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chapter 34
The next morning, as promised, Dmitri had everything perfectly prepared for Keith’s departure. Though he hadn’t slept deeply, even pretending to sleep had relieved some of the fatigue from yesterday.
Keith planned to leave before Briony woke up. She thought it would be torturous for her to continue facing her ex-husband, with whom she hadn’t parted on good terms.
However, his plan began to unravel the moment he left the marshlands surrounding the mansion.
Undine Isle was surrounded by rivers and swamps, forming a natural moat around the estate. Only by going around the marsh could a four-wheeled carriage find solid ground. Whoever had decided to build the estate here must have spent a fortune and enormous labor with the technology of the time. Long ago, Vernon’s land manager even ominously predicted that in a few centuries, the mansion would be half-sunken.
Carefully urging his horse forward, Keith finally exited the dangerous area—only to encounter a carriage.
It was an unusually grand carriage for such a remote area, but it wasn’t Lord Vernon’s carriage that he remembered. Usually, the horse would pass first, and the carriage would follow, but Keith politely pulled his horse to the side and waited. The carriage, however, didn’t move past him—it stopped in the middle of the road. Only then did he notice a familiar crest on the carriage door.
“Could it be…?”
As he stared in disbelief, the carriage window slid open, revealing Lucinda, his aunt.
“Keith.”
“…Aunt Lucinda?!”
She frowned elegantly.
“I’m not deaf. Why are you shouting? Perfect timing. Could you go back to Undine Isle and tell your gloomy, handsome butler to load this carriage onto the boat for me?”
Keith, being a court clerk, was used to logical conversation. Aunt Lucinda, however, had a tendency to skip logical steps—sometimes halfway, sometimes twelve steps at a time.
As he hesitated, unsure where to begin correcting her, she continued.
“Seeing how thin you are, you must be reflecting on yourself. These days, lean men like you are popular, though don’t let yourself look too ragged. I don’t mean that you are, but… what are you doing? Not going to prepare a boat?”
“What do I have to reflect on? And there’s no boat ready yet. I only arrived yesterday, so not everything is in place.”
“I thought as much. You can’t leave the estate in such neglect. Didn’t I tell you to respond to my letter?”
“Did you stop by Ebony?”
“Yes. Your head maid was stamping her feet because the person who should’ve arrived hadn’t. By the way, your head maid was unusually polite. It’s getting harder to find decent servants in Dimsdale. What am I supposed to do if there’s no boat to carry the carriage?”
Keith quickly pieced together her words. Aunt Lucinda had sent a letter saying she would visit Ebony, but he had been absent, so she hadn’t received a reply. She had gone to Ebony anyway, found he wasn’t there, and so came here.
“…I haven’t even been here in five years.”
However, the Countess Winslow—Aunt Lucinda—only knew that Caitlin had died in an accident on Undine Isle and hadn’t attended the funeral, being far away helping her daughter give birth. She probably assumed Keith had been coming and going recently.
“Then how about coming to Ebony with me? As I said, there’s nothing much on Undine Isle—”
The Countess shook her head firmly.
“I arrived there yesterday afternoon, slept one night, and left here at dawn. You suggest going back to Ebony without even having a cup of tea? I came here to talk to you—I can’t wait until we get there.”
Keith had a very bad feeling.
“What is it you want to talk about?”
“Do you really want to talk while you’re on a horse and I’m on the carriage? Keith, quickly show me where to park the carriage and get a boat. Since you get seasick, ride back to Undine Isle on that horse.”
“Actually… I have a guest on Undine Isle right now…”
The Countess’s eyes narrowed. Likely an elegant older lady whose hair had streaks of silver, she could look quite strict when she pursed her lips, and Keith instinctively shrank back.
“So it’s a woman, huh? Handsome men really do pay for their looks.”
“Aunt, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean—”
“Now you’re playing innocent? If your father in the grave knew his only son had grown up so unruly, he’d turn over. No wonder you came to Vernon instead of Ebony. What woman were you hiding, that you rejected the fortune you could’ve gained from Ebony and got divorced instead?”
Keith instinctively pulled the reins as the horse got startled. He patted the horse’s mane anxiously.
So she thought he divorced because of a woman!
