The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke - Chapter 4.2
Benjamin knew that Grace hadn’t been taking her medicine lately. Grace’s gaze was fixed on the envelope containing the pills.
“I’ve been a bit out of it lately, so how did I end up taking this medicine?”
“….”
Sally didn’t answer Grace’s question for a while.
“The master brought it for Madam’s health.”
“My health?”
“Yes.”
Sally didn’t seem to know anything else.
‘So, you don’t even know what kind of medicine it is?’
They gave her medicine without even knowing what it was for? Grace felt uneasy, but she didn’t show it and asked Sally.
“Can you tell His Excellency that I apologize for causing him to worry?”
“Yes, I will.”
“And can you leave the teapot here? I want to drink more water.”
Sally didn’t ask any further questions and left the room.
As soon as Sally left, Grace checked that the coast was clear and re-packaged the pills tightly before putting them in the bedside table drawer.
‘Medicine, he brought for me?’
Grace corrected herself.
‘Who knows if it’s the medicine, he brought to kill me?’
Grace couldn’t trust Benjamin as much as others could.
She knew what he was capable of and he knew about the fact that Grace would die from an “unknown disease” out of nowhere.
‘I haven’t left this mansion for a while.’
And if it were the original Grace, she would never leave again. As long as she was in this Duke’s mansion, she would be surrounded by Benjamin’s people forever.
‘Did he plan to kill me from the beginning? No way, right?’
Grace recalled the marriage background that was emphasized through the words of the characters in the novel.
This marriage was originally a forced marriage by the royal family.
As a kind and fair Duke, Benjamin had strong power and wealth and also would have had the support of even the lowly nobles and commoners, but he could not divorce Grace just because she was repulsive.
He probably waited for Grace to beg for a divorce or wished for her to die before that, while keeping her locked up in the annex.
Grace threw the water in the cup towards the fireplace.
Sizzle- The sound of a small amount of water failing to extinguish a single flame in the fireplace was heard.
Grace turned her head after watching the fire rekindled.
As she now had urgent matters to attend to.
‘Let’s look for the diary slowly from now on. Anyway, It’s not like I’m going to get a divorce right away. Even though it’s an annex, it’s large and has many rooms, so there are many places to search.’
“I have to start with the kitchen first….”
The meals in the annex were all perfect.
In other words, the taste was too perfect. It meant that it was not good for losing weight.
The people in the annex tried to bring Grace delicious food whenever she looked a little sad.
‘And it was all delicious.’
Just thinking about it made her mouth water.
She could easily overeat if she wasn’t careful.
I should ask them to change the menu to something lighter starting from tonight and ask them to reduce the amount of food.
She muttered to herself as she headed towards the kitchen.
She never imagined that Benjamin would hear about all of this.
And then…
“What is all of this?”
“These are gifts from the master to the madam!”
After hearing about Grace’s diet, Benjamin sent all sorts of rare foods the next day.
“What should we do, Madam!”
“My god, Rainbow bird eggs? How much are these worth!”
“Potson’s macarons! Aren’t these the macarons supplied to the royal family?”
Grace said, pressing her temples and gritting her teeth.
“Send them all back.”
“What?”
“All of them. Or you can divide them among yourselves.”
“Madam. But His Excellency…”
“Tell him I only want his good intentions.”
In truth, she didn’t even want his good intentions.
‘That man wouldn’t send anything to me for no reason.’
All of it was oily and sweet.
It was obviously only good for gaining weight.
⋆★⋆
Grace tried her best to hide her changes, but the rumors had been spreading for a long time.
Before she even decided to go on a diet, rumors had already been circulating around the mansion that she was acting strange.
For example, her speech would sometimes be erratic, or she would mix up her words, or her tastes had changed. The main emotion that the rumors were spreading was “concern.”
After that, the annex put even more effort into keeping outsiders from coming in.
It had gotten to the point where not even a single bug could enter, let alone a mouse.
And among those outsiders was Benjamin. Of course, it had been a long time since Benjamin had been allowed into the annex, so he might as well have been less than a bug.
Benjamin looked at the annex with a very expressionless face and said to his aide, Abel Burnton, who was standing next to him.
“She refused everything I sent and to give it to the employees?”
“Yes, madam said she only wanted your good intentions.”
“Good intentions, good intentions…”
Benjamin repeated the words before turning around and heading in the opposite direction.
“My lady is too kind.”
⋆★⋆
‘It’s not enough.’
Grace thought as she poked her fork through her barely-dressed salad.
It tasted good.
She never knew that a dish made only with greens could be so delicious, not even in her past life when she learned that the taste of salad was in the dressing.
But it was not enough. Her stomach was full, but she still felt empty.
