Chapter 2

"My lady, Miss Bellamy says the apricot trees are bad luck. To keep the Duke's estate safe, they have to be cut down..."

I froze and turned toward the few apricot trees in the courtyard.

Back when the Conrad family was still intact, there had been many apricot trees throughout our estate. Every spring, the entire courtyard would be filled with blossoms.

Ever since I was little, I looked forward to the apricot trees blooming each year. I would wait eagerly for them to bear fruit.

My mother, Corrine Conrad, would even make candied apricots for me by hand.

Then the Conrad family was massacred, and the apricot trees throughout the estate were burned to the ground.

After Landon brought me back to the Duke's estate, he learned how much I loved apricot blossoms and specifically had people transplant new trees into my courtyard.

For the past three years, we had tended them together with great care.

In spring, we'd make tea, pour ourselves a drink, and sit beneath the flowering trees. In summer, we would sit beneath the trees to escape the heat and talk about the little things in life.

I looked forward to the day the apricot trees would finally bear fruit, just as I looked forward to escaping the darkness of my past and finding hope in a new life.

But now, I knew Landon for who he truly was.

What remained between us was just like these apricot trees about to be chopped down. There was no hope left.

I watched with my own eyes as every apricot tree in the courtyard was cut down, one after another, their roots ripped from the earth.

It was just like the despair I had felt the year the Conrad family was massacred and the fire consumed every apricot tree in the estate.

By the time Landon returned, I was still sitting in the wreckage of the courtyard.

It felt as though all the strength had been drained from my body. I stared blankly at the dirt beneath me.

He immediately hurried over and helped me to my feet, looking at me as though I had lost something precious.

"Isabel, why are you sitting here? What happened?"

I couldn't tell whether he was simply putting on such a convincing act, or whether he truly felt sorry for the apricot trees we had spent three years nurturing.

For a moment, I actually saw a trace of guilt in his eyes. I came back to myself and gently pulled away from his hand as I stood. "Nothing. I was just thinking."

He froze, then glanced at the holes and broken stones left behind me. He seemed to understand what had happened and reached for my hand.

But I pulled away before he could touch me. "Don't touch me. I'm dirty."

This was the second time I had said those words to him. Three years ago, when he first brought me into the Duke's estate, the estate had been surrounded by gossip for three whole days.

Despite the ridicule he faced, he went to the palace and asked the Emperor to grant us a marriage decree.

Even after we were married, the servants at the Duke's estate still thought their master had been wronged by taking me as his wife. Not a single one of them thought highly of me.

Landon lost his temper with the servants and protected my position. He had even risked punishment to beat several townspeople who spread rumors about me, making an example of them to silence the rest.

I thought that under his protection, I could finally open my heart to him completely.

But on our wedding night, when he touched me for the first time, I still instinctively said, "Don't touch me. I'm dirty..."

I was the one who ruined the mood, yet he immediately tried to reassure me.

"Isabel, you know I love you. I don't care about any of that..."

But I still pulled my hand away and moved farther from him. "I know. But I can't stand myself."

After that, he never touched me again. He said he would wait for me until I had healed from all the pain of my past, until I was ready to open my heart to him completely.

I spent those three years forgetting my past and healing from my wounds.

Until today, I had even secretly made up my mind.

The apricot trees had finally grown enough to bear fruit after three years of care. It was time for Landon and me to have a child of our own.

But now the apricot trees were gone. So were Landon and I.

Somehow, he still managed to take my hand. He gently brushed the dirt from my fingers and smiled softly.

"No, Isabel. You're not dirty."

How ridiculous.