As soon as he returned alone, he headed straight to the place where Anne was sitting, but there was a strange woman sitting there.
His eyes scanned the hall and stopped when he saw Anne dancing with a stranger in the center.
“They have arrived.”
“I have eyes too.”
Annoyed at Ashton’s words, the Grand Duke sat down, watching them, and Sienna, who was opposite him, saw him and widened her eyes.
Who is it?
She spied on the man, forgetting that it was rude of her to do so. The northern man’s large physique was like a statue made of thick lines, but his appearance was so beautiful that it was hard to take her eyes off it. She was fastidious in the social world, so just by looking at the clothes the man was wearing, she knew he was a man of quite a high rank.
Are you a northern nobleman?
The man was staring intently somewhere. Sienna tilted her head after she found out that the end of the gaze was Angroanne.
The man who had not even looked at Sienna while lost in thoughts, perhaps of the woman who had been taken by her long-distance former lover without her old husband’s knowledge, suddenly turned to look at Sienna.
Standing behind the man, a well-groomed, blue-haired man with blue hair spoke politely.
“This is Daymond Cromund, the owner of this castle.”
Sienna took a short breath. It’s the Grand Duke. She heard that he was an old man who looked like a dying corpse, but he’s actually a handsome man?
Did you become the wife of a man like this?
The smile on Sienna’s face was swept away. A fever rose at how Angroanne had seen her, after she ridiculed her about how it felt to be embraced by an old man a while ago.
But the man was said to have a mistress, so there was absolutely no way the two of them would get along. She put the most confident smile on her face.
“Your Grace, thank you for inviting me to this wonderful banquet.”
“Lady Pelimont?”
When the Grand Duke asked in a low voice, Sienna’s cheeks bloomed. Her heart fluttered just by him calling her name with a pleasant low-pitched tone.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“You want to come and say thank you for being invited despite the circumstances.”
“. . . Excuse me?”
Sienna’s eyelids went up stupidly. She had a dumb face, trying to understand if she had heard right, but only a rude tone that she would never expect to come out of the mouth of such a handsome man was heard.
Even with her full smile, the man’s mood did not change softly, but rather became colder.
“Is it a characteristic of people in your family to be annoying? If you are invited, eat and drink quietly then go away.”
Sienna was unfortunately in front of the displeased Grand Duke, so she had to listen to his blade-like words.
While Sienna frowned in shock, the Grand Duke’s gaze turned back to the two dancing people, moving close to each other. The man’s hand touching Anne’s back and waist was very annoying.
In the Grand Duke’s eyes, they may look like lovers who danced happily while reminiscing the memories of the past, but the reality was different. Without knowing that the castle’s owner was watching, Anne danced with Salton twice in succession and asked about the capital.
“I heard that Count Libelois often said things from time to time. Like he was being promoted to Duke soon.”
“I understand. He is such a person.”
It was not enough that she can’t get rid of her regrets after they’ve been brutally tricked by fraudsters, but they were talking around too. As expected. Anne let out a long sigh at the fact that the Count had no intention of repaying the money. She expected that to some extent, but when she heard it through Salton’s mouth, it became even more bitter.
After the dance, Anne left the hall, asked to go to the lounge. As she slowly walked down the quiet hallway, someone grabbed her wrist and turned her around. The Grand Duke, who had been following her, grabbed Anne’s thin wrist and dragged her, and began to walk.
“Ack . . . Please wait. We’re still having the banquet, where are you going? The guests . . .”
When she asked her husband, who was dragging her, the Grand Duke stood still and turned his head. His eyes, which she had thought had softened a little earlier, flashed terribly.
“You didn’t seem to be able to listen when I told you to wait, did you?”
“What?”
“I definitely told you to wait until I get back.”
“That . . . I didn’t think it was that important.”
He told her to wait until he came back, but he was displeased because she went absent for a while. As if she had violated some divine order.
“The way you look at him was spectacular. Did you enjoy it so much? To the point where you want to run and hold his hands and whisper?”
In front of him, who had a hard expression, he witnessed Anne wearing a smile throughout meeting her ex-fiance. The fact that she had fun with her ex-fiance made him feel uncomfortable.
It was only a few hours ago she showed tears in front of Robert. He was offended by that look, but he didn’t like her smile this time either.
In conclusion, it was not a problem for Anne to cry or smile. The reason was that it wasn’t he who caused it.