“Isabella gets bored when she’s alone…”

Her expression sagged again in an instant. She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with reluctance. Then, as if struck by a sudden idea, she thr*st her head forward eagerly.

“Then… may I stay here a little longer? I’ll count to one hundred before I leave.”

Upon hearing this absurd suggestion, Logan almost scoffed.

If she wanted to practice counting, she could do it on her own. Why did she insist on counting out loud before leaving? Could she even count to one hundred properly?

Struggling to hide his scowl, he stared at the girl.

‘Is this idiot really planning to count only to one hundred and then leave? She doesn’t look like she’s lying…’

Still suspicious, Logan finally relented under her unwavering gaze.

“…Do as you like.”

“Yay!”

Bella beamed brightly and began to count.

“One, twooo, three, four…”

The childish voice flowed gently and steadily.

A sound that would have irritated him only moments earlier now eased the tension in his chest in an unfamiliar way. Without realizing it, Logan’s head began to droop.

Sleep, something he had been denied for a long time, seemed to wash over him all at once.

For some reason, the counting never reached one hundred. It kept looping back from thirteen to four. Yet he didn’t care enough to correct it.

“Twelve, thirteen, four, five, six…”

To the voice that soothed his restless heart, Logan closed his eyes.

***

After that day, Logan found himself pursued by a suspicious presence trailing behind him.

“Young Master, what are you doing?”

Even when he hid in the garden to avoid his tutor—

“Wow, that looks delicious. Can Isabella have one too?”

Even when he held a tea party all by himself.

“Young Master!”

Wherever Logan went, Isabella always found him. As soon as an opportunity arose, she would appear right in front of him.

At first, Logan tried to brush her off. He even threatened her, telling her to stay away. But after more than ten failed attempts, he seemed to give up. Instead, he began calling her over and choosing to spend time with her.

Before he started school, he had hardly had the chance to meet children his own age. Isabella, who came running whenever he called her, quickly became a welcome presence in his lonely life. Despite reportedly spending much of her childhood in bed due to poor health, she listened earnestly as he taught her the alphabet and simple arithmetic.

In teaching her, Logan discovered something unexpected. The subjects he had once despised slowly began to interest him.

Before long, it was Logan who wanted Isabella by his side wherever he went, not the other way around.

At first, some disapproved of the sight of a young noble heir walking hand in hand with a servant’s child. However, as Logan’s formerly dark and withdrawn demeanor gradually brightened, the murmurs faded. No one wished to interfere with this change.

As the two children remained inseparable day after day, news of their closeness spread throughout the estate.

Eventually, that news reached the duke.

“I wonder when the walls around the Fraser estate became so low that a commoner’s child could come and go as they pleased.”

“She is not merely some commoner’s child. She is the daughter of Maria and Henry—the very same Maria who sent her to live with her parents in the countryside five years ago.”

“What difference does that make? Whether she is Henry’s daughter or Mark’s, the problem is that rumors are spreading within the ducal household that Logan is associating with a commoner’s child.”

After receiving a report from Logan’s tutor that Logan had been spending time with a commoner lately, the Duke of Fraser confronted his wife.

“Logan is not an ordinary child. He is Fraser’s heir. Who knows whether that girl is approaching him with ulterior motives? Beyond that, there are countless concerns. I will not have the ignorance of a poorly educated commoner rubbing off on my son.”

Even if they can’t be true friends, she can at least keep him company until he leaves for boarding school.”

“It is precisely because you are so indulgent that Logan has turned out as he has!”

The duke’s sharp reprimand echoed through the corridor.

Logan had been passing by on his way to his mother’s chambers when he heard it. When he heard his father’s raised voice coming through the crack in the door, he pressed himself against the adjacent wall.

“Do you have any idea how many forces are waiting to see Fraser fall? If the other houses learn that my only heir is wasting his time with a servant’s child, they will laugh at us. If those two sent their daughter to the countryside to be raised, why did they bring her back? They’ve brought her back without a shred of sense. Tsk.”

As his father continued speaking, Logan’s face slowly darkened.

He was still too young to enter society, but old enough to understand. He knew very well that he was the cause of their argument.

Sensing someone at his side, Logan lowered his gaze.

Isabella stood there like a little bird that had followed him unnoticed. She looked up at him with bright, curious eyes.

Ah. She was here.

