Dirty Heart - Chapter 3

“Have you come to, Young Duke?”

The moment he opened his eyes, a heavy fatigue swept over Lionel. It felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on his shoulders, and it wasn’t easy even to sit up.

“…How long was I unconscious?”

“A full two days.”

The man faithfully guarding his side was a young man in a neat uniform, Alex Lanchester. He was the hands and feet Duke Erhardt had assigned to Lionel from childhood, worried about his frail son, and as the years passed, the two had come to share a fairly close, informal bond.

“…I have someone I like now.”

“A man who’s so healthy and looks like he’ll live long, you can’t even compare him to you, Young Duke.”

“…Fuck.”

A curse slipped from Lionel’s mouth out of nowhere. As soon as he came to his senses, the breakup Courtney had declared was the first thing that flashed through his mind.

Not only had he suffered a heart attack because a lowly maid said she wanted to break up, but he’d also been unconscious for two days. As a man, his pride had taken an utter beating.

“Courtney… suddenly said we should break up, and I don’t know why.”

When Lionel confided in him seriously, Alex tugged the corner of his mouth up as if he’d been waiting for it.

“Isn’t a woman’s heart more fickle than spring weather to begin with?”

“You’ve never even held a woman’s hand, yet you talk a big game.”

At the sarcastic jab, Alex shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.

“Well… I guess so. To catch up to the Young Duke, who grabs some woman’s hands without hesitation despite not even meaning it, I’ve still got a long way to go. Yes, sir.”

As if it had hit the mark, Lionel’s handsome brow crumpled hard.

“Enough. Why do you think she suddenly did that?”

“Did she say anything else?”

“Anything else?”

“For example, a reason for breaking up… some unavoidable circumstance, that sort of thing.”

Still looking like he couldn’t accept it, Lionel added slowly, “She said she has someone she likes now. A man healthier than me, who looks like he’ll live longer…. She said something ridiculous like that.”

“To me, it sounds like a perfectly rational reason. She’s got to have kids like little rabbits and live a cozy life together, but if her husband dies early, what kind of tragedy is that?”

Alex chimed in with complete sincerity, but Lionel didn’t so much as blink. From the start, he seemed to have no intention of listening to Alex at all.

“It’s too sudden. There weren’t any signs at all. Just a few days ago….”

Lionel trailed off.

Just a few days ago, the words Courtney had screamed on the bed nearly surged up to his throat, but maybe because he considered it vulgar, he held back and didn’t say the rest.

“Haah, no, too deep, ugh… ngh!”

Her ragged breathing, that gaze burning like fire, even her fingertips trembling.

Courtney’s figure, panting with his semen all over her body, was this vivid, and yet in the meantime, she’d come to like another man. No matter how he thought about it, it made no sense.

“…What the hell did I miss?”

Watching him, Alex offered an opinion again, this time putting on a deliberately serious face.

“Hmm, could it be that she fell in love at first sight with Billy the stablehand? He’s got that bronze skin, he’s built, and he’s full of robust health.”

“Don’t be stupid. He collapsed from heatstroke last month.”

“Ah, then is it Martin the gardener? The maids say his stamina is unbelievable.”

“That bastard’s a chain smoker. It wouldn’t be strange if he dropped dead from lung disease any day now.”

After thinking for a moment, Alex’s eyes widened, and he let out an exclamation.

“Hah, no way…?”

“You’ve got someone in mind?”

“Maybe….”

“Why, who?”

“…Could it be me?”

“….”

Lionel’s lips trembled as he glared at Alex. His frail body, which had only just woken up after two days, heated up again with rage.

“Honestly, don’t you think I’ll live longer than you, Young Duke?”

“…You forgot the premise that you might die by my hand first, Alex.”

“Haha. What a terrifying thing to say. It’s just a joke.”

Alex laughed lightly and waved his hand, but Lionel’s stiff expression showed no sign of easing.

Maybe he figured it’d be dangerous to keep poking at him. Alex cleared his throat for no reason and straightened his posture.

“Um… it seems Courtney’s being bullied pretty severely among the maids. Because she’s in the Young Duke’s favor.”

Lionel’s eyes flashed.

“Bullied?”

Only then did the sight of Courtney in the washroom come back to him. Hair soaked like strands of seaweed, lips turned blue, even the hem of her clothes clinging thickly to her skin.

Scenes he’d let pass without much interest at the time began to click into place like a puzzle.

“So that’s what it was. She couldn’t endure the bullying, so she asked for the breakup herself. The health thing was all just an excuse.”

“Whatever it is, excessive leaps are harmful.”

Lionel ignored Alex’s words like always and curled his hand into a fist.

“Good. Everything’s clear now. It’s actually easy.”

Watching the knuckles bulging up on the back of his hand with an uneasy look, Alex asked hurriedly, “What are you going to do?”

“If I just erase those maids without anyone noticing, that’s the end of it.”

Lionel smiled faintly and added in an indifferent tone, “I’ll make sure they can’t lay a single hair on my heart ever again.”

It was a nature far more cruel than anyone could imagine, hidden inside a frail shell.

***

From early in the morning, Lionel was monopolizing the window side of the corridor, and all the servants showed their discomfort.

“Young Duke, the blazing sun isn’t good for your health. Please, come inside….”

Despite the butler’s earnest plea, Lionel didn’t so much as move.

Since waking up, he’d been watching Courtney’s every move, but unfortunately, it didn’t look like there were any results.

As if the breakup she’d declared wasn’t some momentary impulse, she didn’t even come near Lionel anymore.

She hadn’t even visited him while he was collapsed, so this was truly ridiculous.

“It’s not like she got another man.”

Based on his observations so far, he hadn’t witnessed Courtney speaking with a man even once.

If so, then the theory that she’d asked for a breakup because she couldn’t endure the maids’ bullying was the most credible….

As expected.

“Oh my, Courtney, I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were there.”

Courtney’s body, crouched down pulling weeds, pitched forward with a flop. A group led by the head maid brushed past and gave her a little shove that made her fall.

Thanks to that, Courtney was covered in dust and dirt, but without showing anything, she sprang up and silently continued her work.

“Really, how lowly.”

Looking down at the absurd scene, Lionel muttered in a low voice.

The more he looked, the more he wondered how something could be that low. A scrawny frame that looked like it’d topple over at the first gust of wind, a plain outfit with not a trace of embellishment.

If she pushed her suffocatingly messy curly hair behind her ear, at least the outline of her face became something you could look at. It was something he’d learned because he’d gotten into the habit of brushing her hair back every time they had sex.

“What are you thinking right now?”

At the sudden memory of sex, Lionel’s brow creased harshly.

At the same time, dizziness washed over him, as if the floor and the ceiling had flipped in an instant. Like the butler had said, it seemed he’d been standing in the blazing sun for too long.

In that moment, as if she’d sensed his piercing gaze, Courtney suddenly lifted her head.

“….”

“….”

Their eyes met head-on, Lionel swaying as he clutched the railing, but she quickly flicked her gaze away.

“Huh.”

A disbelieving laugh slipped from Lionel’s lips. She dared to avoid his eyes? This definitely wasn’t a trivial problem.

Looking down at her back as she focused on pulling weeds again, Lionel was seized by a strange emotion.

How to put it? Not something cute like disappointment or betrayal, but….

“Young Duke, you really must go inside now. You’ll collapse again at this rate.”

In the end, still holding onto that feeling he couldn’t clearly define, Lionel had no choice but to stagger away.