What the Bride Became의 모든 챕터: 챕터 1 - 챕터 9

Including this time.They said Rowan wouldn't die.They said I'd be freed from my bond.The next day, House Langley sent me out through the back gate in a small covered carriage.The regent's manor had hung only a few strips of red silk, sparse and forlorn, fluttering whenever the wind blew.The groom was too near death to stand at his own wedding, so I spoke my vows alone, a sword laid across the bed in his place. Then I was led to the bridal chamber.My husband in name, Rowan Blackwell, lay on the wedding bed not far away.His face was white as paper, his lips tinged blue.The old housekeeper beside me hesitated. "Your Grace, you..."I said, "I'll keep watch. The rest of you may go."The old housekeeper sighed and led the others out.The moment the door closed, only he and I were left in the room.I lifted my veil, walked to the bed, and crouched down to look at him.He was very handsome.I'd always assumed men who went to war were rough, square-jawed brutes.He was no

"After all these years, you're still the easiest one to order about."She smiled."Avery, tell me. Haven't I always treated you well?"I lowered my head and looked at the shadow I cast on the floor.Either I'd be buried at Rowan's side, or I'd live and go on being a servant.She had treated me so "very well."I said nothing.Celeste didn't seem to need an answer anyway. She stood."All right, I'm leaving. This place is unlucky. Linger too long and you might catch his dying air."She shoved the bond papers into my arms and gave a meaningful little smile."Do your best as the regent's wife."After all, it's only for a few more days."I walked her to the door and dipped into a curtsy. "Safe travels, my lady."Celeste swept out with her chin in the air.Mrs. Wells hurried over from the corridor, saw the swelling on my face, and sighed."Your Grace, you didn't have to endure that."I said nothing.I only gripped the bond papers tightly.I had waited ten years.This scrap

So that was it.Celeste wasn't stupid.She was cruel.She'd known perfectly well this was a pit of fire, which was why she'd pushed me into it without a second thought.But Rowan didn't tell me any of this, and I pretended not to know.I kept studying my letters with the estate's bookkeeper.Only now the one teaching me to write had changed from the old gentleman to Rowan.In the dead of night he'd sit up in bed and light a single lamp.I'd pull a little stool up to his bedside and lean over a low table to practice my letters."That last stroke should stretch out more, like you."He leaned against the headboard, his voice low and warm.I pursed my lips. "What part of me stretches out? I spend every day hunching down just to get by."He gave a soft laugh, leaned close, and his warm breath brushed my ear.He took my hand and guided the pen with me, stroke by stroke, across the paper."You're my wife. From now on, no one will ever make you hunch down again."His palm was so

With a lift of his hand, the manor's shadow guards surged out from every direction like phantoms and hemmed the royal guard in instead.Then Rowan drew a thick stack of papers from his sleeve and hurled them down onto the flagstones before the king."In the third year of your reign, you embezzled the disaster-relief funds to refurbish your pleasure palace, and more than a hundred thousand people in the southern provinces starved to death!"In the fifth year of your reign, fearing the Duke of Westmarch had outgrown you, you forged letters of treason in secret and put all seventy-two souls of his household to death!"In the seventh year of your reign, you handed three border cities to the enemy in exchange for their promise to have me killed!"Rowan's voice rang out, every word wrung from blood."Each and every charge—the proof is ironclad!"A tyrant who slaughters loyal men and grinds down his people—you think you're fit to sit over this realm?"The lords and officers behind the