The Grand Duchess Escape

‘..I came to apologize …’

‘If you give me one more chance ..’

‘… I will perform my duty as your wife.’

Even after being pushed away so hard, Asella sought him out and pleaded for forgiveness. She begged for a second chance.

‘…’

Calix’s gaze fell on his sleeping wife.

Her pale face looked even more feral than it had this morning. The corners of her eyes were slightly red and puffy, and her lips were bitten and torn in several places.

Her face, which was completely makeup-free, was all too pale. The sharply lined eyes, peachy cheeks, and glossy lips he’d seen in the morning were nowhere to be traced.

Only then did it dawn on him. Asella’s words about waiting for the sun to rise were true.

Ever since he’d left the bedroom the night before, she must have spent the entire night on edge, anxious and distressed, and it showed in the way his wife had a habit of biting her lip until it bled whenever she was nervous or afraid.

‘Is that why..’

Dressing nicely was the best she could do. She must have felt that if she was going to ask him to spend the night with her, she needed to be at least a little nicer to him.

When she finally mustered up the courage to speak, he responded with a sarcastic remark. Now that he remembered, it made him feel ashamed of himself.

He was the one who was at fault, and he was the one who owed her an apology.

He then looked down at Asella with a perplexed expression on his face.

Seeing her face, it felt as if a sharp needle had pierced his heart. Along with the crushing surge of guilt that filled him, there was another strange emotion he’d never felt before that flared and faded. 

Calix, staring down at her pale face and dry, chapped lips, pulled up a chair and sat down at her bedside.

‘I hope you aren’t feeling ill.’

Perhaps because she was petite, she looked particularly frail; even if she wasn’t, she was slender and delicate, and after all she had been through, it would not have been surprising if she had fallen ill.

Calix reached out and touched Asella’s forehead, an utterly unconscious gesture.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this, I should be calling a doctor right now and-‘

‘Sister told me not to tell anyone.’

Those words flashed through his mind and made him pause.

He remembered Asella on their wedding day, trembling at the thought of showing her face to people after Anthony’s assault. How she’d only calmed down after he’d covered her face with a veil.

Even if he were to summon the Grand Duchy’s physician, she would be embarrassed to show her scars.

Calix swiftly dismissed that option.

‘I’d rather stay by your side today ..’

Gently, he wrapped his hand around Asella’s wrist carefully to avoid putting any pressure on it. His large, warm hands traced her bruises as if trying to soothe her pain.

It was a gentle, affectionate touch that would have frightened anyone else who knew him.

At that moment, Asella flinched and let out a small whimper.

“Ugh…”

He glanced over to see if she was awake, but her eyes were still closed. Thinking it must have been a sound she made in his sleep, Calix was about to sit back down.

Asella shuddered.

“… I’ve… done wrong…”

“Asella?”

The voice that leaked from her small lips was filled with terror. Calix tried to call out her name in bewilderment. However, his voice failed to reach his wife, who was lost in her own nightmare.

“…It hurts…”

“Hurts? Where? Tell me…”

“Please… don’t… don’t hit me..”

“…!”

There were a series of sobs and groans between the stuttering words that left her lips, and then a single tear rolled down her pale cheek.

Calix grabbed Asella’s shoulders in an attempt to wake her from sleep, but as soon as her hands found hers, her body began to tremble violently.

“Oh, Father… please… ugh!”

Damn it, a louder cuss came out through his clenched teeth.

‘Don’t tell me you’re dreaming of him.’

She seemed to be having a nightmare about when she was being abused by Philip. Every knot in her hands, clutching the sheets, turned white from the strain. She looked like she was suffering so much pain that it was almost unbearable to watch. If she didn’t wake up soon…

“Asella!”

However, Calix’s call backfired. Asella whimpered like a bird shot with an arrow and writhed in agony.

“It hurts, it hurts… Uhh… let go…”

Calix jerked his hand away like a man who’d caught fire. Simultaneously, vivid memories of the last night began to flood back to him.

‘Let me go, let me go! I don’t want to!’

‘Get your hands off my body!’

Her face, which was as white as a sheet of paper and desperately panting, looked exactly the same as it did now.

‘No way.’

Calix stiffened as the realization hit him like a bolt of lightning. Only then did he finally understand all of his wife’s incomprehensible behavior from last night.

“I was wrong… forgive…”

“No.”

He then swept Asella into his arms and held her tightly. It was a bit of an impulsive act, but for some reason, he couldn’t bear not to do it.

“You did nothing wrong.”

Asella gasped in surprise, but Calix didn’t loosen his arms around her.

Her nightgown was damp from how hard she’d been sweating– and through the thin fabric, he could feel her delicate, fragile form. 

Her heartbeats, pounding frantically with tension and fear, echoed against his chest.

“Please…”

Asella sobbed as if pleading and a bitter pain surged through Calix’s heart. He had been to battlefields and was used to all kinds of wounds and pain, but this subtle pain was so unfamiliar and foreign to him.

But one thing was certain.

He could not leave her alone.