“It was merely a whim.”

“A whim.”

She could have chosen any number of other colors, yet she deliberately went back to her natural shade. That was so typical of her.

He asked gently.

“It feels as though there is another reason.”

“Must there be one?”

“……”

“……”

“…It suits you.”

“Yes.”

That obedient reply brought the conversation to an abrupt end.

Aiden, who had been about to speak again, fell silent. After studying her pale face for a long moment, he slowly raised his wineglass.

Seeing her in profile, beautiful yet weighed down by exhaustion, made his throat ache.

Her hair, which had once shimmered with the warmth of a sunset, now had the depth of midnight.

His heart had only just begun to burn like the golden sun at its peak, but hers had already set, consumed by darkness.

The realization was merciless.

He tilted the glass back and drained it in one gulp.

When the meal ended in heavy silence, Aiden rose to his feet and said,

“I will send for the maid you requested.”

“……”

“Pailin will be waiting outside, but he will not eavesdrop on your conversation.”

The faint stiffness in his expression instantly made the atmosphere tense.

Without saying a word, Sveta retreated and hid behind the bed curtains.

She knew he might get angry, but she wanted to get away — if only temporarily.

She hated those cold eyes that had watched her die.

She hated being looked at by him.

“Sveta.”

“……”

Curled beneath the covers, she bit her lip tightly.

After a stretch of silence, he finally left the chamber.

***

A wrinkled hand gently caressed the ankle exposed beneath her nightdress.

“I once broke my ankle as well.”

Glancing briefly towards the door, Lady Nora lowered her voice to a whisper.

True to his word, the Duke had sent her to the bedchamber. But could they be sure that nobody was listening?

With her heart beating fast with unease, Sveta leaned into the older woman’s embrace.

Unlike Aiden’s arms, which were hot and firm, Lady Nora’s were soft and gently warm. There was no fierce heartbeat thundering in her ear. This quiet absence felt strangely foreign.

Forcing herself to push aside the familiarity her body still remembered, Sveta finally spoke.

“You did?”

“My late husband used to beat me over the slightest thing and threaten me with our child. After our child died, he became even more violent. When I begged him to let me leave, he broke my ankle.”

“I had no idea… You’re always smiling. I never imagined you had endured something like that.”

With her usual gentle smile, Lady Nora answered softly.

“Perhaps that is why I was worried about you from the very beginning and came to care for you even more. You may not like hearing this, but I saw myself in you. The way you persevered, even when you were being mistreated…”

“Unpleasant? No, not at all.”

The warm hand that had been stroking her ankle moved cautiously to rest over Sveta’s abdomen.

“My lady… are you all right?”

“With what?”

“The baby.”

“……”

“Our poor lady…”

As Sveta’s fragile body burrowed awkwardly into her arms once more, Lady Nora held her tightly.

It broke her heart to see how difficult it was for Sveta to lean on someone, even a maid. Was it really so difficult for her to seek comfort?

In a voice so faint it was barely audible, the child in her arms began to speak.

The child was gone.

The blade that had pierced her stomach had taken the baby’s life.

She had nothing left now.

And then she wept, her sobs shattering the quiet.

‘Our poor lady.’

She wept freely now. How had she endured all this time in silence?

Suddenly, the memory of the afternoon she first met Lady Nora appeared before her eyes like a wavering springtime mirage.

***

“I’ll do it myself. I’m good at laundry.”

The young lady entered the laundry room timidly, holding a faded lemon-colored dress tightly against her chest.

“That’s the beggar they brought in as an adopted daughter.”

“……”

A laundry maid whispered as she put down a large basin.

Lady Nora took a step back, distancing herself. The rumors were intriguing, but she had no desire to become embroiled in them.

She served Lady Luce at close quarters. It was better to keep her distance from that troublesome adopted girl.

Feigning indifference, Lady Nora lifted one of Lady Luce’s freshly dried gowns.

Hundreds of beads sewn into its hem sparkled brilliantly in the light.

“Look at that.”

Unaware of Lady Nora’s attempts to concentrate on her work, the laundry maid carried on chatting away.

“Did you see that dress—the one the twenty-year-old kitchen assistant was wearing? She used to wear it herself, and now she holds it as if it were something precious.”

In truth, that dress was part of Lady Luce’s so-called ‘special instruction’.

The excuse was that she was not allowed to wear ladies’ attire until she had mastered proper etiquette.

This sounded reasonable on the surface, but Lady Nora knew better. It was nothing more than petty humiliation, thinly veiled and driven by spite.

“Look at the sleeves and the hem. They’re practically in rags.”

“If it bothers you that much, why not mend it?”

Lady Nora muttered. The laundry maid hesitated, then whispered timidly,

“And if I get caught? I’ll be the one punished.”

Tsk.

Lady Nora clicked her tongue softly, finding her gaze drifting almost spellbound towards the Baron’s adopted daughter, who was carefully working the fabric in her hands.

Every so often, the girl lifted the soap to her nose, her clear eyes sparkling with delight.

