You Think I Won't Talk?-Chapter 62 — The Invitation.

I guess my slowness was yet to come back to normal. Just the movement of lifting my hand took a few seconds.

’I wonder if sloths know they are slow? Do they just think things move too fast and they are the ones with "normal speed"?... It kind of makes sense after living like one for two weeks.’

I somehow got accustomed to the speed I previously had, but now that I was recovering, I got slower. If before was frustrating...

’Life never fails to play pranks on me...’

Now it’s just Annoying.

Furthermore, my efforts this time were in vain.

Just as I was about to grab the freaking bell, the Duke opened the door sneakily.

I guess he thought I had yet to wake up, and, since he promised to come back in the morning, he only wanted to check out if I was still asleep... Or even healthy.

Seeing how his head peeked out from the edge of the slightly opened door, I couldn’t even get mad at how those ten seconds it took me to get close to grab that blimey bell went to the trash.

"Ah... Good Morning, Dear. I apologise for coming in without knocking before... I saw Paige outside... and... she said you had yet to wake up..."

My hand was still unfolded towards the bell and in tiredness I let it drop on the table.

’... This one took a toll on us...’

Thankfully, it didn’t make a loud sound. When Marianne’s Father took notice of my hand next to the bell he continued to speak... with part of his body still behind the door.

"Oh... Were you about to call for Paige?"

’Heheh So clever~’

I nodded to his question. The happiness Marianne felt had started to involve our body with warm waves and ended up mixed with mine. Her father was keeping his promise, and, with our previous talk, I felt like she was more confident now since her joy wasn’t jumbled with shyness or nervousness, as it usually is whenever we meet her Father. It felt more like the one accompanying joy this time was anticipation.

Taking a step inside our bedroom, he turned back, to who I guess was Paige, and gave an order.

"She has woken up. Could you go get breakfast? Warm-up some milk too."

’Oh~ Milk!’

Tilting his head to look at me from his spot, he spoke once again.

"Sorry, sweetie. May I come in?"

Giggling inside at how courteous he continued to be, I nodded again to give him my permission.

Closing the door behind him, the Duke walked to the seat he sat in last night, which was a little further to the side than yesterday.

Bringing it back to the spot right next to me, he sat there again.

"How are you today? Did you sleep well?"

With a sweet expression and his soothing voice, he asked while meeting my eyes, giving a light caress to one of my cheeks with the back of his fingers.

I closed my eyes to it. It was nice to be pampered since morning, and so, lightly nodding my head I gave an affirmative answer to both questions.

"... I see, that’s a relief."

Meeting his eyes again, his pleased eyes were shining in the dim room. Apparently, he also noticed the lack of light, because not long after, he did something about it.

"Hmm... wait a moment sweetie. We need to open the curtains."

Standing up from his seat, Marianne’s father went to the windows, and one by one, he opened the curtains and the glasses to let some fresh air inside.

When he opened the first one, he made a random comment.

"The sun is brighter these days... it’s nice to see the flowers blooming... but you don’t have a good view of the garden from here..."

After that, he opened the other ones and came back to seat by my side.

"Should I make a flower bed under your window? You used to like Aipafnary flowers because the butterflies would swarm to them and camouflage their wings with their petals..."

He said this as he looked through the distant windows, and then, turned his gaze back to me as he finished his suggestion.

’Aipa... Aipafnary flowers? As in IPa*??? Never heard of those.’

His idea was nice, but I had no intention of looking at flowers from the window. The Marianne who stayed like a statue by the window will now go see those flowers from up close one of these days, so...

’But... if they are rare flowers...’

I had lowered my eyes while I had these thoughts, so when I lifted them to look at him again, pondering about the unknown flowers, I found him staring intently at me.

"Oh... I can see your face better now... How pretty my child is today again." — He said with a bright expression as our eyes met.

’Ugh! Stop!’

Why is he so sweet?! I must look like a troll!

"..."

Nah~ our Marianne is double pretty. He’s just stating a fact.

I took a glance at his demeanour too. The Duke’s face looked much better than yesterday. Looking at him now I can notice how tired he must have been after taking care of me for more than a day without leaving my side.

