Abernathy approached Edwin, who was quietly turning the pages of a book. Edwin, not giving a glance, remained unmoved by the commotion of Eveline’s disappearance. The master’s indifference reassured Abernathy.

The servants who had long observed him noticed the recent changes in their master.

The smoothly sailing ship suddenly increased speed into dark clouds without a clear destination. In the face of stormy winds and fierce waves, the sailors trembled only with the fear of ignorance.

Abernathy fervently hoped that the path he was taking would not leave a small blemish on the unblemished Baitness name.

“Your Grace. Miss Eveline has returned home, I’m told.”

Even as he delivered the news of Eveline’s return, his eyes followed the text down the page unhurriedly.

“I see.”

“The tailor from that time was with her, but he only escorted the young lady home and left, they say.”

Edwin showed no sign of nodding or acknowledging. Just as the servant was wondering about the master’s reaction, Edwin gave a short nod.

“And the gatekeeper, Jefferson, has decided to pack his things and leave the mansion starting tomorrow.”

Eveline, who was thought to have disappeared, returned safely. However, the kind-hearted gatekeeper lost his job because of this unremarkable incident.

The face of Jefferson, pleading desperately, rose to the forefront of consciousness.

He begged, clinging to trouser legs, asking to consider his position as the breadwinner who had to send money home, separated from his family after moving from Perington to Rodinia.

“You handled it well.”

The face of the happy middle-aged man who used to smile with half-moon eyes every time he passed through the entrance was now blackened like a corpse, shedding tears. Jefferson’s pitiful and heartbreaking face sank back down in consciousness. Abernathy left the room without relaying the gatekeeper’s detailed circumstances.

Then the desired silence came to Edwin. He closed the book with his index finger between the pages and opened his pocket watch to check the time.

He was curious about the expression of Eveline, who would walk here on her own without being told. He hadn’t promised, but he was certain. That Vivian Eveline would come here, to where he was, as soon as she arrived.

And his predictions were never wrong.

Vivian, who came, was holding back tears with a light blue gift box in her arms. As she stood crying in front of the door, he gestured with his chin for her to come in, and she obediently entered the room.

Vivian, who had been hesitating, sat down and placed the gift box on her lap. Edwin looked at the mysterious gift box.

“What’s this?”

When he pointed to the gift box on her lap, her sorrowful eyes lowered to the box.

“… I sold embroidery today and used that money to buy Miss Windler’s feathered hat and Sophie’s corsage.”

“If I remember correctly, you said you were going to sell embroidery to pay off your debt.”

He tried to add a bit of playfulness, but Vivian misinterpreted the meaning and took it as a rebuke or mockery, lowering her head deeper.

Edwin silently examined Vivian’s appearance. The shabby dress, golden hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead, and the sweaty, glistening nape of her neck. It was a look that blended well with the early arrived heat.

“Your Grace…”

The call, as if sobbing, made him look at the ashen eyes glistening with moisture.

Somehow, it seemed like the first time. Enough to shake the other person, with a touch of aegyo, but not enough to be burdensome. Perhaps next would come a desperate plea.

“… It’s all my fault. If someone has to be punished, I’ll take that punishment.”

Edwin, who had guessed correctly, smiled with pleasure. He knew Eveline would disappear but return. As long as she knew what he held, Eveline wouldn’t hastily flee to avoid death.

But why did he go out of his way to cause trouble? Why did he provoke the gatekeeper to cling to Eveline by firing him?

The reason was simple. Then Eveline would come to me. She would desperately cling to me, trying to save the gatekeeper somehow.

Thinking about how he had created someone’s crisis just to see that made him laugh with self-deprecation.

“Punishment? What punishment.”

“I sneaked out without Mr. Jefferson knowing. Mr. Jefferson… he did nothing wrong, Your Grace.”

If one had to pick the moment when the unsightly Vivian Eveline was most beautiful, it would be when she trembled, unable to sit still with guilt, rather than her mermaid-like appearance swimming in the lake late at night.

It wasn’t bad when she confronted him with her ashen eyes blazing, but yes, the pleading look suited her a bit better.

So it was satisfying, but on the other hand, sacrifice for others was utterly boring.

