Chapter 24
“Mmph……!”
At the unexpected ambush, Rowina struggled and tried to shake off his hand. She turned her lips away and tried to strike his cheek, but strength gradually drained from her body. Like a snake ensnaring its prey, Killian persistently swallowed even the last drop of her saliva, then swept her disheveled blond hair behind her ear.
“Don’t be ill-mannered. Keep your mouth shut, Miss Philone.”
It was his final warning. Had anyone else heard that tone, their blood would have run cold, but Rowina calmly wiped her lips with the back of her hand.
“If you’ve said what you wanted to say, may I sleep now?”
“…….”
“I was upset last night and barely slept. So I’m very sleepy.”
She spoke as though composed, but the end of her sentence trembled. Killian let out a disbelieving scoff and called for an attendant to prepare the bed.
As soon as the spacious seat was transformed into a makeshift bed, Rowina lay down and pulled the blanket up over her head. Exhaustion pressed down on her eyelids. The approaching dream carried her back eight years.
Booooooo.
Cutting through the heavy dawn mist, the train arrived at the platform.
The waiting passengers boarded in lines like schools of fish moving together. In front of the third-class carriage, Rowina held her luggage and looked up for a moment at the enormous steam locomotive. Its magnificent size, grander than anything she had seen in books, filled her with both fear and excitement.
It was the train she had wanted to ride ever since she was young. She was eager and thrilled to see what unknown world it would take her to. The wide world her mother and father had seen.
“…
It’ll be all right. I won’t be alone even after I get there.”
She was murmuring as though casting a spell when a station attendant with an indifferent face held out his hand, asking for her ticket. Before she knew it, it was her turn to board.
The moment she took a deep breath and stepped inside, a familiar voice came from behind her.
“Rowina!”
“…
Uncle……?”
“Rowina! Wait a moment.”
Rowina’s eyes widened, and she quietly yielded her turn to the next person. The man who had come running over panted heavily as he caught his breath.
Hair of pure blond without a single impurity, and black eyes. The slender, thin man was Jeremy Dish, her only guardian and maternal uncle.
Before Jeremy could say anything, Rowina lowered her head deeply and spoke first.
“I’m truly sorry for leaving without a word…… Uncle.”
But there really had been no other way. For years, whenever she even mentioned going up to the capital, her uncle had cried out in absolute opposition. When she realized that no amount of effort to persuade him would work, she had eventually concluded that this departure, which was not quite running away but also was, was her only answer.
“Do you really… have to go up there? When you don’t even know what awaits you in that place.”
Once his ragged breathing settled, Jeremy straightened from his bent posture and asked seriously.
“It’s the sort of place where a naive girl like you, who knows nothing of the world, could suffer anything. You still need a guardian.”
At the words she had heard until they were etched into her ears, Rowina shut her eyes tightly, then opened them.
“Uncle. I’m not a child anymore.”
It was a conversation they had repeated dozens, hundreds of times. While they spoke, the last passenger in line boarded the train. Seeing Rowina keep glancing anxiously at the attendant, Jeremy finally raised the white flag.
“If this is what you truly want, I can’t tie you down, so there’s nothing to be done. But promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“When you have a problem, when you need help, when you want to come back—come back anytime.”
“…….”
“Anytime at all. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. I, at least, will always be on your side. Rowina.”
“Uncle…….”
The tip of her nose stung. Rowina threw herself into Jeremy’s arms.
“Thank you…. I’ll contact you once I settle in.”
“Do that.”
As though he had never once opposed her with fire in his eyes, Jeremy gently stroked his niece’s cheek, then carried her heavy luggage onto the train.
After handing her ticket to the attendant and boarding, Rowina waved one last time.
The seats were uncomfortable, and she was squeezed between people, but it was a decent journey.
The problem came that dark evening. Since she had poor night vision, she had to concentrate with all her might just to see ahead. As she had memorized in advance, she left the dining car and searched for the lavatory, but she could not find it.
Rowina gave up and turned to return to third class. She opened a door, thinking to ask someone for directions.
Along with bright light, a luxurious compartment unlike anything she had ever seen came into view. Rowina, awkward and flustered, stepped backward and stumbled.
“Oh……?”
Just then, a hand reached out from inside the compartment and wrapped around her shoulder. The hand lightly caught her body as she was about to fall, then fell away cleanly.
“You should be careful, miss.”
“Th-thank you.”
It was the first time she had ever been this close to a young man. Red to the tips of her ears, Rowina fixed her eyes on the floor. The faint scent of cigarette smoke and sandalwood made her dizzy.
