Maylily - Chapter 102

More than three months of searching brought no meaningful progress. Reports claiming to have seen Maylily, or a woman believed to be her, dropped sharply after the turn of the year, and as time passed, finding her seemed increasingly hopeless.

After expanding the search area, which had been limited to the north, to include the south as well, Hugh left Roden and moved his residence to Prowden, part of Everscourt. It was a decision made so he could respond quickly if any news came in from the south.

The day after arriving in Prowden, Hugh went to work at the Lurollei branch of the Skaard Hotel. He spent the entire day gazing out at the sea from the window of his office, then, toward sunset, walked alone for a long while along the beach after it had grown quiet. His retreating figure looked like that of a wanderer drifting without a destination, or a pilgrim walking a path of penance.

And after that, he shut himself away in the annex in Prowden. At his order, the servants removed part of the sofa that had been in the reception room and set a desk and chair in its place, with a cabinet for storing documents beside it. Even as the reception room transformed into a workspace, the piano Maylily had used the previous summer firmly remained where it was.

Several maids were assigned to the annex, which had suddenly been opened up again. After consulting with the housekeeper, David added Alice to that list. He needed someone who would watch over Hugh carefully even when he himself couldn’t stay by his side. Hugh, these days, seemed precarious at every moment.

“Good heavens! What on earth happened in Roden, Brother?”

Alice was horrified when she saw her master return, gaunt beyond recognition after half a year. Everyone in Prowden probably thought the same, even if they couldn’t bring themselves to say it out loud.

After Maylily left, Hugh’s life had fallen into ruin, so it was only natural. For months, he couldn’t fall asleep without sleeping pills, replaced meals with alcohol, and clung obsessively to his work as if struggling to forget Maylily’s absence.

Simply attending important meetings to make decisions and going out to social gatherings to deal with high-ranking figures felt like a miracle-level ordeal.

Nothing improved even after he moved his living quarters to the annex in Prowden. Thick white smoke rose in a long trail from the cigar clenched between Hugh’s lips as he sat upright at the desk, reviewing documents.

His hair and clothing, carefully maintained by the servants, were neat and stylish, but in his clouded eyes, hollow cheeks, and parched lips, there was no trace of the vitality of the living. As the familiar wave of guilt washed over him, David spoke heavily.

“We received word that there are no members with the surname Aile in the Pero Opera Company. We also inquired based on her appearance, considering the possibility that Miss Aile changed her name, but the response was the same. I apologize.”

David bowed deeply in apology. From Hugh, who lowered his gaze in thought, another sigh-like stream of smoke flowed from his lips.

“She told her family she’d transferred to an opera company in Cartia.”

Even knowing that what Maylily left behind for her family was a lie, there was no choice but to confirm it.

And so, dozens of large and small opera companies throughout Cartia were tracked down and questioned. Pero, a small city whose name was unfamiliar even to him, was the last, but he never obtained the answer he wanted.

As expected. There was no way.

She was a woman with no experience living abroad, no connections, and above all, easily frightened. There was no way someone like that would flee to a foreign country. Even though it was an outcome he had more than anticipated, there was nothing he could do about the emptiness that washed over him.

Hugh slowly rose from his seat, chose one bottle from among those displayed in the cabinet, and poured it into a glass. Carrying it back to the desk, he was addressed politely by David.

“You should cut back on the drinking.”

“I’ll try.”

Hugh lazily lifted one corner of his mouth and swallowed a mouthful of strong whiskey without ice. The heat of the alcohol sliding down his throat washed away the emptiness he’d felt moments earlier.

His eyes throbbed with fatigue after days of poor sleep. Hugh pressed gently against his eyelids and leaned his heavy body back against the chair.

“Still no news from Purdshire?”

After visiting the grocery store run by the Brooks couple, Hugh had placed people nearby, just in case.

“…I’m sorry.”

The answer David gave was the same every time Hugh asked the question he asked with each report. Hugh gave a small nod to dismiss David, and his gaze turned toward the window.

