Married To A Savage Duke

She heard not just one or two of them in those echoes.

“I guess the guest you mentioned came.”

“I don’t think it’s one or two. He must be an aggressive fellow who’s determined to get here so fast that the entire house shook from the staccato of his horse’s hooves.”

Soon, the noise died after hearing their horses’ loud neigh.

Cherryl approached the open window with her ring clasped in her palm.

She had no choice but to breathe in surprise. “……!”

Night had already fallen but she could clearly see what was up thanks to the lighting near the gate.

Dark-clad men with an average height of eight feet tall stalked into their front yard as if they had come to rob their house.

“Oh my god!” Frightened, Lucy must have thought the same when she took a sharp breath.

However, their butler had carried an outdoor lantern and guided their path politely so she assumed these guests must have been invited.

Their butler wasn’t insane to let thieves into their mansion.

‘Please go this way.’ He must have told them as the gigantic men followed him in unison.

She couldn’t have made the same gesture because she found their collective sight-threatening.

It was understandable that these savages might have wolf blood flowing in their veins.

The ‘Valkens’ of the North were large yet agile.

These notorious bandits on the border were known to travel in packs and preferred to wear dark clothing for easy assassination.

The Male Lead in the original novel was from this tribe.

Cherryl wanted to shake this misfortune out of her life, but all she could do was stick her face out of the window.

‘One, two, three….’

She counted eight men all in all.

The number of people in this meeting must have increased.

The footmen had only witnessed five of them the last time.

Was it because today is more important?

What kind of deal was under the tables?

Cherryl frowned and narrowed her eyes at them once they reached the door of their mansion.

“.What?”

The tallest man in the group, the male lead, caught her eye.

It’s pretty….’

She found the man strangely attractive when the light from the lamp shone on his face.

Cherryl leaned more.

Quivering with fear, Lucy whispered. “You’re going to fall, my Lady! Come on in, please!”

Noticing her ghastly silhouette from his peripheral vision, he raised his chin and looked up.

His eyes met Cherryl’s while her upper body was leaning against the window.

“Oh!”

Surprised by the sudden eye contact, Cherryl quickly stepped back and lost her ring.

“My ring!” She reached for it urgently, but the silver ring was already thrown into the air.

Under the pull of gravity, the heirloom fell helplessly—-

—to the man’s face.

“No!”

Unaware of Cherryl’s loud heart beating in the silence, the ring shot out like a slingshot and bounced straight unto this man’s straight forehead!

She had hit him.

“…….”

“……!”

The sound of her silver ring rolling on the floor felt unusually cold in the silent night.

At that moment, the man with strange-colored eyes didn’t blink as he stared at Cherryl.

Did he not purposely avoid the ring so he could look at her?

Heart pounding uncontrollably, Cherryl quickly hid behind the wall.

It wasn’t enough to miss her precious mother’s belongings but to hit a man with it on the forehead?

Cherryl clenched her fist and hit her head hard.

Yes, she made that mistake, but she found something surprising.

“…Lucy, did you just see it?”

“What?”

“That man’s face.”

When the light from the lamp had lit his face, she witnessed how he looked like in a flash.

He was incredibly handsome!

Even if he had seen seven long arms in the background, her jaw still dropped with admiration.

His smooth black hair contrasted his pale white skin and shining golden eyes.

He was as sensual as a black and dangerous beast that had turned into a human.

“It was so dark and scary that I couldn’t see anything.” Lucy cried from her fear of encountering bandits for the first time.

*KNOCK*

*KNOCK*

Cherryl heard a knock on the door just in time.

“The guests have arrived. Please come downstairs when you’re ready, My Lady.”

She rubbed her cold palms against her skirts to control her nervousness.

This wasn’t the appropriate time to admire the appearance of the male lead because she might be sold to an unknown man later—another member of these bandits.

“Lucy, can you go outside and find my ring? You can find it close to the door, but you’ll need a lamp because it’s too dark out there.”

“Yes, My Lady. Are you going to be okay?”

“I have to be.”

It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t afraid of meeting these dangerous men as they walked towards her mansion without a single word.

No. She wouldn’t allow herself to be scared.

‘I need to come up with measures in case I had guessed correctly. She could run away, or….’

Cherryl was so nervous that she could only think of one way right now.

‘It wasn’t a bad plan to steal her father’s money and run away.’ She thought as she slowly descended the stairs while clutching her skirts.

‘I’ve been in the worst environment so that I can survive anywhere.’

Her past life experience had proven to help her try to survive her day-to-day life.

Cherryl walked firmly into the dining hall, and as she reached the wide-open arch, she faltered to a halt.