Maylily - Chapter 96

Everscourt and Cheshire Part Ways After Three Months

A heavy sigh spilled from Deborah over the headline splashed across the front page of today’s society gazette. Her father, now in heaven, must be waiting anxiously for the next successor of the Skaard family.

You’ll have to wait a little longer, Father.

She felt deeply ashamed toward the father who had acknowledged her decision to declare she would never marry, using the excuse of caring for her nephew who had lost his mother twenty years ago.

“An article about the broken engagement will be published tomorrow. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance.”

Yesterday, at the dinner table where they had sat facing each other after several days, Hugh had dropped the bombshell in a flat voice. To Deborah, who was startled and asked for the reason, he answered only that it was a business decision.

That couldn’t be.

The engagement with the House of Cheshire was a decision Hugh had made after perfectly weighing and calculating business interests over several years. There was no way there had been any mistake or misjudgment in that choice.

There had to be another reason….

Hugh’s changed demeanor lately only fueled Deborah’s suspicion. Just as she tilted her teacup to her lips with a face sunk in thought.

“Did you call for me, Lady Deborah?”

David, whom she had summoned by sending a maid, arrived in the reception room at just that moment.

“Come in, David.”

Roused from her thoughts, Deborah set the teacup down on its saucer and smiled gently. David bowed with measured formality and stood straight beside the tea table.

“Hugh hasn’t looked well lately. Is there some problem with the company?”

After a brief moment of deliberation, David decided to speak the truth.

Hugh’s condition was far worse than it appeared on the surface. And it was deteriorating day by day. Deborah was his only family and the elder of the household. David felt a duty to inform her of the seriousness of the situation.

“Miss Aile… has disappeared.”

Deborah’s eyes flew wide.

“Disappeared? Are you saying she was kidnapped?”

“We can’t be certain, but we believe Miss Aile left of her own accord.”

“When?”

“On the day he returned from Rivern, the Count discovered that Miss Aile was gone.”

Then was it because of Maylily, not the broken engagement, that Hugh’s smiles had dwindled and his complexion darkened after that day? From what she’d heard, it seemed his drinking had increased noticeably as well….

“Was Vivian involved? Is that why Hugh broke off the engagement?”

If Vivian had once again harassed his woman, and Hugh had made the decision in anger over that, the broken engagement would have made sense. However, the explanation David gave next threw Deborah’s thoughts into disarray.

“As far as I know, it has nothing to do with Lady Cheshire.”

“Then why did Hugh break off the engagement?”

“That… I don’t know either.”

It meant that was as far as he could answer. Once those words were spoken, there was no more information to be gained by pressing the matter. Deborah let out a deep sigh and, without lingering, moved on to the next topic.

“So, you’re searching for Maylily now?”

“Yes.”

“Any progress?”

“Well….”

This time, David let out a deep sigh and adjusted his glasses.

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

On the very day that order was given, David immediately repurchased the sapphire necklace and headed to the jeweler in Melden where the necklace had first been sold.

“Blonde hair? Well, I think it was brown hair…. Now that you mention it, I believe she had a beauty mark near her lip. What stood out was her light blue eyes.”

From the jeweler’s testimony, it was confirmed that Maylily had been wearing a wig while on the run. With brown hair added to her usual description, the search became even more difficult.

They were searching under the assumption that Maylily, after passing through Melden, had moved north toward her hometown, but they hadn’t achieved any results even as a week approached.

How could her trail be this faint? As if she were someone who moved forward while erasing every footprint she left behind. It was meticulousness that was hard to believe came from something a naive country young lady had arranged on her own.

When Maylily was just a nameless woman, the informants had found her in less than a week. Now, even knowing her name and face and personal details, they were only coming up empty. David, too, had no clear solution and the situation was frustrating.

“I apologize. I’ll push harder.”

“What if you request cooperation from the police?”

“If our informants can’t find her, the outcome won’t be different even if the police step in.”

Right. Skaard’s intelligence network wouldn’t lag behind the police. Swallowing a heavy sigh, Deborah brought the conversation with David to a close.

“Then keep at it.”

