The moment Aelis's eyes fell on his visage, her shoulders relaxed.
He took a step in, sending that woman squealing in circles in delight. He was clothed in his usual fancy urban clothes minus the hat. His luxurious platinum hair spilled over his shoulders and there as a faint flush in his cheeks suggested physical strain. But his eyes...
Yikes.
They were half-closed, soaked in anger.
While his face was pretty neutral, rage toppled off his eyes in waves.
The stablehand who had tied her up cowered in a corner, holding up a wooden plank in his defense lest the Duke's eyes fell on him. Aelis didn't blame him.
The Duke was absolutely furious.
"My Lord! You came! You came for me!" The woman squealed, curtsying elegantly, and was stupidly oblivious to the fury tapering off of him. She laced her fingers around his arm and clutched it to her bosom. "What a lovely day it is!"
Aelis cringed.
Duke Lurris gave one smoldering cold look at the woman and swung his hand forward, and she fell crumbling at Aelis's feet. The Duke's carriage driver snuck in and kneeled behind her as he cut through the ropes. He silently went back, and grabbed the stablehand by his shirt before dragging him out. Why he left Aelis trapped there, she didn't know.
"My Lord!" the woman screamed.
"Shut up."
The Duke's voice was cold.
Gone were his charming smiles and pleasant countenance, which Aelis had familiarized herself with. Instead, his beauty burned like a pretty knife.
"She does not befit you, my Lord!" the woman clung onto one last straw, looking at him with pleading tear-stricken eyes, "Her presence only serves to mar a painting as beautiful as you..."
"Do you not hear me?"
His voice sent chills and the woman flinched. He reached his hand out to Aelis, who had gotten to her feet. His fingers felt cold to touch. She could smell camphor on him too.
"Who is she?" Aelis asked as he showed her out of the building. His carriage was waiting for them, and the driver was already in his seat.
"Lady Fughal."
Lady Fughal?
Oh, the one the Queen Regent had mentioned the other day.
Aelis hadn't really quite made sense of why the noble lady had held her captive though. Was it to injure and maim her in hope that she may never marry the Duke? Her hand involuntarily went to her face where she had been struck.
"...did she do that to your face?" The duke turned her chin with his cold hands to take a look.
"This is not my blood, my Lord." Aelis clarified but didn't deny that she had been hit by Lady Fughal. She could feel him bristling but she grabbed his hand before he turned towards the hovel. "Please let it be."
"Let it be?" he arched an eyebrow.
"It would appear her intentions were somewhat noble, even if her actions said otherwise." Aelis sighed. "It was my mistake coming here after all."
For a heartbeat, he didn't say anything.
She wondered if she had inflated his anger, but he sighed.
"How did you get fooled by a note good god,"
"It had your letterhead and seal, my Lord," she mumbled. "I did have my doubts after I reached the location." She took out the folded note from her gown and passed it over for his inspection.
"It's a good thing I ran into the carriage you took so soon. I didn't have the address," he said crumpling the note.
Thank goodness she had asked the carriage driver to return in about an hour. She did have a few questions though. Together, they settled into the carriage and the driver set the horses off.
"How did you know I was taken though? And such an immediate response?"
He smiled at her, somewhat returning to his unabashed charming smiling self,
"Tracking magic. I happened to visit your father's house right after you took his leave. We immediately knew something was wrong, and,"
And he'd cast a spell.
"I should have liked to see that," she muttered.
"I didn't have the finesse to point out where you were exactly, just the general area - luckily, I ran into the carriage driver and he led me here,"
Luck, he says.
Aelis lowered her head, "I thank you for rescuing me, though I doubt Lady Fughal intended to harm me."
"But she did harm you," he said softly, holding up her face against his hand. Outside the evening had darkened into twilight and he had only the streetlights to guide his fingers. He gently stroked her cheek.
"Well," Aelis spoke, breaking the slight tension that had crept up between them, "I believe her intention was to secure a meeting with you and this was the roundabout way she did it."
He chuckled. "Would you want to press charges against her?"
She knew that he would be offering his wealth and resources for her to tap into, possibly his excellent lawyers too. Her family didn't really have quite the ostentatious wealth he did, after all. But she imagined the long-drawn process of court proceedings and possibly many meetings with Lady Fughal lined up in the future and shook her head.
"I wish to never see her again," Aelis said folding her arms together on her knee, "It is disrespectful that a woman of her status and esteem would speak of my fiancé in that manner."
"What did you call me?" he smiled.
Although they had not organized the official engagement party that people of the Duke's status were expected to, he had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes. Even the Queen Regent knew that they were to marry one another. Still, why did the way he ask her, make her face feel slightly warm?
"Fiancé, my lord."
He grinned at her leaning back in his seat. "That would probably be the best,"
Calling him fiancé would be the best?
What was this man talking about?
Her face must have expressed confusion, because he chuckled and said, "I mean it would probably be the best if you never see Lady Fughal again."
"Yes, my lord," she sighed.
There was one question that still bothered her. How did someone not so familiar with the Duke, get access to his stationery?