the one who wanted to talk to her, and she had been right. Ann, who had been sorting gifts piled up like mountains in the reception room with the maids, smiled brightly at seeing Khanna.

“Oh, Madam Khanna. Has everything gone well?”

“Yes, but Her Grace didn’t order many dresses as she is still in the early stages of her pregnancy.”

Normally, Ann would have made a big fuss at hearing that. Then, she would have personally ordered a bunch of dresses for pregnant women and even order baby clothes.

“Really?”

However, to Khanna’s surprise, Ann didn’t show much attention to the news. Instead, she gave an order to Elise who had stopped crying and was sorting the gifts with the maids.

“Elise, Her Grace is alone in the sewing room. You should go to her.”

“Yes, Mrs. Taylor.”

Elise put down the box she was holding and left the room while Ann was looking at her proudly.

‘I was worried about her at first, but she has improved a lot. Now she knows how to handle this kind of thing with flexibility.’

Ann had been surprised to see the girl come down crying, but she was still a teenager. Ann couldn’t expect her to be perfect. Moreover, Humans could improve and change only because they were imperfect.

“Madam Khanna, we should have a talk here.”

Ann led Khanna to a small room near the reception room.

‘But the duchess hasn’t ordered anything expensive that needs a talk in private…’

Khanna didn’t cheat about the raw material costs and employment costs for her dresses, but still, having a talk in private with Ann in a different room made her nervous.

Ann looked really grim as she offered her to sit, but Khanna still forced her tensed body to sit down on a chair. Strangely, although she had done nothing wrong, she was nervous. She tried to think hard and find out if she had made any mistake.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t find anything. No, was that fortunate?

“Her Grace hasn’t ordered many dresses today, so you can pay me after they are finished.”

Khanna was in fear and spoke first, but Ann just quietly shook her head.

“Madam.”

Ann called her in a low voice that was nothing like her usual voice. Khanna almost hiccupped. That was true fear. She even felt like she embezzled money when she didn’t. She felt like she would immediately get kicked out of her position and live on the streets with her children if only the housekeeper wanted it. Soon, Ann continued gravely.

“That nightdress the duke saw the other day.”

Oh, was it about dishonoring the duchess? At the time, the duke had liked that nightdress and the mood had been fine, so everyone had moved on it.

But still, Khanna shouldn’t have recommended such a thing to the duchess. She trembled in fear and was about to plead for mercy.

“Can I order twenty of them?”

“What?”

“No? Then I will order ten for now. You may change the color or the lace. But what is important is…”

Ann’s face turned red. She found it embarrassing to say what she had to say, but now wasn’t time to care about that.

“… make them as sexy and erotic as possible.”

Khanna didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t even answer and just blankly sat there. Was she about to refuse? Ann was worried and held her hands tightly.

“I will pay as much as you want. Please, you have to take this order.”

Then, she lowered her voice and said, “But it should remain as a secret to the duchess.”

Ann decided to pay for the materials by paying for the dresses ordered by Rubica in advance and pay the rest on the day all the dresses were made. Rubica would notice it if Ann wrote it in the books. Plus, considering how she had reacted at Edgar looking at that design, she would immediately cancel the order. Ann was, therefore, plotting for a perfect crime.

“And you must use the thin lace from Sharman that can be torn at any time.”

“Oh, um, lace from Sharman is hard to get. I cannot get enough to make twenty nightdresses so quickly.”

“Then can you make ten?”

“… yes, I can make ten.”

Khanna tried not to blush too much as she wrote down Ann’s order.

‘But is it okay to make a pregnant woman wear such a dress?’

She suddenly wondered that, but she didn’t ask the question out loud. The money she would make by making ten expensive dresses was just too tempting.

***

While things were going peacefully at the Claymore Mansion, Edgar felt like he was in hell. He couldn’t sit still in his carriage. If his legs had been fine, he would have pushed the driver away and driven the carriage himself.

‘Rubica, Rubica.’

He couldn’t say the name out loud, but he kept calling her name in his mind. He was enraged by the time the carriage left the capital.

‘She is pregnant…’

And, she had married him without revealing that. However, it didn’t anger him at all. Instead, he was mad at the man who made her pregnant and was ignoring her now.

‘Is it that Arman she said she loved?’

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. How could Rubica love such a bastard? He couldn’t control his rage and broke a pen in his hand. He wanted to find Arman and beat him up if only he could.

Such a man didn’t deserve Rubica’s love. Edgar wanted to make sure he never got to set his feet on the ground or see the clear sky ever again. He thought torture was something barbaric, but this time it was different. He wanted to use every cruel method he knew to teach Arman how bad it was what he had done. He made a woman pregnant and made her marry another man.

‘Was this why she said she could never have physical intercourse even after marrying me? Oh, it must have been why she wanted to make our marriage last only for a year…’

Now everything made sense. Rubica might not love Edgar, but being Duchess Claymore was charming enough. Edgar could guess that not all the women who tried to tempt him were doing it because of his beauty. There were many women who would do anything to become his duchess, even if he was so rude or cold toward them. However, Rubica strongly refused him.

She could have enjoyed the privileges she had as the duchess, but she didn’t. She only wanted to do just enough not to make others suspicious. Even though he had given her some money as the dowry, she had put half of it in a trust fund for her cousin. Fifty thousand Gold. That was a huge sum of money for others but, to Edgar, it was small. Rubica was trying to take that money and live as a divorced woman.

Edgar just couldn’t understand that choice, but she was so stubborn no matter how good the bait he was offering was. Now he knew why.

She had been trying to stay chaste, for the bastard who had abandoned the woman who was pregnant with his child.

When Edgar’s thought reached that point, something hot rose in his chest. Soon, he could feel a metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

‘Foolish girl.’

She was really foolish. If she had accepted his marriage proposal and had hidden her secret, he would have believed the baby was his by now. Rubica could have lived as Duchess Claymore, as the mother of the heir of Claymore Family. However, she didn’t. She even requested the condition of banning physical intercourse.

‘Why? Why did she do that when she was pregnant?’

People who were too just were fools and Rubica was one of them. Had she feared he might think the baby was his? When Edgar thought of that, he couldn’t breathe properly anymore. He couldn’t even guess what she was thinking, and his heart was about to blow up.

‘There might be another explanation.’

Edgar took a sip of tea and took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. Rubica was the one who was pregnant, and she had to be more confused than he was now. He couldn’t humiliate himself by losing his temper in front of her. He had to be there with a straight mind and take care of her.

For now, he had to consider every possible scenario, find the best countermeasure, and carry it out.

‘Did she not know that she was pregnant when she agreed to marry me?’

He suddenly got that idea. It was likely. Rubica’s body hadn’t shown any change till he left for the capital. She hadn’t shunned specific foods or retched. And, the doctor hadn’t said much about her condition. Maybe she had just found out about her pregnancy.

‘Then it’s even worse.’

She had to be so worried and nervous. The pain he was feeling now was nothing compared to hers. She must be living in hell.

‘She might worry about me thinking that I was fooled by her’

That much was fine. That wasn’t the worst scenario as he could soothe her anxiety. Even if she had known about her being pregnant, he could tell her he knew she never thought of fooling him thanks to the terms she had requested before marrying him. However, the true problem lay somewhere else. It was her stubborn nature.

‘She might feel too ashamed to see me and leave the mansion before I get there.’