The Duke's Passion

[ Dearest Lilou, 

I am relieved and thrilled to hear from you after five years. Grimsbanne had been peaceful, and the weather had been very clear today. Although the sun blazes during the day, the abundance of trees cooled the midday breeze. 

You said you procured books from Grimsbanne and I'm glad that you liked them. I hope you found them helpful in my nephew's education as well. I had prepared more books for you, knowing you love to read.

I have a lot of things to tell you and stories I want to share. However, I'm afraid I will end up writing an entire book about my misadventures. I'd rather tell them personally and see your reaction myself. So I will keep this letter short.

I missed you, Lilou. There isn't a single day that you never cross my mind and I am excited to see you once again.

I will arrive days after you receive this letter. 

The brother who misses his sister every day,

Yulis ]

"That is so corny." 

I jumped when Sam's voice suddenly tickled my ear from behind my chair. I glared at him, securing the letter close to my chest. 

"Sam! Don't you have work to do?! You keep appearing out of nowhere!" I lashed out while he straightened his back and shrug. 

"You do know that I will be away a week after our son's birthday, right?" 

"Yes, but this is too much, my love." I gasped while patting my chest. It had been a month since Law and Adam's minor dispute and after that, my husband got more clingy. He would keep appearing everywhere without making a sound and scare the living lights out of me!

"Tell me. You're enjoying giving me a scare, don't you?"

"My wife, how can that be? I even knocked before coming into our room, but you didn't answer. It turns out you are reading a letter from the Duke of Grimsbanne!" His eyes glazed over at the rest of the letters I carefully arrange to read. "That letter from the north is quite thick."

I looked at him before setting my eyes back on the desk. "Of course, since it's from Claude and Klaus."

"I doubt. I bet it's all from Claude."

"Why? Do you think Klaus will never reply to me?" I frowned as I reached for the letter from the north. "I don't think he is that heartless not to send me a reply after sending him a long one."

"That's not it, wife." Sam rested his arms on the backrest of my chair as he moved his face over my shoulder. "I bet he didn't get to read your letter. The letter he received is longer than what you sent to Claude, after all."

"Huh?" my brow rose while opening the letter. I knew Sam read my letters, so I wasn't surprised about that. 

It was true that my letter to Klaus was longer than Claude's. Actually, it was the longest I wrote among all the letters I sent out. That was because Klaus used to be my chief knight. We had a lot of things to talk about and I reminiscence all those times while thinking about him. 

"My wife, you realized that if Yulis and Silvia heard you wrote a three-page letter to Klaus, they would frown about it." Sam cast me a knowing look as he rested his chin on my shoulder. "I'm sure Claude isn't thrilled about that, so he will surely tear your letter to make himself feel better."

"Sam, Claude isn't that unreasonable." I shook my head lightly as I took out the parliaments inside the envelope. My brows furrowed when I saw a few pages. I opened one of them and I tilted my head to the side.

"W? That's strange. Why would Claude write a single letter on a paper?" I murmured, putting down that paper before checking the rest. The second paper was also the same; one huge letter I.

"Claude seemed to be he is still childish to waste so many parliaments."

Since I realized that the rest of the letters also had single letters in them, I arranged them on the table in order. I blinked twice as I read the message once all the papers were put together.

"Will you marry..." I shivered when Sam trailed off and felt the strong aura exuding from him. "That rascal had truly grown bold, huh?"

"Sam." I chuckled while shaking my head. I knew Claude was joking, although it felt strange. Goodness. It was cute when he was a child, but he was already a young man.

A smile resurfaced on my face, wondering how dashing Claude looked now. He was so adorable back then, just like Law. So I was certain he grew into a handsome young man. Well, vampires had this requirement that they should all look good. 

"I should tell him, ye --" I couldn't finish my sentence as my husband suddenly covered my lips with his palm.

"You, what?" he raised a brow while gazing at me. "What will you reply to this marriage proposal?"

How would I answer if he was covering my lips? I sighed and shook my head, rolling my eyes. I was joking goodness! Sam narrowed his eyes while he removed his hand carefully.

"Gosh..." I clicked my tongue as I collected the letters from the north and placed them to the side. "Claude didn't say he will attend, though."

"If you sent someone a marriage proposal, that only means they will have to show up to show his sincerity."

"Well, you are corre... ct." I gazed at Sam and caught the evil smirk that appeared on his lips momentarily. "Sam, Claude is your nephew. He is young and playful. I'm very sure he meant this as a joke."

"My wife, I thought I already told you about the north? Do you think the Earl's knightage are called savages just because of Klaus alone? Claude is the person who ordered to hang the people who tried to coax him to covet the throne."

"Then that means he is loyal to you."

"Right, but Claude is also known to get what he wants." Sam's tone was a little... sincere. Although there wasn't a trace that he was threatened, it sounded like he was truly describing Claude. 

"So you think the Earl is foolish enough to covet the emperor's wife?"

"No. He is capable and the military power of the north can challenge mine." Sam shrugged. "But whatever. I can just crush his skull if he tries to..."

"You better not," I warned while pointing at him. "He is a distinguished guest of the Roux, not the La Crox."

Sam frowned but said nothing anymore. So, I continued to read the letters from Silvia and Rufus. 

"So they will come as well, huh?" I smiled as my heart warmed up at Silvia's letter. "But I am worried about Rufus. It seems he looks forward to meeting Fabian more than Law."

I shook my head, as I could feel Rufus's excitement from his letter. He even apologized in advance and recommended people that could replace the head butler just in case.

"I'm somehow nervous about our son's birthday," I murmured while gazing at the letters from them. I glanced at Sam with a helpless expression.

"Did you also invite Noah and Marquess Cameron?"

"They said they will come." Sam leaned his head against mine. "I'm sure it'll be fun. Don't worry."

"Hopefully." I snapped my eyes at the other letters from the local nobles in the south.. "I hope it will be."