‘What on earth could she possibly find to be happy about?’

She smiled with the innocence of a child who had never encountered the world’s cruelty. Yet she carried herself with the careful restraint of someone who had endured hardship for a long time.

Perhaps it was this contrast that made her impossible to ignore.

Even while smoothing the creases from Lady Luce’s gown, Lady Nora’s gaze kept drifting back to the young lady.

When she had finished, a quiet look of satisfaction crossed her face, and she left the laundry room with a slight limp.

“Looks like she got her leg kicked again today.”

“…And I think her cheek was swollen too.”

The memory of that innocent smile spreading across a flushed cheek left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Why did that tattered old dress seem so pitiful?

Holding onto Lady Luce’s immaculate, luxurious gown, Lady Nora muttered without thinking:

“The baron is too much. He buys Lady Luce gowns this expensive every day, yet he’s so stingy with his adopted daughter.”

“Shh. If you don’t want to be thrown out, don’t speak ill of the baron. Someone might hear.”

Startled by the sharp reprimand, Lady Nora nodded quickly.

Yes, it was better to pretend that she knew nothing.

After all, she was just a maid. She, too, had been hit by Lady Luce before.

Among the servants, Lady Luce’s violent temper was an open secret. She would hit a maid at the slightest provocation.

Compared to that, the beating of the adopted daughter felt almost inevitable.

“That mole in your eye! I can’t stand it!”

Lady Luce once grabbed the girl by the hair and said that she hated the small beauty mark next to her eye.

And that was not all. She also slapped her for lingering near the stables and accused her of tarnishing the family’s dignity.

These accusations were absurd.

Yet the young lady neither protested nor wept.

She endured it as though she had been born without tear ducts.

Lady Nora thought that she simply did not know how to cry.

And so now, as the young lady trembled in her arms, tears falling one by one, Lady Nora could not begin to fathom the depth of her grief.

“Our poor lady…”

“You’re just like a mother to me. If only I’d had one.”

“There is no child in this world without a mother. You must have had one. And she must have loved you dearly.”

“Do you think so? Do you think she was sad when she left me?”

Like a child seeking comfort, she clung tighter.

‘Am I indulging her too much?’

The thought rose immediately in Lady Nora’s mind, but the warmth of her own voice swept the doubt away.

“Left you? No. There must have been circumstances. You are a precious child.”

“But you know, I was a beggar…”

“To me, you are as precious as a princess.”

“……”

Her throat burned as though she had swallowed fire.

Something that had been frozen inside her for a long time started to thaw and rise slowly until it gathered at the corners of her eyes.

Perhaps this was what she had wanted to hear all along.

Not that she — a slave, a mere beggar — had been taken in out of pity. But simply that she was precious.

She had longed for those words with such desperation.

She would have died for Beth.

She had endured her stepmother’s cruelty.

She had even begged for affection from the man who had once tried to kill her.

In the end, it had all been for this: to be precious to someone, even if only for a moment.

The fire that had seemed ready to consume her now burned away her sorrow, reducing her pain to ash.

Strangely, the empty feeling in her heart began to fade.

The tears that slipped down her cheeks now had a different meaning.

“Cry as much as you need to. Some pain only eases when it is wept out.”

After sobbing for a long time, Sveta wiped her tears away with her damp sleeve.

A gentle hand stroked the tip of her reddened nose.

Once the storm of tears had finally subsided, a question suddenly surfaced in her mind.

“…But, Madam.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“How did you know I was with child?”

“Do you remember the maid who said she was running errands for Lady Noma?”

“Yes. The one with black hair…”

Beth.

Aiden never allowed anyone to be alone with Sveta except the head maid. She had no way of knowing what had happened to Beth.

She remembered how easily she had escaped the ducal estate that day.

‘If I prepared things that thoroughly, Beth couldn’t have been discovered.’

She tried to steady herself with that thought, yet the unease would not fully fade.

Meeting Sveta’s damp gaze, Lady Nora continued.

“I happened to overhear the laundry maid reporting it to Lady Noma. Lady Luce had left her gloves in Lady Noma’s room, so I went to collect them.”

“……”

Sveta blinked, unable to process it at once.

It sounded almost as though Beth had betrayed her.

‘That can’t be.’

It couldn’t be.

‘You don’t know Beth. You don’t know how she protected me… how she cared for me.’

“No, It’s impossible.”

There had been countless opportunities for her to betray Beth in the past, but she had never taken them.

She had deceived Jace Gould time and again by always siding with Sveta.

There must have been some misunderstanding.

Sveta bit down on her lip.

Fresh tears welled up and slid sharply down her cheek.

“Oh dear, not again…”

Perhaps thinking she wept out of fear that the secret would spread, Lady Nora hurried to reassure her.

“Lady Noma ordered silence. Unless someone’s heart bursts straight from their chest, they would not dare speak of it.”

“……”

“Besides, who would believe a maid’s gossip? So please, don’t worry so much, my lady.”

Lady Nora continued to whisper words of comfort.

But Sveta could not understand any of them.