My Wife, My Rules – 31. chapter

Aiden’s morning began even worse than the day before. The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Viktoria. And beside her stood their doctor.

“I really need to start locking the door,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “What in God’s name are you doing here?!”

“I just want to know if you are all right, my dear,” Viktoria replied sweetly. “After your fall on the stairs and all.”

“Viktoria, get out of here.”

She moved, but only enough to give the doctor a meaningful look.

“You see?” she said in a concerned tone. “Just as I told you. He no longer recognizes his own wife!”

The doctor said nothing. He merely leaned closer to Aiden with the same cautious expression he used with patients suffering from nervous exhaustion. Not mocking. Only careful.

He studied Aiden a moment too long, too intently. Then exchanged a brief, discreet glance with Viktoria. Short. Quiet. But unmistakable. The look of two people who had already spoken without words. Aiden saw it and was in no mood for this game.

“Doctor,” he said sharply, “how can you know I fail to recognize my wife when you have never seen her before?”

“If my lord permits,” the doctor began carefully. “Your lady…” He glanced at Viktoria with a knowing look. “…does walk in the garden, after all. I have seen her several times. I know how she looks.”

That had not occurred to Aiden.

His gaze shifted silently from the doctor to Viktoria. She smiled in quiet satisfaction, exactly like someone who had placed a piece at the center of the chessboard and knew there was no need for checkmate yet. It was enough that the first move had been hers.

“Doctor,” Aiden said slowly, “I am not exactly in a condition to receive visitors. Will you leave us, please?”

The man hesitated. Something flickered in his eyes that Aiden could not fully read. Doubt. Unease. Or pity.

Not for me, Aiden realized. For Tess. Or for her, he corrected himself as his eyes met Viktoria’s again.

“Of course, my lord. I will stop by tomorrow…”

“I will send for you if needed,” Aiden interrupted.

The doctor nodded and left without another word. The door closed with a soft click behind him.

“Do you see how simple it is?” Viktoria began at once, her tone almost friendly. “Why will you not admit it would be nice? I could make you feel better. Help you forget.”

To Aiden’s own surprise, she had managed to catch him off guard.

“Has every trace of shame really abandoned you?” he said at last. “Or did you never possess any at all?”

“I am certain I could give you far more pleasure…”

“I am certain you could not. Get out. And never dare to enter my room again.”

She lifted her chin in offense and left.

Aiden rose immediately and locked the door behind her.

This is not good. Tess probably does not intend to return on her own. He must find her. Before something happens to her. Tess would never seek people. Would she try to return to her parents? Hardly. She had never felt good there, and more importantly, she could not appear there without her husband. She would be somewhere in the wild. Alone. Unprotected. Fear seized him again.

He dressed quickly and stood before the bookcase. Pressed his palm against the side panel. The mechanism creaked and shifted. He stepped into the darkness.

As he moved through it, he did not follow a map of paper, but of memory. Her habits. Her steps. Her scents. The places her eyes lingered when she believed herself unseen. A map of the silence she moved through.

He emerged through an old door hidden among the shrubs and headed toward the forest. The paths were soft, soundless. The air cooled. His mind burned. He searched. At the forest’s edge, where the ground sloped toward the stream, there were faint impressions. Not new. But not old. Who else would walk there without a horse? He looked again. No. Not here. Not by the stream. Not by the bridge. Not where she would have been cold.

He turned another way. Where the forest thickened. Where an old structure stood that only he and the steward knew of. An abandoned forest warden’s hut, overgrown and long forgotten. He had never locked it. He prayed Tess had locked herself inside against danger. But in vain. Tess was not there. And nothing suggested anyone had been there recently. The layer of dust everywhere revealed that he needed to search elsewhere.

He returned home, bathed quickly, then went toward the kitchens. In the corridor his gaze caught on the door to the ladies’ chamber. It stood ajar. The last time he had seen it open was when he carried a struggling Tess from it in his arms. He pushed the door inward quietly. No one was there. Yet presence lingered in the air, along with Viktoria’s unpleasant perfume that had not yet faded.

The curtains were drawn back. Light fell in clean bands across freshly smoothed covers. Pillows arranged with care, as though the servants wished to announce that the room now had a new mistress. On the vanity stood a crystal bottle of perfume. Foreign. Not Tess’s. A glossy comb. Small velvet cases for jewelry. The chair by the window had been turned so that whoever sat in it could see the door. Deliberate. Not accidental. He grimaced in disgust and went downstairs.

He smelled food before he had even crossed the corridor. Something stewed. Rich. Aromatic. As though the kitchen had received special instruction.

“Your lady awaits you in the dining hall,” Mary informed him. “The table has been set for dinner.”

He almost ran toward the dining hall, but there awaited him exactly the disappointment he had expected.

Viktoria.

He let out an audible breath.

She was prepared. Hair carefully arranged. Large pearl earrings Tess would never wear. Hands folded on the table. Spine straight. Smile practiced. And on the table, two place settings.

“I thought after what you endured today, something warm would do you good.”

Her voice was sweet. Softly veiled. The voice she used when performing tenderness.

Aiden stopped in the doorway. Did not move farther in.

He did not look at her. He looked at the table. At those two glasses side by side. Cutlery aligned with perfect precision. Napkins folded into fans.

“The servants have been diligent,” he said coolly.

“I asked them,” she admitted without shame. “They felt you would enjoy dining with your wife in pleasant surroundings.”

He had no strength left to argue. He turned silently to leave.

“Aiden,” she called.

He stopped and turned very slowly.

She rose.

“You should finally adapt. You would not want something to happen to Theressa, would you?”

He frowned.

“You said you did not know where she is.”

“Perhaps I do. Perhaps I don’t.”

Rage overtook him. He lunged forward and roughly seized Viktoria by the shoulders.

“Where is she?!”

“Calm yourself!” she snapped.

“What did you do to her?!” he shouted, shaking her hard.

At that moment, a gasp sounded behind him.

He turned and saw a maid standing there with a tray of food, horror on her face. She apologized at once and vanished.

“Hm,” Viktoria smirked. “How sad that your condition is worsening. You are already attacking your own wife physically! Even in front of the staff.”

He released her abruptly. She smiled in triumph.

“If Tess were here, she would teach you not to toy with me. But she is not here. Who knows if she still lives? Would you like nothing to happen to her? Then begin behaving like a proper husband.”