“Do you remember the gentleman who was here earlier? It was his first time visiting the salon, and he was certainly no ordinary person. You could just tell by looking at him. His appearance and clothes were both impeccable. He only said what was necessary. I think he might know the Regner family.”

Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Joanna took a sip of her tea.

Winter was left speechless by the conversation, so she remained silent.

“He came looking for something specific from the beginning. He said he’d seen a painting the Regner family had recently bought.”

Winter, who had been quietly nodding along, suddenly froze.

Her fingers tightened around her teacup.

It was the casual mention of the painting the Regner family had purchased that caught her off guard.

Completely absorbed in her afternoon tea, Joanna continued.

“He asked if we had any more paintings by the same artist. I guess it really left an impression on him. You know the one Gabriel picked? The landscape with the lighthouse. So I brought him straight upstairs.”

Still holding her teacup, Winter’s gaze drifted toward the exhibition gallery.

‘…He came here because of that painting?’

The painting hanging before her now was much the same.

Like the one Gabriel had purchased, it wasn’t known for vivid colors or dramatic brushwork.

Winter couldn’t imagine what Eden had seen in such a quiet landscape.

“I wonder if he’ll come back. If Mrs. Roche had been here, she might’ve recognized who he was.”

Joanna tilted her head curiously.

Winter couldn’t bring herself to respond.

After sending Eden away so coldly…

The proper thing to do was to act as if nothing had happened.

And yet…

She couldn’t forget the look on his face.

The expression of a man who seemed utterly shattered by seeing her alive.

She tried to smile as though everything were normal.

But even the corners of her lips refused to cooperate.

The teacup remained untouched in her hands.

She finally managed to take a small sip.

By then, the tea had already gone cold.

***

“Winter is here.”

The words slipped from Eden’s lips like a quiet confession.

Parker questioned whether he had heard correctly.

Unable to speak, he could only dart his eyes around in silence.

He was certain he hadn’t misheard.

‘Winter?’

A chill ran down his spine, and he swallowed hard.

‘Surely…’

He didn’t want to believe that the duke’s mental state had deteriorated so severely.

Even though he had been suffering from insomnia and had been diagnosed with severe nervous exhaustion by a physician.

Seeing things that weren’t there was another matter entirely.

“…Your Grace, if I may…”

For once, Parker hesitated before speaking.

As soon as Robert returned from running an errand, he knew he had to talk to him.

Keeping his expression neutral, Parker glanced at the bottles of spirits on the side table.

Just a week ago, they had been filled almost to the brim with strong spirits.

Now, more than half of them were almost empty.

He desperately wanted to believe that the Duke had simply finished another bottle.

But if he had seen such an illusion while completely sober…

That would be far more serious.

“Have you eaten today, Your Grace?”

Although his voice remained respectful, the underlying concern was unmistakable.

Parker had watched the Duke battle overwhelming guilt and despair for the past year.

However, this was the first time Parker had ever heard him express such feelings.

“Winter is here.”

Neatly pushing the bottles back into place, Parker muttered under his breath,

“I sincerely wish Your Grace would stop drinking hard liquor on an empty stomach. My heart isn’t nearly as strong as it looks.”

The shock was so great that it felt as though his heart had skipped a beat.

Pressing a hand against his chest, he let out a quiet sigh.

He was usually reserved in the Duke’s presence.

But, truth be told, he was far more expressive than most people realized.

Serving a master who had been so emotionally unstable over the past year had forced him to suppress that side of his personality.

Still, at completely unexpected moments like this…

His true nature slipped through.

The weary sigh that escaped him was an honest expression of his feelings.

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, he silently prayed that the duke would regain his composure.

Standing by the open window, letting the cold sea breeze pour into the room, Eden spoke again.

Clearly.

Deliberately.

“Winter is here.”

“In Santero.”

Parker stared at the man in front of him, holding his breath.

The eyes that had been clouded by profound emptiness for so long were now clearer.

They were stronger than he had seen them in a long time.

“She was alive.”

“…”

“Winter… whom I believed was dead.”

There wasn’t the slightest hint of confusion.

Not even the slightest hint of uncertainty.

Just to be certain, Parker glanced around the room once more, discreetly.

The table next to Eden was spotless.

