“You do know I’m dying.” His mother extends a weak hand towards him. Out of practiced instinct, he grasps it.

Siwon, 4th generation Duke of the Choi family, kept his manner impassive while he searches his mind for an appropriate response. Finding none that would please either party, he replied a plain “No.”

His mother’s finely plucked brow raised critically as he continues. “No doubt we will have this same conversation again, when you have long recovered and deem fit to catch another malady.”

“Only you would try and cheer me up like this on my deathbed.” She remarks lightly but with a voice heavily laced with sarcasm.

And only you would stage death with such finesse.

He chose to stay silent, struggling to stay calm but losing his temper bit by bit at the carefully arranged scene before him. The, no doubt, carefully selected dark velvet bed hangings and dim lighting accent her already pale skin to the point of death. The cloying scent of the white lilies on the dresser lend the air a funeral heaviness.

“No, my firstborn, we will not have the same conversation again. I shall say what I need to say to you today. I would not have the strength to repeat myself and I will be long gone before the time to remind you again come around.”

She gestured for water and he brought it to her dutifully.

No strength? Siwon struggled hard enough not to snort at his mother whom had used this same farce 5 times before. But still…..he observed how her hair is still golden silken threads but under her usual flawless porcelain complexion is a layer of grey.

“Why don’t you rest then, mother? We can talk later.”

“Later? So I may be even weaker to speak and you will not need to listen?” She grunts. “Good attempt, but I expected better from my firstborn.”

“And I expect better from you too, Mother. I thought I made it quite clear, upon your last deathbed-‘ the word dripping with derision he could no longer hide ‘-that I was tired of playing the fool in these little dramas you insist on playing. If you want something from me, you could have just wrote me.”

“So that you can avoid coming home?”

“Home? This is your home, not mine!” Siwon bite back hotly.

Her laugh was mirthless and ended in a rasping cough. He was about to reach out to her but he caught himself in the nick of time and let his hands fall back to his side. She stopped coughing abruptly, as if his lack of sympathy made her rethink her strategy.

“This is your house, my Lord, whether you choose to live in it or not.”

Siwon frowned, so her next plan is to guilt him over his negligence of his estate?

She gestured for the intricate wooden box sitting on the dresser and he brought it to her. Watching her struggle briefly with the catch, then she opens it and pulls out a sheaf of letters. “I do not have much time to atone for all the mistakes I made in the past. The ones I can do, I will.”

Siwon clenched his jaw tightly anticipating what is to come.

“Recently, I have a letter from a friend of my youth, a school companion who was treated badly.”

By you, no doubt. He added silently.

“There were money problems. Her father died and she was left penniless. She had to leave home and find her own way in the world. She has been a nanny to a young boy for the last 12 years.”

“No.” Siwon hears his voice resonate within the room.

“I have not asked you of anything yet.” His mother said pointedly.

“You already said enough. The young boy will turn out to be of marriageable age and of good family background. This conversation will be inevitably end with the question of succession.”

“I hope to see you settled before I die.”

“I’m sure you will. We have plenty of time.” Siwon replied coolly.

She continued as if there was no interruption. “I let you have your way, thinking that you will find your way in good time. But I no longer have time to let you continue your wayward ways. Definitely no time to let you wallow in grief for what had happened 10 years ago.”

Siwon swallows his retort. She’s right, unfortunately.

“You’re right. The boy is of marriageable age, but he has nothing else to offer. He’s an orphan, the family land is mortgaged and gone. He has little or no hope of getting a good match and Lady Victoria fears that the boy will be destined to a life of lowly service. She certainly does not wish to see her own fate befalling upon the young child. That’s why she approached me for help.”

“And I am your sacrificial lamb?” Siwon questions furiously.

“And why not? I have a son who is 35, still single yet showing no sign of changing the situation he is in, even though he had been widowed for 10 years now. He wastes his time and money on when he should be overseeing his estate and providing for extension of the family line. Tell me again why not? Or do you wish your brother to succeed you?”

Siwon smirks nastily. “And why would you concern yourself so, mother? If Jumyuk inherited the title, I am sure it will please you greatly. You’ve certainly not bother to hide the fact that he is your favourite son.”

