“What is being done to you, Elaine.”

It was clearly a worried tone. Clearly words meant for my sake, and yet in that moment I was frightened. Camille was pulling out in one swift motion something I had never wanted anyone to see, and that frightened me.

“That’s……”

I trailed off and fixed my gaze on his elaborate cravat. My ears were burning.

“That is to say, that’s……”

Unable to say anything more, I dropped my head.

“I’m not trying to interrogate you about the nature of your relationship, Elaine.”

Camille called my name again, his brow furrowed.

“It’s just that you…… you look like you’re in so much pain.”

The fingers stroking my bruises were trembling. I found the man’s careful handling of me, as though I were something precious, deeply unfamiliar. On top of that, the Camille Dynyak I knew had always been someone who was not rude in touching women, but not particularly restrained either.

For someone like him to be willing to get angry on my behalf……

My mind drifted back to the hotel garden where we had met. Did this man truly care for me, or was he simply acting on chivalry because what Rubenstein had done to me had gone too far.

Perhaps both.

Was I losing my mind. No, this was all Rubenstein’s fault. That awful man, making it impossible for me to even trust my own judgment.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then shook my head firmly.

“Elaine.”

“I’m fine.”

I pulled my hand free from his and looked at him directly. I wanted to appear as reliable and composed as possible, but I already knew that was a lost cause. Even so, I straightened my back a little more. A petty show of pride to protect a worthless dignity.

But without doing this, I couldn’t deflect Camille’s psychological questioning. Of course I knew his concern came from goodwill, but I still wanted to draw a line against his persistent probing.

“What happened.”

Camille asked again.

Look at this. Camille was asking precisely the questions I couldn’t answer. He had always been like this. He appeared when I was in a difficult situation and, with strange directness, put his finger on exactly what I was feeling.

“Are you all right?”

Part of me wanted to pour everything out to him the entire way to the site.

But right now…… right now, this contract was something I couldn’t speak of. Nor the many confusing and strange things that had happened between me and Rubenstein.

“…… No. But I cannot tell you the details.”

“Elaine.”

“So please understand that I cannot, Count.”

I shook my head at him firmly. And this next part…… I hadn’t wanted to say it. I drew in a deep breath and looked at Camille Dynyak directly.

“For now, this is…… a matter between hu…… between husband and wife.”

I said it plainly and looked at the man’s face when it happened.

“Oh……!”

I had thought I had drawn a clear line. But Camille Dynyak had no intention of stopping. He reached for my hand again.

“Elaine.”

“……!”

My hand was taken, and his other hand came to my neck.

Even as I drew in a sharp, startled breath, Camille paid no mind. His eyes were serious and still. He slowly, gently rubbed the side of my neck. A faint trace of powder came away on the tip of his glove, and a small crease formed between his brows.

“I know what he did to you.”

“…… You, you know.”

I hadn’t expected him to say it so openly. I had only hoped he would pretend not to know. I stumbled badly over my words in my flustered state. That was when it happened.

“Elaine. Oh. You poor……”

What was happening right now. My eyes went wide.

He pressed his lips to my wrist.

Camille buried his lips in the inside of my wrist with a pained expression.

At the soft, gentle touch of lips pressing down, I could only blink without a word. The kisses that had begun near the inside of my elbow moved carefully down toward my wrist. Then he drew in a deep breath, as though trying to breathe in the scent.

It was a kiss so reverent it was hard to breathe.

In the moment he pressed his lips to both my wrists, I couldn’t look away from Camille’s face.

His eyes were filled with sorrow. I was deeply unsettled to find this intense and aching emotion directed at me. I had never thought I had shared enough of a bond with him to receive a kiss like this.

He lifted his lips from my wrist after quite a long moment and looked at me.

“There are feelings I have not spoken. I dare not confess them, but.”

Camille kept his brows drawn together and slowly examined my wrist where he had just kissed. He stroked it gently with his thumb, then let out a long sigh and slowly raised his head.

The flame that had been flickering before was gone somewhere. What remained was a man gathering his emotions back up, doing his best to appear composed.

I looked at him with a startled expression.

The emotions he was suddenly revealing were unfamiliar to me.

“…… Count Dynyak.”

Camille exhaled a long breath at my call. To me, that sigh sounded like the discomfort of someone caught.

Camille spoke.

“…… I thought I had hidden it well, but in this moment, it seems I cannot.”

“…… Count. Don’t tell me.”

I was still fumbling in bewilderment at the feeling suddenly laid bare when Camille, back to his usual smooth composure, continued without acknowledging my words.

“I will pretend not to know, as you wish. Because you asked it of me. There should be at least one person here who respects your wishes.”

Camille looked at my wrist again as he continued.

“…… I know how much you love this North. I know that the reason you stayed here, through all that hardship, was your love for this place. I know you want to see this business through to the end with your own hands. I will respect that as well.”

“……”

“But one thing only.”

Camille looked at me and continued without blinking.

“If you are in danger, all of that respect ends.”

“Count.”

“I have already said it. At that time I was of course waiting for you to come to me. But now.”

Camille’s eyes burned with resolve.

“I will knock you unconscious and carry you out of here if I have to.”

“Count.”

“If you’re thinking you’ll endure as long as you can, you don’t have to. Elaine. I will dare to save you.”

“Count.”

“I never want to see the duke again, standing proudly beside you at that banquet as though you are there of your own free will. Trapping you by using your circumstances against you. I think it was a deeply cowardly thing to do.”

The moment Camille looked directly at me as he spoke, I trembled faintly. Not from cold or anything so simple. I felt strangely embarrassed, ashamed. It was embarrassing that he had roughly guessed the truth, but the deeper reason was……

It was because I liked the way he had described me as being kept at his side. Something must have gone seriously wrong with me.

In any case, it seemed that was why Camille had been watching me with that dark expression at the banquet. I was grateful. But even so…… I let out a long sigh and smiled at Camille.

“…… Thank you, but you don’t need to save me. I…… I will save myself.”

I tried to smile, but what I managed was barely something close to one. I pulled my hand free from Camille’s grip.

“It will be resolved soon.”

“I’m not saying I’ll devour you on the spot, so please don’t shrink away like that. They’re injuries.”

“No, they’re not. And…… and these marks……”

I wanted to say that Rubenstein wasn’t handling me roughly, but the words caught on the tip of my tongue and wouldn’t come out. The image of Camille’s expression as he pressed his lips to the inside of my wrist came back vividly. What was all this. Had Rubenstein’s suspicions been right? Since when? Why?

“…… They’ll heal.”

But I couldn’t pry into it. In the end, I had no choice but to whisper this, eyes wide with bewilderment.