Maylily - Chapter 69

Swallowing her humiliation, Maylily bit down hard on her lip, her eyes glistening faintly. Watching her sit stiff as a stone was worse than this.

Hugh, his irritation somewhat subdued, took Maylily’s leg and lifted it onto his knee. Maylily, apparently having given up on resisting, obeyed quietly.

He unwound the bandage he had wrapped around her foot on the train yesterday, then applied ointment to the injured area with careful, delicate hands. The wound covered a fairly wide area, but it wasn’t deep, so it wouldn’t take long to heal.

As Hugh organized the ointment tube and placed it inside the first aid kit before unfolding a new bandage, he felt a gaze on his temple and instinctively turned his head. Maylily, who had been staring blankly at him, quickly averted her eyes as if she’d been caught looking at something displeasing.

When he reached out, she pulled away. When he approached, she ran. Hugh didn’t like this new kind of hide-and-seek.

In that moment, the emptiness he believed he had completely erased on the way to Prowden by taking Maylily again and again reared its head inside him once more. Now that he’d gotten her back, he had no intention of sitting quietly with that foul feeling.

Suppressing the unpleasantness, Hugh let out a shallow sigh as his fingers tied off the bandage.

“Thank you, Count.”

As if she had been waiting for that exact moment, Maylily quickly lowered her leg, slipped her foot into her indoor shoe, and let out a visible sigh of relief. Hugh narrowed his eyes at her, then relaxed them again as he rose to his feet and gave a quiet command.

“Get ready to go out. We’re going somewhere together.”

Once they left the forest along the path behind the annex, a strong wind struck their faces. The small lamps fixed atop short posts lining the gentle slope lit the dusk landscape brightly.

“Where are we going?”

Having finally voiced the question she’d been swallowing over and over, Maylily clutched the shawl fluttering in the wind. Her eyes darted around, filled with a mix of curiosity and fear.

“Why, do you think I’m going to kidnap you somewhere?”

“…Isn’t that pretty much what’s already happening?”

Her retort was brazen, completely at odds with her gentle tone. The Count of Everscourt looked at Maylily in disbelief before letting out a burst of laughter and starting down the slope.

“We’re almost there.”

Maylily, gripping his arm tightly, carefully picked her steps. Then, when she looked down from the side of the slope, her eyes widened, and the blazing sun reflected in them for a split second.

“Wow….”

A red sun, glowing like heated metal, hung in a sky with no obstructions anywhere. Beneath it stretched an endless, ruler-straight horizon.

The deep blue forming that magnificent line shimmered gold as it caught the sunlight. The wind blowing from that vast expanse carried a salty scent Maylily had never once encountered.

“…The sea.”

Her intuition named the breathtakingly beautiful, unfamiliar sight.

“We still have to go see the sea.”

So this is what he meant. Because they’d only traveled inland, she hadn’t realized the count’s domain bordered the ocean.

“Shall we go a bit farther down?”

By the time she realized the sound she thought came from the trees in the wind was actually from the sea itself, the count had taken her hand and pulled her along. Maylily glanced at the dark hair swaying softly in the sea breeze as she followed the path downward.

At the end of the path, the sea met a wide stretch of pebble and rock. The red light washing over the two of them grew even deeper.

Following the movements of the waves rolling in toward where they stood and then receding again, Maylily’s gaze traveled out to the distant sea. Now and then, tall waves rising from the middle of the ocean crashed toward the shore with menacing force.

Whenever the waves crashed like that, Maylily unconsciously flinched, her fingers twitching where they were clasped with the count’s. Looking down at her, the Count smiled.

“Looks like it’ll rain soon. Before the rain comes, the waves always get this high and rough.”

Whether it was because of the weather he mentioned, the sea seen up close was far more dynamic and perilous than she had imagined. For a moment, Maylily felt an overwhelming sense of standing at the world’s edge, not knowing where she was supposed to go.

“Do you want to go in? The water will be cold since it’s only early summer.”

At the gentle voice carried by the wind, Maylily snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head. The eyes looking at her held the same color as the sea she had been staring at just moments before.

