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The Ballroom hall of the Grand Ducal Palace was huge. Sparkling chandeliers lit the area as huge paintings that were used to decorate its walls. Aside from the soft jazz in the background, everything from the gold trim and curtains to the white marble floor screamed, elegance. Something that immediately reminded Lily of her Grandmother Lilian’s mansion. Was it possible that her grandfather designed the place to look a little like the palace where he grew up?
“Lily, this is my husband. Pierre Weber, an Earl who owns the Dorf Castle at the eastern part of our humble country.” Mikaela immediately introduced her husband to Lily before her eldest brother could even introduce his wife.
“Mr. Weber. It is a pleasure.”
“I have heard a lot of wonderful things about you from my wife, Madam Zhou. It is very nice to finally meet you and this… should be your twin brother? Mr. Qin?”
“Hello. It is my honor to be here.” Qin Yuanfeng spoke in perfect English.
After the introductions, everyone started their lunch as they talked about Lily’s visit and her plans while she was in Luxembourg.
“I volunteer!” Eliza excitedly raised her hand when they started talking about letting Lily see some of the most beautiful castles in Luxembourg.
“I thought you hated walking around in a castle?” Eliza’s twin brother Levi chimed in.
“Who likes to walk around in castles with no one to talk to but you and the security?”
Mikaela laughed before she added. “You know that Lily is pregnant, right? She couldn’t just walk around in castles.” As someone who already has her own children, Mikaela completely understood if Lily would say no to the schedule that she had set for her.
“To be honest, my stomach is getting heavier.” Lily smiled at Eliza. “But I would love to stay in this place and just… chat.” She lied. While on the outside Lily was smiling sweetly at everyone, her mind is already looking for reasons to convince Eliza to let her stay in her place instead.
Lily had been reading enough magazines to know that Eliza and Levi are living in their own castles with good security, just like the Grand Ducal Palace.
“That would be great!” Eliza said. “You know what? This place is actually really huge, and walking back and forth from your room to the dining could actually cause some discomfort for you. Why don’t you stay in Berg Castle?”
“Or Lily could stay with us in my Dorf Estate.” Pierre Weber’s words were enough to silence everyone. “You know how big the estate is, even twenty additional people are not enough to make the palace crowded.”
“Thank you very much for the offer but… I think I would rather stay in this place and not ruin the schedule that Mikaela had set in advance.” Lily actually knew that Eliza would not just drop this topic because she said no today. She was sure that Eliza would try to convince her again to stay with her when they were already alone, by then, Lily would surely agree to the offer. “This place… looks really… interesting. With its rich history, I am sure I would love to stay in this palace.” She lied without batting an eyelid.
“Is that so? Is this because you really like the palace or… what happened earlier offended you?” Pierre however, chose not to drop the topic. “I mean… forgive my incompetence. I have tried calling you again and again but… I was routed to your voicemail. Was it because… we were late for a couple of minutes?”
As expected, his words immediately made the atmosphere thick, suffocating. He eyed Lily before giving her a cordial smile. “I hope… my small mistake didn’t offend you. Of course, I would not blame you if you for being offended, but I think it would be really nice for me to defend myself. Especially since this issue would involve my business.” His tone was calm — too calm. That one would think he was speaking some happy thoughts instead of being passive-aggressive towards Lily and suggesting that she was narrow-minded for not answering his calls, despite him, the business owner himself, trying to call her to fix the issue.
“You know Pierre… this is something that— “
“Please forgive me, your highness,” Pierre interrupted the Grand Duchess. “I am nothing but a small businessman who is trying to explain himself to a client.”
Lily snorted, immediately silencing the Earl. “Mr. Weber… ” she lifted her gaze, meeting Pierre’s innocent gaze. “I believe what the Grand Duchess meant to tell you was this was not a very appropriate topic while eating,” Lily said. “It is very disrespectful for you to interrupt a woman as she tries to tell you that speaking such personal things in front of the Grand Duke was unnecessary and useless.” Lily plastered a sweet smile on her face before she calmly took a small sip of her small tea.
Did Lily just call the Earl’s words unnecessary and useless?
Silence followed Lily’s words. However, this silence was broken when someone used their knife to slice a dish. Everyone’s eyes immediately turned towards Qin Yuanfeng, who was calmly eating his food as if his sister did not just insult an Earl in front of him.
“Ehem,” Eliza cleared her throat. “I believe talking about business has its right time.” She winked at Lily, completely nonchalant of the fact that Mikaela’s face had become scarlet red. After all, insulting her husband was akin to insulting her.
Lily flashed a smile at Mikaela. “You know… I would have forgotten about the issue if Mr. Weber didn’t mention it.” Lily said, completely putting the blame on the man. “I mean… it is not a big deal. I only wanted to come in time for lunch, so I asked my husband to arrange a ride for me and my brother. As someone who just traveled for more than fifteen hours from Hong Kong, it is expected for a pregnant woman like me to sleep while riding a car. So why was Mr. Weber making a big deal out of it? This of course makes me wonder… ” She shifted her gaze at the speechless Pierre. “Why would someone spoke about something like this in front of the Grand Duke himself?”
