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

Chapter 4

Word Count: 685 | 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

ther-in-law, Duchess Eleanor Ferguson. A daily ritual of submissi

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

eliberate sip of tea, eyes cold over the cup's rim, and let Adeli

from behind the Duchess's chair. Agnes had served Eleanor thirty years and wiel

displease his lordship again last night?

shaming. The old Adeline wo

as if the woman were no more than a mispla

r courtesy, "forgive me. I had not realized the Duchess

But to let a servant do it for her was something smaller, uglier. It made Eleanor look either too cowardly to speak her own contem

se ladies, must I accept correction from your maid, or

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.

d through the q

oming, a thin trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth. The silence wa

ingling. She stared at the stunn

to silence. "You are the servant." She stepped closer, forcing Agnes to shrink ba

"This is a lesson in you

in-law's furious, incredulous gaze. She said nothing. She

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.”