Why the Northern Duke Wanders the Snowfields - Chapter 14

She didn’t say it out loud, but Miss Francis’s cold eyes always told Aubrianna that.

She frowned deeply and poked at the firewood with the poker. Then, from behind her, Kay spoke in a cold voice.

“The baby’s fussing.”

Startled, Aubrianna dropped the poker, and narrowed blue eyes shot toward her.

It wasn’t Kay’s voice she’d come to know here. It was the duke’s voice she remembered. Cold, detached, and emotionless.

‘Could it be he’s regained his memory….’

Without realizing it, she studied Kay closely. He looked angry, but it didn’t seem like his memory had returned.

Letting out a sigh of relief inside, Aubrianna slowly stood up.

‘Kaeloc has to be completely on my side.’

Otherwise, there was no safe place in this world for her and the baby.

‘He has to fall deeper for me so no other woman can even catch his eye.’

When spring came, Kaeloc’s loyal aide, Sion, would come looking for him.

‘Before that, I have to make him completely obsessed with me.’

And there was also Kaeloc’s fiancée, Lady Aileen Lott.

After Kaeloc went missing, the duchess tried desperately to marry Cedric and Aileen.

Aileen didn’t like Cedric, so the marriage didn’t go through, and when Kaeloc returned, she ended up marrying him instead.

‘Kaeloc never regained his memory in the end.’

Before losing his memory, Kaeloc wasn’t a generous duke, but he was fair and just. He always tried to make sure none of his people starved or froze to death during the long winter.

But after returning with his memory gone, he became a puppet of Duchess Eloise and neglected the north.

The nobles overcollected taxes, indulged in luxury, and ignored the deteriorating borders, so more and more people left their lands.

The ducal territory was no different.

The underground prison where Aubrianna had been held was overflowing with innocent people, and many, like her, died after being tortured under absurd accusations.

‘That place was hell.’

After being accused of being a spy for the Carnu tribe, Aubrianna’s situation became even more miserable. Even inside the prison, she was avoided.

There was only one boy who became her friend.

‘Hardin.’

A boy who had made a great contribution to finding Kaeloc but was imprisoned after it was revealed he was of mixed Carnu blood.

Lonely, she took care of Hardin in place of her dead baby. No, it was Hardin who took care of her, who had lost the meaning of her life.

She now had a reason to return to the ducal castle.

If she went somewhere else with Kaeloc, Hardin, who worked in the castle, would eventually be exposed as mixed-blood and thrown back into the underground prison.

‘…I can’t let that happen.’

Twisting her fingers anxiously, she slowly approached the baby.

He was rubbing his eyes, as if getting sleepy. If she fed him now, he would sleep soundly through the night again.

Aubrianna held the baby in her arms and began to nurse him.

Now, instead of her, the man sat by the fireplace, tending the fire. His broad shoulders shifted every time he moved his arms.

‘He’s the only one I can rely on.’

She was desperate, utterly desperate.

There was no knowing when or how this warm life in her arms might go out again.

The baby she lost had been so cold and so heavy.

Even so, clinging to the hope that Kaeloc, who had gone missing somewhere in the snowfields, was still alive, she had wandered aimlessly.

She believed that if she met him, the baby would come back to life and she would be safe too.

‘Thinking about it now, I must’ve been almost insane back then.’

When she opened her eyes again, as if time had turned back, it was almost strange that her mind was intact.

No, the moment she realized the baby in her arms hadn’t died, it felt like her senses snapped back.

As she nursed him and watched the fire burning in the fireplace, a sudden worry crept in that all of this might be a dream.

“Kay.”

She called him in a trembling voice. The man set down the firewood with a thud and turned around.

“C-could you bring me a glass of water?”

Before she died, she had been thirsty, but no one brought her water.

At the end of summer, there wasn’t even rain, so there wasn’t even water pooled on the prison floor.

A white hand wrapped around her slender neck. Her fingers traced over her pale skin as if it were burning.

Without a word, he stood, scooped clear water from the jar, and brought it to her.

“Thank you.”

As her red eyes trembled faintly with unease, Kay, who had been sulking over her earlier refusal, began to feel worried.

“Are you feeling unwell again?”

When he glanced down at her chest, the baby, who had been eating well, was already full and fast asleep.

“No.”

Kay reached out and picked up the baby.

Seeing how skilled he’d become, Aubrianna’s gaze wavered.

The man carefully laid the baby in the cradle and turned back.

“Should I prepare bathwater?”

Once the baby fell asleep, the long winter night awaited.

They would bathe together, lie in bed talking quietly, or spend heated hours together until the night passed.

“No.”

