Chapter 15

Elena stepped down from the carriage with a pale face.

“Thank you.”

“I only did what I had to do.”

The coachman gazed at Elena with pitying eyes.

It was certainly the young lady he had seen at Kress Bridge before.

No wonder he had felt like stopping the carriage.

Who would have thought it would become this kind of connection?

When he saw Elena running out of the mansion, his heart had dropped.

Because she had worn a face as if her breath might stop at any moment.

What on earth had happened to fill the young lady’s face with such deep sorrow?

“Did things not go well for you?”

The coachman asked as he gathered the belongings left in the carriage.

Elena stared blankly at the coachman with moist eyes.

She felt she should say something, but if she opened her mouth, the tears would burst out right there.

Elena dropped her head weakly.

Taking the belongings the coachman handed her was all she could manage.

“It will work out. Whatever it is, it will work out.”

The coachman turned his reluctant steps and went back.

Soaked by the rain, Elena stepped into the mansion.

“Good heavens, Elena!”

Hazel spotted Elena and rushed over in great alarm.

“What is the meaning of this? What happened to you! Was there nowhere to shelter from the rain?”

Elena trembled.

“Lady Hazel.”

Hazel was the one who had willingly become her umbrella for no reason at all.

The moment Elena saw Hazel, her emotions surged.

She burst into tears.

“Hic.”

Hazel pulled the tearful Elena into a tight embrace.

Perhaps because of the rain, Elena’s body was cold.

“Good heavens, Elena…”

“I—I am so powerless… I have nothing I can give Leana. There is nothing I can do…”

“…”

“I took all the money I had, but I could not even find a doctor. Lady Hazel, madam…”

So that was why she had come back clutching the medicine packet as if it were her life.

Hazel patted Elena.

She was a child barely twenty years old.

Why was the cloud hanging over this young lady’s face so heavy?

It was a burden too heavy for Elena to bear alone.

Leana, and Cecile as well.

And yet, was it not hard for her?

She held onto her younger sister to the very end and would not let go.

Just then, Madame Greta came down from the second floor.

“I had the servants prepare bathwater. She looked like she needed a bath.”

“Well done. Elena, let us first wash and fill our stomachs. We can talk after that. All right?”

Elena sniffled with her red nose and nodded.

Then Hazel took the medicine packet Elena had been holding.

“Is this the medicine the doctor in Rebunto prescribed before?”

“Yes…”

Elena nodded weakly.

“May I take a look at this?”

Elena gave her permission.

Hazel sent Elena, who had returned after a difficult time, up to the second floor.

Hazel and Greta met eyes.

“…I have already asked the empress to have Mr. Ollen examine Liena soon. Can we have Mr. Miles come in right now?”

“I already sent word this afternoon. He will be here by tomorrow morning.”

“I see.”

Hazel stared at Elena’s medicine packet with a heavy gaze.

Inside this would be Elena’s sweat and tears.

That night, Leana’s fever, which had barely subsided, began to rise steeply.

* * *

Maxim, having woken early from nightmares and a headache, rose from bed.

“Hoo.”

The nightmares and headaches were like one body with Maxim and had no intention of leaving him.

―Maxim. Look only at me. I told you to look only at me! What is so good about that girl? Her hair? Her clothes? Or her eyes? Ah, if I changed my hair color like that girl, would you look only at me?

―I think of you all day long. I only need you, Maxim.

―Why aren’t you like that? Why don’t you love me? Why do you…

Maxim gulped down water.

Only then did the remnants of the dark nightmare scatter.

Maxim rummaged through the drawer and pulled out a pill, chewing it.

The pill bottle was nearly empty.

It seemed he would have to call Miles in once day broke.

Maxim rubbed his temple and threw on a robe.

It was truly “damn it.”

Even in death, that woman would not let him go.

Maxim swept back his sweat-soaked hair.

Since that incident, he had never slept properly.

He was always plagued by insomnia, and when he barely managed to fall asleep, he would wake from nightmares and headaches like this.

Maxim glanced at the clock.

Five in the morning.

He had barely fallen asleep around two, so he had slept only three hours.

Maxim let out a hollow laugh.

“…Yes. It’s only you, you damned woman.”

Maxim drank more water to wet his dry throat and opened the door leading to his office.

It was easier to just work.

If he exhausted his body and kept busy, the nightmares of that day, and that woman, would be forgotten.

Just as Maxim was about to open the documents—

Clip-clop.

He heard the sound of hooves.

At this hour?

Maxim checked outside the window and saw a familiar carriage coming in.

“Miles?”

Had something happened?

Coming without being called?

Surely not Hazel?

Maxim set down the documents he was holding and went down to the first floor.

Maxim met Miles, who had just come in, and Madame Greta.

“Miles, I don’t believe today was the day you were supposed to come.”

“I will explain, Your Grace the Duke.”

Madame Greta cut in.

Maxim’s gaze turned to her.

“Leana’s fever would not come down, so I contacted you last night, and you said you would come this morning. I forgot to tell you.”

“No, it’s just as well. But Leana?”

That name was not in his memory.

“Ah, Lady Elena’s younger sister…”

Come to think of it, he had seen Elena’s younger sister on the first day they came to the mansion.

According to Elena, that child was her joy.

And the child was ill?

“What is wrong with her?”

“Well… she has been given a terminal diagnosis. Even if she is lucky enough to live, she will carry the illness for life.”

Madame Greta spoke hesitantly.

Maxim let out a hollow laugh.

That woman’s fate was truly harsh.

It seemed she was carrying no small amount of misfortune.

Maxim spoke with a sigh in his voice.

“Let us go together.”

“Yes, Your Grace the Duke.”

* * *

Elena gazed at Leana with tear-filled eyes.

The dark, sunken circles around her eyes suggested that the previous night had been anything but easy for Elena.

Over the past few days, she had been so filled with good fortune that she had forgotten.

The fact that her life was never a warm spring day.

Elena gasped for breath.

Unfallen tears rolled down.

Elena wiped her tears.

Had she taken Andres too lightly?

Wherever she went, no doctor would follow her for the amount she offered.

Even though she had gone around to every doctor in the city.

[With that amount, you won’t find a doctor in this neighborhood.]

[Sigh. I would like to help, but as the lady surely knows, there are rules in our profession too. If I were to treat your sister for that amount, my value would stay right there.]

The reasons were varied.

She had taken on as much translation work as she could before coming here, but perhaps it had been too much after all.

The money Cecile had torn away to buy cosmetics came to mind.

And so did the sight of herself, wearing the cosmetics bought with that money, being dragged to the banquet.

“Please…”

Elena parted her cracked lips.

She clutched tightly the hand of Leana, who was breathing raggedly with a brightly flushed face.

“Leana… I’ll do everything for you…”

Elena made a futile promise.

No matter how hard she tried, money leaked out like flowing water, and the goals she had so firmly set scattered like bubbles.

A small house where she and Leana could live just the two of them.

Abundant food and a healthy Leana.

That was all she wanted, and yet the heavens would not even permit that.

Elena stroked Leana’s forehead.

“Don’t be sick…”

Knock, knock.

It was around the time dawn was beginning to stir.

Elena turned her head.

“Elena, it’s me. May I come in?”

“Yes, madam.”

It was Hazel.

Elena quickly composed her face.

A person who carries only misfortune tends to be seen that way by others as well.

Elena had grown accustomed to not revealing her misfortune.

Hazel opened the door.

Hazel was not alone.

With her were a tired-looking Maxim and a man she had never seen before.

Elena’s gaze turned to the bag in the man’s hand.

‘…A doctor?’