“That is too much, no matter what,” Julia insisted, stepping forward.
“I wish you would comfort her a little.
You know how anxious women are before marriage.”
She then lightly patted Chloe’s arm.
“Don’t be too upset, Lady Amboise,” Julia urged gently.
“As you already know, even if the Grand Duke speaks so hatefully, he’s actually kind.
He’s doing this because he’s worried about you, My Lady, since there are so many rude people in the world.”
Chloe almost asked, without realizing it, ‘Are there two Grand Dukes in this mansion?’ Unaware of the true circumstances, Julia merely smiled brightly.
“I will make you plenty of wonderful clothes once the wedding is over, so please endure it just a little until then.
Fitting this dress perfectly to you, Lady Amboise, is the most important thing right now!”
Chloe’s gaze shifted behind Julia.
Standing there, Curtis was snorting in silent derision.
Ignoring him, Julia tidied up the lace-up ribbons that tightened around Chloe’s waist and back.
“Ugh’…”
Her breath was hitched again.
She felt like she was about to suffer involuntary dry heaves.
“I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Observing her distress, Curtis sighed and held out his hand to Julia.
“It seems your collective strength is insufficient.
Move the partition and give me those strings.”
He meant for her to hand over the ribbons.
Julia jumped in surprise.
“Oh, no’, Your Highness!
Lady Amboise is currently only in her undergarments!”
He was not a man to be deterred by such modesty.
Curtis scoffed.
“Lady Amboise.
Give Julia a hint as to how many nights you have spent with me.”
“Oh, my goodness!”
Julia’s face turned bright red.
Chloe herself was so dumbfounded, her jaw dropped.
Curtis, who had reached out, moved the partition aside, and stepped in, saw her expression and a wry smile played on his lips.
“Am I wrong?”
“It is…
technically accurate.”
An infuriating truth.
To speak of overtime work like that.
This was an insult to the dignity of labor.
Chloe wanted to flip the table and quit everything.
In the meantime, Curtis effortlessly took the ends of the ribbons from Julia’s hands.
Covering her cheeks in embarrassment, Julia backed away as if fleeing.
“Undergarments…
she’s in her undergarments…”
If wearing a plain, rough muslin chemise and tightly buttoned drawers qualified as undergarments, then she supposed it could be called that.
Chloe waved her hand dismissively.
“I am a soldier, Julia.
Do not worry.”
For a soldier, communal living is fundamental.
Chloe had enlisted at eighteen and shared a room with others until she was twenty-four.
Therefore, she was completely unfazed by showing her undergarments to others.
It was even more so in the Army.
When she was rolling around the drill grounds under the scorching midsummer sun under Curtis Sean Berk’s exacting command, there were more than a few times she wanted to strip off everything, undergarments and all.
If not for the duty of maintaining dignity as a Royal Guard, she really might have.
“But…
still, in front of others…”
Unaware of Chloe’s pragmatic reflections, Julia looked back and forth between her and Curtis with a flushed face.
Chloe shrugged.
Eventually, with no other choice, Julia stepped back.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“W-we’ll just leave you to it.”
“Is that necessary?”
“It most certainly is!”
With that emphatic reply, she ushered the other servants out of the room.
Chloe was bewildered, but she soon realized she didn’t even have a moment for that.
Curtis, gripping the ribbon strings, immediately cinched her waist tight, as if he had not a moment to spare.
She gasped loudly.
“That sounds less like a new bride and more like a pirate gang being engaged by the gallows.”
Her superior, who came from the Army and likely had never even seen a pirate, delivered his dispassionate critique.
Gritting her teeth, Chloe looked back.
“I did not know you intended to assassinate m—”
She was about to retort: ‘I didn’t realize Your Highness intended to assassinate me; if you pull that hard, won’t it rip?
And have you even seen a pirate in the first place?’ However, Chloe was flustered by the sudden proximity, and her words caught in her throat.