“Even with the waves crashing so violently?”

When she said with wide, startled eyes, the count gave a small laugh.

“Just dipping your feet will be fine.”

Maylily stared at him quietly, then slowly shook her head.

“I’d rather just watch. I don’t want to go in.”

Her pale face, turning back toward the sea, glowed softly in the sunset. But the expression within it didn’t shine at all.

Why?

On the way down, he was sure he’d seen something sparkling in her. Yet now, looking at her profile that resembled a dried flower without life, Hugh let out a hollow laugh.

“I’ve always wanted to see the sea. If I could share that moment with you, Count, I think it would be an unforgettable memory.”

He hadn’t expected anything particular from her, but at least in that moment, he thought she would smile beautifully.

The face of the woman who had stubbornly hidden what Hugh sought stirred a hungry desire in him. And he now held in his hands an effective way to satisfy that hunger.

Turning Maylily’s face away from the sinking sun and toward himself, Hugh cupped the back of her head and kissed her.

Maylily accepted the sudden kiss without resistance. She had learned all too clearly over the past two days that clumsy resistance was useless and only provoked him.

She didn’t want to expose herself again to the sharp words that reminded her of her role and duty. So she simply surrendered herself to wherever the count led her.

His kiss was gentle, as if handling something fragile and easily broken, yet Maylily felt as though she stood alone in the middle of a roaring sea.

***

Around midnight, the drizzle that had begun to fall grew heavier, tapping loudly against the windows. Wrapped in the lingering shudder of climax that drowned out even that sound, Hugh finally pulled out of Maylily after remaining inside her for a long while.

The woman, her limbs limp, followed him with hazy, sluggish eyes. Even her debauched, disheveled appearance was beautiful.

Wearing only a robe over his bare body, Hugh gently smoothed her hair and placed a kiss on her forehead before stepping into the bathroom attached to the bedroom. When he returned a moment later, he was carrying a basin filled with water and a towel.

In the meantime, Maylily had fallen asleep quietly. Sitting beside her, Hugh soaked the towel and held it carefully in his hand. Since the annex, unlike the main house, didn’t have hot water, the water was cold.

The faint light filling the bedroom illuminated the red and purple marks scattered across Maylily’s white body. Using the towel warmed by his own body heat, Hugh meticulously wiped her from her face downward.

Tonight as well, Maylily had taken all of him into herself and given him a trembling sense of fulfillment. Enough to completely scatter the emptiness and hunger that had built up in him throughout the day. No, more than enough.

That such a small body, such an insignificant woman, could do this. That he had, without hesitation, altered a plan he had prepared for so long to exact proper punishment on Victor Heywood, and instead brought a mistress into his domain, committing a disgraceful act without the slightest reluctance.

Even as he felt a deep self-loathing at the fact that everything had happened because of Maylily alone, the absence of even the slightest regret made Hugh acknowledge that this woman had become something to him.

Moaning and writhing in the relentless pleasure pouring into her, the woman who had wrapped her arms around his neck finally gave Hugh what he had been seeking. When instinct numbed reason and pleasure erased restraint, the feelings buried deep in her heart rose helplessly to the surface.

It’s clearly there inside you. So why do you keep trying to hide it?

Just as before, winning the heart of a naive woman through meaningless sweet words and feigned affection would have been an easy task.

But this time, it had to be real. As Hugh Skaard in his entirety, he wanted to possess Maylily Aile completely.

So even if it took time, he would wait. Filling the emptiness and hunger that built up in that waiting each night. Because, at the end of the endless game of hide-and-seek, the one who claimed victory would always be himself.

After thoroughly wiping Maylily from head to toe, Hugh finally set the towel down. Then he pulled the blanket over her. On his lips, as he cupped her still-warm, soft cheek, bloomed a faint smile he himself didn’t even notice.

The sound of rain drumming hard against the forest, the faint sound of waves rolling in. Between them, Maylily’s soft, steady breathing mingled.

Listening to it for a long time as though it were the sweetest music, Hugh stayed by her side, then finally left the annex in the dim dawn light filtering through the storm clouds.