The hour Lia returned home in a carriage, her journey behind her and a success by any measure.
Richard, master of Crimson Manor and Lia's father, was beside himself. His daughter—raised as the apple of his eye after the loss of his wife—had been away from his side for weeks under the banner of travel. He had received a telegram saying she would arrive today, yet his heart refused to settle, and the manor's evening hummed with a peculiar tension beneath its usual calm.
He had been pacing back and forth, badgering the head housemaid and the old steward, when he declared he could hear a carriage approaching and threw open the front door. His timing proved perfect: a public hire carriage from the railway company had just drawn to a stop at the front gate.
The moment she stepped out, Lia ran straight to the waiting Count and threw herself into his arms.
"Papa! It was the most incredible trip! And not a single dangerous thing happened—all thanks to Ed!"
Count Richard Crimson laughed his broad, generous laugh and ruffled his daughter's hair.
"I'm glad you're home safe. Without you, the capital was nothing but darkness!"
Beyond her, he looked with quiet satisfaction at Ed, who stood at a respectful distance with a precise, unhurried bow. To the Count, Ed was loyalty made flesh. He had rescued the boy from the slave market years ago, intending to give him a decent education and send him to an orphanage, or perhaps place him with a good common family. But Ed had insisted on proving his worth, mastering everything set before him with startling speed. Watching that progress, the Count had resolved to make Ed into a steadfast right hand for his daughter—a female heir whose position was, by the nature of things, more precarious than that of other houses' successors. A hunting dog bred solely for the family's sake, one that would never bare its teeth at his daughter. A loyal instrument.
To Richard, Ed was precisely that, and nothing more.
"Well done, Ed. I was right to send you with her. You'd lay down your life for Lia without a second thought."
Ed lowered his head a fraction deeper and answered quietly.
"You flatter me, my lord. My lady is... my mistress. It is simply what I am."
The Count took those words for an oath of fealty and never doubted it for a moment. But Ed's gaze had come to rest on the Count's arm wrapped around Lia's shoulders—a warmth touching a place Ed himself could never reach. Even knowing it was her father's embrace, something cold and fog-like rose in a corner of Ed's chest. Jealousy, quiet and unhurried.
Lia noticed the faint dimness in his eyes and assumed it was exhaustion—her fault, no doubt, for being such a handful throughout the journey.
"You worked hard, Ed. Get some rest tonight. I'm going to wash up and go straight to bed."
The maids had already gathered around her, collecting the luggage Ed had carried in, peeling away her dusty travel coat, and standing ready with a light silk-and-cotton negligée.
"We'll have your bath drawn at once, my lady."
"Yes, please."
From this point on, Ed's world and hers were separate rooms. He was bowing graciously, thanking her for the early dismissal, so Lia didn't see it—but his eyes were full of reluctance.
Unaware of any of this, Lia looked into the large tub the servants had warmed in advance, its surface scattered with rose petals and fragrant with rare natural oils, and smiled with deep satisfaction.
"I couldn't wash properly the whole trip! Now it finally feels like I'm home."
"Does it really, my lady?"
Ruri, Lia's personal maid, worked a precious oil through Lia's travel-roughened hair and kneaded her shoulders in slow, soothing circles.
"Oh, don't even get me started. I was rinsing off at a tap with plain water."
"I can hardly believe it. You, washing with just water."
"It's called experience, Ruri. Experience."
Lia thought back over the travel adventures a noblewoman rarely got to have, and allowed herself a small, private smile of pride. Right now she was melting blissfully in a warm tub while Ruri fussed over her—but out on that rough and winding road, she had been as tough as any adventurer. Well. Ed would probably grumble that *he* was the one who'd had it harder, but still.
Sleeping rough, navigating an unforgiving road without the cushion of a full retinue—it had given her a strange, exhilarating sense of freedom that life as a noble lady could never offer. Each warm ripple against her skin brought a pleasant, medal-worthy ache, the satisfying weight of something genuinely earned.
"I'm so sleepy... Anything new in society while I was gone?"
The gossip network among maids was, in its own way, remarkably efficient. The downside being that misinformation traveled just as fast.
Ruri worked the lather gently through Lia's hair and answered.
"There's word of the Emperor's birthday banquet coming up, and... oh, my lady, a whole stack of marriage proposals arrived for you! The Count was absolutely furious."
