Maylily - Chapter 94

Vivian pressed down the resentment and sorrow swelling up to her throat again and again. Even if her heart had crumbled because of Hugh, she couldn’t lose the pride and dignity she’d protected through bone-grinding effort until now.

Vivian adjusted the hat tilted forward and lifted her chin straight to face Hugh. The rims of her eyes, which had been reddish just a moment ago, had already returned to their original color.

“Just one week. Please give me one week to sort out my thoughts.”

At today’s lunch as well, Vivian had smiled and talked about marriage with the young lady seated beside her. If she then immediately announced the broken engagement to people, it was obvious she wouldn’t avoid becoming a laughingstock.

They’d say she was a fool who didn’t even know her engagement had been broken, or they’d label her a pretentious fraud no one should associate with. Either way, it was equally disgraceful.

“Let’s do that.”

Hugh answered readily. He needed time to discuss the termination of the marriage contract with the Marquess of Cheshire, and there was no reason to rush the announcement of the broken engagement.

As for Maylily, he only needed to tell her the news in person as soon as he returned to Roden today. Therefore, considering their family relationship, he could offer Vivian this little consideration.

With that, the two of them ended their conversation, left the walking path, and returned to the villa. And until the day’s event ended, they stayed in their places with smiling faces as if nothing had happened.

***

The carriage that had departed Rivern finally entered the city of Roden.

After racing through the streets where the red sunset was beginning to fall, it arrived in front of the shared residence in Cryer. Hugh stepped down from the carriage and entered the building, his stride more confident than ever.

What he had carried out today was the most irrational and unreasonable act of his life. Yet at the same time, it was also the most correct choice. When he imagined the bright smile of the lover he would receive as a reward, that thought became even firmer.

Knock. Knock.

Before long, he arrived at Maylily’s door, and the sound of the knocker he struck settled heavily over the corridor. No reply came from beyond the door no matter how long he waited. Hugh took out a key from his inner pocket and opened the front door.

At dusk, a faint red glow drifted through the interior where not a single light was on.

“You’re here, Count.”

The woman who should have been there to welcome him with a shy smile was nowhere in sight. In that empty space, a strange silence and sense of wrongness filled the air. As Hugh stepped into it, something bumped against the tip of his shoe.

Clink.

A cold metallic sound cracked the silence. Hugh slowly bent down and picked up what was on the floor. It was a key.

A key shaped just like the one he’d used to open the front door a moment ago. Only three people shared it. Hugh, David, and Maylily.

As if gauging why it was lying here, Hugh stared down quietly at the key in his hand. Then he strode forward and opened the door to Maylily’s bedroom.

In that moment, at the sight spread before his eyes, his expression was wiped clean.

The lily-of-the-valley he’d given Maylily before leaving for Rivern lay scattered in their places, withered. The bedsheet, strewn with browned flowers, was neatly smoothed without a wrinkle, as if it hadn’t been used since that day.

Had Maylily told him she was going somewhere?

He slowly groped through his fogged mind, as if a pale mist had spread through it, but there was no such memory. His heart thudded a little harder, and his throat felt pressed tight, suffocating.

Hugh loosened the gray ascot tie around his neck and stepped farther inside. After slowly looking around, he flung both wardrobe doors wide open.

At first glance, it looked as if every garment was still hanging there, but Maylily’s favorite dark gray dress was nowhere to be seen. The sky-blue dress she’d worn the day she first came to the hotel was the same. The lower drawers where she kept stockings, undergarments, and the like were about half empty.

Hugh slowly shifted his gaze back and forth between the inside of the wardrobe and the bed, as if assembling clues. Cold sweat seeped onto his smooth forehead.

No way, you, how dare you.

There’s no way you could do that without my permission, Maylily.

Breathing in short, uneven breaths that wouldn’t come easily, Hugh yanked at his ascot tie and moved to the sitting room. The tie, caught precariously around the throat where his Adam’s apple bobbed fiercely, swayed dangerously with his long stride.

Standing in the sitting room where brilliant sunset light poured in through the window, Hugh slowly turned and looked around. As expected, nothing seemed different from the last time he’d been here. Except that the sofa cover and the small doll on the mantelpiece were gone.

A small landscape painting capturing a seascape was left alone beside the spot where the doll had been.

“I’ve never seen the sea before….”

