The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 242: As cold as winter snow

Fabio thought that their journey to the capital would bring positive progress to his friend’s married life, noticing how smitten his friend was with the woman whom he had chosen as his wife. No matter how much his friend tried to camouflage his enthusiasm in anything related to his wife with an indifference mask, Fabio could detect even a sliver of emotions that he directed toward her.

Happiness was also there, giving color to his face and light to his eyes.

He had expected to see his friend’s wife show warmth to him, reciprocating his affection, but in turn, he was wrong. He seemed to expect something too highly.

Was it because his friend did not woo her properly? Did he not talk or do anything to attract her attention and make her see him not only as a husband but also as a man?

If it was so, what could he expect from his friend, who was famous for being as cold as winter snow, which made most ladies who were attracted to him and wanted to gain his attention take an abrupt halt to approach him once he glared at them sharper than daggers, or let them speak with the air when they were brazen and desperate enough to get his heart and soul?

But then, if his friend, whom he knew had never held a woman’s hand except his mother’s, was now holding his wife’s hand, seeming not willing to let go, Fabio grasped that his friend had done more than he could fathom to show his affection to his wife. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

If so, the question then was why the woman that he called the young madam was so cold to his friend, as if his friend was an unforgivable sinner that did not deserve to be forgiven. Was it merely caused by the fact that their marriage could exist because of a royal decree, hence her feelings toward his friend were dull and impossible to develop?

Or was it because of the difference in their social class that she belittled his friend, although he was the famous general of Archess, who kept an ally so important and could be reckoned to be beneficial? Fabio slightly furrowed his brows at the thought.

Thinking about that made Fabio sympathize with his friend more. He remembered how surprised he was to find his friend, whom he knew to be a cold, aloof man, appeared to be a warm, caring, and patient husband.

From the moment his friend, who was also his employer, ordered him and some other fellows to leave for Terra in haste, even choosing a difficult, challenging path in order to cut the length of time of the normal journey to the neighboring kingdom, showing how impatient he was to see the woman whom he had never seen before and who was reported to be sick, Fabio did not stop questioning himself if something had possessed his friend to act that astonishingly.

Fabio wondered what made his friend be smitten by the woman who seemed not to care for him and not regard him as a husband. She had also lied to him about the illness that she suffered and that they found it once they just arrived at Terra. Yet his friend was still here, standing by her side, holding her hand tightly, and looking at her affectionately.

He could not say that she was a bad person because he knew that she was not. Like what he had told his friend, he agreed with him to say that his wife was a kind-hearted person, just from seeing how she treated the orphans and how the orphans clung to her wholeheartedly.

Kids were mostly innocent and naïve. Most of them were honest with their feelings and could feel about one who was truly kind to them or not. They knew that Lady Joanna de Lara was a good person who cared for them and had no ill intention toward them. She was the one who gave them shelter alongside Mrs. Powel, and they felt her sincerity.

Hence, Fabio could not go against her due to her behavior toward his friend. There was something between her and his friend that was hard for others to decipher, and he would not bother himself to grasp what that was, particularly when it was a private matter between husband and wife.

If his friend was happy with the life he chose, then his support would be his. Because Fabio had never thought that Canillas would get married one day, involved with a woman, knowing what his main goal was for what he had gone through in his life.

While the young man who stood beside him gave him an inward, deep thought of sympathy, Canillas shifted his attention to one of the men who stood behind him, who was the coachman he had assigned to ride the carriage to Terra.

"Why late?" Canillas asked sternly, his expression grim, as if it were a very important matter to him and he had lost his patience.

Before he departed to Terra, he had ordered the carriage to depart three days after he and his men-at-arms did because he had asked the carriage wheels to be replaced with sturdier and better-quality ones. There was a delay in the process as the merchants who provided the materials for the wheels he needed were involved in some conflicts with the other merchants.

The carriage that was now parked in the de Lara mansion’s front yard was a new carriage that he purchased not long after he found out about the disappearance of the lady that he married. He was informed that she returned back to her homeland by the carriage that belonged to her family. To bring her back to her new home, of course, he had to bring his carriage, as she was now a von Rodega, not a de Lara anymore.

It was not that there was no carriage that became his belonging. But he wanted to provide her with a feasible and better-quality carriage that would give her comfort during the long journey back to their home.

He had taken a thorough look over the new carriage, but he asked it to be more polished, and some features needed to be added or changed.

He decided not to wait for the work to be done, as the blacksmith that he had asked to be in charge of that work was not a new person for him to trust the work. Aside from that, even if he waited for the carriage to be overhauled, he and his man-at-arms would not choose the path that could be passed by the carriage, as they would choose the shorter route, which was impossible for the carriage to pass.

They would also take a much quicker pace that could not be caught up by the carriage, as he was not used to taking a slower pace on the journey except for certain reasons that gave him no choice but to do so.

Based on his calculation, the carriage should have arrived about seven to ten days after he arrived. But it had been almost three weeks, and it just arrived.

It was good that a number of unexpected occasions happened that delayed the schedule of his journey back to Archess. Otherwise, he would have carried out his other plan to borrow his father-in-law’s carriage, which he had tried to do his best to avoid when it came to bringing his wife back to his homeland.

"I beg your pardon, Master. Madam Viona insisted on using the carriage to the soirees she attended." Canillas received the answer from the coachman, and he felt the delicate hand that was in his tense.