Chapter 44

I didn't sleep after Cain had left. I sat just where he left me. I think he had kissed my forehead before he left, but I wasn't sure at all. I couldn't care less.

My mind felt like it tried to piece broken glass together. It hurt and was muddled.

"Not unless you are anything except the duchess..." the words slipped past my mouth.

He... What...?

I had acclimated to being lesser. To be beneath the feet of those better than me. And beneath the feet of the ones beneath their feet. I had understood that I was as valuable as the dirt that was found in every corner of the world.

Disgusting.

I was stepped on.

Kicked around.

How could I be?..

A duchess?

The very notion was impossible, and the fact that Cain didn't want to touch me unless I was of higher status didn't feel right to me. He wouldn't want to be attracted to something like dirt... So he would try to turn it into diamonds?

Dirt couldn't become a diamond...

This is insane!

I hadn't reacted at all when he had said the words. Mostly because I never thought I would hear them and had become a strange, petrified mess—something I had never experienced.

I should have left the room minutes ago. I should leave...

The sounds of servants scurrying around in panic snapped me out of my thoughts. It was enough to make me forget what had happened. Well... Almost enough.

There shouldn't be so much noise so early in the morning. What's going on?

For a moment, I was scared someone had noticed Cain leaving my room in his red silken robe, but it was that at all.

Naomi had burst into my room just when I had just reached for the doorknob.

"You need to get outside right now. We need help. The duke has passed". Her face was pale and tired as she spoke. But her voice... It was filled with sadness.

So the duke passed... No wonder everyone was acting so panicked.

"I'll go outside", I nodded.

As I joined the servants who had begun to clear the manor up and change the decor from the bright golds of the estate to black, I noticed that I didn't relate at all to the panicked servants.

I knew I wouldn't lose a job since I didn't have one, to begin with, but it was the fact that I didn't care that the duke had passed that bothered me. It posed no difference to me.

But as I thought that, I did find a worry creeping into my heart.

Would Cain be okay?

The constant moving kept my mind off Cain as well. By the time the place was set, the duke's body was ready to be presented for the funeral.

Just as we finished one job, we moved to set up the place for the funeral, which would commence over the next week. The duke's body was placed in a time-freezing capsule, dressed smartly and painted to hide the previous green of his skin.

The capsule was magic induced. Used to slowdown and preserve foods that could expire quickly originally. But later the use was expanded.

I had only briefly caught sight of him, but it was enough to shake something in me.

So someone like him could die just like that too...

The years of seeing him as a being above me. The idea that those of noble blood were so much better. Worth so much more. It was shattered in just a moment.

We were all the same...

I felt someone drilling holes into my side and turned.

It was the Baron.

Even he looked completely different. He wasn't smiling and joking anymore. He started at me with a gaze I couldn't place entirely. It looked... Intrigued yet cautious. As if I were some wild cat. As if I posed a threat?

I curtsied to him, which he returned with a nod.

Kassie grabbed my arm just then.

"There are some guests already. We must show them to their lodgings. They are the dukes family, so we have to be extra careful", she whispered to me, turning my gaze away from Zebediah and to her.

I had spent that whole day on my feet. I was rushing from one job to the next without a break to catch my breath or look around. Without a chance to think about what had happened the night before.

Nobody had cried at the dukes funeral. At least not on the first day.

Cain had just sat there. Greeting his external family with solemn words as they greeted him as if he was the late Duke.

The Dukedom was now his.

Everything now belonged to him.

And it was apparent.

The servants had dressed him as a duke. He wore the gold cape of his late father. The badges of his late father. Even the ring that symboled that the person wearing it was a duke was now on his fingers. He looked powerful.

The man who had visited me in the night and this man were two completely different people. To think that man... Ever wanted me...

I cursed at the rush of excitement that sped through me.

No!

I have to reject it. I have to leave him.

The external dukes family didn't stay long. After the first day, most had left, realising that Cain had long since adapted to his role and could not be influenced.

The way they had him circled like crows, yet he managed to shoot them down with a single stone. In comparison, he was an eagle.

But... For a moment, as he stared at his father's cold coffin, he looked a bit lonely. I had the urge to stand by his side, just like in the old days.

I didn't, of course. I didn't know what to say to him in reply to his proposal and was beginning to think that I might have dreamed it all.

Maybe he had said that under some influence? He was a bit strange that night. He must have been drunk, at least.

The second day of the funeral was more overwhelming than the first. People had caught wind of the news, and nobles had begun pouring in. All clothed in black silks. Noses sniffing for a scent of opportunity.

Women would approach the duke and offer him condolences since he had lost not one but two people in a short frame of time. But their motives were obvious to even the most innocent of us.

I wasn't sure why, but I found myself annoyed with the woman. They were beautiful. So much more attractive. I found it even more annoying how Cain wasn't affected by any of it.

He smiled at them. A polite reply. And that was it.

That was the last day he sat down in his seat. The following day he didn't show up, but someone else did.

"Isabelle!" Slender arms wrapped around me from behind.

I felt a rush of surprise and joy at the unexpected voice of my sister. For the first time in days, I found myself smiling.

"Angela, you came for the funeral", I restrained myself from returning her hug; after all, the duke had just died, and her joyful cry had already gathered disapproving glances. However, I noticed some were plain envy.

Angela looked beautiful. She was always beautiful, but now, probably due to proper meals, her figure had become fuller, cheeks filling out healthily. She was indeed the epitome of Angel. But just a few months ago she was one of them.

A true rags to riches tale.

"You look lovely. Has your husband been taking care of you?" I asked in precaution.

She gave me an annoyed look, "excellent care" suddenly, she winked and began messaging her stomach. When I didn't understand, she sighed and just said, "you are the smartest dumbest person I know".

"Thank you?"

"How is Cain doing?" she finally asked.

"He seems slightly distraught. I haven't spoken with him since it happened, but he hasn't left his study once today" I felt a growing worry in my chest and felt glad that Angela was here. At least she could speak with him.

"Why haven't you spoken to him? Didn't I tell you to be on better terms? And his father has just died. You shouldn't still ignore him!" I felt conscious with the volume of her voice and pulled her into an empty guest room.

Once I shut the door, I spoke at ease.

"I am not ignoring him. I haven't had a chance to get a break with everything that's happening." I hadn't sat down at all, and once I got to my room, I would be asleep before my body hit the bed.

"You do look exhausted. Oh, I wish he would have you work for me! Then we can go do just whatever!" she complained, again inappropriate given the circumstances but still heartwarming.

"As nice as that sounds, it won't be happening". I sighed.

'You are mine'.

"That's right. Cain likes you too much to share".

At her words, I jolted.

"What?"