I Think My Husband Might Be a Murderer - Chapter 15

***

The carriage en route to Evanstein Castle was oppressively silent.

I shifted uncomfortably. Even the rustle of fabric made me tense.

I glanced at the man sitting opposite me with his legs crossed. His gaze out the window held nothing but boredom.

Was this really the same man who had proposed to me just a short while ago?

“I’m proposing to you, Miss Prim.”

Duke Schultz had truly acted like a man in love.

‘I must have lost my mind.’

Clearly, I had. No matter how desperate I’d been, how could I have made such an impulsive decision?

‘Well…’

Because I had no other choice. Even now, if the same situation arose, I would make the same decision.

I was watching him as if in a trance when our eyes met. I snapped back to my senses.

He was impossibly handsome enough to steal a person’s soul. Not only that, he was towering and physically imposing, his body well-toned as befitted a soldier.

Even if I had accepted his proposal based solely on appearance, no one would question it.

“Do you have something to say?” Duke Schultz asked, meeting my gaze. His eyes held none of the boredom from earlier.

There was plenty I wanted to say. Plenty I wanted to ask.

Truthfully, I still wondered whether all of this stemmed from pity.

I would gladly accept the Duke’s help. But if it came from pity, I didn’t want even a scrap of it.

It was a foolish kind of pride.

I opened my mouth. “Your Grace, forgive me, but… was the proposal earlier just a spur-of-the-moment way to escape the situation?”

He narrowed his eyes faintly at my calm question. “I meant it. And you accepted.”

“I must’ve gone mad. At the time, I just…”

I couldn’t finish the sentence. Still, he seemed to understand that I wished to undo the whole thing.

“There were many witnesses. Most of my men saw it, and you accepted, knowing that.”

His chin tilted up slightly. “I trust you’re not suggesting we go back on something that concerns the honor of myself and my house.”

He fixed me with a steady gaze from those impassive blue eyes.

Since he showed no signs of relenting, I cleared my throat and spoke, “To be honest, I truly don’t understand. Why would someone as perfect as you propose to someone like me, who has nothing?”

“Because you don’t have nothing.”

I widened my eyes instinctively. It sounded as though I had something he needed.

“…I have no parents, no dowry. There must be countless women with better prospects than me.”

Though my tone was calm, my voice kept trembling. Clutching my skirt tightly, I continued, “Yet you say marrying me brings you something?”

“Of course.”

“And that something is only available from me?”

Was that why he had proposed?

Johannes Schultz nodded.

“Then may I take it to mean that you specifically need someone named Edith Prim? That I can accept this absurd marriage without guilt—”

“Of course.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

So this wasn’t simply a case of me receiving help.

Was he lying? But his eyes looked nothing but sincere.

I still felt strange, like I had made a weighty decision far too quickly—but in truth, after my father died, I had already given up on the idea of marriage.

Even if Musen was a peaceful city, surviving as a woman alone was difficult.

The days when my father protected me would never return. I was alone now, always at risk of danger. There was no guarantee that what had happened earlier wouldn’t happen again.

This marriage gave me a chance at safety. Perhaps one that would never come again.

Even if he eventually realized I had nothing to offer, that regret would be his alone.

So be it. He was the one who proposed, and I had asked multiple times if he was certain.

It would be foolish to let such a glittering opportunity slip away.

Masking my thoughts, I nodded with a neutral expression. “Then that’s settled. Since you saved me, Your Grace, I’ll also do my utmost in return.”

Outside the window, evergreens and bare branches rushed past without pause.

***

In front of Evanstein Castle, the servants were already lined up waiting for the carriage carrying Duke Schultz.

The carriage gradually slowed and stopped beneath the massive eagle emblem.

Just as Duke Schultz reached for the door handle, I quickly grabbed his hand.

“Um…”

“Is there a problem?” His neatly shaped brows rose.

I quickly answered, “Won’t the servants be startled? I mean…”

If the master arrived with a woman, and that woman turned out to be one of their fellow staff members, even I would be surprised.

