Forgotten Juliet

Juliet felt herself wake up sharply.

“What if you regret it?”

Lennox was utterly serious.

“You might regret that you got entangled with a man from a baseless and unlucky family. It wasn’t about hastily staying by my side.”

Juliet stared blankly at the man in front of her.

The Lennox Carlyle she knew was the most arrogant and unconcerned man in the world.

‘Did he think that way?’

No one in the world would call the Carlyle Duchy ‘baseless’.

It was amazing, but what surprised Juliet was another part.

‘Does this man know that he just referred to ‘our child’ for the first time?’

He seemed unaware.

-Isn’t the one in your belly, my child?

Always referring rudely and arrogantly as ‘your child’, ‘mine’, or even ‘some bastard’s offspring’.

Juliet slightly bit her lips. Otherwise, she would have laughed out loud.

But perhaps misinterpreting Juliet’s expression, Lennox’s face darkened.

“I understand. You don’t need to take this risk.”

He said self-mockingly.

“I don’t deserve to hold you back.”

It really seemed like he thought so, and Juliet was at a loss for words.

“Then why do you need nine rings?”

“Twelve.”

Juliet, who had been momentarily lost for words, burst into laughter, and Lennox added as if explaining:

“I don’t know which one you’ll like more.”

So, Juliet decided to pretend to be a bit more ignorant.

The man who acted as if nothing in the world scared him would become a dignified groom respecting dignity and manners, and Juliet thought it wasn’t bad.

“So, the wedding will be a very traditional ceremony?”

“If you want it to be.”

He met Juliet’s eyes and gently kissed the back of her hand.

Come to think of it, this man held a flamboyant wedding and had a history of giving away and then reclaiming a sapphire mine to and from the royalty.

Now she was curious who was obsessed with tradition and formalities.

“If you nod, it’s possible even tomorrow.”

She had asked jokingly, but the answer flowed smoothly.

Did he already have a list of names for the unborn child?

It was suspicious.

Juliet reached out and lightly placed her hand on his neck.

“But Lennox.”

“Speak.”

Although he said to speak, his actions and words were disjointed. He was already kissing Juliet’s neck gently.

Flutter. Juliet’s hair, completely loose, was gently scattered on the soft bedding.

Juliet, holding back her laughter, whispered quietly to the man obsessed with her:

“According to traditional etiquette.”

“Yes.”

“A week before the wedding, the groom and bride shouldn’t meet. You know that, right?”

He hesitated for a moment.

His cold, well-stretched eyes narrowed cunningly and ominously.

“…Such a bad habit is an etiquette?”

“…”

“Who decided that?”

Juliet grinned silently and pulled his neck closer.

* * *

…It seemed that was a wrong move.

Juliet, who opened her eyes only when the sun was overhead, felt guilty.

Is it okay to waste time like this, lazing around?

‘Ah, right. It was summer vacation.’

But soon, she realized that their summers were originally like this.

Only the location changed, the doings were essentially similar.

Startle.

“Finally woke up.”

Juliet pulled the white bed sheet up to her neck.

She looked thoughtfully at the man coming with a tray in his clean attire.

‘Unfair.’

Why only me when we both lazed around?

They both stayed up for several nights, but he looked lively, not tired at all.

And in this villa, it was really just the two of them.

Meaning, without servants, from heating bathwater to changing clean sheets, all the trivial chores were his share.

“Drink.”

Lennox first offered her the strong brewed tea.

Juliet quietly sipped from the teacup, stealing glances at the relaxed man.

Is this the difference in stamina?

Since the day before yesterday, when Juliet started dozing off in the bathtub, he left with a displeased face for a while. Coming back, he brought a large deer-like animal.

“Sleep after you eat.”

Since then, it seemed too bothersome to go to the restaurant, as he brought a plate every morning.

“You’re not doing anything, so eat.”

He said plainly, and fed her a small piece of meat he had cut.

She didn’t know what kind of beast’s meat it was, but the neatly prepared meat sprinkled with just the right amount of spices tasted quite good.

Juliet, who had been calmly accepting it, suddenly realized that she hadn’t been near the fire, let alone the kitchen, for the past few days.