“…I think there’s a misunderstanding…”
The Countess drew in a breath.
“Then, it wasn’t a woman, was it? Could it be a child?”
There was no woman, so no child could exist.
“Absolutely not. What’s on Undine Isle—”
Saying “not a woman” wouldn’t be entirely true, so he quickly shifted his words.
“—is not who you think. And Briony and I didn’t get along, so we parted by mutual agreement.”
“If that’s the reason, it’s better to say you parted because of a woman. It’s not about shoes not fitting! Anyway, then there’s no reason I can’t go to Undine Isle. Take me there.”
“But…”
Despite weak resistance, Keith knew he couldn’t win. Logic doesn’t work with some people. All he had was the feeble argument that Undine Isle wasn’t ready to host guests.
Finally, he gave in.
“Then… please don’t be too surprised.”
“I’ve already been surprised enough. I was enjoying the hot springs in Weirgael when suddenly the Count of Winslow sent a letter saying you divorced. Can you imagine my shock? Now that Arlington’s dowry has returned to the junior marquis, men all over the kingdom will rush to Shobury to propose. Meanwhile, you were in court prison.”
How could news travel so fast? Weirgael, where the Countess had been, was the farthest region near the Algonquin border, yet she knew of the divorce and even his arrest by the “Queen’s Eye.”
“I did nothing wrong, and the court ruled in my favor.”
‘Courts aren’t prisons, though.’
Keith wisely kept that thought to himself.
Briony had slept soundly for the first time in a while, so deeply that Myrtle was astonished.
“Miss, you slept so well! You look radiant leaving Shobury.”
Keith had been acquitted, releasing the tension and fatigue she had accumulated. Unlike her first arrival in Shobury, she wasn’t in pain; her sleep had refreshed her mind and spirit.
“I want a hearty breakfast.”
“Of course. I’ll ask the butler to prepare it. If lucky, the cook might even arrive today.”
Myrtle helped her into a gown. Seeing her curiosity, Myrtle answered before being asked.
“Lord Ebony has gone out.”
“…Already?”
She could guess he had headed to Ebony, but didn’t expect he left while she slept.
“Yes. The butler was busy since morning, so I woke up. Wash up, and I’ll help you dress. Which would you like?”
“Anything is fine.”
“You have over three hundred dresses in Shobury, Miss.”
Myrtle repeated what she had said daily since arriving on Undine Isle.
“Sir Gideon Arlington is too much. If he’s not wearing them, at least you can use them.”
“Well, those clothes weren’t bought with my money—”
“You have no choice, right? But you are his only daughter.”
Myrtle, the youngest in a middle-class physician family, had not received special favoritism, nor mistreatment. Briony wished she had more siblings.
‘Yesterday, my father’s men tried to take me to Shobury.’ Myrtle would have been shocked, so she said nothing. She just hoped they wouldn’t find this place, even for a few weeks.
“I should write some letters today.”
“To whom?”
“To your father and Harold.”
“To my father, probably because of that Amber girl, but why to Mr. Thierry Haven’s butler?”
“Because he would worry about me more than my father. I want to send some news secretly.”
“If he’s that worried, why not send some of your dresses too?”
As Myrtle pulled out Briony’s indoor clothes, a commotion arose outside—the men Keith had ordered Dmitri to hire.
‘Better stay unnoticed.’
When she first decided to come here, Briony thought the mansion would be empty and tried to improvise stories, but Dmitri discovered her, leaving her dependent on him.
She needed to tell Keith she wouldn’t stay long…
‘Maybe he’ll stay in Ebony for a while…?’
Recalling how exhausted he looked last night, Briony felt concerned. But worrying wouldn’t help. She washed up lightly for a hearty breakfast, and when she returned, Myrtle was excited, flushed from watching outside.
“Miss, Lord Ebony is back!”
“Keith?”
“And an intimidating old lady with him!”
‘An old lady…?’
Briony tried to think of who Myrtle meant. Was there an elderly lady among Keith’s distant relatives at the wedding?
‘Lady Dimsdale?’
Lady Dimsdale, Countess Winslow, was probably Keith’s fifth cousin aunt. Briony remembered seeing her only once at the wedding and assumed the families weren’t close.
But why was she here now…?