She smiled back at him coldly. “I will not lie and call you my favourite. But neither will I delude myself that Jumyuk has the talent to secure our family fortune. Your choice to neglect is easily remedied; can you imagine what will happen one year from now if Jumyuk succeeds the title?”

Siwon closed his eyes momentarily to gather his thoughts. He cannot imagine his brother as duke as much as he cannot imagine himself shackled to this big dreary house with a wife and family he would not love.

His mother shudders weakly and coughed to get his attention back on her.

“Much as you love to play the victim, I did not offer you as a sacrifice. I merely suggest that they visit. That is all. I expect a promise from you, not total surrender, a promise that you meet with the young earl. It will not be a love match because it must occur to you by now that love has no hand in a long or happy union. If he is not deformed or ill-tempered, or incredibly stupid or unbearable company, I expect you to consider him. Wit and beauty will fade, but if he has common sense and good health, he is sufficient to make a good life companion.

“Unless…..you have married some floosie in the city?”

Siwon glared at his mother but is obligated to shake his head.

“Or develop some romantic sympathy for the wife of a friend?”

“Good god, Mother!” Siwon protests looking absolutely scandalized.

“How about courting a young lady in secret? That would be too much to expect of you. So that leaves you very eligible, save for a broken heart and bitter disposition, which you can go back to nurturing once a heir is born and succession secured.”

“You seriously think I should marry a stranger you managed to drum up through casual acquaintance?”

She struggles upright, eyes burning as she speaks. “If I had the luxury of time, I would have force you on your rounds in the city and take your pick from the finest. But I have no time so I’ll make do. If he has wide hips and good-natured, overcome your unwillingness, marry him and get him pregnant.”

Then she coughs again and the intensity scares him so much he offered his hand willingly to her. The maid rushed in to support his mother’s back as she hacks violently into a bucket the maid held before her. When she is finally done and laid back against the pillows all spent, the maid hurried away with the bucket but not before Siwon saw the bloody liquid in it.

His hand shook as he wipes at the blood staining her lip. “Mother, I…” he begins unsteadily.

“Please, before it is too late. Meet the child. Let me die in peace.”

For the first time he noticed the hint of decay masked by the scent of the lilies.

It’s true then, this time she really is dying.

Siwon sighed in resignation. What harm could it do to promise her now, when she would be long gone before he needed to keep it? So he replied stiffly, “I will consider it.”

@

The door is old oak, and when he dropped the heavy brass knocker against it, Cho Kyuhyun was surprised that the sound was barely louder than the hammering of rain behind her. It would be a wonder if anyone heard him knock above the sound of the raging storm.

When the door finally did open, the barely disguised disdain on the butler’s face was almost enough to drive Kyuhyun back into the rain. He was almost afraid to imagine what the butler must be seeing. His hair is pressed flat against his skull, water streaming down from the ends. His thin shirt thoroughly soaked and sticking fast to his skin, his gray pants moulded to his lower body and his mud-splattered boots squelched with every tiny movement. His cheeks are pale and his lips blue with cold.

After an eternity, the butler finally opens his mouth, probably to send her away or direct to the rear entrance. Kyuhyun braced himself and heard Victoria repeating words in his mind.

“It doesn’t matter who you appear to be, it is who you really are. Despite the circumstances you find yourself in now, you are an Earl. You are born an Earl. If you remember this then people will treat you accordingly.”

Kyuhyun held himself ramrod straight and stare down at the butler. “Earl Kyuhyun of  Cho. I believe I am expected.” He announced frigidly.

The butler stepped aside in an instant, mumbled something about a library and scurried off. After a brief moment of disbelief, Kyuhyun heaved his luggage through the door and steps through it himself. Indignation well within him and he decides that his bags can very well shed water onto the marble flooring for all he care, it certainly isn’t his job to carry the burden any further, at least the nasty blisters forming beneath the calluses on his palms has convinced him that he had carried it far enough. Abandoning it, he hurried after the butler.

He led him into a large room filled with books and muttered agin. Despite leaning closer, Kyuhyun still could not make out anything. Then the butler wandered away, and Kyuhyun caught a whiff of gin as he passed. The young earl could only