The man’s face, close behind her as he tightened the ribbons on her back, was simply too near.
That damnedly sleek nose bridge.
The purple eyes beneath the strong brow bone.
A shiver traced its way down her spine.
“You seem to have a lot of complaints.”
Regardless of her reaction, a fierce smile touched the man’s lips, and he looked straight at her, his voice laced with mockery.
And Chloe, the proud soldier of Ivanes, realized the reason for the shiver the moment her eyes met those purple irises.
‘This is the perfect position to be attacked.’
A genuine shiver went through her, and she replied fiercely.
“We spent the night ‘together’?
‘We’ did?”
“Did we not?”
Incredulity flared within her.
Chloe turned her head sharply and snapped, her voice sharp with annoyance.
“By Your Highness’s logic, the reports I wrote all night must have been serenades of love.”
“Ah, and rather ‘terrible’ ones at that.”
She turned her head to barely avoid that infuriatingly close face, but it was a mistake.
His hot breath warmed the nape of her neck.
‘Ugh’.
Unable to endure the discomfort, Chloe finally snapped.
“Could you please not speak right by my ear?”
“I will, but exhale.
Pull your stomach in.”
As soon as she let out a long breath, the man gave the ribbons a brutal yank.
Chloe gasped, inhaling sharply again.
The conclusion was swift and mutual.
“I think you’ll have to break at least one of my ribs for me to wear this dress.”
“One won’t be enough.
Consider it two.”
Saying that, Curtis hooked his fingers into the ribbons and swiftly loosened the lacing.
As soon as her airway opened up, Chloe sagged, almost buckling at the waist.
Her petticoats, which had been cinched tight beneath the gown, puffed out in a billowy circle before settling around her on the floor.
The sight was rather telling.
Curtis looked down at the woman and smirked.
He had found the answer to the question from a few days ago.
‘I ordered a few women’s outfits sent to the annex, even if just temporarily, so why on earth hasn’t she worn them?’
He had thought that.
Why was Chloe Amboise wandering around only in her uniform, even though she was clearly granted leave for her impending wedding?
The answer was right before his eyes.
“It seems none of the clothes I sent fit.”
“I do not know which noble lady owned those clothes, but they were quite constricting for me.”
This was the Berk estate, formerly the Queen’s summer palace.
The provenance of the remaining women’s clothes was obvious.
At that realization, Curtis lightly scanned Chloe.
It was a body that had no resemblance to the delicate and diminutive Queen Mildred.
Her exposed shoulders were straight and angular, and the arms, now relaxed on the floor, were clearly sculpted by rigorous training.
Naturally, the late Queen’s clothes could not possibly fit.
In the end, it meant that for the past four days, Chloe had been living in the Berk mansion with only a single uniform.
Curtis asked indifferently.
“Did you sleep in your uniform too?”
“There were guest pajamas provided, at least.”
That meant she at least slept comfortably.
Should he call it fortunate?
Thinking this, Curtis gestured toward the door of the dressing room.
Julia and the maids, who had been fidgeting anxiously over there, came running immediately.
Curtis looked down at his prospective Grand Duchess, who was sitting on the floor with her arms crossed.
Her cheeks were still flushed, showing just how great her exertion had been.
It seemed that dress was unsuitable.
Having concluded this, he asked Julia.
“The wedding is in three days; a new dress in three days would be difficult, correct?”
This time, Julia’s face turned ashen.
“Your Highness.
I apologize, but…”
“Must mean it’s difficult.
Understood.”
The Grand Duke quickly grasped the situation.
Since he was the one who set the wedding date, his nonchalance was understandable.
Julia touched her forehead and sighed.
“We will have to add embellishments to a ready-made one.”
“Is that possible?”
“It will be a challenge, but it is better than making one from scratch.
I will search every couturier and boutique in the capital to bring a new dress that fits Lady Amboise by today.”
“Um, I have an idea.”
The one who interrupted between the two was Chloe, who was still sitting on the floor.