There were no empty bottles.

No abandoned glasses.

Standing there in stunned silence, Parker’s lips twisted into an awkward smile.

Only then did he realize that something extraordinary had happened during the Duke’s outing that day.

As noon approached, Eden left the villa with only the driver, saying that he was going to look at some paintings.

Even after he returned, he sat in silence for a long time.

Then, without warning, he spoke.

“Winter is here.”

A faint crease formed between Parker’s brows as he asked carefully,

“Your Grace… would you tell me exactly what happened?”

The sharp eyes that had been fixed on the view outside slowly turned toward Parker.

From the moment he left the salon, the emotions surging inside him had become impossible to contain.

Relief.

Joy.

Regret.

Longing.

They all collided within him like a relentless storm.

“It was at Roche Salon. At first… even I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

His voice was calm.

Yet beneath it lay an intensity that was impossible to measure.

Like a man who had finally reached out from the depths of utter despair and pulled himself back to the surface.

Winter had breathed.

She had spoken.

That single truth overturned the endless abyss into which he had fallen.

“Parker… can you believe it? I missed her so much… And yet, when I finally stood before her… I couldn’t do a single thing.”

“…”

“She stepped away from me as though I were just another customer… and I couldn’t even stop her.”

Judging by the facts alone, the encounter had achieved nothing.

Eden continued to speak as though he were talking to himself, then let out a quiet laugh.

For now, he couldn’t stop her.

He still didn’t know what had happened while they had been apart.

But none of that mattered.

Winter was alive.

At that moment…

That one fact alone was enough.

It was as though color had returned to the world itself, and Eden could feel his long-forgotten senses slowly awakening.

Parker watched him in silence.

It was a smile born of profound relief.

Yet the emotions hidden within it were too deep to grasp.

It was the smile of a man who had just escaped a bottomless pit — a smile that had emerged in response to a reality too miraculous to be believed.

One that words alone could never explain.

Parker couldn’t fully understand it.

But he knew one thing for certain.

Every emotion Eden carried had been condensed into that single smile.

After a moment’s hesitation, Parker finally spoke.

“I’ll verify it.”

No order had been given.

Even so, Parker knew exactly what he needed to do first.

Seeing that his secretary had understood the situation, Eden said nothing more.

He added only one thing.

“Don’t make unnecessary contact. Keep everything as discreet as possible. Above all, don’t make Winter uncomfortable.”

It had been a year since the train accident.

Eden assumed that Winter had probably started her new life in Santero by that point.

If he had followed his heart, he would have gone to her immediately.

He wanted to hear everything from her own lips.

What had happened over the past year?

How had she survived?

How had she been living here?

And the child…

Judging by how much time has passed, the baby should have been born by now.

But after such a devastating accident…

He couldn’t bring himself to make any assumptions.

Even so, he no longer had the right to ask Winter about any of it.

Question after question crowded his mind, and Eden pressed his lips tightly together.

For now, he didn’t want to be led by assumptions or speculation.

He had found Winter again.

That alone was enough to be grateful for.

Everything else could come later.

***

News of Eden Mayer’s extended stay gradually spread throughout Santero’s noble society.

The young duke from Vartz soon became the talk of the town, particularly among the ladies who frequented the Roche salon.

“Speaking of Duke Mayer, how long is he planning to stay here?”

“From what I’ve heard, it doesn’t seem to be a short visit. Even if he isn’t staying in Santero the whole time, I imagine he’ll be coming back often until the steel mill is completed.”

“That would make sense. He arrived so quietly that I had absolutely no idea he was here.”

Even after the ladies finally finished exchanging every bit of gossip and left the salon, interest in the Duke showed no signs of fading.

“I knew there was something unusual about that gentleman the moment he walked through the front door that day.”

At Joanna’s remark, the employees who hadn’t been at the salon that day immediately looked up.

“So it really was the Duke?”

“And he just showed up without sending word ahead?”

“Exactly. Nobles usually arrange a visit in advance.”

“Oh, who cares about that?” another employee interrupted. “Tell us what he was actually like! I’ve only ever seen those blurry newspaper photographs. If I met him in person, I don’t think I’d even recognize him.”

As questions came pouring in, Joanna took a generous bite of her soft bread before setting down her fork.