The Heart keeps burning like a cigarette

Evelyn, having left the mansion building, hummed a tune as she walked to the main gate.
The scale of the grounds was truly magnificent, no matter how many times she saw it.
Just maintaining the gardens of this ducal estate probably cost an amount of money that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.
That’s why Evelyn had once felt resentful.
The fact that her father was the eldest son and she was the eldest grandchild, yet her uncle and Selene, the second son’s family, occupied this large mansion due to the unfair decisions of the adults.
But that crude envy did not last long.
As she became closer to Selene, she grew to like her more and more.
Selene would always speak bluntly, and if there was something she didn’t want to say, she would often clam up with a sullen face.
But surprisingly, if Evelyn cried and told on someone, Selene would personally punish those who had made her cry, or even if she liked a delicious food, she would eat only one and give the rest to Evelyn.
In fact, even without such reasons, Evelyn liked Selene.
Because there are people you like for no reason.
Perhaps it was the affection that had built up over a very long time of knowing each other.
Evelyn thought that since she had no siblings and Selene had no siblings, they could be siblings to each other.
Even if they didn’t live in the same house, they shared the same blood, so the term ‘siblings’ in a broad sense was not wrong.
‘Though Dad wouldn’t like it.’
Evelyn’s humming gradually stopped as she thought of Orlando.
She was not unaware of the talk that went around.
The story of her grandmother bypassing the eldest son and having the second son succeed the title was something she had heard so often it made her ears hurt.
Nevertheless, Evelyn considered all of that to be unrelated to Selene.
The ones who had made that decision were the adults, and Selene seemed to have no intention of succeeding the title in place of her late uncle.
In fact, her dad, regardless of what people said, had worried about and looked after Selene, who was left alone after losing her parents in an instant.
However, her dad had recently done something incomprehensible to Selene, making it impossible to know his true intentions.
The fragrant scent of flowers wafting from all over the garden faded at the unpleasant memory.
It was a memory from Velora.
She had gone to Velora to support Selene, who was diligently preparing for the competition along with her university graduation, and her dad had rarely tagged along.

“Let’s go together, Evelyn. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Velora, and I should go at least once since Selene is graduating.”

At that time, Evelyn was just happy.
It was clear that Selene would achieve good results in the competition, and the more people there were to celebrate such a sparkling moment, the better.
However, that joy did not last long.
It was because she saw her dad meeting strangers at a hotel in Velora.

‘Did Dad have acquaintances in Velora?’

Evelyn, sensing something was not right, secretly followed Orlando and overheard their conversation in the drawing-room.

“I don’t understand why you’re going to such lengths, Colonel. Miss Selene is more than capable of winning on her own.”
“There’s no harm in making sure, is there? As it happens, an acquaintance of mine is judging the competition, so I had to step in for my niece’s sake.”

Evelyn’s hands trembled as she understood the content of the conversation.
If she hadn’t misheard, her dad was clearly bribing the judges of the competition Selene was participating in.
The Selene she knew was not someone who would ask her dad for such a thing.
That meant her dad had done this on his own, which made her even more confused.
Evelyn had to find out what was going on right away.
Two days after overhearing that conversation, Evelyn returned to the hotel where Orlando was staying and immediately brought up what she had heard.

“Dad. I heard you talking to strangers in the drawing-room here two days ago. Is it true that you tried to bribe the judges behind Selene’s back?”
“Evelyn.”

Orlando did not deny it.
Rather, his gaze was calm and emotionless.
Evelyn knew what that meant.

“I understood correctly…!”
“Hmph. Calm down, my child.”
“I don’t need to hear it! That’s not what Selene wants at all. You’re trampling on all the effort she has put in until now! How could you…!”

Evelyn was excited and shouted like a crazy person.
She didn’t know why Selene was so obsessed with the piano, but she knew that the piano was more important to her than her own life.
So, this was no different from shattering her soul.
Selene would not be able to forgive herself when she later found out this fact, regardless of whether she had wanted it or not.

“She’s like a sister to me! If you touch her, I won’t stand by and do nothing!”

