Unfortunately, Byletta had never had proof that he was the one who started the rumors, and thus no one had believed her. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that her four years at that academy had been hell. During her time there, two of her classmates had attempted to assault her sexually, and Emilio was the ringleader who’d set the pair on her with such malice.
One of the boys had pulled out a knife to threaten her, but Byletta had simply wrestled it away and turned it back on him. The wound she’d left was just a scratch, but noble children were sensitive beings. He’d run off crying and caused an uproar.
That was the bloodshed from her academy days that Byletta’s father and uncle referred to on occasion.
Byletta hadn’t thought it was a major incident. All she’d done was cut the skin on his arm a little bit. It could be covered up. And he was a man. Moreover, he’d been threatening her virtue as a noblewoman. It had been shortsighted of him to think she wouldn’t fight back.
Luckily, the attack had never progressed to full-on rape, but for some reason Byletta had been punished with rumors that she had led them on, while the boys were unscathed. She’d graduated soon after at the bottom of her class, which was only natural given that she hadn’t been able to take her exams. It was a miracle she’d been allowed to graduate at all.
Her reputation and dignity were left in tatters.
Byletta knew that she was good-looking. She was the daughter of a woman who looked like a goddess, after all. Still, she hated that men she didn’t know were attracted to her. She’d come to hate her own face. She’d always been awkward around the opposite sex, but that one incident had cemented it in her mind: She hated men.
Emilio was an old adversary.
He always spread the same rumors from her time at the academy at noble faction parties, and they’d shown no sign of fading after she’d made her high society debut. Even now, after marrying Arnald, they persisted and had evolved to the point that people were claiming she’d seduced her father-in-law and uncle. Her father-in-law was, of course, enraged by the gossip and firmly denied it, while her mother-in-law, steady in the knowledge that none of it was true, just laughed them off awkwardly.
But Byletta had never imagined that the rumors would spread to the military.
“She still dallies with men left and right, doesn’t she? Your own father chief among them.”
“I knew it was you who started the rumors…”
The sneering man hadn’t changed one bit since their school days.
Something in Byletta snapped after she realized why she’d been inundated with uncomfortable stares from the moment she’d arrived at the venue, but a stern voice quickly interjected.
“I ask that you stop insulting my wife,” Arnald stated flatly to Emilio before Byletta had a chance to snap back.
Byletta had made her husband angry before, but this was the most furious she’d ever seen him. His stare alone was enough to freeze Emilio in his tracks.
Emilio faltered. He’d always been an abject coward.
“I-I was just looking out for you…”
“I don’t care. I know my wife better than you. I know she is a woman of integrity.”
“But she stabbed someone during our academy days! She may have the face of a lady, but she’s a wicked harlot, and it would be most unfortunate if a lieutenant colonel got injured by such a woman somehow.”
“I’ve seen her skill with a blade and know how impressive she is. It’s enough to captivate a man. But she only draws her sword on the lowest of lowlifes, because senseless violence is what she despises the most. Perhaps she’s had to turn her sword on you before?”
“I-I must take my leave, Colonel. Excuse me…”
In a rare moment of timidity, Emilio disappeared back into the crowd.
Byletta stared at her husband beside her. His expression hadn’t changed one iota.
Was he not angry that Byletta had been called a harlot and accused of sleeping with other men? Perhaps he’d suggested the wager because he’d already heard the rumors. Would he divorce her once he had his fill? Or was he simply trying to teach her a lesson? But what man, as uninterested in others as he was, would even deem such a thing worthy of wasting his time on? Whatever his designs were, Byletta couldn’t put her finger on them yet.
Neither Byletta’s father nor her uncle had supported her unwomanly pursuit of the sword. Even the teachers at the academy had refused to instruct her, so she’d mostly taught herself. Frustrated by his defeat at her hand, her father-in-law had sparred with her on numerous occasions, but never before had someone accepted her as she was so wholly.
The only person who had ever called her impressive was her husband. And even more than that, he’d acknowledged that she wielded her sword with conviction and not just for fun.
What was this feeling welling up inside her?
Byletta looked at her husband, filled with an indescribable emotion.
“So…you know about the rumors?”
“It’s hardly strange for a man to look into the background of the woman he’s going to marry.”
It was probably common in arranged marriages among the nobility and military. Yet even knowing all about the gossip, he’d still agreed to marry her. How unpopular must he have been to agree to marry a supposed shrew like her, who’d been accused of bloodying a fellow student? Or was there another reason that explained it all?
“You knew, but you married me anyway?”
“I only found out recently. We were already married.”
“But then you went and rejected my proposal to divorce and suggested our wager instead. Wouldn’t most men just ask for a divorce if they heard those kinds of rumors?”
Byletta’s husband was too eccentric. His thinking was a mystery to her.