Siwon stared at the house in surprise. He had expected a modest cottage but there is nothing refined about his new wife’s old home. It is just stark poverty. Smaller than any tenant homes on his own grounds, packed too tight between other buildings in the same state of decline.

The woman who answered his knock glared at him with open suspicions. “What can I do for you, your Lordship?”

“Lady Victoria?” He asks politely.

“The “Lady” has retired long ago professionally. It’s best you seek amusement somewhere else.” The woman glared angrily at him now.

“If I may see her, please?”

“See her? Who are you? A son of her old clients? Come to get the same education his old man underwent?”

“What?” Siwon uttered, totally appalled.

“You know exactly what I meant. Now leave, the “Lady” can’t help you anymore.”

Siwon got his foot in the door before it could slam shut. The he pushed at the door and walked into the tiny room. “Close the door, I want to speak to you in private.” He said curtly. Then he tossed his purse on the wooden table and watches her eyes light up. “I want information and that is all yours if you can provide it.”

The woman curtsied and said sweetly, “At your service, your Lordship.”

“I want the whereabouts of Lady Victoria and her information on her young charge, Earl Kyuhyun.”

The woman paled and grabbed at the table edge for support. “Why do you want to know?”

“To clear some doubts I have of his previous life before his recent marriage.”

“He’s safely married now, is he?’ The old woman smiled with secret satisfaction.

“Yes.”

“And what is his husband like?”

“A powerful man, impatient for information. You best provide it if you can or else I would not know what he will do to you.”

A man’s voice rang from behind a curtain in the corner of the room. “Enough, Vic. I’ll talk to him.” The owner appeared, middle-aged but bent by hard work. He depended on a cane and the hand holding it is crooked and misshaped. He glared at his unwanted visitor with as much stately-ness as a royalty would.

“How should I address you, sir?”

“I wish to remain anonymous.”

“You are the one who barged into my home, sir.” The old man reminded the duke.

“I have your word that everything said will remain within these walls?”

“My honour.”

“Very well, I’m Siwon, Duke of Choi.” Siwon announced and immediately hear a sharp gasp behind him. “And you, sir?”

“I’m, Sir Cho, the father of the boy you are enquiring about.”

“Father?” Siwon felt the floor under his feet spin a little at the new revelation. “I was told you are-“

“Dead? It might as well be.” The old man mutters softly, looking at the duke with open curiosity. “Are you my son’s husband, your Grace?”

“Y-yes.” Siwon choked on the single word and had to clear his throat before he could continue.

“And you came all the way here to seek the truth?”

“I left on our wedding night, before we could-“ Siwon choked again. He finds himself struggling with composure in the presence of his father in law.

“And where is he now?”

“On my estate, in my home.”

“And you will make a decision concerning his fate based on what you shall find here?”

“And his wishes, of course. I will not force him to marry me if he is not willing to.” Siwon assures.

Sir Cho hardens his facial expression. “ Do not be wavered by his wishes, your Grace. My son cannot afford the luxury of having his way. I’m getting sicker by the day, I cannot continue to pretend to support all 3 of us. He has two choices, to work as a scullery maid in a grand house or earn his meals by lying on his back. If your wish is to keep him then he will be accept gratefully.”

“Why don’t you begin, Sir Cho?” Siwon bade gently.

The old man barked a raspy laughter. “It has been so long since I was addressed so.”

And then he begins his tale of a happy family of 3 cruelly torn apart by the demise of the beautiful wife and the purposeful destruction of the heartbroken husband. The son was left to grow up alone while his father lost every penny to drink and vice. With the depletion of his physical possession, the ashamed father drew out his revolver ready to end his miserable existence when his young child came to him pleading with him to live on for his sake.

Resolved to turn honest, the destitute Lord found no sympathy within his own class. Creditors came crashing through his door, he had no choice but to run away to a place so unwanted to avoid everyone and anyone. There he found work and for a while he managed till his eyesight failed him and his hands went out of shape with heavy use on labor he was never accustomed to all his royal life.

Victoria and Kyuhyun did every kind of work to keep food on the table, and the young Earl gradually forgot the world he was born into, slipping into the role of society’s lowest with ease.

“And you think he should marry a duke now? When he is neither up there or down here?” Siwon asks incredulously.

“Yes!” Sir Cho’s mouth tightened considerably. “Do you know how it feels to see your child serve hand and foot on those who are supposedly inferior to his status? Do you know how much it hurt to not be able to prevent it? If I could turn back time, I will never put Kyuhyun in that position, yet now he is paying for all the wrongs I did.”

And the story grew worst much to Siwon’s horror.

“Recently one of the Lords of the house he was working for had shown very bold interest in keeping him in the house in a position quite different than what he was employed for. Kyuhyun loves us, it won’t be too long before he will give in and accept so we can stay warm and fed.

“That’s why we are so desperate to get him away and married before that Lord forcefully takes away the most precious thing my Kyuhyun possesses – his honour. It was Victoria’s idea to find someone that suits our stations and too faraway to know the truth of our background.

“But why me?’ Siwon asks still confused.

“Your mother owed me.” Victoria replied simply.

“I read the letters, but they do not tell me what she had done.”

“She was a cruel woman, I merely called in a debt on her deathbed.” Victoria replied unhurriedly.

Siwon nodded understandingly. “Please, your story.” He bade again gently.

Victoria shares her tale of a young girl repeatedly by a family uncle. She had no one to confide but her close friend and room-mate who swore to keep the secret for her. Many years later, when the two friends met once again, they have blossomed into beautiful young ladies and ready to accept a match from the rich young men hovering around them.

