Chapter 17

“…it must be because of that woman. Maybe.”

Wood’s face hardened at Elena’s voice mixed with resentment and sadness. He came closer with a complex expression on his face, not sure whether she was laughing or angry. His face was right in front of me, and I could barely breathe. Her heart beat like crazy as if she had never resented him, and her palms in her gloves were sweaty, but all she could do was avoid looking at him.

“How did you know? There’s only one reason I can drink these days, a woman.”

“Because you have the most important thing in your life ahead.”

I didn’t have the courage to say the word marriage.

He found out about Lloyd’s marriage through the conversation between the noble kids and senior cooks in Bacchus, but if she heard that from Wood’s mouth, her heart would collapse.

“Funny. Elena, you know about important things in my life that I don’t know.”

“…….”

“The most important thing to me these days is you, Elena. It means that nothing can be grasped in your thoughts that suddenly come to mind.”

Wood’s blue eyes, as he clutched Elena’s gloved hand, were filled with passionate longing. Elena didn’t know the man, but she knew what those eyes were. When working at Bacchus, a lover who secretly cheated on her spouse, it was the look in their eyes when they came and looked at each other passionately as if they were going to eat each other. To Wood, who was going to marry Lloyd soon, Elena was just a partner he could deviate from.

“Are you trying to make me your mistress?”

Wood seeps into himself. In other words, tears welled up in Elena’s eyes when she realized that she was harboring sexual desire, and her true heart came out. The words hurt both Wood and Elena herself, but once uttered, she could not take them back.

“Elena, do you know what you just said?”

“……..”

“You’re devaluing yourself. Why are you asking all of this…”

“…….”

“I don’t care what you say to me. I’ll listen to what you have to say. But I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for talking to yourself like that.”

Wood’s eyes looked sad. After letting go of Elena’s hand, he returned to his usual expression of calm and composure, as if his drinking had disappeared. My heart sank at that calm expression, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Elena bit her lip and said goodbye to Wood, then headed to the servants’ quarters. I could feel that he was still looking at me, but I couldn’t bear to look back

***

After that day, Elena, who was obsessively avoiding Wood and focused only on cooking, completed a sample of the wedding cake that was commissioned. Because it is the most important accessory to decorate one’s wedding, the client wanted to see a sample of the cake in advance. Elena, with the help of a servant sent by her client, loaded a large box of cakes into the wagon.

“I worked hard on it, so I hope you like it.”

A shadow fell on Elena’s expression as she climbed into the rattling carriage and looked out the window at the scenery. Maybe it was because I was nervous at the thought of being judged on a wedding cake I had made for the first time, but my heart was feeling full.

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