That day, Evelyn acted as if she would jump from the seventh-floor hotel room if Orlando didn’t give her a straight answer, and in the end, he withdrew the bribery of the judges.
She had even confirmed their conversation with her own eyes, so it was true that Selene had achieved the victory in that competition all on her own.
If she hadn’t accidentally overheard her dad’s conversation that day, the victory in her first competition would have remained a shameful achievement for Selene.
Evelyn let out a long sigh and stopped reminiscing.
‘Why on earth did Dad do that?’
Unconsciously, Evelyn had reached the main gate of the Ashcombe ducal estate.
The crest of the Ashcombe ducal family, largely engraved in relief, was visible.
Evelyn vaguely knew that the reason her dad had tried to do such a thing was related to the crest engraved on that main gate, that is, his lingering attachment to the ducal title.
And also the bad relationship between her grandmother and her dad.
“My lady.”
At the call of the driver who was waiting for her, Evelyn came to her senses and got into the car.
Still, seeing Selene’s face today, she was glad that her confused mind had been sorted out a little.
She wanted Selene to be happy, and for that, she had to carefully watch her dad.
For her beloved cousin.
‘No matter what happens, I’ll protect you, Selene.’
Evelyn’s eyes, filled with determination, were shining firmly.

In front of the main gate, not far from the Ashcombe ducal estate, a suspicious car had been circling the same spot for an hour.
‘Doing this, I really feel like a stalker.’
The owner of that car was Theron.
He had brought a different car from the one he had been riding in case Selene recognized it, but his efforts were in vain as he hadn’t run into anyone, and the ash from the cigarette in his mouth was just burning away.
In fact, Theron hadn’t intended to do something so stalker-like.
It was just that he hadn’t received a reply from Selene for two weeks, and around the time he was increasing the number of letters he sent a day from two to three, his hand started to hurt, and at the same time, a sense of self-loathing washed over him, and the thought that it would be better to just drive around like this and pretend to have met by chance suddenly came to him.
Lately, Theron’s insides had been burning like the cigarette in his mouth.
Of course, it was his fault for touching her body without permission, but honestly, even if he went back to that time, Theron couldn’t be sure if he could have kept his hands off that alluringly large chest.
The more he kissed Selene, the more he got excited, instead of getting tired of her lips.
Besides that, there was also the problem that the woman was responding more diligently than before, and that she kept touching his forearm or chest.
‘And if I had at least properly touched that large chest, I wouldn’t feel so wronged.’
The moment he placed his hand on that soft breast and squeezed it was very brief.
Nevertheless, he remembered that sensation very clearly.
As expected, it filled his hand overflowing, and at the same time, it fit softly… damn it.
Look at this.
Even while being kicked out and wandering around like a stalker, just thinking about that moment made his lower body start to get hard.
So, it was as clear as day that even if he went back to the past, he would act the same way and get kicked in the shin.
Hmph.
Theron tried to calm the heat in his lower body with a strong cigarette.
Lately, whether it was cigars or alcohol, nothing tasted good, but a strong cigarette like this, which felt like a stinging slap on the cheek, was a little helpful at times like this.
But despite the effort of smoking a strong cigarette, Theron couldn’t even see Selene’s shadow for the next two hours.
‘She thinks she’s a unicorn.’
Theron, who was starting to wonder what he was doing, finally parked his car near the mansion and got out, slamming the door with a thud.
But as it happened, the place where he stopped the car was a road near the main gate where there was a trash can where all the trash from the ducal estate was collected.
Theron, wondering if his letter was somewhere in there, felt pathetic and kicked the trash can hard.
Clang, a clear sound came from the damn empty trash can.
Even that annoyed Theron, and he stuck his hands in his pants pockets and was about to walk around for a while when he suddenly met the eyes of a middle-aged woman who was watching him.
“…”
Theron stopped at the familiar face.
She was the owner of the lemon and sugar, and the maid he often ran into when he visited the ducal estate to see Selene.
He had just taken his anger out on a trash can, but he was caught red-handed, and Theron felt a cold sweat on his palms.
Even though he had shown this rough side to Selene several times, it was hard to explain why he was kicking a trash can near the mansion.
Doesn’t it look like a violent stalker?
“The reason I kicked this trash can just now… was because a ridiculously large fly was rudely flying around the ducal estate, so I was trying to shoo it away…”
“You must have come to see the young lady, right?”
Contrary to his worries, Selene’s maid, without any sign of wariness, put the trash bag she was holding into the empty can and spoke nonchalantly.