CHAPTER 48 - A DATE WITH LIAM (2)Liam led her around the street, looking for a summer dress Harriet liked. Actually, Liam didn't know much about fashion, but he was used to seeing fabrics and loved to learn new things. The tie Harriet bought him was a new twist on the old fashion of a few years ago, and he was happy to hear Harriet explain it to him.
"Okay, that's enough." Harriet held Liam, who was about to move on to the next shop.
"But you saw the long skirt in this shop earlier, right? Why don't you go inside and try it?" Liam asked.
Harriet shook her head and closed her eyes. "I won't be looking at anything anymore. So don't make excuses that you want to give me something because I saw it."
Harriet firmly stood on the spot, even though Liam had tried to persuade her again.
Liam watched as his wife closed her eyes through the whole road they passed after that, and she also asked for them to return to the city roundabout to enter another street filled with restaurants, as it was time for them to have lunch.
"Are we at the city roundabout yet?" asked Harriet, feeling Liam slowly stop walking. The surroundings were still bustling, but Harriet heard the sound of the fountain water in the centre of the roundabout closing in.
"Not yet," Liam replied, but the man stopped, staring at Harriet, who still insisted on closing her eyes.
"Come on, open your eyes, Madam. Aren't you afraid I'll sell you?" Liam asked.
Harriet's brows furrowed.
"But you said we weren't at the roundabout yet," said Harriet, worried that Liam would take her to another shop or make her face one.
Liam was still holding her hand, staring at her in silence, much to Harriet's confusion. She became more and more worried until she felt something suddenly brush her lips. Soft and moist, warm and familiar. Harriet opened her eyes, saw Liam's face so close to hers, and kissed her in the middle of the bustling city roundabout.
Harriet didn't know what to do and closed her eyes again. Her face was flushed red, and her hand clenched tightly. Liam could feel it too, for Harriet's right hand was in his. The man smiled sweetly in the middle of the kiss.
Lick.
Harriet was startled and quickly leaned back, breaking their kiss. Harriet saw Liam licking his own lips in front of her with a mischievous and seductive smile.
"I'm hungry," said the man.
Harriet felt her head start to spin from the heat. She complied as Liam pulled her hand the other way.
Liam just smiled. The man glanced in one direction into a small alley. He could sense someone was following them from the start. The guy hadn't done anything, so Liam didn't really care.
At the same time, Ezekiel who was standing in an alley near the city roundabout narrowed his eyes.
His brows were already knit together.
Who was that long blonde-haired man? He was wondering.
He followed her here and never expected to see what he saw. Harriet Goldlane walked down the town road with a man he had never seen before.
From the appearance of the man, despite wearing ordinary clothes, Ezekiel could see that he was a noble. Ezekiel was already surprised when he saw Harriet jump into the man's arms and saw the man kiss the woman's hand.
Especially after seeing how Harriet seemed to be such a different person with him. However, he still got surprised again by their kiss, which he had just seen with his own eyes.
At first, he had assumed that the man was a friend or close acquaintance of Harriet after he accepted that Harriet might have a side he didn't know about. But after the kiss, he knew the man wasn't just any close acquaintance of Harriet.
Looking back, it was clear that Harriet was very close to the man. They hugged, held hands, laughed together, and shopped together… like they were on a date.
Harriet Goldlane? On a date? Ezekiel had never imagined that before, and he still couldn't believe it after seeing it for himself.
But the problem here was the man.
Harriet Goldlane was a married woman. Seeing her here with an unfamiliar man was already suspicious enough. Moreover, it was clear that their relationship was not ordinary.
After recalling what he had seen of Harriet all this time, a cold and always realistic calculative woman, and adding the seductive expression he saw from the woman in the capital's boutique, which still haunts his dreams, Ezekiel could only conclude one thing.
An affair.
Liam Almandine was a dying lycan who was said to only wake up during a full moon. And the blonde-haired man Ezekiel saw was a man who didn't look like the Lycan of Almandine at all nor resembled the Old Duke. He didn't even look like a man from the North. Was he from a small noble household he had never known?
Was this the real face of Harriet Goldlane?
Her agreement to become the Old Duke's daughter-in-law was sudden. So it made sense that like Ezekiel, who refused to marry Harriet because he loved Cecilia, she also had another lover that no one knew about.
Truly a snake woman.
Various scenarios swirled in Ezekiel's head. It made sense to him that Harriet accepted her agreement with the Old Duke to gain power after failing to become the Empress. And after she became pregnant with Almandine's son, after the Old Duke and her husband died, she could freely choose any partner and had a second marriage.
"Heh," Ezekiel felt like he had just caught a big fish.
Finally, he found the woman's weakness. And now, he just needed to find out who the man really was and destroying Harriet Goldlane would become very easy for him.
***
Liam took Harriet out for a meal, tasting northern specialties. Since it was hard to find good spices and sugar in the north, there weren't many restaurants selling cakes or sweets either. On the other hand, there was a lot of expensive alcohol of even better quality than the Capital and agricultural products such as cheese and meat.
Some of the Northern inhabitants were also a Lycan or Lycan descent, so they had a high alcohol resistance. At the same time, it made alcohol served even at lunch and breakfast.
However, since the trade routes in Euclase became easier and safer to pass, Liam saw that the culture of drinking tea and coffee was starting to spread and take root compared to decades ago.