“All you need to do is get ‘dumped’ by the Duke first.”
“D-dumped? How?”
“This arrived, as it happens.”
Emily drew a small card adorned with delicate flowers from inside her uniform. It was an invitation from the Barony of Fürelle.
“Miss Kate has sent you an invitation to tea. Isn’t she rather the expert when it comes to romance? Quite experienced, if I recall.”
“Oh, that’s right! She’s been ‘dumped’ plenty of times too!”
“Perfect. Why don’t we go tomorrow and ask her how to be properly broken up with?”
That was an excellent idea.
* * *
That night.
Amidst all the chaos, she hurried to write a letter to her parents. She had witnessed Edwin’s infidelity with her own eyes, broken off the engagement on the spot, and could not marry him. That was all.
The moment the letter was sent, she felt a long-held pressure lift from her chest, as though something lodged deep had finally dissolved.
She stretched her arms above her head with relish.
“Ha — all right, that’s one thing settled! Shall we take a night walk? What do you think, Emily?”
“I’d like that.”
With her parents away from the house, life permitted a certain freedom. Evenings like this one — strolling out later than she was usually allowed — were a quiet luxury.
The moonlight was bright and the night air was cool and gentle.
“He keeps scolding me for making a face like a startled raccoon. It was a genuinely surprised expression! Honestly — someone like ‘him’ having a first time? It doesn’t even make sense. The way he looks, he must be with a different woman every day—”
Emily gave a slow, languid smile at that.
She was being completely serious!
“And then — the business about not calling him by his name. He was about to tell me off for that too. I mean. It’s not as though he’s someone I can address so casually…!”
They walked on like that, talking about nothing and everything.
They passed through the front garden of the estate and had just turned the corner when she stopped.
‘What was that?’
The rustling of leaves?
Just now — she was certain she had heard something behind her. A faint, eerie scraping sound.
Something was wrong. The air wasn’t even that cold, and yet goosebumps had crept up along the back of her neck.
She reached out instinctively and took hold of Emily’s arm.
“Emily — wait.”
“Miss? What’s wrong?”
She turned sharply and looked behind her.
For a moment, the faint sound she’d been hearing went completely silent.
There was nothing there. Only the shadow of the estate stretching out in the moonlight.
‘Something doesn’t feel right…’
“Miss?”
At her strange behavior, Emily called her name in a composed, even voice.
“Emily. I thought I heard someone — just now, behind us…”
‘Mrrrow!’
“Oh — !”
She jumped so hard she nearly lost her footing. Emily caught her wrist just in time.
“Miss. It’s a cat.”
A tiny kitten was trotting merrily through the flower bed.
Emily gathered her skirt in both hands and walked briskly toward the garden bed beneath the trailing vines. Watching her go from behind, she could see the subtle rounding of one cheek — Emily always smiled like that around small animals.
She rubbed her arms, still prickling with goosebumps that had nothing to do with the night air.
‘I feel like I’m being watched… It’s probably just my imagination.’
Emily had already drawn close enough to scratch under the kitten’s chin and was stroking it gently.
‘Mrrrow — mrrraow!’
And then — as though pulled by something unseen — her gaze drifted upward, toward the vast dark expanse of the open night sky.
“Emily! Watch out!”
She sprinted forward and threw herself around Emily.
‘CRACK.’ The sound of a shattering flowerpot rang out behind her, sharp and enormous.
“Miss! Are you all right?!”
“Yes, I’m fine. A pot must have fallen from the terrace. The cat probably knocked it off without realizing.”
She walked over to the shattered pot and crouched down beside it.
“Oh no — it’s completely in pieces.”
“Leave it for now, Miss. It’s dark — you’ll cut yourself. I’ll replant it first thing in the morning.”
* * *
“Thank goodness — it can be saved!”
They were up early the next morning and headed to the back garden.
The two of them crouched down side by side, trowels in hand, turning the soil of the flower bed.
The lilac had survived, still rooted where it had fallen. They decided to replant it in the garden bed to give it a chance.
“I’m glad the roots aren’t damaged.”
“Aren’t you! What a relief.”
They nestled the lilac back into the earth, roots and all, and patted the soil down firmly around it with their trowels.
“I keep telling you I can manage on my own. You haven’t been well.”
“But it goes twice as fast with two of us.”
