Frowning faintly, Andrea found himself thinking back to when he had first brought the boy to his palace.

Right after his mother passed, the estate had still had a handful of staff remaining, the boy among them.

Most had taken letters of recommendation and left for other positions, but the boy had been underage and seemed to have nowhere to go.

He had heard the boy was the illegitimate child of a friend from his mother’s girlhood.

Born out of wedlock and then losing his mother too, the late Queen Dowager had taken him in and raised him at her estate, keeping him as something between a ward and a servant.

He had received a proper education, and had been looking to find work as a tutor when Andrea had taken him instead.

Perhaps it was the grief and fear of losing a guardian he had seen in those clear, guileless eyes.

He simply could not bring himself to write the boy a letter of recommendation and send him out into the world like the other staff.

He had brought him along thinking he would be useful for the odd errand, and yet now here they were……

The boy was sharp and a little crafty, and keeping him close had only made him bolder.

The strange thing was that the boldness did not bother him.

Wiping the water running from his forehead down the bridge of his nose, Andrea turned the old memories over in his mind.

Picturing the boy as the scrawny, slight child he had been made the brief flutter from earlier feel like nothing more than a trick of the mind.

Settled at last, Andrea cupped both hands and splashed water over his face.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The next day, Alfonso, Andrea’s aide, called out to Riley as she was passing through the corridor.

“Raul, could you deliver these to His Highness on your way?”

He stacked a hefty bundle of documents into Riley’s outstretched hands before she quite knew what was happening.

“Something urgent has come up, you see.”

“Of course. Safe travels. I’ll bring these to him.”

She knew Alfonso was always racing against the clock, as any aide to a crown prince with that many affairs of state would be. The king had been offloading more and more troublesome matters of governance, the workload had grown considerably, and His Highness was at a point where he needed several more aides.

Riley had been on her way to work on her own pressing deadline, but with all of Eli Palace running at full tilt, she wanted to help where she could.

In truth, the third floor, where Andrea’s bedchamber, bathroom, and dressing room were located, was Riley’s usual domain, and she rarely went down to the second floor where the study was.

But she had been caught by the aide, so there was nothing for it.

A short while later, she knocked on the heavy door of the study and waited a long moment before a brief answer came.

“Come in.”

Stepping inside, Riley spotted Andrea far across the room at the window-side desk, surrounded by towering stacks of documents and deep in his work.

The cool, indifferent expression he wore was quite different from the face he made when he was needling her.

Riley crossed the room carefully and set the bundle down on top of the already considerable pile, feeling a pang of guilt at adding to it.

“The aide asked me to bring these up.”

Andrea looked up at the sound of her voice.

Riley took a brief glance around the grand study, which she had visited only a handful of times, gave a light bow, and was quietly turning to leave when Andrea set down his pen and folded his arms.

“You.”

“Yes, me?”

Riley turned around quickly and waited.

“Yes, you. Who else is here.”

“……”

His tone was prickly again. Was he in a bad mood since morning, or was this simply how he was when he worked?

She found herself hoping the chief chamberlain or the aide would return soon.

Riley stood watching her master, who had not given her any task but was not dismissing her either, resting his head at a tilt on his fist and staring at her. With nothing else to say, she ventured something at random.

“Hmm…… your tea looks like it’s gone cold. Shall I bring a fresh cup?”

But Andrea said nothing either way. He was taking in Raul’s appearance with quiet, unhurried attention.

The golden curls catching the sunlight, the lace tie knotted neatly at the throat, the jacket fitted close at the waist. The gold brooch he had tossed the boy some time ago. The epaulette pinned to one shoulder.

His gaze traveled down without ceremony and then came back up to meet a pair of clear, pale violet eyes.

Utterly guileless.

Standing there radiating the air of a young nobleman all on his own, completely without effort.

Not wearing anything different from the standard uniform, and yet somehow managing to sparkle with just a few accessories.

‘Why is His Highness staring at me like that?’ The way the boy tilted his head and blinked those wide eyes was a little funny. Like a squirrel. Or maybe a rabbit?

Andrea was on the verge of a small smile when an uncomfortable sensation flickered through him.

A faint rattling in his chest, something that pulled tight……

It felt like a weak recurrence of what he had felt the night before, and his brow drew together slightly.

He turned on Raul, standing there in the full sunlight, and said it more curtly than he intended.

“Never mind the tea. Do you have someone? You never answered yesterday.”

“Pardon? Out of nowhere?”

Raul’s eyes went wide, then he seemed to remember where he was and quickly straightened his expression and posture.

“You’ve been going out a lot lately. Every week, it seems.”

“When I go out I always arrange for someone to cover for me. Has there been anything lacking? I’ll make sure to address it.”

Riley scratched her cheek with the look of someone caught off guard, but Andrea pressed on.

“A young man who fusses that much over his appearance and wanders around the city is asking for trouble. Someone naive like you especially.”

Even as he said it, the image of Captain Alain and the wanton heroine at his side drifted into Andrea’s mind unbidden.

A woman like that could lure an innocent Raul out beyond the palace walls and ruin him entirely.

He had no idea why the back of his neck was stiffening just from imagining it.

Was he thinking of the boy like a younger brother? That was probably it.

Lost in that thought, he noticed Raul’s brow crease as the boy muttered a complaint.

“Someone…… no, nothing like that. But why do you keep taking such an interest in my days off? I use my proper leave when I go out. I have things to do and I’d like to enjoy my freedom, you know.”

Raul was rambling and lifting his chin with great dignity. Andrea beckoned him closer with a deliberate crook of his finger, the corner of his mouth curling faintly.

Raul hesitated and stepped forward, and Andrea grabbed the front of his jacket and brushed off a bit of dust clinging to the left br*ast pocket.

It had been catching his eye for a while and getting on his nerves.

What followed was an astonishing reaction from Raul.

The boy slapped his hand away in an instant and raised his voice.

“What are you— what do you think you’re doing?!”

Riley jerked back with a convulsive step, her face flooding red.

Andrea withdrew his hand, mildly taken aback, and studied his attendant’s outsized reaction with puzzlement.

“What’s gotten into you.”

Riley realized she had overreacted and quickly schooled her expression.

“You, you touched me without warning. I was startled.”

Andrea let out a short, baffled laugh.

“I’m the one who was startled. You manhandle me whenever you like, but I can’t brush off your jacket?”

The word ‘manhandle’ sent another wave of heat rushing to Riley’s face.

“That, that’s my job! And, and I have a thing about being touched. Even someone brushing my clothes catches me off guard.”

Andrea blinked at her with an expression of pure exasperation, then waved a hand.

“Fine. You can go.”

Being alone with Raul somehow always ended in pointless conversation.

He had assumed it was because the boy attended him in private spaces like the bedchamber, but bickering just as readily in the study made the whole thing feel a little absurd.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Back in her room a short while later, Riley ran her hand over her chest through her clothes.

The bandaging was wound flat and smooth, so he could not have felt anything unusual.

But when Andrea’s hand had touched her, she had startled and reacted far too strongly without meaning to.

‘Phew. He won’t be suspicious, will he?’

“I need to be more careful. Keep my distance.”