The sound of footsteps entering the dining room, which was as quiet as if time had stopped, created a thin crack in the heavy silence.

Ansel, who had been reading a report, raised his head slightly.

“Miss Bailey……”

Although it would have been understandable for him to be disappointed that the person standing at the door was not the face he had been waiting for, Ansel instead straightened his back with icy eyes.

It was because the maid’s face wore an unusual expression.

As they say, the greater the desire, the greater the anxiety. In that brief moment of silence, an endless stream of ominous thoughts completely occupied his mind.

Noticing the fear disguised as calmness spreading over his cold and transparent eyes, the maid quickly opened her mouth.

“She wasn’t in the attic, so I went to the bathroom and found her asleep in the bathtub.”

“……”

At those words, the young master froze like a statue. Slowly exhaling the breath he had been holding, he parted his lips.

“Has this happened before?”

“Not since the first day. Actually, her complexion hasn’t been looking good……”

Ansel set the papers he had been reading down on the dining table. Then, with a face that was incomparably more serious than when he was reading them, he asked.

“Why is her complexion.”

“When she came back, her face was pale and her lips were blue, as if she had caught a cold. These days, she insists on wearing thin clothes even though it’s cold in the mornings and evenings, and the clothes she left in front of the bathroom were always soaked with sweat, so the way back must have been even colder.”

“……”

“Shall I wake her up and bring her here?”

As the maid’s words continued, Ansel’s reason twisted steadily.

Pressing his eyelids, heavy with the fatigue of his business trip, he answered in a low voice.

“You have to wake her up. The water must have gone cold a while ago.”

“Yes, then I’ll be right……”

“I don’t mean bring her here. First, ask her if she’s alright to eat as usual.”

“……”

The maid thought that even if the young master got fiercely angry, as he had never done before, it wouldn’t make her spine as chillingly cold as this.

Because the usually composed man seemed on the verge of losing control tonight.

She judged that it would not be good to mention that the master’s special guest had skipped dinner last night.

Instead of adding more words, the maid bowed her head deeply and hastily stepped back.

And so, Ansel stared at the door that had become empty again with an expressionless face for a long time.

His unwavering, straight gaze and tightly closed lips were calm and even looked noble at first glance. But inside, it was more tumultuous than ever before.

From Bering to Royal Arch, it was a distance that required hours of non-stop travel.

Eloise would have no idea how much uncharacteristic commotion he had caused in order to return home at the usual time.

No, she might not even want to know in the first place.

She would be busy enough just thinking about working diligently, getting soaked in sweat and possibly catching a cold, in order to receive the corresponding wages.

To be precise, thinking of using that money to find a new place to live and leave here……

Meanwhile, Ansel was experiencing a terrible withdrawal from not being able to see her face.

Because of just one evening spent without her.

Originally, not revealing raw emotions or instincts was like a duty that he had to fulfill.

It was a principle as natural as air.

That’s why Ansel endured the desire to tie that woman by his side, the desire to hold her tight enough to crush her, the desire to press his lips against hers until he ran out of breath, like a soldier who had gone to war.

The reality of not being able to proudly show the name of his woman was just as miserable as being thrown into the line of fire.

Even though he finally got to live under the same roof as the woman he loved, the situation was no different.

Every day of sleeping under the same roof but not being able to marry her or hold her was a war to him.

He hated the old saying that only the dead can see the end of a war.

Because it sounded like he would have to endure this terrible longing as long as he was alive.

Ansel’s inner self was crumbling day by day. The duties and obligations he had to keep were rapidly blurring.

Taking their place were thoughts like this. If he let her slip away from his sight again, could he be sure that life after that would be better than death?

Ansel was willing to endure any price as long as she would smile by his side for a long time.

Even if it was……

“Master.”

Just as the black possessiveness was growing in size to swallow even himself, the maid’s voice stirred up his thick thoughts.

The pillar of the burning candle had somehow become much shorter.

Realizing that more time had passed than he thought, Ansel scanned the doorway with slightly reddened eyes.

But it was only the maid who had come to see him, and Eloise was nowhere to be seen.

“I apologize. I’m a little late because I was nursing her.”

“……Is she alright?”

“Yes. She just fell asleep after drinking hot honey water. The fever has mostly gone down too.”

Ha. Ansel let out a silent sigh.

“Then I’ll serve dinner right away.”

“No.”

The maid stopped abruptly at the immediate answer that came back without a moment’s hesitation.