"I only had my debut not long ago—proposals already?"
"If anything, my lady, you're a little late. Noble families tend to get engaged early."
"I suppose that's true..."
Lia sighed as Ruri chattered on, toweling her hair dry. As a female heir, she was not in a position to simply choose someone she liked. A poorly chosen husband could mean his family swallowing Crimson whole.
A match that would protect both her and her house. Two faces surfaced in her mind at the same moment: Ed, her steadfast butler, and Jonny, her knight escort.
"Sir Jonny seemed quietly put out that you took Ed the butler on this trip instead of him, my lady..."
"O—oh, really?"
Lia had been privately considering Jonny as a potential future husband, and the mention of his name made her sit up with a start.
Ruri, who had nearly been splashed in the face, blinked wide. Meeting Ruri's gaze, Lia realized she had overreacted and quickly deflected.
"Ed only came because of Father. Sir Jonny has absolutely no reason to feel slighted over that."
"I suppose not, but..."
Ruri turned the thought over quietly, a small ache pressing at her chest. It had already stung to relay that Sir Jonny had been put out—and now, watching Lia's flustered, almost shy reaction, she felt something lodge in her throat. She looked away and dabbed at the water droplets on the edge of the tub.
Oblivious to Ruri's feelings, Lia announced she was done and stepped out. Another maid hurried over with her clothes.
"Shall I have a light snack prepared, my lady?"
"No, I'm going straight to sleep tonight. Breakfast tomorrow, please."
"Of course."
Lia told Ruri to rest once she'd finished tidying up, then made her way to her room. Left behind, Ruri's face held a heaviness she had kept carefully hidden from her mistress. She turned over the memory of Lia's reaction when Jonny's name was mentioned.
*So my lady really does feel that way about Sir Jonny...*
A perfect misunderstanding.
At that same hour, Ed was in his room putting away his things, half-listening to what could only be described as Jonny's grievances.
"I am her knight escort—it makes no sense to send a busy butler like yourself instead of me!"
Ed chose not to say *because you lack the attentiveness for it.* Jonny had come to his room to vent, and what drove him wasn't jealousy over a stolen assignment—it was closer to the rigid, earnest self-reproach of a man who felt he had failed to earn complete trust as a knight. For someone who believed that safeguarding the young lady was his one and only purpose, being left behind at the manor in favor of a butler must have felt like a serious dereliction.
Ed was letting the words wash over him when one particular phrase snagged in his ear.
"...And so the Count has given me the task of keeping watch over the noble young masters who present proposals to my lady at the birthday banquet—"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Hm? Oh—yes, a number of marriage proposals arrived addressed to my lady. The Count wanted them all torn up, apparently."
"...I see."
It was the first time Ed had ever found himself genuinely fond of the Count.
Still worn from the journey, Lia fell into a deep sleep the moment she lay down. Ed moved through the room with practiced ease, snuffing the candles one by one, until only moonlight seeped through the curtains. He drew close to her bedside.
The warm, obliging smile he wore through the daylight hours was gone without a trace. He settled beside her pillow and stroked her hair—careful, unhurried, with the focused attention of someone handling something irreplaceable. The soft strands slipped through his fingers like falling petals, and his eyes narrowed slightly at the sight.
"You spent the entire journey trying to shake me off..."
Lia stirred in her sleep and caught the edge of his sleeve in a loose, unconscious grip. A faint curve appeared at the corner of Ed's mouth—quiet, and not entirely safe.
"And yet here you are, my lady. Right back beside me."
He turned the necklace between his fingers—the one still resting at her throat, the one he had chosen for her himself at a shop along the way. The Count would have taken it for a simple souvenir. To Ed, it was something closer to a brand.
"The Count is mistaken. I am not loyal to the family."
He leaned down until his lips were a breath from her ear and spoke in a low, unhurried murmur.
"I have no intention of dying for you, my lady. My only intention is to keep you alive—right here beside me—until the day you die."
Lia breathed on, peaceful and unknowing.
Marriage proposals? What did those matter?
He was the one listening to her breathe.
As if he meant to seal that sound inside his own walls forever, Ed pressed a brief kiss to her hair—then withdrew into the dark as silently as he had come.