“Yes. Coming to the party together says as much, doesn’t it? And from what I saw, the two of them seemed to have quite a nice rapport.”

Damon gave a short, dismissive scoff. His expression made it plain he found nothing in Nelson’s words worth agreeing with.

“Are you not aware of who Miss O’Hara has been in love with all this time?”

“…Pardon?”

“There is no way Miss O’Hara has feelings for Young Lord Lovitz. He is not her type at all.”

Damon said it with considerable certainty. And the look he cast toward Nate carried something sharp in it.

‘That’s absurd. Miss O’Hara has feelings for Roderick Lovitz? For a man with nothing going for him but a pale face?’

He scoffed again. The very idea was laughable. Yet watching Nate refuse to so much as glance his way, he felt a strange, gnawing unease settle in.

Nelson spoke up then, sounding genuinely puzzled.

“But Miss O’Hara doesn’t like Young Lord Preston anymore.”

Damon, who was watching Nate and Roderick with an anxiety he had not yet recognized in himself, went still. He turned to look at Nelson with a rigid expression. She failed to notice the chill in his face and continued on pleasantly.

“She liked him for a long time, yes, but she doesn’t anymore, so it’s perfectly possible she might turn her attention to another young lord.”

What is this woman going on about……? Who doesn’t like who? Who is turning their attention to whom? Does she actually think that makes any sense?

Damon looked at Nelson the way one looks at someone who has said something genuinely strange. Under ordinary circumstances he would have maintained every courtesy expected of a nobleman, but right now he seemed to have no room in his head for such things.

At that moment, the piano melody filling the banquet hall shifted. The dancing had begun.

Damon thought that once Nate saw him dancing with another woman, she would finally come to her senses about her own feelings. That a fierce wave of jealousy would crash over her and she would be forced to admit she could not erase him from her heart. He extended his hand to Nelson at once.

“Would you care to dance with me……”

“Yes!”

Nelson answered before Damon finished speaking. He gave a slight frown but moved forward as the nobles all made their way to the center of the hall.

‘Surely Miss O’Hara won’t accept Young Lord Lovitz’s invitation to dance.’

Walking to the center of the hall with Nelson, Damon thought it as a matter of course.

But contrary to what he expected, Nate quietly took Roderick’s outstretched hand. For five years she turned down every other young lord’s invitation to dance while waiting for Damon’s, and yet now she accepted Roderick’s.

Damon swallowed a curse. He did not even register that he was about to curse. He only registered that his mood was, for some inexplicable reason, absolutely terrible, and he danced with Nelson in a spot where Nate’s gaze would easily reach him.

He kept stealing glances at her. His mind was entirely consumed by the baffling things happening around him.

‘Is she actually going to forget me? Is that why she brought another young lord as her partner? After five years of loving me.’

Damon’s thoughts were a tangle he could not sort through. Nelson kept brushing against him as they danced, but Damon was so preoccupied with Nate that he did not even notice her advances.

Then he stopped dead.

He saw Nate leave the dance floor with Roderick and head toward the balcony.

“Young Lord Preston?”

Nelson called his name with a puzzled look. But Damon stood there frowning, staring at the spot where Nate and Roderick disappeared. The two of them were already gone behind the balcony curtain.

“What’s the matter?”

Nelson asked again. Damon came back to himself belatedly and answered.

“It’s nothing.”

He continued dancing with Nelson.

Nelson kept pressing herself against him under the pretense of dancing. The music currently filling the banquet hall was absolutely not meant for a slow, body-to-body dance. Even so, Nelson shamelessly wrapped both arms around his neck and deliberately nestled into his chest as she danced.

Damon, meanwhile, was thinking about something else entirely.

‘Miss O’Hara is frightened of dark places……’

Of course, the balcony was not without candles entirely. But he noticed over time that Nate never went out to the balcony, and understood she did not care for it.

The balcony was often used by noble men and women for private rendezvous, but it could also serve as a place to rest away from the noise of the hall. Even so, Nate would sooner sit alone in a corner than go out there.

Damon’s brow furrowed. He looked down at Nelson nestled against him.

‘She must be quite starved for a man.’

He thought it indifferently. After a moment’s consideration, he leaned down and murmured to Nelson.

“Are you tired, Miss?”

Nelson’s eyes lit up at his question.

“Yes, Young Lord. I’m so exhausted I can barely hold myself up.”

“Then you should go get some air. Head out first and I’ll follow. There are rather a lot of eyes at this party……”

Nelson sensed instinctively that Damon did not mean a simple stroll. Her eyes were already dark with desire. She gave a quick nod.

“Yes, Young Lord Preston. I’ll go ahead and wait. Please come quickly.”

Her face slightly flushed, she turned and hurried away.

Damon watched Nelson go with a bored, sweeping look, then turned in the opposite direction. The way he walked was toward the balcony where Nate and Roderick went. Without much hesitation at all, he shoved the balcony curtain aside and stepped in.

* * *

Nate was at her limit. She decided that whether Roderick thought poorly of her or not, getting off the balcony came first. Her color was already drained to white and her breathing was unsteady.

Roderick, who had been listing all the reasons Nate was not suited for Damon, seemed to finally notice that something was wrong with her.

“Miss O’Hara, are you feeling unwell? You don’t look well at all……”

Nate struggled to open her mouth to say she was going back to the hall. Just then, out of nowhere, someone shoved the curtain at the balcony entrance aside and walked in.

“Pardon the intrusion.”

The person who stepped onto the balcony was none other than Damon Preston. Nate was startled inside, but her shortness of breath made it impossible to react properly. She only hoped desperately that he would take her and get her out of this dark space.

Damon looked down at Nate in silence, taking in her clearly poor color, then turned his head toward Roderick.

“It seems Young Lord Lovitz hasn’t noticed at all that Miss O’Hara is bored.”

“…Pardon?”

“I was just wondering how long she must have been enduring the boredom to have gone this pale.”

Roderick let out a short, disbelieving laugh. Damon smiled at him.

“It was a joke. No need to be so sensitive.”

With that, Damon carefully wrapped an arm around Nate’s shoulders.

“I’ll borrow Miss O’Hara for a moment. There’s something I need to discuss with her in private.”

Roderick’s expression flared as he spoke.

“What kind of rudeness is this, Young Lord Preston?”

Damon clicked his tongue. He thought Roderick was spectacularly bad at reading the room.

“Then shall I ask Miss O’Hara directly?”