She had a restless night. Fortunately, tomorrow was the weekend. Otherwise, she would have faced the day with a haggard face.
Carol went to the living room and brewed some tea. Even though it was night, she could feel the characteristic heat of summer, so she opened the window.
A lukewarm breeze tickled Carol.
She pulled up a chair and sat by the window, looking up at the sky.
The moon, stars, and clouds. It was the same sky she had seen in the North, yet it felt so different.
The night, which used to be our time, was warm and had a sweet scent.
There are things you only realize after being apart for a long time.
Her feelings for the Duke were like that.
The emotions she thought she could forget had, contrary to expectations, settled heavily in her heart and showed no signs of leaving.
The Duke’s winter had ended, and she, who had been a small campfire, was no longer needed. That was right.
It was also what Carol had hoped for.
“…Hah.”
Tears welled up in Carol’s eyes.
Creak.
The door to her siblings’ room opened.
“Carol.”
It was Louis, who had ended up staying the night because the siblings had clung to his pant legs, begging him not to go.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
His voice was clear, without a trace of sleepiness, as if he had been awake for a while.
“The kids kicked me in their sleep, so I got up.”
“When they’re tired, their sleep habits get worse.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that…?”
“I thought you knew.”
“I didn’t.”
Louis grumbled, rubbing his sore arm, saying it hurt more now that his muscles had bulked up.
Louis naturally pulled up a chair and sat next to Carol.
Carol felt Louis’s gaze on her.
She couldn’t help but know how Louis looked at her. Before falling in love, she had thought it was a feeling similar to family, but it was completely different.
“Carol, still don’t want to move to the capital?”
“We’re close enough to the capital as it is.”
“But I can’t come often.”
“Your future wife will end up disliking me.”
A topic they had never discussed, like an unspoken rule, suddenly came up. Louis looked flustered.
“…Why are you suddenly talking about a wife?”
“It’s not a strange topic to bring up at any time, is it?”
“…”
The reason they hadn’t said anything until now was because Louis had never voiced his feelings.
Isn’t it silly to suddenly say “I only see you as a friend” when he hasn’t even said he likes her first?
“Don’t you need to marry a noblewoman to become a viscount?”
Carol had heard this a year ago. She had pretended not to know since she overheard it by chance, but she couldn’t keep holding Louis back forever.
“…I can prove my worth without doing that.”
Louis rubbed his face, seeming to dislike this topic.
“Is it because of me?”
Carol asked in a serious voice.
“…”
Louis didn’t answer for a long time. Perhaps the desire to stay within the framework of friendship wasn’t one-sided.
Instead of pushing for an answer that wouldn’t come, Carol changed the subject.
“I lied.”
They both knew this wasn’t a sudden statement. It was a continuation of the conversation that had been interrupted when Kevin and Dylan came.
“…Don’t say it.”
Louis’s voice was filled with pain.
We’ve known each other too long to become something new.
Louis covered his eyes with both hands, having become a coward who couldn’t confess after dragging things out for so long, and not wanting to hear Carol’s feelings.
“I actually liked the Duke, when you asked me before.”
“…”
“I just didn’t want to admit it.”
“…Carol.”
“And I’m still the same.”
But Carol didn’t stop talking.
“…Still?”
Louis repeated Carol’s words as if whispering, as if tasting them.
“Yes.”
“…”
At first, he felt like crying. A mix of relief that his mistake had been corrected and anxiety that he would be forgotten, thinking, “So she’s getting married.”
But after that, he felt a little angry.
‘You say you like me, and now you’re getting married?’
If it was a feeling that could subside so easily, you shouldn’t have shaken things up.
“But I think it’s time to forget now.”
She was tired of remaining in this unsettled state.
Louis removed his hands from his eyes. Carol’s face looked composed.
She might regret this decision later, made in an emotional state at dawn.
“Can you do me one favor?”
But she felt she couldn’t possibly fall asleep without saying this.
****
The Duke’s garden house in the capital was bustling with activity, preparing to welcome its master after several years.