David bowed and left the reception room. Over his retreating back, the face of Hugh she’d seen last summer in Prowden, shining with vivid emotions, came to mind. The worry that settled at the corners of Deborah’s eyes deepened as she watched him.

***

It had already been three days since the article about the broken engagement of Hugh Skaard and Vivian Cheshire was reported. Since it was only a short while ago that they attended the imperial event and showed an affectionate display, the ripple that article caused in high society was even greater.

The broken engagement was reported as the result of a mutual agreement between both sides, not the fault of one party alone.

It wasn’t the truth, but the Marquess of Cheshire’s family agreed to it. They chose an elegant lie over the humiliating truth that Vivian was pushed aside by a mere mistress and stripped of the position of the Countess of Everscourt.

Even though the marriage arrangement had fallen through, the two families were still closely connected through business. So protecting each other’s prestige and honor was a wise choice for the future and prosperity of both houses.

All sorts of speculation about the broken engagement ran rampant through high society. Among it were stories related to the Count of Everscourt’s sponsored singer, who had drawn great attention last month when she stepped in as a substitute for the  performance. Unverified rumors stimulated the public’s interest and grew larger and larger.

But no matter what people said, no matter how much they pointed fingers, Hugh didn’t care in the slightest. He only hoped the news of his broken engagement would reach Maylily.

“I don’t want to keep being someone who can’t proudly stand by your side.”

“I don’t want to live with the feeling that I’m stealing someone else’s love.”

He understood her desperate sincerity then now, and he would keep the seat beside him empty for you forever.

Hugh secretly held onto the hope that if Maylily heard the voice contained in his decision, she might change her mind and return to him. Along with that, he also held an arrogant thought, that if she did, he would forgive every wrong she’d committed.

But even after three days, nothing had changed. Maylily still wasn’t by Hugh’s side, and the search was stuck in a maze. As time passed, the hope that remained in Hugh’s heart like a thin beam of light grew faint.

Whether he opened his eyes or closed them, it was pitch-black darkness.

His dazed head felt heavy from being unable to sleep for days. Hugh, letting out a long breath of cigar smoke, gently closed his eyes and leaned his head against the sofa backrest. That was when David came to the study to report the situation.

“A member of the Roden Opera Company named Greta Dale, who was close with Miss Aile, received a letter from Miss Aile last week. We believe it was a letter sent before Miss Aile left Roden, and the date stamped by the postmark was October 4.”

October 4. It was the day Hugh left for Rivern to attend the imperial event. As if the fact had come back to him, Hugh let out a short, hollow laugh. David, who quietly watched his expression, cautiously continued the report.

“The contents were nothing more than a simple greeting. There was no other special information. I’m sorry.”

David’s gaze, finishing the report while drowning in self-reproach, slowly swept over the table.

On one side, the ashtray was piled high with half-smoked cigars. Since the maid would’ve cleaned this place in the morning, it followed that Hugh had smoked all of them during the day today. Lately, Hugh seemed like a cripple who couldn’t breathe out unless he smoked.

Beside it, a crystal glass was filled with harsh whiskey without even ice. The liquor bottle that had been full until last night was nearly drained. Hugh’s eyes were red and his face was rough, but he didn’t look drunk.

Because he was naturally tough, his body was enduring the abuse, but there was no way to know how long that would last.

Hugh, drawing the cigar smoke in deeply, went over the report filled with the investigation results in his bloodshot eyes.

The director of the Roden Opera Company, a few members she’d been close with, the former boardinghouse owner, the restaurant owner and employees where she’d worked as a waitress, Mrs. Keaton, two Cartian language tutors….

It was a report that covered everyone Maylily had formed ties with in Roden. That not even a single person among them knew where Maylily was.

How could she vanish so cleanly? Like someone who’d never existed for even a moment.

Were the times he’d spent with Maylily, in truth, a beautiful dream? If not, then it was clear that with Maylily gone now, he was trapped in a dreadful nightmare.

Hugh slowly closed and opened his eyes repeatedly. As if doing so could wake him from a dream. But the note Maylily had left at the end, sitting there alone on the table, did not disappear, as if telling him this wasn’t a dream but reality.