The direction he was looking was precisely where Joel had died. The distance was considerable, but Angela could tell without any doubt.

She lifted her hand from Lucy’s fur and fixed her eyes on him.

‘They say a killer always returns to the scene of the crime.’

Ashley’s words circled in her ears. A chill ran down her spine.

The dark night felt like a sealed room. Dread rose in her chest.

“You’re right, it’s late. I should head back. I’ve seen that Lucy is well. Please go inside soon, Young Marquis.”

Angela drew her hand away from Lucy. Her blank expression held, mercifully.

He was the one who had brought Lucy, but the thought that he might be the killer made it impossible to simply leave the dog behind.

“Lucy, would you like to come sleep with me tonight?”

Emily would make a scene when she found out there was a dog in the bedroom.

Cyril, who had been avoiding her eyes the whole time, met her gaze at that moment. His deep, quiet eyes were the kind that could bewitch a person.

“I’m glad you’ve taken to Lucy. I’ll watch from here until you’re inside, then go in myself.”

“All right.”

Lucy moved after Angela as though she had understood every word. Cyril stood watching in silence.

When the two of them disappeared around the end of the corridor, something cold and heavy settled into Cyril’s eyes.

He looked like a man turning over a painful memory.

He murmured quietly.

“Lucy. You’re happy to see her after so long, aren’t you.”

Cyril watched the empty space where they had vanished, then turned his gaze elsewhere. He turned it toward the exact spot where Joel had died.

❀❀❀

Natasha paced her room, anxiously gnawing at her fingernails. She knew it was a bad habit, but nothing else calmed her nerves quite like it.

Castle slept soundly beneath a plush blanket, dressed in a fine lace-trimmed outfit.

Natasha looked at Castle and let a brief, fond, pitying smile cross her face before her expression turned anxious again.

Angela Grace Maister.

A woman born with everything.

Born with the kind of pure, beautiful face that everyone worshipped, she had grown up in a wealthy and distinguished family, praised and cherished, never wanting for anything.

Natasha’s own family had a noble name in title only. In reality they had lived harder than commoners. She had gotten involved with Charles, Joel’s older brother, to escape that ruined household, but he had sickened and died before they could even marry.

Neither of them had held a wedding, and both of them had lost their husbands, yet one was the Countess of Maister and the other was a charity case.

Still, she had a child, and she had thought that once Countess Maister married and left, things would work out somehow……

‘Lord Phillip didn’t invite us to dinner tonight.’

This dinner had been Lord Phillip’s occasion, as a family member, to receive the distinguished guests who had come from outside, specifically the men courting Countess Maister.

If he had thought of her as Charles’s partner, as the mother of Charles’s child, he would have included her.

One might say she was reading too much into a single dinner, but Natasha had been feeling it for some time.

Phillip was fond of Castle as a child, but it never felt like the way a grandfather looked at a grandchild.

It was purely the fondness one might feel for any child. There was always a distance to it, like watching someone else’s.

‘Could he have figured it out. That she’s a girl?’

Even if he had, judging by how he sheltered and defended Angela as his daughter-in-law, it did not seem like he was treating Castle coldly because he knew she was a girl.

‘Has he found out something else. That Castle isn’t his blood grandchild?’

A chill swept through Natasha and the color drained from her face.

Castle was not Charles’s child. Of course she wasn’t.

Natasha had never slept with Charles.

Castle was the child of a man Natasha had been seeing in secret while she was with Charles. He had decent looks and they got along well.

Aside from having no money and nothing but empty pride.

She had meant to enjoy it for a while and move on……

Then she got pregnant.

From that point she had done everything she could to seduce Charles, but he seemed to sense something, and whenever things moved in that direction he would pull away.

‘Too much of a prude. He liked me but wouldn’t go further than a kiss. Even when I set the stage for him, the fool.’

She had been trying to figure out what to do before her belly grew too large to hide.

Then she heard that Charles had died of pneumonia.

What she felt in that moment was not grief. It was relief.

She had walked straight into the Maister comital house with her swollen belly. Everyone already knew she and Charles had been together.

There was no one who would expose who the child’s real father was.

For the birth, she had obtained permission to go back to her family home, claiming she wanted to deliver there.

She had wanted to pass a girl off as a boy. She had calculated it would be more advantageous for inheritance.

That was why Natasha had raised Castle entirely on her own, without even hiring a nanny.

She had trusted that Phillip would accept Castle in return for allowing all of this.

But the way things were going felt ominous.

The last time she had spoken with Phillip, his words had unsettled her.

‘The child has grown quite a bit. No illness either. Playing alone like that and not even calling for her mother.’

‘It’s thanks to your care, Lord Phillip.’

‘Shouldn’t you be thinking about how to make your own way now? For yourself and Castle.’

‘Lord Phillip, this is my home. Why would you say something so hurtful?’

Phillip had smiled and replied with an uncharacteristic firmness.

‘This residence has belonged to the Maister comital house for generations. Even without Joel, the people of the comital house are its owners. Natasha, you are a guest here, not an owner. Do not presume to say such things.’

‘Ah, yes…… I misspoke.’

Joel’s death had been unfortunate, but she had thought it might actually work in her favor. She had believed Castle could step forward as an heir, so she could not understand why Phillip had only grown more resolute.

‘Is he planning to drive me out and keep only Castle. Or will he cast Castle aside as well?’

Nobles were the sort who refused to acknowledge even their own blood if a child was illegitimate.

She had forgotten, because the Maister comital house was known for its gentle ways.

That they were still nobles.

That blue blood ran to the bone.

She had never been recognized as part of the Maister comital house, yet she had lived comfortably and at ease on their money all this time. Neither Phillip nor Angela had cut off the funds going to Natasha, as long as she did not go too far.

But what if that money stopped.

Where would she go with Castle.

Castle’s real father was useless. Her own family still sent letters asking her to send money, since she was living so well at the Maister comital house.

‘I have to do something. But what……’

Knock knock.

At the light knock, Natasha snapped back sharply.

“Who is it?”

At the voice from beyond the door, she opened it with a look full of bewilderment.

The person standing outside was someone she had never expected.

❀❀❀

Lucy followed along quietly and obediently. She moved like she had always been Angela’s dog.

Angela crouched down and stroked Lucy’s small head.

“Lucy, do you like me already? No wariness at all. How are you going to protect me when a stranger shows up, behaving like this?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Lucy let out a sharp bark and stepped forward, planting herself in front of Angela like a shield.

Following the direction of Lucy’s gaze, Angela saw a red-haired man appear at the far end of the corridor, wearing a loosely draped sleeping robe that left his chest half-bare.

The robe itself was made of a near-transparent fabric, so it was little better than wearing nothing at all. Every shift of his powerful muscles was plainly visible.

The man pushed his red hair back and strode toward her.

“Angela, where are you wandering at this hour?”

“I went to see Lucy. It’s her first night here, and I thought she might feel out of place.”

Angela lifted her chin with composure.

“I don’t believe I owe a guest an explanation for taking a night walk in my own residence, Lord Galland.”

“I’m saying this because the killer still hasn’t been caught.”

“The killer murdered my husband, and he was a strong, capable man. If danger is your argument, Young Count, you are no exception. And furthermore.”