“My lady is very late.”
Emily checked the time.
Four hours had passed since Ivelina had left with Camilla.
‘She said she would only be gone a short while.’
Ivelina, who normally reported her whereabouts without being asked, hadn’t even mentioned where she was going today.
Emily paced the front entrance with a restlessness she rarely showed.
She went from maid to maid, asking whether anyone had seen her mistress return without her notice.
No one had.
Another hour passed. Ivelina still was not home.
Emily, who almost never ran, ran from the garden to the front gate.
Among the guards standing there, she recognized a face.
“You’re the one, aren’t you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The shadow escort who was always stationed near my lady and me.”
Jince broke into an anxious sweat.
In theory, his presence was a secret — though a short while ago, Ivelina had managed to spot him.
“I have rather good eyes. Regardless — I don’t think the situation is good right now. The reason is—”
Emily told him everything.
That Ivelina had dismissed all the staff and gone out with a friend. That she had been gone for five hours. That no one knew where she was.
Jince went white.
“One more thing — why are you standing here at the gate instead of being at my lady’s side? That is your assignment.”
“She — my lady asked me to wait here. She said her friend’s matter was private, and she wanted to speak with her alone…”
Emily looked at him steadily.
“She said she wouldn’t go far. She asked me to wait for her here at the gate…”
“You should contact His Grace immediately, just to be safe. I have a particular instinct when it comes to my lady’s affairs.”
“If something has happened to her—!”
“Now. Before His Grace gets any further away.”
“I’ll send a courier at once!”
Emily ran back to the main house. She ran so hard she didn’t notice one of her shoes come off.
Fortunately, in the sitting room, she found Carson and Katherine together, with Kayrin.
She summarized the situation in five lines.
“Oh no — what do we do, darling!”
“This is no time to stand here — I’m going to search for her too!”
“I’m going right now!”
Chaos erupted at once. Kayrin looked ready to bolt out the door.
Emily caught him and brought herself to his eye level.
“Young Lord Kayrin — I think it would be best if you stayed here and waited.”
“Why? I can help find Sister-in-law!”
Kayrin protested, agitated.
“You’re still young, and it could be dangerous. You might get lost yourself. Staying here and waiting — that would be helping the adults, don’t you think?”
But Kayrin was a child who could reason.
As Emily said, he might end up getting in the way.
“B-but… is it really all right? What if I could find her?”
“Just pray as hard as you can, Young Lord. Pray that everyone comes home safely. That’s enough.”
In the midst of all the urgency, Emily’s voice remained level as she soothed him.
“All right.”
Kayrin went straight to the sofa, sat down, closed his eyes tight, clasped both hands together, and began to pray with complete concentration.
* * *
One hour later.
“What? Ivelina has disappeared?”
“Yes, Your Grace. My lady has been gone for six hours after following a friend named Camilla. There has been no word.”
“Her escort?”
“She sent them all away. The woman Camilla appears to have arranged it deliberately.”
“This woman Camilla. Investigate everything — who she is, where she’s been. Right now.”
Even at full gallop, it was a journey of at least half a day.
“Damn it all.”
Kael ground out the kind of word he had never once let slip in Ivelina’s presence.
He stepped off the carriage immediately and chose the strongest horse available.
“Y-Your Grace! You’re going on horseback?!”
Hugo asked, alarmed.
It was a considerable distance for a horse, and the sun was nearly down.
But Kael was in no position to answer.
He swung up into the saddle with swift, practiced ease.
“No time. I’m going ahead. Follow when you can.”
He was already disappearing into the cloud of dust.
* * *
The person who stepped into the hut was Edwin.
“Edwin. What is the meaning of this?”
“I ask the questions here. You just answer what I ask.”
“……”
“Is he that good?”
“What are you talking about.”
She pressed her brow together sharply.
“You broke off our engagement, and that same day you jumped straight into bed with him.”
‘How does he know that?’
Not that it was any kind of betrayal. She had been free. She wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted her to say.
When she neither confirmed nor denied it, Edwin let out a short, derisive snort.
“That’s why you did it, isn’t it. You saw me with another woman and you thought — now’s my chance — and used it as an excuse to break it off.”
With every word Edwin spoke, the heavy stench of alcohol rolled off him.
The smell was so sharp she had no desire to engage.
“Ivelina. Tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
“You were already involved with him before you broke things off with me, weren’t you.”
“No. I met him for the first time on the same day I ended things with you.”
Edwin seized his own hair and pulled. Then he drove his foot into the wooden chair beside him with enough force to break it entirely out of shape.
“‘Damn it!'”
He had come unmoored.
Edwin’s eyes had gone scarlet — every vessel in them burst.
This wasn’t ordinary drunkenness.
‘He was always pathetic, but never violent like this…’
Something clicked in her mind.
“…Have you been using? Some kind of substance?”
Edwin went still. He crossed the room in two strides and seized her shoulder in both hands.
She turned her head away. He grabbed her jaw and wrenched it back to face him.
“Ugh. Let go. What are you doing.”
“Come back.”
“What?”
“Come back. To how things were. We can still fix this. You’re not — you’re not pregnant yet, are you?”
“…What?”
Edwin’s eyes were not right.
He rolled them back, laughed like a man without his senses, went cold — and cycled through it again, endlessly.
“Then I’ll take you back. I mean it. Won’t I? Yes?”
“…Edwin, please try to think clearly—”
“Divorce him. Let’s start over. From the beginning.”
She exhaled.
“Think about what you’re saying. Why would I ever choose you over him?”
“What?”
“I’d sooner bite off my own tongue.”
“You—!”
Edwin’s eyes went wide and wild, his hands digging into her shoulder.
“But I have reason to consider it carefully. My life is at stake — what does one man matter compared to that?”
“…What?”
“Give me time to think. One hour. Let me sit with it alone.”
Edwin looked momentarily thrown.
But her answer wasn’t unfavorable to him. His grip on her shoulder softened slightly as he spoke.
“All right. Fine.”
“……”
Edwin’s pupils — bloodshot and dilated — moved in an unfocused, glassy way. His body had begun to tremble in small, involuntary pulses.
“And besides — no one’s coming here.”
He fumbled through his pockets. He was shaking as he moved toward her.
“Mmph.”
* * *
