Gwendolyn scowled at the abrupt manner she had been roused and turned to face the other side.

Jonah kept knocking, seemingly intent on hammering down her door if she did not answer it soon.

Irritated by the racket, Gwendolyn flung aside her quilt. She slipped on her slippers and donned a thick sleeping gown before answering the door.

“What does he want this time?” she demanded, glaring at Jonah with a look of irritated disgust.

“Mr. Lund isn’t messing around this time, Ms. Harris. He visited a bar this afternoon and spent the day drinking. He even sent us away. When I went back for him earlier tonight, I found him drunk as a skunk with your name on his lips. So, the only thing I could do was to bring him here to you.”

Gwendolyn was impassive. Cold, even. “Give him something to sober up, then, or get him a doctor who would give him a jab. What good will it do sending him to me? I’m not a doctor.”

She was about to shut the door after her speech, but Jonah threw himself against the frame. “Please see him. He would feel much better in your presence.”

Gwendolyn’s frostiness did not dissipate. “I’m under house arrest because of him. He wouldn’t let me out of this house. What if he sobers up tomorrow and accuses me of misbehaving? Wouldn’t that be unfair to me?”

“Uh…”

Jonah was conflicted. He gave the matter a moment of serious thought before suggesting, “Why don’t I bring him to your room?”

“No way! I can’t stand the stench of alcohol on him. You’d better get back to Alzer Palace.”

Jonah fell silent.

“Gwen. Gwen…”

Charles’ voice, slurred by booze and laced with melancholy, traveled up the stairs from the living room below.

Jonah was near tears. “Go down and have a look at him, Ms. Harris. I’ll explain everything to him for you tomorrow. You wouldn’t want him to be keeping you awake, I’m sure. I’m begging you!”

irritation. “Wake the maid,” she instructed. “Have her put together something

“At once.”

sprinted down the

gown tighter around her and

was sprawled on the couch. His cheeks were flushed with alcohol, and his

freshener to mask the

him in the knee several times with the sole of her slipper, trying to

a place for you to spend the night. Get lost back to your Alzer

The haze of intoxication receded

out toward the sound of Gwendolyn’s voice and caught hold of a corner of her

conceal the disgust in her eyes, she snatched her garment out of his

“Let go!”

held on firmly. He was brutishly

at the thought of seeing Nico covered in blood from

the maid, Jonah had not

him two merciless slaps across

in quick

thoroughly awake. Only then did he loosen his

head and stroked his flaming cheeks, tender with pain, while gazing slowly up

“Gwen?”

her chin haughtily. After striking him, she regarded him with a bold glare. “Are you aware that you’re disrupting my sleep by turning up here in the middle of the night with a drunken tantrum?

hung his head, pretending not to hear her. Suddenly, he began sobbing

with helpless despair. Coupled with the handprints on his cheeks,

unmoved. “You can drop your act. Get out. You stink so badly that not even air freshener can mask

she turned toward the stairs, but

remember the spring seven years ago when I took you to the horse race on the steppes, Gwen? In the summer, I jumped into the pond and brought you lotuses. In the fall, I taught you to shoot an arrow, brandish a whip, and aim a gun. In the winter,

though she

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