’... Did he really never leave my side?... what about bathroom breaks?’

If this Sir develops constipation...

’Anne... we should be understanding with your father, I heard men have it real bad with constipation. If he has it, we should look for some aloe vera. One of the grannies I used to talk to in my past life said it was really good if you are stuck.’

"Hmm? What is it, Dear?"

"..."

’... Nothing... I’m just worried about your kidneys Sir...’

Sending a compassionate look as I felt sorry for Marianne’s Father possibly developing a condition for himself, he asked wondering why I stared at him.

"... Oh... Are you hungry? Breakfast will come in a minute..."

’... You should eat well too, Si–r...??!’

Upset at how I didn’t drop the issue, Anne sent some kind of electricity through our body. It was shocking. I totally flinched a bit thanks to it.

The Duke didn’t fail to notice my little wince and inquired immediately about it.

"Are you cold?... Maybe the breeze is a bit chilly... but..."

He stood up while pondering. I thought he was going to close the windows for what he said earlier... which I didn’t want because I felt that the room was finally ventilating that stuffy sensation there was when I woke up. However, he didn’t even go near the windows. On the opposite, he went to a cabinet I hadn’t seen open before and took out a shawl from it. It was of a padded and sturdy fabric like wool, but it was compacted together, and, like most of my fancy dresses, it had a few golden decorations on the edges.

’Hmm... so... Stay Gold, huh?’ — Noticing this constant variable in my clothes made this thought come up in my head as I stared at it from the distance.

Returning to my side, he wrapped me in the shawl, covering my shoulders with delicacy.

It was of a dark coral red. When I saw the fabric from up close I thought it could make me itchy for the texture it had. It seemed to have stiff fluff pointing out of it, so I mistakenly assumed it would prick my... oh~ so delicate skin!

...

But I was wrong.

I could curl up in that thing while laying on a horrible sofa and still sleep like a newborn.

It was The Best.

"There... let’s use this one for the moment. We need to clean the air of your room for you to get better, and breakfast will arrive in a moment. Then, you can drink the milk to warm up your body."

The Duke said, after closing the shawl at the front with one tip covering across the other while patting my covered shoulders pressing a bit over it as if to make it stay pasted to me.

I nodded twice as I watched him seat down on the chair, grabbing the end of each tip of the shawl with my arms crossed in front of me so that the way he wrapped me in it wouldn’t come undone.

Our eyes met and in silence, he sent me a warm smile. He sighed right after that, without changing his loving expression, and lifted his hand to reach my forehead, taking advantage to stroke it slightly along with a bit of my loose hair.

"... I am so glad to see you are better Marianne..."

I felt tingly by his show of affection.

He is such a lovely father... I am glad I died and came to live here with Anne.

Only thinking about how destroyed this man would be if the day I woke up here... he had found his daughter completely dead... It breaks my heart.

But luckily, I came here, and Marianne is not gone either. If things continue, the original story will begin in the Autumn Ball, and, supposedly, I should be dead by then. The Duke was never actually involved in the story. At least until the last Chapters I read, he rarely appeared. He was somewhat like an extra. But... if I remember correctly, he did seem cold when I read his few dialogues. Actually... he had very short sentences and very dry responses... totally different to what I’ve seen until now.

’... That’s right... Marianne was dead even before the story started... so... that means he might have seen then, what he was supposed to see when I arrived...’

I guess... A loving parent like himself... would change after that...

’... Anne... I’m not sure if you were really meant to die then... and I’m not sure if we won’t be in danger in the following months.

I have no intention to let either of us die... but... we have to be careful.

I think that now, not only our happiness is in the line, but your father’s too, sweetie.’

The words I said to Anne, were mostly out of context. Besides the little analysis I took brief notes of when I arrived here... she doesn’t know anything more than the fact she is supposed to die by Autumn because the original story of the novel starts then.

She is completely ignorant of everything that should happen next. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Hence, it is not rare for her to react this way.

Our body didn’t lose its limited mobility and neither did it go into a crisis, but... I could feel how sadness and distress created a little hole in our chest.

Marianne is definitely scared, not because of our death... but most likely, because of what it meant for her father’s happiness.