The dense view of towering fir trees looked no different from the season when Maylily stayed here. He remembered the summer days when he would stand there, listening to Maylily’s singing drift out through the wide-open window before heading back.

Sunlight glittering through the green canopy. A beautiful singing voice spreading into the forest on its rays. Cheerful voices and laughter weaving themselves into the scenery.

The time he spent alone imagining the smile of the woman who once shone like spring flowers, while straining his ears for sounds Maylily no longer let him hear.

At times, even that sense of lack felt dazzling enough that he thought it was fine as it was. Even if Maylily withered within a relationship twisted by deception and mingled love and hatred, as long as he could keep her by his side.

But now that she was gone, the one left alone to wither within that relationship was Hugh himself.

Hadn’t things really become pathetic? Hugh let out a self-mocking laugh and tipped back his glass. The liquor touching his tongue tasted viciously bitter.

***

Hugh briefly declined Deborah’s request to join her for lunch, which she sent after several days, citing that he was busy.

He knew he needed time to pull himself together in some way. Even so, as his only family, Deborah couldn’t simply let go and watch from afar. At the very least, she needed to see with her own eyes how he was doing.

She went straight to the annex reception room, and upon facing Hugh, she couldn’t hold back a sigh. Even when he left Roden, she thought his appearance couldn’t get any worse, yet in the meantime, he had grown painfully gaunt.

“No matter how busy you are, you must make sure to eat your meals.”

“I am. Don’t worry.”

She already knew from the butler and David that this answer didn’t match reality.

The hair and skin that once shone now looked dull and dry, and the eyes that had lost their expression were parched like a desert. His thinner face made his features stand out more sharply, giving him a harsher air than ever before. Along with that, the eyes that always seemed to curve softly at the corners as if holding a smile now stretched straight, looking unfamiliar enough to seem severe.

She had known early on that Maylily was someone special to Hugh. Even so, she thought it was a seasonal passion, a brief fever he would suffer through and recover from. After all, though it was long in the past now, Deborah herself had once gone through such heartache.

But she never imagined it would be this bad even after more than three months.

The cold and composed Skaard.

The nephew she thought perfectly suited the noble name passed down through generations of strict heir education seemed, in truth, to resemble not the ice-cold William, but the fiery Hailey.

The woman who burned herself up after going blind with love.

The face of the man who threw the spark that lit her up suddenly came to Deborah’s mind a few days earlier, on the train from Roden to Lurollei.

Vivid blond hair, pale blue eyes, the mole beneath his lips, and finely drawn features. An air of purity that harmonized all of it.

He was so strikingly handsome that she could still remember his face clearly even now, twenty years later, though she could count on one hand how many she’d seen like it. And when another face naturally followed, Deborah flinched.

So that’s why she seemed strangely familiar. They look suspiciously alike.

She immediately summoned David to confirm whether her suspicion was correct.

“Miss Aile is Mr. Heywood’s daughter.”

“Then where is that man now?”

“…He passed away last summer.”

That was enough questions.

The fact that Hugh had always carried something secretive about him since boyhood, that he returned to Riverton and went straight to Roden, that Hugh, who’d been indifferent to women, met Maylily with whom he’d had no connection, that Maylily’s face was always shadowed when she came to Prowden.

Each piece locked into place, forming the whole picture.

“The moment that woman left this estate, she already gave up being your mother.”

“Don’t shed foolish tears over a woman who sullied the family’s honor, Hugh.”

“That name must be banished from the history of the Skaard family forever.”

The Skaard family punished Hailey and planted contempt and hatred in Hugh. That must have made him live his life with a twisted heart hidden behind a perpetually smiling face.

And so Deborah looked on Hugh with pity, after he destroyed and lost the woman he’d longed for so desperately. In her eyes, Hugh was burning himself alive, just like his own mother.

***

The next day, the fire finally swallowed Hugh.

While reviewing the approval documents David submitted, he suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor. Thud. At the sound echoing through the annex, all of Prowden was thrown into an uproar.