“Mr. Jefferson… has a family in the capital, he says. His youngest child is 4 years old. He came to Rodinia following you, Your Grace, and ended up living far from his family, but I can’t make him lose his job because of me. So please hold me accountable for the wrongdoing. Please withdraw Mr. Jefferson’s dismissal, Your Grace.”

“Well. Why should I do that?”

Until she could see the mansion’s entrance from atop Theo’s horse, her heart felt light, having cut out a handful of burden and worry. Until she sent Theo back and before Mr. Jefferson pleaded with her.

Seeing Mr. Jefferson wailing, begging her to change the Duke’s mind, saying he had only dozed off for a moment, too incomprehensible through his cries, she finally realized what consequences her actions had brought.

“… Please punish me. It’s all my fault. I was the problem. Mr. Jefferson is innocent.”

Vivian pulled her hips tight. Her earnest gestures and expressions, her pleading tone, became tiresome. He stood up from his seat, with a mix of criticism for himself from just a few hours ago who had gone out of his way to do this troublesome thing.

“I despise incompetent people the most. So this dismissal has nothing to do with Miss Eveline. Now, you may go.”

Edwin drew a firm line, confirming Mr. Jefferson’s dismissal. Vivian couldn’t let him leave like this, causing an innocent person’s despair.

“Your Grace! Please.”

Vivian, who had become urgent, jumped up and grabbed Edwin’s wrist, clinging to him. The sleeve of his jacket and shirt wrinkled at her small touch, and Edwin, who had stopped walking, turned to look at the clinging Vivian.

“I, I will beg like this. I’ll plead. I can’t let someone else lose their job because of me. I won’t sneak out again, so please forgive me just this once. I really won’t do it again. Okay?”

Vivian’s eyes were about to burst into tears, with heat boiling up around them. In contrast, his ice-blue eyes shone even colder.

“What should I do? I’ll do anything, really anything. So just this once…”

Edwin’s icy gaze moved down to the wrist that was held.

Fearing he might shake her off, she gripped so tightly that her fingertips turned white, but as the silence lengthened, she saw with her own eyes that hope was slipping away. As she unconsciously shook the wrist she had grabbed to check his consciousness, that’s when it happened.

Before she could recognize the huge shadow looming over her head, Vivian’s body was pulled.

In the blink of an eye, they were close enough to touch. Reflexively, she tried to let go of his hand and create distance, but on the contrary, her wrist was bound and she found herself unable to move.

What mixed in with the fear was the man’s stimulating and thick scent. It was the unfamiliar and difficult male scent that had engulfed all her senses whenever her skirt was grabbed.

Unlike how she had used all her strength not to lose him, he established the position of oppressor with minimal force. No matter how she twisted her body, she couldn’t find even a small clue to escape.

“Your Grace…”

“You said you could do anything?”

Large ashen eyes, filled with fear, shook greatly. His gaze moved down, past her cheeks reminiscent of a fully bloomed rose, following her neckline and the path of the sweat droplets.

The sweat droplets pooled in her deep collarbone. Edwin’s eyes went a little lower, to the neckline of the worn dress.

He had seen the inside of the dirty, stained dress countless times and felt no excitement. The white body, as beautiful as her face, was like seeing a legendary woman from a painting.

For Edwin, Vivian was just that far. Just as one doesn’t get excited looking at applied paint, she had no effect on him.

However, the concentrated smell of flesh was a bit different.

He wanted to find the source of this sweet scent. Somewhere in this stained dress, somewhere on that body he had seen every night, was the source of the flower scent permeating the air.

“Tell me. How far can you go?”

Edwin’s other hand slowly rubbed along her jawline, like the second hand of a clock. The flowing finger passed her jaw and traced a thin line, reaching her long neck.

Edwin’s breath ruffled Vivian’s hair. Unable to even swallow, she was robbed of everything by the man’s scent enveloping her surroundings and the sensation of his descending finger. His finger didn’t stop even when it reached her collarbone.

What briefly brought her to her senses was the nightmare from not long ago. The nightmare where she was shot by Edwin, picked up the gold coins he had kicked, and had her chest grabbed.

Vivian, unable to even make a sound, grabbed the hand that was tracing her skin. At the same time, her lungs expanded greatly. The man’s warmth was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm.