“Are you lost?”
His voice resonated low, as if from within a deep cave. At that infinitely courteous and gentle tone, Rowina slowly lifted her head.
Naturally loosened jet-black hair, eyes like a blue lake. Sharp eyes, a straight, refreshing bridge of the nose. Sensuous lips.
The passenger who had caught her was so handsome she could hardly believe her eyes. He seemed like a prince from a fairy tale. If only he had not been expressionless. At that moment, a hiccup rose from her mouth.
“Hic!”
After her earlier mistake, she had done yet another embarrassing thing. Rowina bit her lip and hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands. But the hiccups that had begun would not stop.
Toward the man looking at her in puzzlement, Rowina hastily offered an excuse.
“It’s just… hic! You’re so, so handsome……”
The man was silent as though thinking for a moment, and then, in the next instant, he let out a quiet laugh. His cold impression softened in an instant, and magic occurred as though a sculpture had become human.
The man searched his coat and slipped something into her mouth. Before she could realize what it was, a sweet taste spread over her tongue. Rowina’s eyes rounded in surprise, and she held her breath.
The hiccups stopped. In many ways, he was a man who performed magic. Perhaps he was closer to a wizard than a prince.
Fascinated, Rowina forgot her manners and stared at him quietly. Narrowing his eyes, the man asked again.
“Are you lost?”
“Ah…, yes.”
“I’ll call an attendant, so please wait.”
When he rang the bell, an attendant in charge of first class soon came to the compartment. With a face very accustomed to giving orders, the man instructed him.
“Escort this lady to her carriage.”
“Yes, understood. This way, please.”
“Ah…… yes.”
Rowina nodded, then bowed toward the man.
“…
Thank you.”
She had just bowed and was about to follow the attendant.
“Goodbye, Miss…….”
Rowina stopped abruptly and turned back as if bewitched. Leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, the man was waiting for her next words.
“Philone… It’s Philone.”
“Miss Philone.”
After pronouncing her surname once as though rolling it around in his mouth, the man gave his own name.
“Killian. I am Killian Devonshire.”
The red electric light spilling from the compartment brightly tinted the man’s smooth skin. As he smiled faintly, a deep dimple formed in his left cheek.
The man invited her to lunch the next day.
At the touch of a hand pulling her waist into an embrace, Rowina woke from the dream.
At some point, night had fallen, and the inside of the train was dark. Her heart sank at the body pressed close against her back. She was trapped between the backrest and Killian’s body.
Low breathing sounded above the crown of her head. When she quietly tried to loosen the hand clasped around her waist, the restraint tightened.
“…
Are you asleep?”
There was no answer. She could not understand at all why he was sleeping while holding her when he had his own bed. As she began to twist her body little by little because of the uncomfortable position, a slightly hoarse voice, as though sunk in drowsiness, growled.
“Stay still. Unless you’re trying to provoke me.”
When she had been his mistress, he was a man who vanished coldly once their lovemaking was over. Faced with this incomprehensible whim, Rowina chose to close her eyes rather than understand him.
* * *
Wisborne Castle, the Devonshire ducal residence in Rockford, was a castle that had endured for hundreds of years. With a vast lake stretching endlessly behind it, the white castle surrounded by a moat was composed of four tall spires, outer walls, inner walls, and a high bridge crossing the moat.
When two carriages bearing the ducal family’s crest stopped at the entrance to the bridge, the heavy drawbridge slowly lowered. Once it was completely level with the bridge, the coachman cracked his whip vigorously. Two pairs of snorting black horses passed through the outer wall and entered the castle grounds.
Among the dozens of servants lined up to welcome their master’s return, the first to greet the duke was the butler. Approaching Killian as he stepped down from the carriage, he bowed smoothly.
“You must be weary from the long journey.”
“Is there anything to report?”
“As I have informed you thus far, nothing significant.”
“I see.”
Killian replied impassively and extended a hand into the carriage.
After hesitating for a moment at the hand offered before her as though it were only natural, Rowina ignored his escort and stepped down from the carriage. As the gazes of the servants, who recognized her one by one, filled with shock, only the butler, who had been informed in advance, remained calm. With an indifferent expression, Killian spoke again.
“Miss Philone’s room.”
“It has been prepared. The room she used before.”
“No. Not that room.”
Looking at Rowina, who was deliberately avoiding his gaze, Killian added,
“Guide her to the room next to mine.”
“Your Grace!”
The air froze in an instant. Rowina herself was no different in doubting her ears.
In the frozen atmosphere, the butler calmly expressed his objection.