The Winternox ducal townhouse, located in the prime area of the capital’s new district, was so large it was almost embarrassing to call it a townhouse.
Upon hearing that the Duke was coming to the capital, the head maid greatly increased the minimal staff they had been maintaining.
“Since guests are coming too, check the guest rooms once more to make sure there’s not a speck of dust.”
She looked at the servants with a critical eye, trying not to show that they had hurriedly increased the staff.
“Yes.”
The head maid nodded, seemingly satisfied, as the servants responded respectfully.
“Good. He said he’d arrive late this afternoon, so let’s finish everything before then.”
With those words, the headmaid quickly disappeared with busy steps.
Instead of immediately returning to their posts, the servants gathered in small groups, busy gossiping in the short gaps they had.
“Late afternoon means just a few hours from now, right?”
“How much can we do in a few hours?”
“Still, we should at least pretend to be working. Hey, you! Newbie!”
“…..”
The servants stopped the newbie who was trying to pass by quietly. It was to assign the farthest and most troublesome task.
“You check the guest rooms on the second floor.”
“…Yes.”
The newbie turned towards the guest rooms without objecting.
Behind her, the servants blatantly looked her up and down.
“Didn’t they say she came with someone’s recommendation? Did she come to the wrong place?”
“I know. She’s so docile even when we’re hazing her.”
“You’d think someone with a recommendation would be more arrogant.”
Despite hearing the servants’ whispers, the newbie didn’t look back once.
‘What am I doing here?’
The newbie was none other than Carol.
On an impulse, she had asked Louis to help her get a job at the Duke’s townhouse, wanting to see how happy he was.
[…I just want to see him one last time.]
[If that’s the case, I could talk to…No, I’ll do as you say. How do you plan to see him secretly?]
[…I just need to be able to see him from afar.]
[Alright.]
[…Louis, I…]
[Don’t say anymore. Let’s talk again later.]
Though she didn’t want to admit it, the Duke hadn’t liked her enough to seek her out.
If he had searched for her, he might have discovered her forged identity and found her.
But it hadn’t been to that extent.
While her head acknowledged this, her heart still couldn’t accept it.
So she planned to quietly leave after seeing the Duke happy without her from a distance.
Feeling guilty for using her vacation days and leaving the tutoring center to Bianca just to confirm this, she intended to just look and end it, not dragging things out like before.
But she hadn’t realized one thing.
That for a mere maid, seeing the Duke was like reaching for the stars.
****
“Hah…”
Carol sighed deeply after days of meaningless cleaning.
They had just ordered her to take out the trash, and without a break, the next task came rushing in.
She had imagined gazing at the Duke wistfully from afar. A sense of anxiety swept over her that at this rate, she might end up living a dutiful life as a maid without even seeing the Duke.
Although the Duke had come to the capital, he spent very little time at the townhouse.
And during those short periods, it was mostly the long-serving staff who attended to the Duke.
What Carol learned while working at the Duke’s townhouse was that his marriage hadn’t been officially announced yet.
{Duke’s reason for coming to the capital: Marriage?}
{At the center of the rumored discord between Duke Winternox and Count Chesworth were two young ladies.}
The newspapers were full of speculative articles. Among the few ducal houses in the empire, Winternox was the only one with an unmarried head.
It was a perfect condition for everyone to gossip about, so countless speculative articles came out, not just about love affairs.
Since Louis had mentioned it, the marriage itself probably wasn’t just a rumor, but she couldn’t gather any proper information.
Suddenly, she wondered what she was doing here.
“Phew…”
Carol sighed and wiped her forehead. Coming here swept up in emotions, but now objectively assessing the situation, she felt how pathetic and miserable she was.
She had abandoned her current life to come here, but couldn’t even see the Duke from afar.
Maybe it was time to go back.
Pitter-patter!
“Newbie!”
A maid who had been somewhat looking out for her came running towards Carol, breathless and urgent.
“…Yes?”
“The trash you threw out earlier, where did you dispose of it?”