“I’ve always wanted to see the sea.”

The sea that had once been Maylily’s precious dream had been abandoned here. Holding it silently in his hand, a newly cracked voice leaked from between Hugh’s lips.

“Maylily.”

The name carried on that low voice couldn’t reach its owner and was buried in the silence. The wooden frame of the painting shattered in Hugh’s hand and scattered in pieces onto the carpet.

With slow steps, Hugh came out into the corridor and continued to examine the house. The kitchen held a chill as if no fire had been lit for days, and the bathroom was spotless without a single drop of water.

Within the scenery where everything was no different than before, only Maylily and the things that belonged to her had vanished without a trace. Each time that number increased one by one, the color gradually drained from Hugh’s face.

It felt like the floor was giving way under his feet, as if he were walking through a swamp. Forcing his way through that wretched feeling, Hugh returned to Maylily’s bedroom, and just as he sat down on the bed.

A note left on the vanity finally entered his view. As if possessed by something, Hugh stood and unfolded it.

To the Count of Everscourt,

My aunt doesn’t know anything about my whereabouts. So please don’t go looking for her. I’m begging you, Count.

– Maylily

Nowhere in the letter, made up of only three sentences, was there any feeling toward Hugh. That the message Maylily left when she abandoned this house was only this, he couldn’t believe it.

Standing there blankly like someone who’d lost the way to go, Hugh read the short letter again and again. But even if he repeated it all night long, there was no way content that wasn’t there would appear.

A hollow laugh slipped out between his dry lips. Chuckling like a madman, Hugh collapsed onto the bed. As the sun outside sank beyond the horizon, the darkness that began to swallow the bedroom soon covered him.

***

Last night, Hugh didn’t return home. Since it was a routine occurrence whenever he went to Maylily’s house, it wasn’t anything unusual.

However, this morning, a message came in from outside. In ordinary times, David would’ve waited for Hugh to return and then reported it, but the content was so unusual that he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. And so he hurriedly climbed into a carriage to deliver the news to Hugh at once.

The carriage raced through Cryer’s streets, lively with people on their way to work, and before long, it stopped in front of a familiar building. David climbed the stairs with quicker steps than usual and arrived at Maylily’s house, where he discovered the front door was slightly open. An ominous presence seeped out through the narrow gap.

“Excuse me. This is David Curren.”

David lightly knocked on the knocker to announce himself and stepped inside. Then he soon came face to face with Hugh lying in the bedroom and flinched in surprise. The sight of withered flowers strewn around him resembled a funeral.

The flowers scattered haphazardly throughout the bedroom were the lily-of-the-valley David had brought in last week on Hugh’s orders.

They’d been left there until they lost their fragrance and withered. What that fact meant began to take vague shape in David’s mind.

Hugh lying among the withered flowers, and the news that had flown into the Everscourt townhouse early in the morning. When that was combined with the bleak interior of the house, where Maylily couldn’t be seen no matter where he looked, the realization became even clearer.

He knew Maylily had been struggling emotionally lately, but… to think she’d planned something like this while Hugh was away.

Because she’d always shown a gentle, obedient demeanor, it was an escape he’d expected even less. In the shock that felt like he’d been struck hard on the head, David cautiously opened his mouth.

“Count.”

Hugh’s deep blue eyes, which had been staring blankly at the ceiling, moved toward David. As he slowly pushed himself up, the corners of his eyes were reddened. It was a face that hadn’t slept a wink all night.

“What is it?”

The face speaking in a hoarse voice had grown gaunt beyond recognition in a single night.

When Hugh had left Rivern yesterday, he’d shone like a ruler who possessed the whole world…. Now he looked like a defeated man who’d lost everything. Shocked again by that gap, David forced himself to keep a composed expression and spoke,

“There was a call from Lemane in the Aberque estate, where you purchased the sapphire necklace this spring. The necklace appeared as a listing on the secondhand market, and they requested confirmation of whether it was stolen.”

“When was the necklace sold?”

“The first sale was made at a jeweler in Melden last weekend, they said. I’ll confirm the exact date and time.”

Last weekend, Melden….

“Ha.”

As Hugh slowly rubbed his chin and chewed over the report, a hollow laugh burst from between his lips.

This is too blatant, Maylily. As if you were counting down the days until I left.