The Substitute Bride Is Adored by the Clumsy Margrave

“Sid-sama?”

To her own surprise, her voice sounded raspier than she had expected.

“Can you get up in bed?”

That finally reminded Mary that she was sick and crouched in the hallway when Sid picked her up. The headache that had been going on all morning seemed to have subsided now. Her body was still sluggish, but the fever had gone down and the pounding ache seemed to be gone.

“I’m all right.”

She managed to get up on my own, and Sid offered me a glass of water, which she gratefully accepted and drank down in one gulp. The water seeped into her parched throat and she felt as if she was coming back to life.

“Umm, Sid-sama, what brings you here?”

If a word got out that he, the third son of the viscount, was nursing her, a female servant, in her room, fearing it would damage Sid’s reputation, not to mention Mary’s, she asked him nervously. Sid, who probably knew exactly how Mary felt, smiled.

“I want to be there for you. For the meantime, I’ll let the doctor in and we’ll talk about it later, okay?”

The doctor examined Mary and said that while her throat showed some swelling, her lungs sounded normal and she did not appear to have any illness to be named, probably just a fever from overwork. He said that as long as she took her nutrition and fluids and rested well, she would probably recover soon. He said that it might be related to the change of season and the cold weather, so he suggested that she sleep as warmly as possible at night.

“That’s a relief, as long as you eat and sleep properly you’ll get better.” Sid said, relieved.

Then he left the room, saying he would go and talk to the butler about Mary’s condition.

‘What did he say he would talk to me about later?’

Mary was confused, but right now she had a fever and her head wasn’t functioning properly, so she couldn’t be bothered to think about this or that. At any rate, she took the prescribed medicine and laid down on the bed once more, and was quickly sucked back into sleep.

Sid informed the butler that Mary was not feeling well and would probably not be able to take care of Clarisse tomorrow. He left a message with him to be relayed to Jean asking him to come to Mary’s room when he had time so they could talk a little and also ordered the butler to arrange for a thicker blanket to be sent since Mary only had a thin comforter. 

After that, he went into the kitchen, had the pitcher filled with water again, and went back to Mary’s room.

The room was quiet and the sound of her sleeping echoed through the air. She seemed to have taken the medicine the doctor had left for her, and she must need a good night’s sleep to recover. 

Sid placed the pitcher on the bedside table and sat down in the chair he had just been sitting in. He spotted on the bedside table the same novel that she had bought the other day in the town with him, and decided to read it to pass the time. 

Back at the bookstore, she had told him that it was the latest book in a series she had been wanting to read, so he wouldn’t feel that bad about reading it. Mary seems to have already read quite many pages, and he noticed that there is a bookmark tucked in, so he opened the page that was marked.

‘Oh, this…’

It was the wrapper of the sweet he had given her, carefully folded and tucked in.