Unable to look into Edwin’s eyes, Vivian looked down at the hand she had grabbed. Long, white, slender fingers were extended. Thick blue veins ran over the transparent skin.

It was the first time she had seen a man’s hand so closely.

The prejudice that all men’s hands would be similar to her father’s rough ones was shattered. The fairly delicate yet firm-lined hand in Vivian’s turned over and dug between her fingers.

Startled, she tried to pull her hand away, but the strong force had already grasped Vivian. When he roughly pulled the held hand, their bodies, which were already close, stuck together with no need to gauge the distance. With one hand clasped between their bodies, Vivian was trapped in Edwin’s embrace.

“I asked you.”

Their breaths intertwined. Breath filled with distant heat filled the narrow space.

“How far.”

Vivian squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips together. A suffocating silence fell.

“Can you go?”

The lukewarm warmth that had enveloped her hand had now become hot, with humid heat fully permeating between their two hands.

Her difficult breathing became easier due to the fresh air that rushed in all at once. Then, as her hand that had taken on his heat gained freedom, she carefully lifted her trembling eyelids.

Nothing had happened, nothing had occurred, but she felt a mess. The moment she met those cold blue eyes, everything she had imagined felt like reality.

“You won’t be able to answer. You. Why?”

“…”

“Because there’s nothing you can do. Therefore.”

Vivian looked down at her own chest, fumbling with her hand. Nothing had happened. Nothing had occurred.

But why?

Everything was well in place, but she felt so ashamed as if she were standing naked that she wanted to hide in a mouse hole if there was one.

“I won’t reverse the gatekeeper’s dismissal.”

The reason she couldn’t persuade the firm Edwin further was partly because his face full of fatigue dampened her enthusiasm, and partly because she wanted to quickly escape this embarrassing and shameful feeling.

***

Morning dawned, but Vivian, who hadn’t slept properly, raised her body in a half-dazed state. Sophie, who was opening the curtains, came over with quick steps and stroked Vivian’s drooping hair.

“Oh my, young lady. Your hair isn’t wet today.”

Ever since she started visiting the lake every day, there was no way to dry her wet hair stiff. When she made excuses to Sophie that it must be because she sweated all night while sleeping, Sophie wore a worried face every morning. Seeing her brighten up after a long time, Vivian returned a tired smile.

“… That’s right.”

Last night, as always, she visited the lake. However, she ended the long day by sitting on the dock with only her feet in the water, looking up at the black sky.

In the end, she couldn’t persuade Edwin. Her powerless hands that couldn’t protect anything proved her incompetence. Vivian Eveline, who couldn’t eat or breathe without someone’s help.

Facing this unavoidable fact made her heart inconsolably gloomy.

Yet, unable to just watch Mr. Jefferson’s dismissal, she busily prepared to go meet Edwin. In the midst of this, another servant visited, and upon hearing some news, Sophie jumped with joy.

“Young lady! His Grace has withdrawn the issue of Mr. Jefferson’s dismissal! Mr. Jefferson can work as usual!”

At this unexpected news, Vivian also covered her mouth and jumped.

“What? Really?”

“Yes! Of course!”

After the harsh joy and sigh of relief passed, her legs gave out and she slumped to the floor. Sophie, who cried out “Young lady!”, was startled and supported Vivian from the side.

“Really… Is it true that His Grace withdrew Mr. Jefferson’s dismissal? Can Mr. Jefferson continue to stay at the mansion?”

The tears filling her eyes represented Vivian’s guilt. That gentle heart also mercilessly shook Sophie’s heart, so she couldn’t help but shed tears too. Sophie nodded her head vigorously while holding back her tears.

Vivian exhaled a shaky breath once more. She recalled the past night when she couldn’t sleep, haunted by Mr. Jefferson’s face and his youngest son whom she had never seen.

“I should go see Mr. Jefferson. To apologize for yesterday’s incident and to see his face.”

“Ah, right. And there was also a message from His Grace.”

What came after the relief that made her legs weak was air hot enough to make her throat sore. Her body froze, but her eyelids blinked fervently.

“… His Grace? What?”

Vivian slowly pressed her lips together. She awkwardly rubbed her pressed lips and swallowed dry saliva. Another shadow was waiting behind the clear morning news.

“He says to come out to the back garden in time for fencing practice.”