The Wicked Wife's Dark History Keeps Coming Back To Haunt Her - Chapter 73
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The season lay somewhere between summer and fall, but the mountain, shrouded in darkness, was as cold and dreary as early winter.
Crackle, crackle, crackle…
Inside the tent, a small campfire crackles and burns gently.
“…It seems His Grace is already asleep. You should rest soon as well, Madam, if you’re to leave early tomorrow.”
“Yes, I suppose. You should get to bed early too. Here, take this with you since it’s cold.”
After her bath, Nina, now dressed in a nightgown, personally draped a blanket over Marsha’s shoulders.
Taking care of those around her in the cold had long been a habit of hers.
‘Ha, I must be out of my mind…’
Thinking back on her recent blunder, she wished she could find a hole to hide in.
…Sleep together, she had said.
She buried her face in her hands and let out a small groan.
The words she’d planned in her head were definitely different, but what came out was horribly mistaken.
She genuinely wanted to disappear.
It was all because she’d been worried he might misunderstand and think she’d made a move to sleep together with him.
‘It’s so cold…’
After Marsha left, Nina sat by the warm fire, trying to thaw her frozen body.
Having just bathed, the chill of the world felt sharper than ever.
‘I should have just gone to sleep without a bath since I’ll need to wash again in the morning anyway…’
Nina disliked the cold.
She also hated winter.
The season when she had lost Marsha and closed her eyes in despair always brought an emptiness that couldn’t be filled.
And the chilly mountain air kept bringing back memories she most wanted to forget.
“I… I’ll just sleep a little…”
A bloodless, pale face, lips turned blue, skin icy like frost, Marsha’s body stiffening like a wooden log.
With a hardened expression, shoulders hunched, she shook her head.
This time, it wouldn’t happen.
‘I can change the future.’
Dinner, help, companionship, sleeping arrangements.
She had experienced a chain of things that wouldn’t have happened in her past life.
This proved that, if she put her mind to it, she could change the outcome.
‘Just go to sleep now.’
Negative memories had a way of snowballing.
At times like these, the best remedy was simply to get some sleep.
She lay down, wrapping herself tightly in blankets, but unintentionally glanced over at her husband’s profile, illuminated by the reddish glow of the fire.
He was asleep on a cot, with nothing but a thin blanket covering him.
Perhaps because of the memories that had just resurfaced, Marsha’s face momentarily overlapped with his motionless, doll-like face.
“……”
Was it because she’d experienced freezing to death?
Her fingertips twitched, feeling as though she should offer him an extra blanket.
She knew nothing serious would happen in this kind of cold, but habits rooted in ‘trauma’ were beyond reason.
‘Covering him with a blanket shouldn’t be a problem…right?’
He might get annoyed and call it meddling, but honestly, the blanket he had was thin enough to make anyone shiver just looking at it.
‘If he complains, I’ll just tell him he looked cold…’
It would be troublesome if he caught a cold, after all.
With that thought, she hugged a soft wool blanket to her chest and approached the bed.
She intended to quietly drape it over him and return to her place.
That’s what she intended…
“Ah…!”
As she moved, her foot slipped on the edge of the blanket that had fallen down to her feet, and her body pitched forward.
Thud—
The thought, ‘This is a disaster,’ flashed through her mind as a sharp pain spread across her face.
“Ugh…!”
She held her face in her hands and let out a pained groan.
It was so painful that she couldn’t open her eyes—she must have hit the bed frame.
“…What are you doing.”
Disaster.
‘Does he think I was trying to… pounce on him?’
Hearing her husband’s bewildered voice, Nina hurriedly held out the blanket as if to prove her innocence.
“I… I was trying to cover you with a blanket!”
Here! The blanket is right here!
But she hadn’t accounted for one thing—her knee was pressing down on the blanket.
“……!”
Realizing this too late, she lost her balance again, falling towards the bed.
Instinctively, she squeezed her eyes shut.
Thump.
A firm, warm hand caught her face just before she hit the bed.
“……”
With her face in his palm, Nina trembled all over.
…She should have checked her footing from the start.
