Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

"My lady, may I come in!" Eli raised her head to look at the knight. There was a huge pile of flies on her table and a lot of notes were neatly arranged in front of her.

"Yes! Sir Simon. Please do.`` The man entered and bowed his head as he stood in front of her but did not say a word.

"Is there something?" After waiting for a few minutes she asked again as she could see  that the man was looking worried.

"Yes, my lady. I should not be the one interfering, but I heard about the matter of staples incidentally when you were discussing it with my master!" Eli frowned when she heard that and her eyes narrowed at the man who flinched when he noticed her reaction.

"You do not need to worry about that. I have contacted many other traders of the neighboring town. There is no problem that the house of Thawyne could not handle.'' If it would have been anyone else, the man would have labeled them as arrogant but when it comes to Eli, he knew that she would leave no stone unturned to get the solution to the problem.

"I know, my lady. I have complete trust in you. I would never dare to come to you with suspicion in my eyes." he bowed his head showing his full respect and Eli, who had started to work on the files again sighed.

She looked at the man with confused eyes.

"Then why are you here, sir Simon?" There was a trace of exhaustion on her face as she took a sip of her tea that had long turned cold.

The bitter liquid filled her tongue and she finally felt more alerted. But her dark eyes and pale skin were showing how much she had immersed herself in the work.

"My lady, I am here to help you. My brother knows a lot of agriculturalists. He can arrange staples for a few months. If you want, I can contact him and ask him to bring a few samples for you to check!" he replied in a respectful eyes to not sound overbearing.

The man had been working with her father for a long time. He was a loyal and trustable person.

"That! Are you sure about it?" her eyes flickered and she took out the file of the persons she had contacted so far.

"Yes! I would not have come here if I would not have been sure, my lady." she nodded her head and then took a deep breath.

"Then, I will allow you to leave for today. You can leave now and contact your brother. I will be waiting for you, sir Simon." 

"Yes, I will be back soon, my lady." The man bowed and left the room.

As the door closed, Eli took a breath of relief, finally a smile formed on her lips as she took another pad and started writing a letter.

Sir Simon walked out of the room and took a breath of relief. Finally his stiff body started to relax. closing his eyes, he steeled his resolve and walked through the palace.

Nodding his head towards those who greeted him, he reached the entrance door of the palace soon.

"I am taking leave, if anyone would ask about me, inform them that i would only return after a few hours!" he informed the knight who was waiting for him and the knight left after nodding.

"Open the door for me." the guard bowed his head and pulled the lever to open the door.

Soon the entrance opened and Sir Simon left in his carriage.

"You can stop here!" he commanded, after riding the carriage to a distance, "you can leave from here, i will return by myself." 

He walked to an inn and sat there. But his body was still fidgeting as he kept looking around like a thief was trying to hide his face.

"If you continued to look around like that. Everyone would think you are a thief and might even call the knights to deal with you!" Simon even heard the sound of chuckling after the comment and his whole body turned stiff.

"My lord, it is all because of you. I felt like I had deceived my lady by lying to her. She had always entrusted my every word, yet i…" the man sighed as he did not know how to complete his words.

The man sighed and walked towards the table and sat beside sir Simon.

"You are thinking too much about it, sir Simon. It is not like you are trying to harm Thawne's. You are helping them only like always. 

It is just you lying about the source of your help." assured the man in a calm voice. But there was a trace of pain in his voice as he looked at the distance instead of the man.

"A lie is a lie, my lord. If you want to help the lady. Then why don't you let her know. She is misunderstanding you a lot. You both should sit and talk about your problems!" Simon could not help but plead.

He had seen how his mistress' smile had disappeared these days. Her face was turning paler and she often looked lost in her thoughts.

A self mocking laugh formed on the face of the man as he shook his head, 

"I think you have no idea how stubborn your mistress is! She would not listen to me and would not take my help no matter what." the man took a deep sigh as he remembered their last conversation and shook his head,

"Even I lost my patience when she came to meet me last time. But I will find a way to meet her again. But this problem is urgent, sir Simon. If not, my father would be successful in his plan and I can not let that happen, sir Simon or else I would not have contacted you. Would you still not help me?" 

"......"