As I grimaced awkwardly, he said, “That won’t happen.”

I soon understood what he meant.

Even though I stepped down from the carriage holding Duke Schultz’s hand, as he said, not a single person looked surprised.

***

“I have some unfortunate news to share. It seems you won’t be able to return home for a while.”

I heard this from Sir Fret after he returned to Evanstein Castle, having wrapped up the aftermath.

“Every daily, weekly, and monthly paper is plastered with stories about you and the master… Even the special editions, which are only published when there’s something major, are flooding in.”

I had somewhat expected articles to appear, given how much attention the scene had caused.

So I calmly asked, “How long will it take?”

Even if people didn’t know what Johannes Schultz looked like, it wouldn’t be hard to guess who was inside the carriage after seeing so many navy officers surrounding the house.

“Let’s see… At least ten days, I’d say. The navy will manage the house, so don’t worry.”

Though his answer wasn’t definitive, I nodded slowly. I had no alternatives anyway.

“Thank you. I’ll leave it to you.”

***

Before I knew it, winter had fully arrived, and snowflakes began to drift down. It had been ten days since I began staying at Evanstein Castle.

Just as Sir Fret had said, articles were being published daily.

First: Banux targeted a commoner woman buried in debt.

Second: Johannes Schultz appeared publicly for the first time—in front of that woman’s house, no less.

Third: Johannes Schultz took the woman away.

It was the perfect material for fiction.

Newspapers wrote all sorts of stories. Most of them linked me to Johannes Schultz.

They said a loan company tried to sell off a woman, and just then, Duke Schultz appeared and rescued her. Maybe she was a hidden lover.

‘She’s not a hidden lover… but we are engaged to be married. So it’s not far off.’

Naturally, the journalists didn’t miss out on such juicy news, and the story only grew more exaggerated.

They claimed the woman was astoundingly beautiful. That she had deliberately seduced Duke Schultz.

Soon, even details about my background began to spread.

Thanks to that, newspaper articles had been filled with stories about me and Johannes Schultz for several days now.

Most focused on the Duke’s virtue and kindness, but I couldn’t help feeling strange.

A poor commoner girl who lost her father falls in love with a Duke.

The embezzlement rumors that used to pop up now vanished, and everyone’s attention was solely on the Duke’s romantic tale.

Only then did I start to understand why he wanted to marry me.

A woman with just enough ties to him, someone whose story would evoke sympathy, yet who knew her place.

Someone easy to win over.

‘That’s exactly me. Finding someone like that would take time, after all.’

Still, I didn’t feel bad. He had helped me enough that I could justify offering my story in return. I simply accepted it as the result of my own choice.

Though I wasn’t thrilled about my father being mentioned.

There were no issues with the other servants. I had assumed they would shun me for not knowing my place, but they didn’t change their attitude and even became quite friendly.

Nothing else had changed significantly.

I continued my work, and my future husband remained extremely busy.

If anything had changed, it was that Sir Fret, already swamped with the court case, was also tasked with educating me, to the point where he seemed to be wasting away.

“As I mentioned before… your etiquette is nearly perfect, so there’s no need to practice separately. The master hasn’t said anything either.”

While I gazed out the window at the falling snow, Sir Fret spoke. I slowly turned to look at him.

“You’ll only need to brush up on your dancing.”

“I know a bit. My father enjoyed dancing.”

“That’s excellent. Then may I ask what you’ve learned?”

“Quadrille, waltz, polka, mazurka, and polonaise.”

Sir Fret looked surprised. Then he nodded. “…Then there’s no need for dancing lessons either. Assuming you dance them all flawlessly.”

“I don’t know if it’s flawless, but I used to dance often with my father as a hobby. I had no friends or amusements, you see.”

When I answered calmly, Sir Fret’s face twisted faintly.

He looked at me with what seemed to be pity.

Then he said, “Ah, and starting today, you’ll be dining with the master.”