She answered with a little roll of her eyes, and Emily shook her head with a quiet laugh.
“Truly. I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who could ever get the better of you, Miss.”
She smiled back at her, soft and easy.
And then — from somewhere in the distance — a voice split the morning air like a blow.
“Ivelina!”
Far off, over Emily’s shoulder — her fiancé. Her ‘former’ fiancé. Edwin.
“Edwin? What are you doing here?”
“Where were you hiding that day? I looked everywhere for you.”
“Get your words straight. I wasn’t hiding. I was running away from ‘you’.”
“Right, fine — just come talk to me.”
“No. I have nothing to say to you. Please just go.”
Edwin exhaled sharply and dragged a hand through his hair.
“What happened that night was a genuine mistake. I mean it.”
“Forget it. What do I care? Go ahead and spend your whole life making mistakes.”
“Just hear me out. Please. It was one night — she was the one who came onto me, and I—”
Edwin stopped mid-sentence.
His brow creased, and he looked at her with a strange expression — as though something about the scene was making him deeply uncomfortable.
“Hold on. What’s this?”
He seized her wrist. Hard. He looked at the trowel in her hand and his face twisted.
“What is this — a ‘shovel’? Why are you doing something so ‘common’?”
She wrenched her wrist free.
“Let go of me when you’re talking! And I told you — I have nothing more to say. Please leave.”
“Why is ‘she’ making you do this?”
Edwin jerked his chin toward Emily, his voice sharp with contempt.
“What does it matter whether I dig a garden or shovel dirt? Ow — that ‘hurts’!”
Before she could finish the sentence, Edwin grabbed her wrist again without a word and dragged her over toward Emily.
“Good morning, young Master Edwin.”
Emily dipped her head and folded her hands.
“Save your pleasantries. Answer me honestly. You put her up to this, didn’t you?”
“I apologize, young Master.”
“If her hands get ruined, will ‘you’ take responsibility? Well?”
“I apologize, young Master. I will be more careful in future.”
Edwin shook her wrist as he continued to berate Emily. His unkempt fingernails bit into the skin of her wrist.
“Edwin — ‘ow’! Let go and ‘then’ talk!”
“She does something nice for you and suddenly she’s your ‘friend’? Do you have any idea of your place? What happens if these pretty hands get marked up?”
“I’m sorry.”
Even as the insults were directed at her, Emily kept her head bowed and repeated her apology — nothing more.
The pain in her wrist faded. What replaced it was something colder, something that set her teeth on edge.
“Edwin. Watch your mouth. I won’t put up with this any longer.”
She tightened her grip on the trowel.
Edwin only laughed — a short, contemptuous sound — and went on.
“Oh, so you’ll sell your body to cover the medical bills? With that low-born—”
‘Thwack.’
“You absolute bastard! I told you to ‘stop’! I said I wouldn’t put up with it!”
She swung the trowel and cracked it across the back of Edwin’s head.
He staggered, then caught himself. When he turned to look at her, his expression was one of pure disbelief.
“Have you lost your mind? You ‘dare’ raise a hand against your future husband?”
“Future ‘husband’? I told you — I broke off our engagement. I already sent a letter to my parents!”
“No. I won’t allow it. There is no broken engagement.”
“You think you have any say in that? You were the one rolling around with another woman at the same party you brought me to.”
“That was — Ka—… that ‘woman’ started it!”
“Ka — what?”
Surely not Kael.
Though, given the slur that followed — it probably wasn’t him she was referring to.
Then again, a man like Edwin wouldn’t dare curse Kael openly. Not with only one life to his name.
“Ugh! What are you standing there staring at?! Is this entertainment to you?!”
“Why are you taking it out on Emily, who hasn’t done anything?!”
Edwin snatched the trowel from her hand.
He stepped up in front of Emily and raised it above her head.
Emily kept her gaze lowered and squeezed her eyes shut.
‘No—’
She threw herself between them and shut her own eyes tight.
“I wondered where all that yapping was coming from.”
A familiar voice — low and resonant, like something out of a deep cavern — cut through the air.
At the sound of it, the world seemed to go still, as if it had been given a signal.
Heavy footsteps drew nearer. Her eyes flew open at the sound of that voice she recognized.
“Seems an actual dog showed up.”
* * *
