Saul took a step forward, naturally lifting Catherine’s collapsed upper body. Startled by the sudden movement, Catherine grabbed Saul’s shoulders while he once again released his hands.

With a gasp, Catherine instinctively tensed her arms to prevent collapse. Simultaneously, his foot wavered as the heel of his shoe caught on the bookshelf edge. His entire body tensed with effort to keep from falling.

Saul gripped Catherine’s shoulders—which had collapsed against him nearly burying her forehead in his shoulder—and pushed her upward. Then he kissed her lips as she raised her head.

Without warning, he surged upward abruptly, pushing Catherine up. Her fingertips dug into Saul’s shoulders like a rake fiercely scraping sand.

Catherine herself couldn’t tell whether she was pushing him away in surprise or holding on to avoid falling.

She felt overwhelmed, unable to think of anything else. Hands parted her disheveled, flowing hair and moved up her nape. After pushing down on her chin, she felt him take another half step forward.

Occasionally through misaligned gaps, she heard the sound of breath escaping. The sound of wet entanglement reached her ears.

Mmm…The sound that couldn’t fully escape was mercilessly crushed while his tongue pressed down on hers. At times, she couldn’t feel even that.

In fleeting moments when her strength gave way and her body threatened to collapse, Catherine barely regained her senses. But then she would helplessly be swept away again as he grabbed her waist, placed her in that narrow gap, and pressed forward.

“Saul, please. Just a moment.”

Even this barely whispered plea was useless. Seemingly determined to devour even these words, Saul never stopped. It was a terrible greed that seemed impossible from someone so withered.

Catherine gasped for breath. When Saul’s hand finally gripped her thigh over her skirt, she startled back to her senses.

“Saul, wait…”

But once again, Saul released his hold, causing her words to scatter before they could be completed.

Only after Saul caught Catherine again and perched her on the narrow gap did she manage to stop him.

“Wait, just a moment.”

Raising one hand from his shoulder to cover his mouth, Catherine took several deep breaths. Saul watched her with interest, still holding her waist as he looked up at her.

When her breathing finally calmed somewhat, Catherine asked, “You… what on earth.”

Her lips trembled as she spoke. The voice she meant to add faded away. Catherine was confused. Even when she couldn’t see clearly through her daze, she had sensed it—the person before her wasn’t Saul.

No, it was Saul. But it wasn’t Saul… Catherine bit her quivering lip. Who on earth was he?

“Who else would I be?”

The sinister presence whispered, seemingly aware of Catherine’s doubt. The face with its slightly pulled smile seemed somehow familiar. Catherine unconsciously touched his face.

Her hand examined the unwasted cheek and healthy complexion, carefully tracing the straight forehead, prominent brow bone, thick eyebrows above it, and straight nose bridge. Catherine’s gaze wavered. She couldn’t believe it…

And she simply couldn’t tear her gaze from that face. This must be how he would have looked. If Saul had been healthy. If he hadn’t been dying, if he had recovered his health, he would have had such a face. He would have had this beautiful countenance—not pale, not emaciated.

“Saul…”

“Correct.”

In response to her dazed whisper, Saul smiled with satisfaction and lightly kissed Catherine’s lips. Through the disheveled black hair that had fallen forward, red eyes gleamed.

Catherine could neither smile back nor nod. He seemed like Saul. But he wasn’t Saul. Yet simultaneously, he was Saul. She couldn’t tell which was right.

“Catherine, my Cathy. What are you hesitating for?”

Saul asked. His question, accompanied by his hand kneading her waist, wrapped quietly around her ears. Catherine blushed, then closed her eyes at his continued whisper.

“Remember, Catherine. Our promise…”

Strangely, her confused mind seemed to settle peacefully… And that word—promise. It moved Catherine despite her hesitation.

Carefully, she cupped his cheek that was no longer cold or gaunt. She slowly lowered her face, taking in those thin lips and breathing in lightly. Gazing into Saul’s eyes that stared back at her, Catherine was just beginning to smile with narrowed eyes when—

Suddenly, her body fell backward.

Someone was gripping her shoulder and pulling her. The warmth in Catherine’s hands grew distant.

“Saul!”

Startled, Catherine opened her eyes wide. She blinked, gasping for breath. Something shimmering hung above her. It was golden. Through it, she vaguely recognized the familiar ceiling. She was in Saul’s office.

