“But isn’t it inefficient to prepare a ladder, find someone to climb it, and have others hold it steady just for a piece of laundry? I could fetch it in moments. Although, in the end, so many people gathered that it defeated the purpose,” I said, laughing.
Lord Kernes raised his brows and gave a wry smile.
“You never cease to amaze me. Climbing trees, riding horses—you do it all,” he said with a sigh of admiration.
Ah yes, that was just last week.
When we visited the Palermore family ranch to look at horses, something unexpected happened.
One of the horses being trained suddenly reared and became uncontrollable. The trainer holding the reins was thrown off, and the reins got tangled around his arm, leaving him dangling helplessly.
Without hesitation, I jumped onto the horse, soothing it with a calm voice. Thankfully, the trainer only suffered a sprain. It turned out the horse had been startled by a wasp.
The look on Lord Kernes’s face at that moment… his eyes were so wide, I thought they might pop out of their sockets!
“Pfft! Lord Kernes, your startled expression is so amusing!” I laughed.
“You—you keep doing things no noblewoman should even attempt!”
Seeing his face turn an even deeper shade of red, I decided not to point it out, lest I provoke him further.
“Who taught you to climb trees and ride horses? You don’t have any brothers, do you?” Lord Kernes asked, his curiosity evident.
I flinched slightly at the question.
“…It was my sister’s husband. He was a childhood friend of mine, my sister, and me. He taught me,” I admitted.
Back then, climbing trees and riding horses had scared me, but I had started doing both just to be near Cardi. They were activities he enjoyed. But in the end, Cardi chose my quiet, unathletic sister—someone the complete opposite of me.
“Childhood friends, huh…”
Was he also thinking of his sister-in-law, Diana?
The lively atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly turned melancholic.
“By the way, Lord Kernes, I hear you’re skilled at chess,” I said, steering the conversation elsewhere.
“Really? Do you play chess too?” His face lit up, and he seemed genuinely interested.
“I’m quite good, actually,” I replied, though it was also thanks to Cardi’s influence.
“You truly are unlike any woman I’ve ever met,” Lord Kernes said with a laugh, his mood lifting again.
Relieved to see the cheerful atmosphere return, we decided to play chess after dinner.
We played six games, and I won every single one.
As the losses piled up, Lord Kernes’s stubborn cries of “One more time!” started to wear on me. He was surprisingly competitive.
“I heard you were skilled at chess, but aren’t you overrating yourself a little?” I teased.
“One more time!”
“Oh, come on. Go practice and come back,” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“W-what? Just you wait! I’ll win this time!”
The seventh game? My victory again.
Watching Lord Kernes sulk like a child over his loss, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of camaraderie.
I thought to myself, With this man, even if it’s just in name, I think we can make this marriage work.
Little did I know that a sorrowful event awaited us in the not-so-distant future. For now, we simply enjoyed our carefree chess games.
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