Maylily - Chapter 127

And he wanted to see her from even closer. As Hugh shifted, trying to sit up, Maylily quickly grabbed his hand to stop him.

“Please lie down. The doctor said you absolutely must rest.”

“Sitting up in bed should be fine. Will you help me?”

Hugh gently tightened his grip on the hand Maylily was holding. The warmth that passed between them made her cheeks flush even more. Carefully pulling her hand free, she rose from the chair and supported him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and waist while avoiding the injured area, helping him sit up.

At that moment, the soft fragrance of her hair drifting right before him, the fine breath brushing his shoulder, the warmth of her gentle hands against his bare skin, and the soft curve of her body grazing the bandage across his chest.

How long had it been since he felt Maylily this close? It was an overwhelming sensation, enough to drown out even the burning pain in his wounded shoulder. Hugh’s throat bobbed as he watched Maylily pull over every pillow from the other side of the bed and prop them behind his back.

“How is it? Are you uncomfortable?”

“It’s good. As good as it can be.”

He wasn’t only commenting on his position. Maylily could tell from the Count of Everscourt’s gaze slowly traveling up her from the waist. The desire in it was so clear that her cheeks burned hot. Blinking awkwardly, she sat back down in the chair and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

“After you collapsed in front of the theater last night, you didn’t regain consciousness, so everyone was worried. It almost… really…”

Last night felt like years. The emotions that surged as she stayed by the Count’s bedside, his face pale as he lay there, came rushing back, and Maylily paused.

“Something terrible almost happened. I don’t want anything to happen to you because of me. So please promise me this will never happen again.”

“That’s difficult, Maylily.”

The Count refused her request, spoken through barely held-back tears, in a gentle yet firm voice.

“I may be nothing to you, but you’re my flower. So I have to protect you.”

The Count’s gray-blue eyes, calmly smiling at Maylily, shone clearer and deeper than ever. They held both the innocence of a boy and the presence of a mature man.

Really… how foolish.

A man who can say such lonely words while smiling so beautifully, and herself, whose heart aches so much at that sight. With tears welling in her eyes, Maylily spoke, emphasizing each syllable.

“You’re not… nothing.”

“….”

As if he hadn’t expected those words, the Count’s eyes widened slightly. Maylily took a long breath to steady herself, then continued.

“I was so afraid you might never open your eyes again. Just thinking about it made everything go dark, like all the light in the world disappeared. So how… how could you be nothing to me?”

Through yesterday’s incident, Maylily realized that an ending always lurks within life. She didn’t want to regret leaving her true feelings unspoken when that moment came. Not anymore.

“I like you. I still like you, Hugh.”

Like a cough she couldn’t suppress, her feelings spilled out, and the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes finally slid down her pale cheeks.

It was the moment when their true feelings finally met, yet Maylily couldn’t stop her tears, her heart tangled with confusion and pain. She no longer wanted to leave Hugh in loneliness, and she too wanted to be happy with him.

But there was something in her life that mattered more than that. She couldn’t give it up in the end.

“I won’t hurt you again. So don’t cry, Maylily.”

Hugh gently wiped the tears from Maylily’s damp cheeks and soothed her in a tender voice. He thought she was struggling between her present feelings and the memories of the past.

“That’s not it.”

Maylily slowly shook her head and looked straight at Hugh. Tears welled up again in the eyes she had just wiped, but the gaze beyond them didn’t waver at all.

“I believe your feelings, Count. But… I can’t be with you.”

The expression disappeared from Hugh’s face, which had been dreaming of a future with Maylily. He slowly rubbed his temple, trying to read what she truly meant, but in the end, he had to ask.

“Why?”

Maylily closed her eyes as if organizing her thoughts, then opened them and spoke slowly, “I… don’t want to stand on stage as Hugh Skaard’s woman, but as Maylily Aile, as my whole self. So….”

Hugh felt he understood what words Maylily couldn’t bring herself to finish. But instead of saying it for her, he waited for her to speak with her own will, in her own beautiful voice.

Wait for me.

If he could hear those words from Maylily herself, he could hold her to that promise for the rest of his life.

“I’m sorry.”

But Maylily couldn’t become someone who would make such a shameless request. That was the woman Hugh Skaard loved. So what could he do? If Maylily wouldn’t put a leash on him, he would have to put it on himself.

Hugh gently lifted Maylily’s chin as she lowered her head with a guilt-ridden expression. And in her water-colored eyes that held only him, he saw that the light he had tried so hard to reclaim had already returned.

To that light, Hugh made a promise.

“I’ll wait. Until the day you step down from your final stage.”

The image of Maylily singing in the restaurant in Bredova still remained vivid before his eyes. He had no intention of trapping a woman who shone so brilliantly in his shadow ever again.

Hugh sincerely wished for Maylily to shine on stage as herself, and he believed she would. If one day, after fully displaying her dazzling talent and dreams, she would step down from the stage and come to him, he was prepared to endure an endless wait. He was ready for it.

“Let me be the one who sends the final bouquet to your performance.”

“Please… do that.”

Wiping her tears, Maylily nodded firmly and sat on the edge of the bed, embracing Hugh carefully. Hugh answered by gently stroking the back of her head. Warm spring sunlight streamed through the window and settled quietly around them.

***

It was four days after regaining consciousness that Hugh stepped out of his bedroom to get some fresh air. Thanks to his strong constitution and excellent stamina, his recovery was faster than that of most gunshot patients.

The spring rain that fell overnight left the scent of earth and grass thick in the air. The neatly trimmed lawn had taken on an even fresher green in just a few days. In the shade of a large chestnut tree at its center, easily over a hundred years old, Hugh sat on an outdoor chair.

A triangular sling supported his upper body to minimize movement of his injured shoulder. Aside from not wearing a coat for his sake, he was as neatly dressed as ever.

“The police report on the shooting in front of the Bereceno Theater has arrived.”

David, standing beside him at attention, presented the report. Since it was difficult for Hugh to use the arm fixed in the sling, a servant quickly took it and held it open in front of him. The shadow of the swaying treetop cast a mottled pattern over the paper.

The suspect’s name written at the top was, as expected.

Pamela Stein. The former mistress of the late Victor Haywood.

She served one year and six months for conspiring with Haywood to kidnap and detain Maylily, and was released in mid-January of this year. While she was imprisoned, the house she lived in with Haywood passed to another tenant, and all the household goods and property inside were stolen and gone.

More than the reality of being left with nothing, what tormented her was the fact that Victor Haywood was no longer in this world. On the night Haywood died in a carriage accident, she was arrested by the police and couldn’t even attend her lover’s funeral. Even after her release, she couldn’t find his remains.

Her life was thoroughly trampled and destroyed. She had only made a small mistake while trying to help the lover in trouble, yet the price she paid was excessively harsh.

She was grief-stricken, wronged, and furious.

All of this was because of Count Hugh Skaard of Everscourt. If that man hadn’t suddenly appeared and interfered, she could have been happy with Victor…. He ruined not only Victor but her life as well.

Turning the arrow of her anger toward Hugh Skaard, Pamela Stein resolved to burn the rest of her life if necessary to take revenge on him. And after days of deliberation, she reached the conclusion that the way to inflict the greatest pain on Hugh Skaard was to repay him with the pain of losing the one he loved.