“Let’s speak briefly in the sitting room.”

“Yes.”

The sitting room was fortunately not far from Angela’s room.

Angela and Ashley walked toward it, and the three guards followed at a measured distance behind them.

Watching the three of them trailing along, Angela murmured with a dry edge.

“A level of care I didn’t even receive when Joel died.”

“It may be excessive, but I agree with Lord Knowles on this. Your safety is what matters most.”

“If someone is targeting the people of House Maister, Lord Phillip would not be safe either.”

“Has the lady not already taken steps for him.”

“That’s right.”

Just to be safe, she had sent two servants to Phillip’s quarters as well. If the person behind these incidents truly harbored a grudge against House Maister, Phillip could be in the greatest danger of all.

When they reached the sitting room, the guards who had followed waited outside the door.

Ashley pulled out Angela’s chair. Angela sat down naturally.

At her gesture, a maid set out strong tea and light refreshments before both of them.

Neither of them touched any of it.

Once the maid who had arranged the refreshments left, Ashley spoke first.

“First, I wish to express my deepest concern for what you endured today.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

With that, Angela said nothing more and waited for Ashley to continue.

He had not come to say that. She wanted to hear the real reason.

Ashley hesitated, then opened his mouth.

“Earlier, Lady Barton seemed so badly shaken that I could not bring myself to pull away from her. Helping those in a weaker position is also a quality expected of a noble.”

“I understand.”

Angela nodded.

It was true that Natasha had made a spectacle of herself, and it was true that Ashley had allowed it.

But most noble men would likely have acted the same way Ashley did.

“What I want to say is not the kind of understanding that comes from the head. I failed to attend to Countess Maister because Lady Barton was clinging to me.”

“Lady Barton was the one most shaken in that moment. It is understandable.”

“You know that is not what I mean.”

Ashley ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated air. The neatly arranged golden hair came loose under the anxious gesture.

His jaw tightened.

“I am apologizing for failing to show, in that moment, that you were my first priority.”

“There is no need to apologize.”

Angela answered with composure.

She knew better than anyone that the more distance she kept, the less there was to be hurt by or to worry about.

Ashley pressed his upper teeth lightly against his lower lip, then released it. His blue eyes shifted restlessly.

“Lady Barton was deliberately holding onto me after a point. To emphasize her vulnerability and draw out sympathy. I knew it, and still I could not pull away. I want to apologize to you for letting you see that.”

A man who valued propriety and manners above almost anyone else would not have found it easy to say something so candid.

Angela understood that he was trying to tell her she mattered to him.

But.

“I said it was fine.”

She wanted to pretend not to understand.

Not while the killer remained unknown. She had no desire to grow close to anyone.

No, that was not the only reason.

“I am not at ease. Because I have feelings for you, my lady.”

Even if the man before her was not the killer.

She wanted to avoid a situation where someone openly told her they had feelings for her and was drawing closer.

“As I said at the racecourse, I wish to know you better. I have lived believing that the noble image one presents to the world is what matters most. But I have come to think that if it means winning your heart, I should be willing to set that aside at times.”

“One’s reputation in the world is an important thing.”

“I would prefer to have both, but if I cannot, I will choose you. Angela Grace Maister.”

Without the title of Countess.

His usual courteous, measured manner and his warm smile were unchanged, but in his blue eyes something uncontainable stirred.

Angela knew that kind of look.

She had received countless looks from men over the years.

Admiration and passion, some pouring it out without restraint, others unable to hide it even within the strictest composure.

When it ended there, it was generally manageable.

But when it turned into action, everything changed.

“I understand your feelings very well, Lord Wilton. May I ask you something?”

“Yes. Please ask anything.”

“On the first night you arrived here, did you happen to be walking the corridors?”

Ashley thought for a moment, then answered with a puzzled expression.

“I cannot speak to other nights, but on the first night I remember the tension finally leaving me and sleeping quite soundly. I don’t recall going out at all.”

It was an entirely different answer from what Emily had described.

Looking only at his puzzled expression and composed manner, he did not seem like someone telling a lie.

But Angela had seen many people who told lies with perfectly serene faces.

‘Did Emily see wrong. Or is he lying.’

She had not asked directly whether he had been lingering near Natasha Barton’s room. She had kept the question vague and neutral.

If there had been no particular intent, he would have simply said yes, he had been walking around.

If it was a lie, there might have been some contact with Natasha she did not know about. The way Natasha had clung to Ashley so fixedly during the incident also stayed with her.

“Thank you for your answer.”

“May I ask what prompted the question?”

“I heard from one of the servants that you seemed to be having trouble sleeping that night and were wandering the corridor. As the mistress of this household, I felt I ought to ask whether a guest had been uncomfortable.”

At that, Ashley let out a dry, deflated laugh and rubbed his face with his palm.

“I have just confessed my feelings to you, and you still cannot see me as anything more than a guest.”

“I apologize if that is how it felt. I have certainly understood Lord Wilton’s feelings clearly.”

“I did not say it hoping to be understood, my lady. Whether you see me as more than a guest is entirely your right, and I have no intention of pressing you. But……”

A quiet urgency ran beneath the calm tone.

“Please simply remember that I am looking at you as a man.”

Angela did not answer immediately. She looked at the man before her.

A perfectly fitted suit, not a thing out of place even in the middle of the night. A composed, restrained manner. A handsome face that would earn goodwill from anyone.

The one thing jutting out from the image of a model noble was an emotion he could not contain.

“……Understood. I will remember.”

Ashley looked at her for a long moment.

Then he stepped back with graceful composure.

“It is late. I hope I have not kept you too long. Thank you for making time.”

“Not at all. It is simply what I must do as the mistress of House Maister.”

At those words, Ashley smiled with a trace of bitterness.

“Then a peaceful night to you.”

“I hope the same for you, Young Duke.”

The figure of the man walking away carried something fragile about it, like a person reaching out with all their strength toward something just beyond their grasp.

❀❀❀

Late that night, Natasha held Castle tightly as the child woke.

Her daughter, knowing nothing of what had happened, smiled drowsily and nestled into her arms.

The moment the child settled against her chest, Natasha’s heart broke.

“Mama?”

The child’s small, lisping voice reached her ear, and Natasha finally fell apart.

Tears fell without stopping.

She had been told there would be no lasting harm.

She had been told that if she gave the child a medicine with no real side effects and then screamed that it was poison, the household would think the heir of House Maister was in danger and keep them close, unable to send them away.

Natasha had always known she could not hide Castle’s s*x forever.

She had simply been desperate in that moment.

She had wanted to wait until the child was a little older, until she had taken everything she could from this residence, and then make her move.

If she could go on leaning on House Maister, all the better. If she had to leave, she wanted to leave with as much compensation as possible.

But Phillip and Angela had provided living expenses while refusing to grant Castle any share of Charles’s inheritance.

The anxiety had grown with every passing day.

She had thought that if something dangerous happened to Castle, Phillip and Angela would reconsider.

And yet she had gained nothing. Only her child had been hurt.

Her child alone.

Her teeth ground together.

The child clinging to her chest like kindling fed the rage rising inside her.