CH 66

Gareth, who was now in front of Elena, swung his arm in an instant and punched the closet door behind her. With a cracking sound, the pieces of wood from the closet scattered all over the place, with some sharp ones flying into Elena’s face. At that moment, Elena felt a terrible pain, followed by a sensation of something dripping down her face. She raised her trembling hand and touched her face only to realize that a thick, crimson liquid was trickling down it.

Gareth looked down at Elena with terribly calm eyes and muttered coldly, “You’ll be next if you say Adelia’s name again, Elena.”

* * *

Barefooted, Elena stepped on the bed sheets soaked in cold water in silence. Her feet and ankles were exposed to the chilly air from her holding her dress up to her calves, and every step caused her to shiver from the freezing temperature. However, Elena kept going at it with no complaints. Her feet being cold was nothing; in fact, she wanted the water to be even colder so that it could make her forget about her bruised heart. Elena had kept searching for busy work on purpose to soothe herself ever since the incident with Gareth, but her heart had already frozen over and grown bitter. Elena gritted her teeth as she continued to step on the bed sheets in the water.

Gareth watched Elena with his arms folded from far away. After the basic work of building the walls was completed with the help of his subordinates and the village men who were employed were fully trained with the work, Gareth’s attention had turned towards Elena. The woman hadn’t asked him anything more after what had happened, nor did she argue with him. Gareth had moved the broken closet outside after the incident and had burned everything except for a few dresses for Elena to wear. Madel had silently shed tears as Gareth gathered and burned the clothes, and Elena hadn’t done anything but watch.

Gareth had decided to accept Elena’s silence as obedience. She kept busy and could hardly be seen from dawn to night, prompting him to assume that she had finally settled in as the lady of the household. Under Elena’s command, the preparations for winter in the castle were quickly coming to an end without any issues.

Every day, Elena dried meat so that Gareth and his men could take it with them at any time. She also dried herbs and mushrooms to make medicines for skin diseases. When night came, she put out the lanterns shaking in the wind, then opened her body up to Gareth as it seemed that Gareth was able to sleep soundly when she was near him whether or not they engaged in intimacy. Elena also devoted herself to preparations for winter in the village. She carefully checked for things that were in short supply, catalogued them, then delivered the list to Giggs, who would deliver it to Gareth.

Despite the cumbersome method, Gareth felt much more comfortable this way than facing Elena in person. He knew he wouldn’t feel at ease seeing her as she would remind him of his scornful words and behavior towards her. Therefore, Gareth let her do as she pleased; he listened to her opinions, purchased the supplies, and stocked them in the castle’s storage.

From time to time, Gareth ordered some fabric for Elena’s clothes along with the other supplies. However, Elena didn’t even bother to open the packages and instead placed the materials in the warehouse. Gareth was only informed of this later when he had asked Madel why she hadn’t made any clothing and Madel responded that she had never received any fabric to make clothes. Gareth thought of asking Elena why she had done so, but had decided to ignore the issue, fearing that it would only cause another agonizing situation.

Gareth’s eyes turned to Elena’s exposed calves moving inside the basin filled with cold water and bedsheets. Her legs were red up to the knees from the freezing temperature of November.

‘It will snow soon… and winter will officially begin,’ Gareth thought. He watched Elena for another moment before turning around and heading back into the castle.