The sound of their murmuring grew steadily louder and more menacing. The drawing room began to grow unfocused, as if filled with dozens of the uninvited guests, but Catherine had no intention of backing down. She knew from several years of experience how vicious they were. If she didn’t cast them out now, they would cling to her home like leeches.

She decided to drive the point home.

“Just you try taking another step,” she said.

The shadows that had begun spreading across the ceiling flinched, then froze.

“I’ll make it so you can never set foot in here again. You may not know this, but I’m the sort of person who makes good on her word.”

They shrank and began to whisper among themselves.

“How odd.”

“It’s not working.”

“Who in the world is that girl? Why won’t it work?”

Catherine’s stance seemed to have an effect. Their voices grew quieter and quieter until their forms disappeared from the drawing room altogether. Catherine let out a sigh. This was all she could do.

In the now silent drawing room, the warm fire continued to blaze. The man’s clothes and hair were still soaked, but it seemed they would soon dry. Catherine trudged over to a different sofa and plopped down on it, allowing her rain-soaked clothes to slowly seep into the fabric. I hope the storm lets up tomorrow.

In her exhausted state, she couldn’t help falling asleep.

***

She had a dream. In it, Catherine saw very familiar faces. Through an open bedroom door, she spied her mother dressed in traveling clothes, her baffled father, and her father’s mistress.

“How dare you!”

Catherine had forgotten this memory over time, but in the dream, it was as vivid as if it were replaying in front of her eyes. The mistress was half-dressed, her pale skin showing. She cowered on the bed, covering herself with a sheet. At the sight of this, Catherine’s mother marched over and slapped the interloper in the face.

“Ack!” The woman’s frail body collapsed like a flower before a typhoon as Catherine’s mother glared at her.

“What gives you the right to be in here?” her mother yelled.

“R-Ryan!”

At the woman’s cry, Catherine’s mother turned toward her husband standing by the door. “Don’t you take another step, Ryan! After I’m done with this wench, you’re next!”

Her voice was sharper than a knight’s blade, prompting her husband to flinch and slowly retreat from the bedroom. Catherine stared at her father’s back as he fled. He clearly hadn’t realized that she and her mother would return a day early from Panya. Otherwise, he never would have dared do anything to elicit his wife’s wrath.

“We brought you in as an orphan with nowhere else to go, and this is how you repay me? I ought to throw you right back in the gutter!”

“F-forgive me! I’m sorry, my lady!” the woman sobbed as Catherine’s mother grabbed a fistful of her short blonde hair. Catherine looked on with fright. Even at a young age, she recognized how incredible her mother’s temper was. The situation only calmed after some servants hauled the interloper away.

Catherine’s mother panted for a few minutes before she returned to her daughter and took her hand. She looked calm now. They went to the drawing room, where sweet refreshments and warm milk awaited them.

“Catherine, my love, you must watch and learn from me,” she said, looking through the window at the blue sky. Here, in the small drawing room, the garden wasn’t visible, although it would be in other rooms. “When something interferes with your life, don’t be afraid. Stamp it out without delay. That way those things will know their place.”

She was watching the rear door used for deliveries and by the servants during their comings and goings. A sharp scream split the air. Catherine was vaguely aware that it came from the half-dressed maid who’d been dragged away.

“Understand, Catherine? Be protective of the things you own, and if anyone steals from you, force them to pay the price.”

Her mother’s face was as bored and disinterested as if she was discussing matters from someone else’s life. Only her voice betrayed her feelings. It was harsh and clear as if delivering the message of a lifetime. She finally turned to her daughter. Oddly, Catherine was having difficulty remembering what expression had been on her mother’s face at that moment.

“That’s your right.”

A week later, her mother disappeared.

The air crowding into Catherine’s lungs pricked her like needles. Instinctively opening her eyes, she sat up, gasping for air. She was dizzy, and she knew from the vividness of the sensation that she had returned to reality. She staggered to her feet and opened the heavy curtains that covered the window, which revealed the gloomy and foggy world outside.

Wait, how did I get here? Where did the man go? Catherine realized she had woken up in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. She put her concerns aside and ventured into the hall. I wonder why I had that dream.

She hadn’t dreamed about her mother in so long, and now she’d recalled the time her father cheated with a maid. She wished she could have relived a happier moment. Downstairs in the drawing room, the sofa where the man had slept was empty. The fire in the hearth had also died out, and there was no sign of the blankets Catherine had heaped on him.

