Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Chapter 4

Word Count: 698 | Released on: 16/06/2026

simple gown of deep blue wool, expensive but unadorned, a plain silver clasp holding her dark h

t night... surely you don't have t

ng, Clara. The battlefi

er-in-law, Duchess Eleanor Ferguson. A daily ritual of submission s

s, she saw Eleanor seated with several high-ranking noblewomen, teacups in hand, heads bent in go

and curious. Adeline walked forward, back straight, steps

ning, You

deliberate sip of tea, eyes cold over the cup's rim, and let Adel

rom behind the Duchess's chair. Agnes had served Eleanor for thirty years and wield

displease his lordship again last night?

ds. Public shaming. The old Adeli

as if the woman were no more than a mispla

ly, "has Agnes been elevate

rvatory w

r. "If she is now entitled to correct me before you

gnes. "If not, she may

e tightened. The l

by what she saw as her mistress's support, she stepped closer, eyes falling on the damp hem of Adeline's gown. "Oh

scolding a child. Her bony, cold

d in a blur. Fast.

ed through the

h her fingers, and a thin line of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth. Teacu

d her hand, he

t touc

t her, too stu

aid to retreat. "You wear your mistre

mained quiet

opened, but

e. You are a servant who ha

r station again, and you will apologize on y

ve I made your

he roomful of noblewomen was watching too closely. Any defense Eleanor offered now woul

owered

my l

and meet her mother-in-law'

not curt

Eleanor's untouched tea

Chapter End

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Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Xin Miaomiao History

“I died with the taste of bitter almonds burning in my throat. My husband, Kian Ferguson, watched me collapse over the poisoned wine. He did not call for help. He did not kneel beside me. He only looked at me with cold, satisfied eyes, as if my death had finally made room for the woman he truly wanted-his delicate cousin, Isabelle. In my first life, I begged for his love. I endured his family's humiliation. I drank the bitter tonics they forced upon me in the name of fertility, even as my body grew weaker by the day. I was blamed for an empty nursery, mocked as a barren wife, and trapped in a marriage that was slowly killing me. Then I opened my eyes again. I was back five years in the past, riding beside Kian at the King's autumn hunt-the very day I first saw how he looked at Isabelle. This time, I did not weep. I did not fight for him. I returned to Blackwood Manor and asked for an annulment. Kian laughed in my face. "You want to leave?" he said, seizing my arms. "There are only two ways out of this marriage, Adeline. In a coffin, or with my permission. And I will grant you neither." I went to the King for justice. The Crown turned me away. They all believed I had nowhere left to run. A discarded wife. A useless vine. A woman with no power, no allies, and no future beyond the Duke's gilded cage. They were wrong. I sold my dowry in secret. I bought merchant ships under a hidden name. I gathered remedies, debts, secrets, and gold. If no one would grant me freedom, I would purchase it myself. If no one would give me justice, I would become powerful enough to demand it. And by the time Kian Ferguson realizes his unwanted wife has become the mysterious Nightingale, it will be far too late to cage me again.”