Chapter 9
After finishing his meal, Logan returned to his work. From downstairs, he could occasionally hear the servants starting their morning, but he paid no attention to what was happening outside.
Bella, who did not leave the bedroom either, finished tidying the bedding and preparing breakfast, then looked around the room to find something else to do.
Because the countess was strict by nature, the servants of the estate were expected to keep busy during work hours no matter what. Standing still with nothing to do made Bella restless, especially since the duke had not given her any instructions.
Staying near the duke, Bella glanced at him.
So the rumors were true. The Duke of Fraser really was a workaholic. Seeing him like this, she finally understood what people meant.
But she had heard that Miss Amelia’s fiancé cherished her deeply.
It felt a little strange. If he had come all this way for his fiancée’s birthday party, why was he spending the entire day buried in paperwork?
‘…That’s not my place to think about.’
The question crossed her mind briefly, but Bella quickly pushed it aside and started moving again.
‘Since my body’s not tired, my thoughts are wandering.’
She paced quietly around the room, careful not to disturb him. But perhaps that very caution irritated him, because soon a sharp gaze landed on her.
“You’ve been moving nonstop since morning. If you don’t have anything to do, why don’t you sit and rest?”
“I’m sorry for disturbing you. I just feel uncomfortable doing nothing.”
“There’s no one watching you. What’s the problem?”
Logan looked at Bella, who stubbornly remained standing despite his words. Knowing she had come early to match his waking time, he had meant to let her rest for a while, but her answer was as rigid as ever.
‘She really is an Everett through and through.’
The Everett family had withdrawn from politics and lived off the income from their territory, a typical old-fashioned rural noble house. Comfortable with stability, they made no effort to rise in the capital. Still, they could not afford to do nothing, so they constantly schemed to build ties with capital nobles.
They were exactly the type Logan despised: people who waited for fortune to fall into their laps without effort.
Vincent, who had grown up among them yet turned out differently, almost felt like an exception.
Logan turned back to his work, leaving the stiff maid behind.
“Are you looking for something?”
Bella asked when she noticed him shuffling through the scattered papers on his desk for quite a while.
“I think I saw an article about the Craig Charity. It’s nothing important, so don’t worry about it.”
“Craig… I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere.”
Bella slowly looked around the bedroom. Then she spotted a newspaper on the side table and carefully picked it up. She had gathered it while tidying the bed earlier.
“Ah, here it is.”
She handed the newspaper to the duke. As they passed it between them, their fingertips brushed.
Bella flinched as if burned and quickly pulled her hand back. She turned her body to hide her flushed face, but his gaze remained on her.
“Can you read?”
She tensed, wondering if he was about to criticize her, but the question that came from him was unexpected. Bella took a breath and nodded.
“Yes. I can read simple books.”
A subtle change flickered across Logan’s expression. After a moment of thought, he handed the newspaper back to her.
“Then read this.”
Under his gaze, Bella began reading the first page of the article. She knew how to read, but it had been a long time since she had read aloud in front of someone, so she grew nervous without realizing it.
The pressure of not making a mistake in front of the duke weighed heavily on her. She did not even have the space to think about how he was looking at her.
Only her voice filled the quiet room. As she focused on reading without missing a single word, Logan silently watched her.
“That’s enough.”
Just as she was nearing the end of the first page, he stopped her. His gaze, which had been fixed on Bella reading a difficult article without hesitation, had shifted into curiosity and interest.
“Did they teach you how to read at the count’s estate?”
Bella, handing the newspaper back, lifted her head at his question.
“No. I already knew how. Even though I lost my memories, I could still read and speak. I don’t know how I learned, though.”
She spoke with a faint smile, but there was still a trace of trembling in her voice.
“Maybe my parents taught me, before I went to the orphanage.”
Bella’s expression slowly darkened as she spoke of parents she could not remember.
Sometimes she imagined it. Had there been a time like that for her too?
A time when she introduced herself by the name her parents gave her, when she was loved without limits.
If she had not lost her memories, would she be living with her family now?
“Do you miss your family?”
“Well…”
At his question, Bella lifted her gaze to the ceiling.
“I don’t even know who my family is. I just sometimes imagine that maybe I had one, that my parents might still be searching for me after losing me in an accident.”
Her calm voice carried feelings that had built up over many years. But she knew the truth.
Yes, this was nothing more than her own imagination.
There was no way someone who had grown up moving from one orphanage to another had a family waiting for her. She must have learned things by chance somewhere along the way. She was no longer a child who could cling to empty hope over things like this.
She knew now that no one was coming to look for her.
***
Before she realized it, Bella was helping with the duke’s work. She was reading and sorting documents containing photos and descriptions of different cities.
At first, she made little progress, rereading the same sentences over and over to avoid mistakes. But as time passed, her speed gradually improved.
Each time she finished one file, another was placed in front of her, and the work continued without pause.
Had the duke been handling all of this alone? Seeing the mountain of documents still piled up even after working all day, she understood why he spent every day like this.
‘If the duke works without rest, I can’t afford to be lazy either.’
Though fatigue built up in her back and eyes from sitting so long, Bella did not stop her hands.
Logan watched the woman quietly assisting him without complaint for a long time.
She had claimed there was nothing she could do properly. Yet the way she handled the documents, or quietly drew the curtains when the afternoon sunlight hit the desk, showed care that could not be learned overnight.
He had only observed her for a single day, but his curiosity toward this maid who defied all his expectations continued to grow.
His gaze shifted from Bella’s face to the handkerchief wrapped around her wrist. It had not been there the first time he saw her.
As a vague tension settled in the room, the sound of a door echoed. At the same time, both of them looked up toward the sudden, uninvited visitor.
