Bella quickly pressed a hand to her stomach.

Although the sound had clearly echoed throughout the carriage, she instinctively tried to muffle it. What was the point now? Embarrassment flooded her cheeks. After all, she had just come from a restaurant. It would seem strange.

But she had barely eaten anything there.

The only things she had eaten that day were a piece of bread for breakfast and a few slices of steak.

Jack’s heavy, assessing gaze. The suffocating conversation. Then the duke suddenly appeared and turned everything upside down by pulling her away without warning. She hadn’t even finished half of what she’d ordered.

Of course, the duke could not possibly know that.

Keeping her head lowered, Bella cautiously glanced at Logan beside her. She prayed he hadn’t heard it, that perhaps it had been lost beneath some other noise.

But in the unnaturally quiet carriage, the sound had been unmistakable.

Logan said nothing.

Yet his silence only made her more uneasy. It felt weighted, as though it carried an unspoken accusation.

“You just had a meal. How can you already be hungry? Let’s get something to eat.”

With that brief remark, Logan changed the direction of the car.

“Thank you, but there’s food at my lodging. If you could drop me off somewhere nearby—”

“You owe me.”

He cut her off before she could finish.

Bella fell silent. She had no defense.

It was true — she had fled to Netherwell as though she were running away. Despite working as his personal maid, she had disappeared without a word.

To be honest, she had expected him to be displeased by her actions. But she had also believed that she would never see him again.

As if to prove how naive that thought had been, here he was.

Since she had wronged him, she felt she had no choice but to follow his lead. Agreeing to a single meal was not too much to ask.

And so, quietly, she obeyed.

“This is…”

When the car stopped outside the hotel, her tension returned at once.

This was the place she had fled from earlier that day.

‘Do I belong here?’

 She wondered, lowering her gaze to her clothes and feeling self-conscious about how they compared to those of the other people entering the hotel.

“We won’t be going through the main entrance, so relax.”

The car circled the hotel and stopped at the back entrance. When Logan opened the door for her and got out himself, Bella could only stare in stunned silence for a moment. As if guided by something she could not name, she followed him inside.

Unlike the lively front entrance, the rear corridor was quiet and almost deserted.

The dining room he led her to was the same. Soft lighting illuminated only parts of the space, casting the rest in gentle shadow. The atmosphere felt calm and intimate. Even Bella, who had never been to a place like this before, found it unexpectedly comfortable.

As soon as she sat at the lone table in the spacious room, staff appeared with dishes in hand, as though they had been waiting for his signal.

“Eat.”

He placed a chicken dish in front of her—something she had once mentioned in passing that she liked.

He behaved as though the employees who had not yet left the room simply did not exist.

“Don’t worry. No one here will speak of you.”

Unless, of course, they had a death wish and wanted to make an enemy of Fraser.

Seeing that Bella was still hesitating, unable to pick up her cutlery due to her imagined stares, Logan spoke calmly.

As if to prove his point, the hotel staff moved about their duties as though she were invisible.

Only then did Bella finally relax.

The moment the scent of the food reached her, her hunger sharpened painfully. She lifted a spoonful of steaming soup to her lips—

—and her eyes widened.

The food at the restaurant earlier had been good. But this was something else entirely. The velvety soup coated her tongue, releasing a deep, rich flavor that lingered long after she swallowed.

After that, she could barely remember what happened.

Her fork moved almost of its own accord, shifting from plate to plate without pause. The dishes disappeared as quickly as they arrived. The tight knot in her stomach unraveled, replaced by the steady warmth of her hunger finally being satisfied.

How long had she been eating like that?

Suddenly, she became aware of someone watching her.

Still holding her fork, Bella looked up —

— and met his eyes.

Embarrassment flooded her at once.

Overwhelmed by the unfamiliar luxury of such delicious food and the hunger she had been suppressing all day, she had lost all restraint.

Behaving so unguardedly in front of the duke—

—heat rushed to her cheeks.

“Aren’t you eating, Your Grace…?”

She asked belatedly.

“I am.”

But unlike his words, his plate remained untouched.

Bella quietly set down her fork.

“Why have you stopped?”

“…I’m full.”

Bella lowered her head as she said it.

She had been so hungry that she had lost all composure. Only now did she realize how improper she must have appeared.

Even as she left the dining room, she looked back regretfully at the tempting dishes that she could no longer bring herself to eat.

***

Perhaps impressed by how heartily Bella had eaten that day, Logan had the remaining food wrapped up for her.

He offered her a room at the hotel and told her to stay there for the duration of her time in the capital. Bella could barely bring herself to refuse.

After hauling her exhausted body up the stairs to her attic room, she lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

One by one, the events of the day replayed in her mind.

Unbelievable did not suffice.

It was something far more complicated than that.

Ever since the duke had appeared at the restaurant, her emotions had felt strange.

‘How could something like that even happen?’

She stumbled upon the Fraser Hotel by chance while exploring the city. Then, at her matchmaking meeting, she encountered the duke. Afterwards, she dined in a hotel she never thought she would set foot in.

All of this had happened within the space of a single day.

Bella turned restlessly from side to side on her narrow bed.

Even if meeting the duke had been a coincidence, she did not know what to say to the countess.

Jack might already have written to her — perhaps to complain about her rudeness.

Should she be honest and admit that she did not like her match? Or should she blame the duke? If she said that he had appeared without warning and left her no choice…

The countess already held a poor opinion of him. Would she come to dislike him even more?

What the Countess thought of the Duke should not have affected Bella. And yet she could not stop thinking about him.

Her thoughts chased one another endlessly.

What unsettled her more than anything was his intention.

No matter how hard she tried to reason it out, she could not fathom it.

Why had he approached her after recognizing her?

Why had he pulled her aside?

And why did he insist on buying her dinner and giving her a lift home?

‘Had the duke’s kindness not ended at the count’s estate?’

The more she thought about him, the more confused she became.

One thing was certain, though: her heart, which had slowed to a steady pace, had begun to race again, whether from unwanted kindness or something she could not fathom.

***

After revising it time and again, Bella finally finished the letter she intended to send to the Countess. She slipped the folded paper into an envelope.

The crumpled sheets scattered across her desk were testament to how much she had agonized over every word.

She carefully placed the envelope in her bag and went downstairs.

In the hallway of the terraced house, there was a communal telephone.

After dropping a coin into the tray beside it, she dialed Joshua’s number. The previous day, while she had been eating breakfast, the landlord had mentioned that a young man named Joshua had called, asking for her.

As she pressed each number, a hollow ring echoed through the receiver.

Once.

Twice.

The sound repeated before finally cutting off and being replaced by a familiar voice.

—Yes, this is Joshua Powell.

“It’s me. Bella.”

—Bella. I called yesterday.

They exchanged brief greetings. Joshua already knew that she had come to the capital, having learned this from her letter sent from Netherwell. He asked her how she was finding life there.

—We can’t talk long over the phone. Let’s meet.

He said it casually, though voices calling for him could be heard faintly beyond the receiver even as they spoke.

“Should we? You must be busy. I don’t want to take up your time.”

—You came all the way to the capital. Of course I should see you. I’ll check my schedule and contact you again.

With that, Joshua ended the call.

Bella stood there for a moment while the steady, mechanical tone hummed from the receiver before replacing it. After standing in silence for a moment, she climbed the stairs and returned to her room.