Catherine breathed heavily. Why am I here…? I was resting in my room… Her memories weren’t clear, like a well-assembled puzzle scattered apart.

Catherine unconsciously moved her hand. She felt something catch at her fingertips. A faint rustling sound reached her ears. Then she remembered. Ah, yes. They said a letter had come from the temple…

“Catherine?”

A voice carefully called to her as she retraced her memories. Light slowly returned to her vacant eyes. Catherine blinked. She saw swaying golden hair. A white face, not pale. And beneath it, blue eyes…

Catherine dazedly reached out to touch the man’s face that appeared upside-down above her. The warmth that met her fingertips was pleasant.

The soft cheek with its solid bone structure, the sensation of smoothly sliding along the contours from the cheekbone down under the eye. A face that momentarily showed traces of a healthy Saul… Suddenly her throat tightened.

She felt tears coming and couldn’t bear it. Catherine dropped the hand that had been touching David’s face and covered her eyes to hide their redness.

She quickly turned her tilted head askew, then straightened it. She felt David’s hand leaving her shoulder. Catherine exhaled deeply. Hot breath pooled inside her knuckles. Hearing her own breathing become uneven, Catherine bit her lip.

While Catherine pressed her fingertips against her eyes, trying to steady her irregular breathing, David came around the sofa. Before Catherine could notice his presence and avoid him, David knelt before her.

“Catherine…”

Helplessly, David reached out his hand.

“I’m fine. Please leave me be.”

Despite Catherine’s flustered attempt to push him away, David did not withdraw his hand.

“Look at me.”

David finally made Catherine lower her hands and looked into her face. He saw her slightly flushed face. Though no tears had fallen, it wasn’t her usual cool expression either.

His searching gaze was disconcerting. Those eyes staring at her… Catherine avoided David’s gaze, but his worried look lingered for a long time.

Finally, with a deep sigh that lowered her shoulders, Catherine brought her hand down to cover David’s eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“How am I looking at you?”

“…”

Catherine’s lips parted, then stopped. How was he looking at her…? Catherine’s face contorted. How…?

She bit the inside of her lip, struggling to swallow the unknown emotion rising within her. The clumped air rose to the end of her throat. She swallowed hard, barely managing to force it down.

“Remember, Catherine.”

Catherine closed her eyes. She felt she was slowly going mad. Or perhaps she had truly seen an illusion due to exhaustion. Catherine laughed silently to herself. Whether it was red-eyed Saul or David, either way…

Catherine recalled Saul’s eyes looking at her. She remembered those red eyes that had looked at her with devouring intensity.

That gaze, which she never thought she would see from him, remained intensely in her memory. And David was looking at her exactly that way.

She had known for some time that David’s attitude had subtly changed. It was probably after that implicit silence in front of the chapel.

She had tried not to pay attention to it. But whenever she faced those eyes looking at her so blatantly, Catherine felt perplexed. At times, it truly seemed as though David loved her.

Catherine gazed down at David thoughtfully. At first, she had thought they didn’t resemble each other at all, but as time passed and she learned more about David, she increasingly saw traces of Saul in him.

It was painful to face someone who looked at her with a face that reflected Saul’s features, with eyes so similar to his. But that promise… A child of Cavendish, Cavendish blood. Catherine suddenly felt unbearably anxious.

What if Saul drew his last breath just like this?

Catherine impulsively asked, “Are you still willing to do as you suggested?”

In her hand, she felt David blinking. The sensation of his eyelashes lightly brushing against her palm, rising and falling like a gentle brush stroke, tickled her.

“Do what?”

His lips moved quietly with that question beneath the hand covering his eyes.

Catherine didn’t answer but removed her hand from David’s eyes. Her hand, which had lingered around the corner of his eye, gently caressing it, slid along the contours of his face. It moved downward slowly, seemingly trying to memorize his features.

Finding this ticklish and strangely tense, David unconsciously swallowed. His Adam’s apple moved, the sound of his swallow ringing loudly in his ears.

Catherine watched him quietly, her eyelids lightly falling and rising. While her fingertips traced around David’s jaw, she said, “Kiss me.”

“What?”

Catherine gently lifted David’s chin and leaned down. Surprised by Catherine’s sudden behavior, David’s hand steadied himself on her knee.

“Didn’t you suggest we mix our flesh? You said so.”

Catherine’s whisper reached him distantly.