Soaking in hot water would feel good, but she wasn’t in the mood.

As expected, at her refusal, the man’s expression stiffened.

“Then should I make some tea? I saw some dried blood berries in the storage.”

The way he fidgeted and hovered around looked like the puppy she used to raise when she was young.

‘Come to think of it, what happened to that puppy?’

Seeing Aubrianna lost in thought, Kay’s gaze wavered.

‘Is she like this because of that man?’

She’d clearly seemed happy when he suggested leaving together….

He hated the man whose face he didn’t even know, and regretted acting too hastily.

Kay pressed his lips together with his large hand, his expression turning bitter.

‘Or maybe she’s too wounded to even start something new.’

Though she tried to appear strong, there was a constant layer of caution and wariness beneath it.

The invisible scars she carried were not old at all.

‘From the start, the fact she wandered the snowfields alone with a baby without any preparation….’

It wasn’t something an ordinary person would do unless their life was in danger.

A life-threatening situation.

He clenched his fist tightly.

Just imagining someone harming Aubrianna made his hair stand on end.

Kay circled around Aubrianna, then suddenly dropped down in front of her.

“Scratch my back.”

At the man’s sudden request, Aubrianna frowned. “Your back?”

“Yeah.”

Then he abruptly took off his clothes.

His broad, solid, muscular back came into view.

“What are you doing?”

Aubrianna let out a small breath and reached out her hand.

“Here?”

“No, a little lower.”

“H-here?”

As if frustrated, Kay sprang to his feet and moved behind the woman.

“Here. Right here.”

His finger lightly poked just below her shoulder blade, then dragged down along the narrow line of her waist.

“And here.”

It was only a light touch, so why was her breathing growing uneven?

Feeling the warmth radiating through her thin tunic, Aubrianna slightly turned her body.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Come to think of it, I don’t know you very well.”

Nearly two months had passed since the two of them had been together under the glow of the fireplace.

“I don’t remember anything about myself, but even so, it feels like I know too little about you.”

The man’s hand stroked the woman’s flat abdomen as he lowered his head.

Thump.

He rubbed his forehead against the small woman’s shoulder and inhaled her sweet scent.

The more he breathed it in, the more intoxicating it became. Everything about her excited him.

It even began to scare him, feeling like he might never be able to let her go.

Since losing his memory, he had been defining himself piece by piece.

Even after nearly dying from a severe injury, he survived, which meant he had strong survival instincts, and even when facing large beasts while hunting, he remained calm without showing any excitement.

Judging by how ruthless his hands were when killing prey, he had a merciless nature, and seeing how he didn’t tire even in harsh conditions with heavy snowfall, his stamina was strong.

Living alone, he believed he could remain indifferent to anything.

He thought he was someone born that way.

Someone specialized solely for the role of a soldier.

But after meeting Aubrianna, that changed.

The constantly shifting emotions felt unfamiliar and frightening. Every expression she made, every breath she let out made his heart stir.

‘What on earth are you?’

As the man gently stroked her abdomen, Aubrianna grabbed a strand of his hair tickling her cheek and twisted it around her fingers.

‘I should trim his hair soon.’

She didn’t know when, but Sion would come to the cabin soon.

‘No, maybe Hardin will come first?’

Recalling what she’d heard from Hardin, who had been imprisoned with her, she tried to estimate the season and the date.

She wasn’t in the mood for it today, but even counting on her fingers, time was tight.

She pulled the man’s hand toward her chest.

“Will you touch me?”

Seeing Aubrianna seduce him so openly, Kay frowned.

“No.”

Pulling his hand away, he turned her body to face him.

Her eyes, which were already vivid, looked even more scarlet today.

“I didn’t ask you to come with me just so we could do this.”

He wanted her to understand.

Aubrianna was a beautiful and captivating woman. Her wheat-tinted brown hair was soft, and her pale skin stirred desire every time he saw it, but Kay wanted something more.

He liked the moments they looked at each other and smiled. He liked watching her take care of the baby. He liked that she was there in the cabin when he returned from hunting.

Aubrianna drew in a small breath. She was trapped by the deep blue of his eyes, like the depths of the sea, unable to move.

“But you like it, don’t you?”

She tilted her head, eyes wide, and pulled open her tunic.

“Damn it.”

At the sight of her exposed breasts, his cock swelled instinctively.

Aubrianna cupped the man’s cheeks.

“And I like you too.”

At her sudden confession, Kay’s face went blank.

“You… like me, right?”

At the woman’s cautious question, Kay’s cheekbones flushed faintly red.

“…Yeah.”

“Then that’s enough.”

The woman smiled brightly. The smile was so dazzling that Kay felt blinded by it.