Maylily - Chapter 95

“I’ll try to get better. So please wait just a little, Count.”

“I’ll prepare things so we can leave within a day or two after you return.”

The voice promising a future together was sweet, so he didn’t suspect the deception hidden behind it even a little. Enchanted by that clear, gentle face, he lowered his guard and let himself be careless.

Because there was no trace anywhere in the neat, orderly house of a spur-of-the-moment escape, the hope he hadn’t been able to throw away was mercilessly trampled by the news David brought.

It had been an escape planned and prepared from the start. Hugh finally acknowledged and accepted that fact. Maylily had run away, escaping his world.

To be deceived this emptily by that powerless, innocent woman. No matter how he thought about it, it was absurd, and laughter spilled out again.

Did that woman really believe she could end this relationship with her own strength?

He would teach that brazen belief a harsh lesson. So that she wouldn’t even think of attempting something this impudent ever again.

“Find her.”

Hugh, who abruptly stopped laughing, ordered in a cold voice. In an instant, the air around them froze.

“The necklace too. And the woman who threw it away.”

It was a short but perfectly clear order.

“Yes, sir.”

David left the bedroom without delay. Hugh, quietly watching his back, tightly crumpled the note he’d been holding in his hand all night.

When he got Maylily back, it wouldn’t end with merely putting that necklace on her again. He intended to give her a punishment befitting the anger and betrayal she’d made him embrace.

So, Maylily, if you’re not confident you can avoid being caught forever, you’d better come back on your own two feet. Before the flames of this emotion grow into something uncontrollable.

***

Not long after lunch ended, it was time to prepare dinner. Giovanna sat facing Maylily at the wide, long wooden table and worked on prepping ingredients.

Starting the morning after she arrived in Bredova, Maylily tied an apron around her waist and volunteered to help with the inn work.

It was true that running the inn with just Carlo could be exhausting at times, but even so, Giovanna didn’t have the slightest intention of making a pregnant woman work.

[Making Michele’s guest work, that’s not right. What kind of resentment would I have to hear from that boy later?]

[You told me to think of us as becoming family. Families have to work together. Michele will want that too.]

Giovanna insisted there was nothing for her to help with and firmly refused, but Maylily didn’t back down.

[Please let me work. That’s the only way I can stay here. You’re not even taking lodging fees, so I can’t just loaf around.]

If this kept up and Maylily really left for somewhere else, that would be a problem. In the end, the one who yielded was Giovanna. She chose tasks that wouldn’t strain Maylily’s body and asked her to do them.

[Then will you help me prep the ingredients?]

[Yes, just tell me what to do.]

Maylily, who’d supposedly been an opera singer, was slow with her hands, as if she didn’t have much experience with cooking. Even so, her fingertips were meticulous and she learned quickly, so within a few days she became a fairly useful pair of hands.

[Squinting doesn’t help at all. I thought it’d be a bit better if I did this….]

Maylily said it as she sniffled while prepping onions for the meat stew. Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes, reddened by the sharp onion smell. Even so, she didn’t rest her knife for even a moment. Seeing her like that, Giovanna smiled quietly, went into the kitchen, and mixed lemon water.

[Will you take this to Carlo? Wait until Carlo finishes drinking it, then bring back the empty cup.]

[Yes, ma’am.]

Maylily immediately got up from her seat, washed her hands carefully, and went to run the errand.

[Take a short break, Mr. Sergio.]

Carlo, who’d been weeding in the backyard under the blazing sun, straightened his back at the voice behind him and turned around. Maylily, wearing a white apron, was coming out through the back door with a cup of water set on a tray.

[Oh my, you didn’t have to go to all this trouble. Thank you.]

Carlo quickly took off his gloves, accepted the tray, and sat down on the wooden bench under the roof. Maylily sat down beside him as well.

[I’ll take the cup back in, so you can go now.]

[It’s what ma’am told me to do, so I’ll take it.]

[Ah…. Alright.]

So Giovanna gave him a break. Carlo realized it belatedly, held back his words, and took a sip of the lemon water.

[Whew, it’s hot.]

