Many women would have felt a flutter at being understood before they even said a word, but Angela was not that sort.

‘How does he know something I never told him. Did he look into me?’

Even something small, if the other person was using it as a form of control under the name of ‘interest,’ she found it repulsive to the bone.

That was a trauma she would likely carry for the rest of her life.

Her face remained impassive. Isaac, not catching even a hint of her displeasure, spoke with self-satisfaction.

“Come back anytime you like. Drop my name and they’ll give you the best seat with the best food. Even better if you bring me along.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“It’s no imposition. I own the place.”

“I have more than enough means to enjoy good food on my own.”

Even her flat refusal did not faze him.

“Wait, did you figure it out? Are you saying come to me because I have money?”

“A family that owns its own bank is known by everyone to have more than enough wealth.”

“And yet that fact doesn’t seem to move my queen at all. Is it not just money you want, but prestige as well? Or is it that you already have enough of both?”

“Let’s say the latter. I want for nothing.”

“So the one left wanting is the one who’s fallen in love, is it?”

An expensive restaurant. Flowers arranged lavishly all around.

One word, and he would probably bend over backwards to do even more.

But nothing in this world came free.

Angela asked with genuine curiosity.

“If you liked me this much, why didn’t you propose before I married Joel?”

“You really have no interest in me at all.”

Isaac pressed his fingers to his temple with a pained expression.

“I spent a long time abroad. My father felt it would be good for me to learn the flow of foreign commerce. By the time I first saw you, your marriage to Count Maister had already been decided.”

His gaze was unwavering. Angela met it without looking away.

None of his usual swagger was present. In this moment, he was entirely serious.

“No matter how free-spirited I am, I’m not the sort of man to court a woman on the eve of her wedding and unsettle her heart.”

Isaac’s dark obsidian eyes grew still and heavy.

“Well, truth be told, there were several times I wanted to tell you to leave that man and come to me. But I held back.”

“So Lord Galland does know how to hold himself back.”

“You looked at peace. Happy, in your own way. I didn’t want to shake that happiness for the sake of my own desire. You were so beautiful, so composed, and I wanted to protect that beauty.”

Angela gave a small nod.

“That, I find a little……moving.”

“Can’t you find it very moving?”

Isaac leaned toward her at once.

“Anyone can say things. Actions are what’s difficult.”

“I took action, didn’t I. I held back.”

Angela asked.

“And so the moment I became a widow, you rushed to propose?”

“You already know the answer. Are you asking just to tease me?”

Isaac shot back with a sulky look.

His reactions were so immediate and unguarded that he was, in spite of everything, interesting to be around.

“I suppose so.”

Heh, Angela laughed lightly.

“Don’t laugh.”

Isaac replied a little gruffly, his expression put-upon.

“I’ll want to kiss that pretty mouth of yours.”

“It seems you genuinely want to be slapped.”

“One slap for one kiss sounds like a fair trade.”

Angela refused with a flat, unhesitating expression.

“No.”

“What can I do, my queen.”

Isaac let out a pained groan.

❀❀❀

A dress shop, a jeweler’s, a splendid opera.

He had wanted to go all the way to the famous lake in the capital, but she put that off for another time.

Firmly turning down his attempts to buy expensive things at every shop was work in itself.

At the opera, when he started making a fuss about buying her an entire theater company, she silenced him quietly with a warning that there would be no next time if he kept this up.

“We’ve been out all day and I’m tired. Let’s head back to the residence.”

“There are still things worth seeing in the evening, my queen.”

“A man who tries to show everything all at once from the very start is no fun, Lord Galland.”

The firm words finally made Isaac burst out laughing.

The sunset was already spreading across the sky inside the carriage on the way back to the residence.

Angela looked at Isaac sitting across from her.

His manner was rough, but every place they had visited today was somewhere women tended to prefer over men.

His determination to win her over despite every firm refusal was plain enough.

Other than the fact that he was trying to please her, she had yet to find any motive for him to have killed Joel.

Come to think of it, this was her first time going out since Joel died.

The fact that Joel had been killed within the residence was horrifying, and yet she had been unable to leave, as though nailed in place.

Going out and enjoying even a moment of pleasure while Joel lay dead like that felt like a betrayal of him.

She felt she had to keep grieving, keep raging, to honor his injustice.

She had been endlessly on guard and suspicious throughout, but it was true that her mood had lifted.

“Thank you for thinking of me today.”

Even so, there was work to be done.

She needed to understand what kind of person he was more clearly.

If Isaac was the real killer, his frank nature meant that talking freely about himself might cause him to let something slip, even accidentally, that connected back to the crime.

“Today you made an effort to do things I might enjoy, so next time I’d like you to tell me what you enjoy, Isaac.”

“Are you finally showing some interest in me, Angela?”

“Countess Maister.”

“My queen is truly exacting. I’ll call you whatever you wish. My dear countess.”

“Drop the ‘dear.'”

“How is a person supposed to live without being able to express their own feelings?”

“Coming from someone who expresses feelings without the slightest restraint, that argument carries no weight.”

“Ha. Honestly.”

Isaac replied with a grumble.

“You could at least be less pretty.”

Angela answered evenly.

“So when I grow old and less pretty, that affection will cool as well.”

“No. You will be beautiful even when you’re old, Angela. In my eyes.”

“Your memory seems to be failing you. Did you not just promise to call me Countess?”

“Love has a way of making fools of people. Let’s say I’m a fool specifically where you’re concerned.”

“If you put even half the effort you spend on clever words into your memory, you’d be better off.”

Angela’s eyes sharpened with interest.

“What exactly is it about me that you like so much. A man like you could meet women with far better prospects and far greater beauty.”

Isaac’s expression turned serious.

“It hurts to hear you say that.”

The dark obsidian eyes beneath his red hair held her gaze directly. In those black eyes burned frustration and passion.

“It’s because it’s you that I’m doing this. I’m not looking for someone reasonably pretty with a reasonably good background.”

His voice dropped lower than usual.

“Just because I enjoy wordplay doesn’t mean my sincerity is a game. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t think so.”

He stared at her with a humorless expression, and Angela did not blink.

Sincerity. Yes, it could be sincerity.

She could only hope that sincerity had not twisted into something as warped as his passion.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

The one who raised the white flag at her clipped reply was Isaac.

“You never let anyone have the last word. My queen, as always.”

Isaac chuckled. His manner was flippant, but he looked a little wounded.

After that, Isaac said nothing.

Angela did not bother to speak either.

If anything, it was Isaac who kept stealing glances at her, watching for her reaction.

‘In a way, being able to express feelings that openly is something to envy.’

Rising and falling with every reaction from the other person was something she had left behind in childhood.

All it did was make things harder for herself.

Angela had never been someone with large expressions to begin with, but she had not always been this detached.

After that day……

Much had changed.

Building walls as solid as fortress stone to protect her heart.

Never letting anyone see how easily it could be shaken.

Those were the defenses Angela had learned after that day. And they had served her without fail.