Chapter 033. Handkerchief
“Deborah!”
As the red sun slowly dyed the western sky, Hannah burst through the attic door.
At her noisy entrance, Deborah, who had been lying on the bed, slowly sat up.
“What, were you sleeping?”
A teasing remark came, questioning why she was already in bed at this hour.
Deborah, smoothing her disheveled hair, gave a soft smile.
“Just lying down for a bit.”
“Really?”
“By the way, did you have a good visit with your parents?”
“Oh, yeah!”
Hanna’s bright smile brought a matching one to Deborah’s face.
Though today had been an exhausting and long day for Deborah, seeing Hanna’s happy expression at the end of it provided a small comfort.
“Oh, this.”
With a shy grin, Hanna held out a neatly folded cream-colored linen cloth in her hand.
At Hanna’s ’s gesture to unfold it, Deborah alternated her gaze between Hannah’s face and the cloth before moving her hand as instructed.
“This is…”
In her hand was a handkerchief, with a small purple lavender flower embroidered in the right corner.
Deborah examined the embroidery closely for a while before looking up.
Her puzzled expression prompted Hannah to scratch the bridge of her nose and answer.
“It’s nothing special, but my mom made one for me and said she made one for you too.”
“…For me too?”
Her question, filled with confusion, echoed the same bewilderment.
“Well, I… I wrote about you so much in my letters that my mom said, um, to get along well together!”
Haha, haha. Unable to lie well, Hanna’s face quickly flushed bright red.
Even without hearing it explicitly, Deborah could guess what Hanna’s mother must have said.
She probably heard by chance that her daughter’s friend, around the same age, was an orphan and felt pity and sympathy.
And then, without any malice, words were likely exchanged that couldn’t be said directly to the person in question.
‘Poor child.’
It was a phrase that had followed Deborah throughout her life, so it only stung a little and was no longer a deeply wounding remark.
Deborah gave a small smile and gently ran her fingers over the purple embroidery.
“I’m so grateful, I don’t know what to do…”
It was the first time she had ever received such a gift.
Especially from a woman much older than her, someone who, if Deborah’s mother were still alive, would be around the same age.
She hadn’t meant to show it, but somehow her bittersweet emotions must have seeped into her voice.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Hanna quickly changed the subject.
“Oh, um, it must’ve been tough covering for me today, right?”
Deborah, who had been unable to take her eyes off the handkerchief, finally looked up at Hannah.
“It must’ve been hard since it’s not work you’re used to… I kept feeling guilty even after I left. I shouldn’t have asked you to do it…”
Her voice softened with guilt.
Deborah quickly shook her head.
“No, it wasn’t that tough.”
“…Not tough? I know better than that.”
A grumbling mutter came, and Deborah couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
“By the way, I noticed the mansion was bustling on my way back. There was a carriage I hadn’t seen before too.”
Though she knew guests of Duke Cheister were visiting Elfengrin today, it was about time for them to have left, so she asked.
“Oh, that. The guests are staying for a few days, they said.”
“A few days?”
Deborah nodded at Hanna’s surprised question.
That’s what she had heard.
The guests, originally set to leave in the afternoon, had suddenly changed their plans to stay for a few days.
So everyone was told to be especially attentive in hosting them.
“Ohh, is it because of the hunt?”
“The hunt?”
Hanna blinked for a moment, then nodded a couple of times as if she’d figured it out.
“Oh right, you wouldn’t know, Deborah. It’s an annual event around this time.”
“Annual event? What do you mean?”
“Like how Miss Cecilia is crazy about parties, the Duke enjoys hunting quite often. Well, not crazily, but you know.”
Hannah giggled mid-sentence.
“Anyway, that’s why guests sometimes stay for a few days. To hunt and do this and that.”
As she changed out of her outing clothes, Hanna spoke casually, as if it were nothing unusual.
‘Oh, so those guests today…’
Deborah quietly recalled the four men standing beside Duke Cheister on the forest path.
But in the end, her thoughts circled back to what had happened earlier that day.
The incident that had weighed heavily on her all day.
– I’ll tell Mrs. Charlotte, so pack up and leave.
The cold face of the man who said those words made her heart ache again.
And also…
Even though Deborah was naive about matters between men and women, she wasn’t so ignorant as to not understand what had happened in that moment.
Perhaps that’s why her heart felt even heavier.
She didn’t know what intentions the Duke had in acting that way, but one thing became clear because of it.
Her feelings for the Duke.
Whether it was an extension of the feelings she had as a child,
or a new attraction to the man she met again,
she didn’t know the origin or depth, but one thing was certain: Deborah was drawn to him.
To think that she, an orphan and a lowly maid, dared to feel something for the head of the Cheister family, the Duke of Rubeik.
Even she found it absurd enough to let out a hollow laugh, but more than anything, the fact that she could no longer deny these feelings crushed her heart even further.
By morning, she’d be called to Mrs. Charlotte and told she was fired.
‘I won’t even be able to see him by chance anymore…’
To think that, on the verge of being thrown out onto the streets, this was the thought that came to mind—
Pathetic, foolish Deborah.
No amount of repeating it to herself would ever be enough.
With a long sigh, Deborah’s gaze turned forward again.
“Hey… Hanna.”
Hanna, now changed into comfortable clothes and untying her hair, turned her head.
“Yeah?”
“……”
Her face, asking if there was something to say, made Deborah’s words catch in her throat.
She felt she should at least tell Hanna, if no one else, but the words wouldn’t come easily.
After hesitating for a long time, Deborah finally shook her head.
“No… just, thanks for the handkerchief.”
With a small smile, she spoke, and Hanna gave her an exasperated look.
Grumbling about how silly she was, Hannah’s words only made Deborah smile quietly.
* * *
On an afternoon with a pleasant breeze blowing softly,
Elfengrin’s pride, the rose garden, had shed its red attire and was now brimming with vibrant green.
In the center, inside a beautiful domed gazebo, several people were gathered, enjoying tea.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t heard any news.”
Elenora von Cheister, savoring the fragrant tea, looked up at the sound.
Her gaze followed the direction of the voice, and all eyes at the table turned the same way.
“News?”
Tilting her head, Elenora looked at Count Leister, who had posed the question, as he smiled with his thin lips.
After staring at his twitching lips for a while, Elenora let out an “Ah” and nodded.
Curious as well, it seemed, as all eyes now shifted to the opposite side.
“There’s been some back-and-forth.”
“Back-and-forth? What does that mean…”
Unsatisfied with the vague response, Count Leister’s brow furrowed slightly as he looked at the Duchess.
Elenora briefly glanced away from the Count, stealing a look at Raymond, seated at the center of the left side.
As if the conversation had nothing to do with him, her son sat calmly sipping tea.
A faint sigh escaped Elenora’s lips.
“It’s because Lady Olivia has been bedridden with the flu.”
The answer to everyone’s curiosity came unexpectedly from an unforeseen source.
“The flu?”
Count Leister’s head quickly turned toward Cecilia, seated diagonally across.
A strange glint began to appear in his eyes as he looked at Cecilia, who had been sitting aloofly like a haughty cat, barely responding to questions.
Though her delicate brow furrowed briefly at his unsettling gaze, Cecilia quickly returned to her usual doll-like expression.
Despite the question coming from someone else, Cecilia continued speaking while looking at her brother.
“So it’s only been postponed. The engagement will proceed as planned once the Lady recovers.”
Right? With a bright smile, Cecilia asked, and Raymond merely raised an eyebrow.
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By Anna 💓
