Chapter 10
Some strange man was climbing the wall of the Winston Count’s estate.
After returning his horse to the stables, Benjamin stood with his arms crossed, calmly observing the scene.
The suspicious man stopped in front of a window and fidgeted nervously as he tapped on it.
A moment later, the person who opened the window was none other than Helena Winston.
Benjamin let out a sigh.
‘This is the worst.’
The wedding was only a few hours away. Yet here she was, shamelessly letting a man into her room.
And the two clearly weren’t ordinary acquaintances.
Watching Helena lightly tap the man’s chest as if pouting playfully, Benjamin felt a molten fury rise inside him.
There was no reason to tolerate this any longer.
Benjamin immediately nocked an arrow onto his hunting bow and fired.
“Argh!”
With a scream, the man’s body lurched violently backward.
Fortunately, the arrow hadn’t struck a fatal spot. The man barely managed to grab onto the railing with both hands, dangling there desperately.
‘You’re not getting away that easily.’
Breathing heavily, Benjamin headed straight toward the room where Helena Winston was.
“Rufus, try using some strength.”
“Ugh…!”
Rufus clung to the railing with both hands and struggled with all his might, but his body refused to budge.
Helena thought to herself:
‘Are those muscles just for show? He’s completely useless.’
“Hngh…!”
Kicking his legs wildly, Rufus tried to find footing on the protruding stones in the wall, but that didn’t seem easy either.
After hesitating for a moment, Helena spoke.
“Why don’t you just fall? It’s not even that high.”
“U-ugh! Helena, that’s cruel…! How can you say that when you know I’m afraid of heights?”
Still clinging to the railing, Rufus whimpered pitifully.
Looking at him, Helena sank into thought.
‘What do I do with this? Should I call someone? But how am I supposed to explain this situation?’
At that moment, loud banging echoed from the bedroom door behind her.
Helena made up her mind.
“Rufus, just hang in there for a moment.”
She hurried over and opened the door to ask for help.
“…”
But standing beyond the opened door was the one person who absolutely should not have seen this situation.
“Excuse me.”
After saying that, Benjamin Ishpern shoved past her and strode straight into the bedroom.
Frozen for a moment, Helena quickly regained her senses and snapped sharply,
“What exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”
The direction he was heading was unmistakably toward where Rufus was hanging.
Helena hurriedly stepped in front of him to block his way.
“I can’t believe this! Barging into a lady’s bedroom like this—have you forgotten that we aren’t married yet?”
Benjamin looked at her with gloomy eyes and replied,
“In a few hours, we will be. Is there a problem with that?”
“Either way, not right now.”
Pointing toward the balcony where Rufus hung, he said,
“I need to take a look over there.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s something I need to see.”
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing there!”
At her desperate attempts to stop him, a vein twitched across Benjamin’s pale forehead.
“So now you’re lying to me as well? Ha… Is that what I am to you? Someone you can lie to without consequence?”
At that very moment—
“Aaaagh!”
A scream rang out from the balcony, followed by a loud thud.
Helena’s face crumpled before she quickly forced it straight again.
Unable to look at Benjamin, she bit her lip while staring toward the window.
“And you still insist no one is there?”
“…”
Helena couldn’t answer. She could only bite down harder on her lip.
The next instant, Benjamin’s large hand roughly grabbed her jaw and cheek.
Startled, Helena gasped sharply.
She tried to wrench herself free, but for some reason she couldn’t move at all.
With overwhelming strength, he turned her face toward him.
“So now you’re ignoring me too? Don’t look away. This is your punishment.”
Helena desperately tried to pry his hand off her face.
But his grip was far too large and solid. She couldn’t shake him off or even move, as if she had been bound in chains.
Benjamin’s chilling red eyes slowly swept across her face.
As though evidence of her wrongdoing were written there in tiny letters, and he intended to read every word.
Humiliation drained the color from Helena’s face.
“Let go…!”
Never in her life had she been treated like this.
No matter how troublesome she had been, Count Winston had never once raised a hand against her. Neither had her stepmother, Mia.
They might beat their own chests in frustration, but neither of them had ever laid hands on Helena.
Cornered, Helena no longer bothered holding back the tears threatening to spill.
With trembling eyes, she shouted,
“You crazy bastard! Let go of me!”
But Benjamin Ishpern truly seemed like a man without blood or tears.
Even seeing Helena on the verge of crying, he showed not the slightest trace of sympathy.
If anything, his voice grew even darker.
“Don’t forget that today is our wedding day. If you try to run away like this now, next time it’ll be even harder for you.”
At that underhanded threat, Helena felt her tears vanish instantly.
Her face slowly twisted with fury.
“Let go of me. If you don’t, I’ll scream and call everyone here.”
“Then I’ll tell them to search for the man who fell from the balcony. Lady Helena Winston—rather than cowardly trying to run away, why don’t you tell the truth properly?”
Cowardly?
‘He just called me cowardly?’
Flames blazed in Helena’s green eyes.
Grinding her teeth, she shouted,
“Fine! Crown Prince Rufus was there! He came on his own, so what exactly was I supposed to do about it?!”
Benjamin stared at her with utterly merciless eyes before finally releasing her.
Helena clutched her face and breathed unevenly.
The inside of her cheek throbbed painfully where her teeth had bitten into it, and she could taste blood in her mouth.
Without taking his eyes off her, Benjamin walked over to the balcony and slowly opened the window.
No one was there.
Helena hurried onto the balcony and looked down below.
Only the carefully trimmed garden shrubs were crushed and ruined. Rufus had apparently fallen onto them and escaped unharmed.
Helena let out a long sigh of relief.
“Haa…”
That sight grated harshly on Benjamin’s nerves.
If, as she claimed, the Crown Prince had come to see her of his own accord, then she never should have opened the window for him.
Nor should she have shown concern for the intruder right in front of her fiancé.
Benjamin stepped beside Helena. The railing was so narrow that she had to press herself tightly against it.
Right before her eyes, he slowly ran his fingertips across the railing.
The blood Rufus had left there smeared crimson beneath his touch.
At the horrifying sight, Helena instinctively turned her eyes away.
Then Benjamin’s bloodstained hand touched her cheek.
“Now I understand very clearly what kind of shameless woman you are.”
The sticky sensation of blood-smeared fingers stroking her cheek made Helena’s shoulders tremble violently.
Studying her face, Benjamin spoke in a low voice.
“But from now on, you’d better conduct yourself properly. I have no desire to witness something like this ever again.”
The wedding of Helena Winston and Benjamin Ishpern was lavish and elegant enough to honor the prestige of both noble families.
Dressed in formal wedding attire, his long black hair neatly swept back, Benjamin Ishpern recited the marriage vows in his pleasant voice.
“…Thus, as the head of the Ishpern family, stewards of the great territory of Burwood, and as wise husband and wife, as companions united in both body and soul, we swear before God and before our honored houses to walk forward together.”
Listening to the vows read by the man who would become her husband, Helena thought to herself:
It was probably normal to dislike the person chosen for a political marriage.
A marriage arranged to avoid scandal or for the sake of money was hardly uncommon.
But how common was it for that person to be completely insane?
Taking the marriage vows from Benjamin, Helena’s lips trembled before she finally began to speak.
“I, Helena Winston… take you, Benjamin Ishpern… as my husband.”
Her not-so-long life flashed before her eyes like a lantern show.
“…I am happy that the years I will spend with you are longer than the years I lived without knowing you.”
She had been immature and arrogant.
“I will always respect you… and be a loving wife.”
Crunch.
Forcing out words she absolutely did not want to say, Helena accidentally bit the tender flesh inside her mouth once more.