After setting the cup down on the tray, Carlo took off his straw hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Watching him, Maylily took a handkerchief out of her apron pocket and held it out.

[Use this. It’s a gift for you, Mr. Sergio.]

[A gift… for me?]

Maylily beamed at Carlo, who looked back and forth between the handkerchief and himself with round eyes.

[Yes, I bought it when I went to the market with Mrs. Sergio the day before yesterday. I made the orange.]

On one corner of the handkerchief, an orange fruit with a green leaf embroidered on it was stitched. It was a little clumsy like Maylily’s Cartian, but it was lovely embroidery.

[What a windfall. Thank you. I’ll use it well.]

[Yes, thank you.]

Seeing Maylily give a gift and then say thank you as well, Carlo let out a hearty laugh. Maylily’s laughter followed, spreading into the bright sunlight.

Normally, Carlo would’ve downed the water in one go, but this time he drank it slowly in several sips.

[It looks like the color’s gotten a bit deeper in just a few days.]

In the meantime, Maylily stood in front of the orange tree, marveling at the unripe fruit and looking around. Her golden bangs covering her forehead fluttered in the breeze.

A gentle smile spread across Carlo’s face as he watched her. If the daughter who hadn’t made it past her first year had lived, she would’ve been just about that age. Maybe that was why he’d been able to accept Maylily without resistance from the start.

Carlo and Giovanna still didn’t know anything about Maylily. They’d asked cautiously about her relationship with Michele, but after seeing Maylily’s face flush red up to her neck in embarrassment, they hadn’t been able to ask anything else.

[ If the two of you make her uncomfortable, she might run away to somewhere else.]

Of course, Maylily couldn’t run away.

Giovanna and Carlo were happy enough with just the two of them, but with their family growing, that happiness had grown bigger too. It hadn’t even been a week since Maylily arrived, but Carlo already felt that way.

He wished Michele would hurry back and share this happiness with them.

[Good afternoon, mister! Looks like you’re weeding.]

At the lively voice ringing in his ears, Carlo snapped out of his thoughts. Turning his head, he saw their neighbor Stefano, who’d entered the backyard at some point, wandering around the pile of weeds stacked off to one side.

[Yeah. When you’re growing fruit trees, you can pour in all the devotion in the world and it still might not be enough, but those things grow like crazy even if you do nothing.]

[That’s why they’re weeds. Want a hand?]

Stefano asked lightly. He was an earnest kid who always helped whenever the inn was short-handed, so it wasn’t an empty offer. Carlo set down the emptied cup and shook his head.

[It’s fine. I’m almost done.]

[Hmm….]

Stefano’s gaze, passing over the lawn where the weeding wasn’t quite finished, stopped on Maylily standing in front of the orange tree.

[But who’s that pretty lady? Hi!]

When Stefano waved his hand and greeted her cheerfully, Maylily opened her mouth with a slightly flustered face.

[…Ah, hello.]

[Wow, your voice is incredible too. What’s your name?]

[That’s my nephew’s…. Hey, don’t flirt with our guest and get lost. You, a brat whose blood hasn’t even dried on your head!]

Carlo, eyes blazing, snatched up a stone that had been rolling on the ground and hurled it. Stefano sprang aside to dodge it and shot him a dumbfounded look.

[Why are you being so rustic, mister! Just because I said hello. My name’s Stefano. Then I’ll see you again, pretty lady.]

Even as he ran off dodging another stone Carlo threw, Stefano couldn’t take his eyes off Maylily.

These days, there was no shortage of men like that coming around the inn.

What was Michele thinking, sending his woman out to the countryside alone? Letting out a deep sigh and shaking his head, Carlo looked at Maylily.

[Even though he acts like that, he’s not a bad kid, so don’t be scared. If you run into him on the road, don’t greet him.]

[Did you misspeak when you said not to greet him?]

[No. I mean it literally. Don’t greet him.]

Maylily chuckled, taking his serious warning as a joke. At that sound, the muscles in Carlo’s face, which had been set in a grave expression, slackened helplessly. The backyard, where the orange tree and grass shone fresh green, soon filled with the two of their laughter.