Chapter 146

How to Tame My Beastly Husband — Chapter 146. An Ordinary Couple (1)

Shrouded in a nightmare past, the young man could not hear her voice. Annette saw a familiar figure in the corridor, wandering alone. Pity wrung her heart as she watched him mumbling, trapped in a dark place where no light could reach. His symptoms had returned, though he had seemed to be sleeping well lately.

Didn’t he use the music box I gave him?

Remembering the look on his face when he had taken it made her feel sick. Most illnesses like this were psychological in nature, and in Raphael’s case, his triumphs in the war had come at a great cost. He had been very young when he was exposed to horrific violence, and he had lost his trusted comrade as well, a man named Robert.

After his slaughter of the enemy Letans, Raphael had been rewarded handsomely when he returned home. But his soul had been devastated, and it was a burden that he would have to carry the rest of his life.

The symptoms were supposed to worsen with stress.

Annette sighed. She had read as much as she could on the condition, and she had a suspicion as to why this sleep disorder had been triggered. Their conversation over dinner must have been a shock to him. It was the first time he had ever admitted to feelings for someone else, and her answer had amounted to a rejection.

“Foolish man,” she murmured, and stepped out of her door. She wanted to get him into a warm bed. She was sure he was alone in his nightmares, and her heart ached at the thought of his pain.

As she carefully approached him, it sounded as if the nightmare he was wrapped in was more sad than frightening. Cold sweat poured down his body, and his forehead rapped against the wall. Though no tears were falling, low, sobbing moans escaped from him. It might have been because of Robert, who he had left to die. Or he could be dreaming of older memories, the older pain of his mother’s abuse.

“Are you having another nightmare?” Annette gently took his hand. “It’s all right now. Come with me.”

Raphael looked pale as a ghost in the dark hall. Even his hand was cold. She rubbed it with his to warm him with her body as she led him to the bed. She had to push him to make him sit on the bed, and he resisted at first, then gradually relaxed. Slowly, she sat down on the edge of the bed, and though his face was still creased with the confusion of his dreams, his head bent to rest on her arm.

It was as if he were depending on her.

The sight of his beautiful face resting against her made her more sad than happy. It was as if she had tamed a beast that no one else could touch.

“It isn’t right…”

She stroked his manly cheek. She had picked the wrong time to open her heart. If only Raphael had liked her a little sooner, things might have been different. Surely, she would have tried to find a way to live with him,

But she had discovered everything, and it was already too late. She was determined to leave. Fortunately, his feelings were closer to affection than love. It might even be best for him that she left.

King Selgratis seemed to greatly esteem Raphael. And Annette was willing to face the King to clear her name.

The odds of winning were slim, but this life, she wasn’t going to give up. If Raphael loved her, that would make him suffer greatly. King Selgratis was his only family, and he had given Raphael everything.

“I really wanted to get along with your family…but it seems like they already hate me.”

Selgratis had wanted to take down the Bavaria family, including her. The tool he had chosen was Raphael’s uncle. The only blood relatives Raphael had left in the world were her enemies. What would he think, if he knew?

And she had asked Raphael what he thought of his father. Raphael had said he was indebted to him, and that he was going to pay him back.

No, she couldn’t make him choose between her and his father. It would be too cruel to him, when he had already suffered so much. And honestly…Annette could not trust him to choose her. Everything he had, had come from the King.