Chapter 34: Dining With The Devil
It was sunset. The golden rays of the dying sun filtered through the large windows of the palace, painting everything in warm hues of amber and gold. In his study, Ivan sat hunched over his desk, surrounded by stacks of reports about the deployment of soldiers along the border between Zolotaria and Venograd. His eyes moved across the pages, but his mind refused to focus on the words before him.
"Thirty regiments stationed at the northern pass... increased patrols along the river..." Ivan mumbled, trying to concentrate, but it was useless. His thoughts kept drifting back to the library and Lydia.
He couldn’t forget the way her eyes had glistened with unshed tears when she apologized. The usual spark in those beautiful eyes had dimmed, replaced by a sadness that tugged at his heart in ways he didn’t understand—or perhaps didn’t want to acknowledge.
"Why am I thinking about her?" he whispered to himself, running a hand through his dark hair. "She’s just a duty, a political necessity."
But even as he said the words, he knew they weren’t entirely true. Something had changed between them. What had started as mere obligation was growing into something he couldn’t quite name.
He pushed the reports away with a frustrated sigh. There was no point trying to work when his mind was elsewhere.
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Meanwhile, in the grand library, Lydia sat in a plush armchair, a heavy book open on her lap. The pages remained unturned for nearly an hour. Like Ivan, her mind was far away from her task. Her thoughts kept replaying their argument, her hasty words, the hurt in his eyes that he had tried so hard to mask.
"Why does he have to be so... so..." she couldn’t even find the right word. Difficult? Complicated? Intriguing?
Lydia traced the patterns on the book’s page absentmindedly. She had come to this marriage expecting a cold, political arrangement. She hadn’t expected to care what her husband thought of her. She hadn’t expected to feel this hollow ache when they argued.
A gentle knock interrupted her thoughts.