Besides, there were no other servants in the house.

“Lennox.”

Where did all this fresh food come from?

“Do you know how to cook?”

For a moment, Lennox, who looked at her as if surprised, smiled faintly.

“Are you just curious about that now?”

Juliet felt a little aggrieved. She would have realized earlier if someone hadn’t snatched her senses away.

“The knights do have some outdoor training.”

Ah, right.

The noble family’s knights often camped for several days. It wasn’t too surprising that he knew how to cook.

“It’s nice.”

When she finished her plate, he informed her that he had prepared a bath.

During meals, during baths.

If you calculate the value of manpower, it would surely through the roof the worth of the Duke.

This was an extremely luxurious vacation.

When he said there was no one else, Juliet doubted it, but throughout her stay at the villa, she saw no shadow of anyone else.

“…I think that’s the problem.”

“What is?”

Juliet sighed at the man’s leisurely smile.

With no one else around to notice, she realized she was being played by his will at some point.

The first time Juliet saw another person was on the morning of the fifth day they were locked in the villa alone.

“Oh my. Nice to finally meet you.”

While Lennox was in the forest, she was briefly walking around during an early morning walk.

Juliet stumbled upon a friendly-looking couple putting down a large milk can at the door, and was briefly puzzled.

“Nice to meet you for the first time, ma’am. You must be Lady Seneca?”

…What lady?

The elderly couple said they were villa caretakers living in a nearby village.

Of course, without someone to look after it, the villa couldn’t have been managed so neatly. The neatly trimmed grass and the lovely treehouse in the yard, and so on.

“We stop by once a week, so if you need anything, feel free to ask.”

The villa caretaker couple said they brought fresh ingredients once a week.

Fresh butter and freshly squeezed milk were brought by this couple.

“We were quite surprised when they asked us to prepare the mansion urgently.”

Lennox really seemed to have urgently brought in the villa.

“It seems like your father loves you and your spouse very much?”

However, the fake identity he used to buy the Velot estate was the name of a non-existent merchant family.

“He bought such a big villa.”

Thanks to that, the villa caretaker couple thought of him as a whimsical young master from a rich family.

Lennox Carlyle, who wasn’t sitting in the Duke’s mansion, looked just like a young man of his age.

It was nice to have no one around and be quiet, but Juliet liked the fact that if she walked a little, there was clean water flowing.

Before the villa caretaker left, not only did he hint at a spot where fish were caught well, but he also brought out fishing gear from behind the villa.

“The trout in this valley are also famous for being delicious.”

Thanks to that, instead of lazing around in the bedroom all afternoon, they went to the waterside, but the fish in the valley were very fast.

Despite the hope, every failure made Lennox’s expression unusually serious.

“It’s not as easy as it looks.”

Splish.

With her ankles soaked in valley water, Juliet, who was watching the wet man, chuckled at him.

Lennox turned to look at Juliet, who was smiling brightly, with a puzzled face.

“Why?”

“I was wondering if we’d be able to eat dinner like that.”

“Well, it won’t be a big deal if we skip dinner for a day, right?”

Juliet was very excited to finally find something Lennox couldn’t do.

The opportunity to tease a man with good motor skills who could do anything well didn’t come often.

However, Juliet’s joy didn’t last long.

A moment later.

“…Really nasty.”

Juliet was flabbergasted.

Clunk.

In front of her, a large bowl was put down with two fish, their scales still gleaming, flapping about.

The bowl was large enough to be heavy.

“How did you catch it?”

“This.”

What Lennox modestly pointed to was a hunting bow. She couldn’t even imagine what he did.

Initially, dinner was prepared separately, and freshwater fish were difficult to handle, so they were really caught for show.

“What should we do?”

“Let them go, quickly. They look pitiful.”

At her words, Lennox obediently released the two large fish.

As soon as they were released, the fish darted away swiftly with their long tails. Juliet, who was watching them, grumbled.

“They must have been blind fish.”

“If you say so, that must be it.”

Pretending to be modest, Lennox said so and impulsively pulled Juliet’s waist closer, kissing her forehead lightly.