“I guess I’m not hungry because I’m tired.”

“……”

“So you can go back for today.”

It was something she should have answered yes to since it was an order from the master.

But the maid felt a strange sensation from the master’s appearance, which was different from before.

As if something thick was pooling at his feet……

That was why she stood still, neither answering nor bowing her head, in a way that was inappropriate for her position.

However, curiosity about the master’s affairs is forbidden. Even more so if it is meddling that is out of line.

The moment a drop of thin candle wax fell, the maid bent her waist neatly.

“Yes. Then we will take our leave now.”

Instead of answering, Ansel picked up the report again and nodded his chin in front of the table where only the candlestick was left alone.

His deeply lowered gaze was settled on the ground.

Of course, there was no way for the maid to know that his gaze was continuously lingering on a single sentence.

And so he sat in the dining room without moving.

As still as if he had been a decorative object there from the beginning.

The deepening tranquility of the evening quite clearly conveyed the sound of three servants leaving the mansion one after another.

The sound of the door opening and closing at not very long intervals, even the subtle vibration of the floor.

Finally, it was when the last door closed, the moment the mansion was enveloped in complete silence, that Ansel rose.

He went up the stairs with a few candles burning, walking in the most upright and leisurely manner.

No one would know that this leisureliness of his was a manifestation of untamed excitement and passion.

It was something he himself had only just realized.

The second floor, where a huge curtain-like stillness had descended, was as dark as the deep bottom of the sea.

Ansel stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to the attic, feeling his heart beating fiercely. Then his pulse quickened a little more.

He felt the blood in his veins running wildly. So fiercely that it was truly dizzying.

“Hoo……”

The moment he placed his hand on the railing of the narrow staircase, which was old and crude enough to be called a ladder, a distant sigh burst out involuntarily.

The railing was as cold as the surface of a frozen lake. Yet it was not enough to subdue the heat of that hand.

He felt as if his heart had moved to the palm of his hand.

The more he recalled where this staircase led, to whom, the worse the symptoms became.

Ansel carefully stepped on it. Even if he were to secretly infiltrate enemy territory, he wouldn’t be this stealthy.

His reverent face, but at the same time, eyes flickering with clear desire, seemed to resemble those of a novice entering a sacred sanctuary for the first time.

Finally, when Ansel’s palm and knees touched the floor covered with a thin layer of dust after passing through the narrow passage, he raised his trembling eyes.

The attic, where a faint smell of dust and the scent of rose soap lingered, was quite cool.

Pale moonlight poured in cleverly through the small window in the low ceiling.

Under that light lay Eloise.

A sigh escaped from between his lips at the indescribably noble sight of her peacefully sleeping face, the blanket pulled down to her waist as if she had been uncomfortable.

‘It’s too much to not be a dream……’

Before the thought could continue, Ansel crawled on the floor in a low crouch.

Like a baby who couldn’t take a step, or like a zealous believer.

In a flood of joyous and also fearful emotions that he couldn’t define himself.

Eloise. Ansel, who called her with only the movement of his lips, stretched out his arm.

He was about to touch her forehead like that, but noticing the rough calluses pressed into his palm, he gently turned his hand over. Then he carefully brushed her cheek with only the back of his hand.

Eventually, when his fingertips reached out to her slightly parted lower lip as if enchanted, Eloise’s moaning sound shattered the heavy silence.

“Umm……”

It was a small sound that couldn’t even be called sleep talk.

But with just that small breath, Ansel was engulfed in a tidal wave of impulse.

At that moment, his hand involuntarily gripped the sheet on Eloise’s shoulder. As he leaned over, her angelic and innocent face was covered by his dim shadow.

Ansel truly thought.

There was nothing more fortunate than her not seeing what kind of eyes he had at this moment.

He approached silently and stopped at a distance where his breath could reach.

The lips exhaling a sweet breath were so close that they seemed to overlap at any moment.

But Ansel couldn’t dare to taste Eloise, who was fast asleep, and collapsed limply.

All he did was slide his lips obliquely over her white and soft neck. As if cursing his own reason, he breathed lowly.

“……Ha.”

It was a desperate and ecstatic sensation. Enough to want to lose consciousness like this.

Ansel, who took a deep breath like the last one before jumping into a lake, slowly sat up.

Then, without a single word of command, he lay quietly on his side next to the woman who had brought him to his knees.

Dim moonlight poured down between the two people lying side by side.

It was truly a silent fall.