“Your father was ready to propose a match with me.” Victoria said shocking the young duke listening to her story. “Your mother was keen on him too. And how odd that my secret she swore to keep accidentally slipped from her exquisite rubied lips, and went on to spread like wild fire. Needlessly to say, I began to bore the name of a young seductress. Offers of marriage dried up, and offers of another kind turned up. Your mother married your father, and I became a rich man’s mistress. And when he became tired of me, I found another. That’s how I became known as “Lady Victoria”.”

Siwon could feel his jaw locked so tight he suspects he may not be able to open his mouth for a while.

“Sir Cho was my last, and I have loved him even before I fell from grace.”

“So you planned to ruin me, as my mother ruined you?”

 “All I wanted as the best and safest for Kyuhyun. We caused you no harm by sending you a wife, certainly. He may not be as dignified as the one you had in mind but that is because he hasn’t had the chance to be a gentleman since he was ten. Had things been different, he would be every bit as fine as anyone you would select for yourself.”

Siwon looked dazed as voices from the past came rushing into his ears.

“The poor thing….”

“Think about your family’s reputation….”

“What is to become of him if you would not shoulder the blame?”

“The child is innocent, it needs a father.”

“Your Grace?” Victoria looked at the silent man in puzzlement.

“I’m s-sorry. Please continue.” Siwon mumbled absently when he snaps back into the current.

“We did not plan on trapping you into a marriage with Kyuhyun. It was our hope that his modesty and good common sense would attract a good man’s attention. If your mother cannot persuade one of her sons to consider, then maybe she could help expose Kyu to the society he should belong in and catch another’s eye.

“You chose to deliver the boy into the enemy’s lair.” Siwon remarked sardonically.

“It’s either the frying pan or the fire.” Sir Cho spoke up. “Pardon my candidness, your Grace. Your mother may bestow cruel words upon Kyu but he will not let mere words hurt him one bit.”

“Unfortunately, my mother is dead so I am not under the same obligations.” Siwon informed coolly as he then watch the two faces before him dissolve into alarm at the revelation.

“We’re sorry-“

“I’m not. She trapped me into marrying your son on her deathbed, I still marvel at how she could have accomplished that so easily. I was frankly, very upset by the manner that I gained a wife.” Siwon said. “But now that I learnt of Kyuhyun’s origins…”

Victoria turned away to hide the tears running down her cheeks while Sir Cho struggled to speak. “Your Grace, perhaps your new wife was raised and mothered by less than savoury parents, and he scrubbed and washed to put food on the table eversince he could hold a brush in his tiny hand. But if you turn him away now, he will have nowhere to go but sink lower still till starvation claims him. I wish I do not have to watch him pay for my sins, how I wish that fateful day I had ended my life and his misery.

“It’s not his fault for ending up like this, and even then he was reluctant to leave us when we sent him away to you. I was the one who made him swear never to reveal his secret. I also made him swear that if he should marry an honourable man, he would serve him with all his heart and never reference to his inferior roots again. He is a diamond, unpolished but precious.”

Siwon kept his face straight. “A diamond? What value does he offer? He came without dowry and so far has not won me over with any signs of a sweet nature or soft looks.”

“He can offer you strength and his honor, your Grace.”

“Which means nothing when he lied his way into my home by concealing the true state of his life.”

“Which he would never have done so if I hadn’t force upon him.” Victoria quickly added. “Please, your Grace, that child must be feeling tormented for having to keep the truth from you. If you could bring yourself to see beyond that, you will be able to see that he is not the person you thought he is. Have you never lied to protect another?”

Siwon in his breath sharply. The question struck the nail on its head. It looks like he and Kyuhyun have much in common as he suspected.

The memory of their wedding night came back to Siwon. How exhaustion had broken Kyuhyun’s defence and a flicker of truth had slipped out despite himself. The horror of realization on his youthful face that he may have broken his vow haunts Siwon.

“If you love Kyuhyun as deeply as you’d proclaimed, what are you willing to do to vouch for his honor?”

“Anything you wish, your Grace. As long as Kyuhyun is safe, my life is yours to take.” Sir Cho replied confidently.

“And you, Lady Victoria?”

“I raised the boy since he is was 5, he is as good as my own.” Victoria replied just as confidently.

“Then gather your belongings and prepare to move into my hunting lodge. It has a small staff and very secluded. Await there till decisions are made.” Siwon instructs. “And I assume your debts were never forgotten?” He asks, and Sir Cho shook his head in forlorn.

“Then you must settle them.”

“I have no means…”

“I do.”

“No, your Grace, I can’t-“

“It shall be.” Siwon snapped, the authority in his voice silencing the old man.

“You may not intended, but I want and shall see them paid and clear. Give me the names of all your debtors. Then retire to my home while I clear your name and discuss with Kyuhyun his plans for the future.”

Sir Cho and Victoria’s eyes grew wide with anticipation.

“And when we reached an agreement, you will be reunited. Whether he finally choose to go back to you with his honor intact or stay with me, his future will be secured.”

@

“Siwon! Help me! Please! Siwon-“

How strange that he should recognise that voice when he had not heard Kyuhyun utter not more than 20 sentences during their brief time together.

But it was he screaming for him, that he is steadfast sure of it.

Siwon struggled to pluck his rapidly sinking feet from the swallowing quicksand pulling him under. Kyuhyun’s screams in the background grew hysterical and Siwon hears himself bellowed in frustration.

“KYU! ARGGGHHHH!!!!”

H