She was too young to fully grasp the weight of adult conversations. Yet, dismissed simply because of the circumstances of her birth, Isabella tilted her head in confusion, perhaps wondering why her parents’ names had been spoken in her father’s harsh voice.

“Don’t listen.”

Logan gently covered the girl’s ears with his hands.

Although she did not yet understand the world, he refused to let her hear the contempt in his father’s voice.

One day, Isabella would inevitably learn about the judgements and expectations that had been forced upon her. She would grasp the invisible lines drawn by birth and status.

But until then, while she was still by his side, he wanted her to remain innocent and untouched by such cruelty.

“I’ll protect you.”

Tightening his grip around her small hand, he turned and ran. He ran far from his mother’s chambers — far enough that his father’s voice could no longer reach them.

***

From early morning, Logan watched the maids moving about in a flurry of activity.

Fresh linens replaced the bedding. His breakfast, which he always ate alone in his room, was prepared and brought in. Even assistance with his work continued unabated.

Bella, who had been bedridden with a fever the previous day, worked with unusual diligence, as though trying to make up for several lost days at once.

The Count’s physician had advised her to rest for a few more days, and Logan himself had told her that she did not need to return so soon. Yet, as always, she appeared at his chamber early that morning.

Initially, he had decided to send her back the moment she showed any sign of weakness. However, seeing the effort she was making to appear composed and well, he chose to say nothing.

After all, some people preferred work to rest.

He told himself there was no reason to worry.

As he continued with his duties, he cast a quiet glance at Bella, who was sitting on the edge of his desk, carefully sorting through a stack of letters.

The woman tucked her neatly combed hair behind her ear. After being ill for several days, her face looked thinner and more defined.

This stirred a complicated mixture of feelings within him — both pity and quiet admiration — and he found that he could not look away.

Unlike the noblewomen who powdered their faces white and adorned themselves with jewels and lace, she was not radiant. Yet there was something grounding in her simplicity, something calm and unwavering that held his gaze.

Before he knew it, Logan had stopped working altogether. He was simply watching her.

Under normal circumstances, Bella would have sensed his stare immediately. But today, lost in her task, she seemed completely unaware.

He did not want to distract her. Retrieving the document tucked beneath the stack of letters would only take a moment.

Leaning slightly to the left, he reached out—

Clatter.

Bella jumped up, her chair scraping harshly against the floor as she stumbled backwards.

“I— I had been sitting for too long, and my back started to ache…”

When she met Logan’s gaze, she forced an awkward smile and pulled her chair closer to the table. This time, she sat closer to the edge of the chair.

Throughout her sorting, she kept glancing at him cautiously.

Bella had always been overly mindful of how others reacted to her, but Logan dismissed her behavior without much thought.

But her strange behavior did not end there.

“Your Grace, the documents regarding the winter skating rink—ah, no, the ski resort—where should I file them?”

“Give them here.”

“N-no. These are not related to the ski resort. I will bring them to you. Just a moment.”

Whenever Logan took even a single step closer, she would lift a stack of documents to hide half her face and flee.

“Let’s stop here for now and rest for a bit. What would you like for lunch?”

“I… just remembered something urgent I need to do, so I don’t think I can join you for lunch.”

Even on days when work grew busy and they would occasionally share a simple meal in his chamber, she began skipping those as well.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Pardon? I’m watering the flowers.”

“I see. But what you’re holding looks like milk.”

As though her mind were elsewhere, she began making mistakes she normally never would.

“Oh dear! What’s wrong with me?”

Logan let out a dry laugh as he watched Bella hurriedly pour the cloudy water from the vase out of the window. He had assumed that she had not fully recovered from her illness yet.

But now he was certain.

Bella was avoiding him.

It didn’t take him long to realize it.

Folding his arms, he slowly approached her.

“Now that I think about it… I’ve seen that bottle somewhere before…”

At that, Bella pretended to recall something, glancing about as she tried to slip away.

‘You think you can escape by avoiding me?’

No matter which way she fled, she remained within his chamber.

Logan stepped in front of her, blocking her path. As he mirrored her movements, cutting off each of her attempts to pass him, Bella’s composure visibly faltered.

“I—I need to refill the vase before the flowers wilt…”

When her hand crept toward her face again, Logan caught it and gently pulled it down. Then he bent slightly, lowering himself to meet her gaze.

“Why are you avoiding me?”