Rose must’ve cleaned up in here. As she walked to the kitchen, the delightful smell of roasted potatoes greeted her nose.

“Miss!”

Catherine had no idea how Rose knew she was there, but the maid dropped her ladle and came running.

“You should’ve rung for me!” she cried. “Are you all right? I was so worried when I couldn’t find you this morning.”

“I’m fine,” Catherine replied. “Thanks for putting me to bed.”

“Sorry? I didn’t do that.”

Rose seemed genuinely confused. Catherine knitted her brows. If Rose hadn’t moved her, only one other person could have—the bizarre man who had intruded yet again last night.

“Oh, that’s right.” Rose clapped her hands. “Your friend came to call not too long ago!”

Friend?

Rose guided her mistress to the kitchen. Catherine lived like a hermit, and no one was close enough to her for a house visit. More importantly, did anyone know that she had left home and moved to Christopher? Her own father probably didn’t even know.

“Ah, Miss Panya. Good morning.”

It was him. The same man who had intruded yet again the night before. At this rate, Catherine didn’t have it in her to be shocked anymore. The man sat at the end of the table with a book open before him, sipping tea. He seemed as comfortable as if he were in his own home.

“I told him he could wait in the drawing room,” Rose whispered to her mistress, “but he insisted on staying in the kitchen. When did you make such a handsome friend? He even looks a bit like the grand duke...”

After whispering all of this loudly enough for their guest to hear, Rose returned to her cooking with a smile. The man appeared to be completely fine. Seeing how he was dressed in only his shirt and vest, it was clear that he had never left the house, even after waking up. However, his clothes and hair, which had been disheveled in the rain, were now impeccably clean. His eyes met Catherine’s, and he smiled as if nothing were amiss. This wasn’t his usual frightening smile, but a calm, composed one. It was enough to make most women fall for him at first sight.

“Look here.” After she had worked so hard to save this man from the downpour last night, his tidy appearance only made Catherine more upset. She resolved to find out once and for all what this man was up to. “How can you be so indecent as to keep showing up here uninvited?”

She wanted to forget about him.

The man shook his head and laughed strangely, taking another sip from his teacup. Rose was intentionally looking elsewhere, but she was clearly hanging on to every word.

“Hmm,” he replied. “That’s a strong way to put it. Is it really that indecent of me to visit?”

“Do you think it’s not? If it wasn’t bad enough that you showed up here last night, now you’re sitting in someone else’s house drinking their tea!”

Because they came for him, Catherine was feeling ill again. However, the man simply breathed in the aroma of his drink, smiling and ignoring her.

“Miss Rose, this tea is very nice. Thank you for treating me so well when I came to call so suddenly.”

“Oh my,” Rose replied, blushing and covering her smile with her hand. Catherine could only click her tongue at the man’s charm.

“Answer me,” she demanded.

At Catherine’s harsh tone, Rose’s smile quickly disappeared. She looked back and forth between the two of them. “Oh no, miss,” she said. “What am I to do if you have a lover’s quarrel in the kitchen?”

The maid turned abruptly and left them alone. If Rose had to misinterpret their relationship, why couldn’t she have imagined him as a debt collector or something? Catherine’s brows knitted as the man spoke.

“Miss Panya.”

In contrast to his gentle voice, his eyes appeared combative for a moment before softening. “I recall giving you a very important piece of advice, and yet you’re still in this house.”

She had been waiting for this.

“Wait here.”

She went upstairs and fetched the thousand rieds from under her bed before returning to the kitchen. “Take it,” she said, shoving the bills at him. “You can have your money back.”

The man merely lowered his eyes to look at the notes on the table.

“Thanks for your advice, but I’m not leaving this house,” she continued. “Now will you please stop coming here?”

The man let out an exasperated laugh. “You know I don’t come here because I want to.”

“Look— Wait, what’s your name? I can’t keep saying ‘look here’ whenever I need to address you.”

He carefully studied her face with narrowed eyes. She had only asked his name, but he seemed extremely displeased. But it only lasted a moment. His face returned to its usual bored expression as he answered, “Chezare.”

Catherine froze.

Did he say Chezare? A storm kicked up in her head. Everyone in the empire knew that name.

Chezare Jhan Wuld Christopher.

Of course, this name was usually preceded or followed by several long titles, but still, everyone knew it because it was the name of the only grand duke in the empire.

“Chezare... So not only do you look like the grand duke, but you share a name with him.”

The man, Chezare, smiled.

“I get that a lot.”