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~Chapter 7~
“Oh really, I meant it too.”
Only Blake and Lily were in the stable.
Lily waved her hand and gave a bitter smile. She thought to herself that the real reason she never fought back was because she was a coward. “Lily Hedwick” was supposed to be a quiet, perfect lady everyone admired.
“Sorry, I couldn’t be the witch who gets written in the holy book for killing her husband.”
Lily never believed her ex-husband only hurt her because he was drunk.
But even so… it just made her sad.
“If the holy book is just for writing useless words, someone should throw it into the fire!”
“Oh, if everyone could be as free from other people’s eyes as you, Mr. Blake.”
She laughed brightly and leaned toward Blake, shaking the shelf with how happy she was.
She hadn’t had the strength to get angry for a long time.
That made Blake even crazier inside.
No one ever got angry for Lily.
Not even once, since she was born. So it made her happy.
She smiled with real elegance, her heart feeling full.
“But I did do something big before I ran away. I left the divorce papers on the table.”
The capital probably went wild after that.
But Blake was not satisfied.
“You didn’t throw a toilet at his face or anything?”
How do you throw a toilet? Lily wondered, but she played along.
“Oh! I forgot. I even forgot about the bomb I left behind.”
“That’s a funny joke.”
Blake gritted his teeth.
After joking, Lily got serious again.
She sat on the shelf, and when she reached out, her hand rested perfectly on his strong shoulder.
“Still, my husband must have been really angry. It would have been better if I could get a legal divorce…”
A divorce was truly impossible.
First, all the workers in the capital were under her husband’s control.
No one would testify about his violence.
Her father was a councilman, but he wouldn’t help.
A noble’s divorce had to go to the council, and her father would use his pen to block it.
“I should have known something was wrong when you came here,” Blake said. He had figured out almost everything.
“You came to the dukedom holding on to the late duke’s promise like a lifeline. That’s strange. What about your parents? Or any close friends you could trust?”
Lily only ever met people her father allowed.
Unless it was a huge party, she was always controlled.
Her parents were never on her side. Any friends they introduced would never help her either.
“Oh, let’s stop this boring old story now. It’s not a good way to start the day. It’s time to go back.”
Lily moved her sore foot a little. It was getting better as they talked.
She put her clothes back on and jumped down from the shelf.
Blake’s fierce eyes followed her.
“You’re changing the subject.”
“A real lady should have a few secrets, right?”
She spoke as elegantly as the most admired person at every party.
“You only act noble at times like this!”
“Of course, I’m a perfect noblewoman. Everyone always wanted to kiss my hand, you know.”
Lily walked to the stable door, laughing with elegance.
The winter castle was tall, standing above even the clouds.
Inside was harsh but also lively and warm—a place so different she almost forgot she only had one year to stay.
Even though she knew, after this, she’d have to go back to her family and the capital—a kind of hell for her.
There was nowhere else she could run from her family.
She couldn’t ask Blake to solve everything for her.
So, just for a year, she wanted to break free from being “Lily.”
“See you next time, Mr. Blake.”
She pulled the stable door open.
Sunlight shined in through the crack, lighting up the snow in red.
Blake felt angry that Lily always went quiet at important moments.
What made him even angrier was not knowing why he felt this way.
He had promised not to care about her less than an hour ago!
Feeling stubborn, he gave a sharp answer.
“This time was just a coincidence. But next time, let’s not even talk if we see each other. Just turn around and go.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. I actually started to like you today, Mr. Blake.”
“Ha!”
Blake promised himself again.
He would NOT care about Lily Hedwick anymore.
The fact she’d gotten used to pain was none of his business…
It shouldn’t be his business.
He watched her leave, telling himself that—never knowing how caught up he already was.
…Well, he couldn’t even help himself when something bad happened to him as a kid.
“Don’t sit down on the ground!”
He kept hearing his own voice from childhood in his head.
Morning came.
Lily’s maid, Giana, woke up early.
This castle didn’t have a real personal maid for anyone.
If there was hunting to do, everyone helped. If something needed fixing, everyone helped too.
It was nothing like the fancy houses in the capital.
Giana needed to learn how to take care of Lily. So she went to the old library.
“What are you reading, friend?”
Another maid with an axe on her back saw Giana and asked.
Giana climbed down the ladder and answered as she put things away with her strong arms.
“I don’t remember the title…let’s see…‘One Hundred Tips to Be a Good Maid’? It says here a maid should always walk on her tiptoes to move quietly. Can you believe it?”
“Haha, no way! Not even in the capital!”
Even in the capital, maids don’t act like that.
The book was a hundred-year-old gift from a noble who wanted to insult the free spirit of the Uffus family. It had just been left in the library ever since.
Because of the book, Giana learned something new.
A personal maid should wake her lady up early…
So she ran straight to Lily’s room.
“Miss Lily!”
Giana opened the door with confidence, expecting Lily to praise her for being so kind.
“Miss Lily, good morning!”
Lily, who had gone to bed very late, woke up with a shock.
She sat up and pulled off her blanket.
“W-what… what is it?”
Did a war start? Was there an invasion?
What was that thunder-like noise?
Lily tried to walk over to Giana, but her ankle hurt.
She leaned on the wall and looked down. Her ankle had swelled during the night.
“Oh no, Miss Lily! What happened to your ankle?”
“Oh…right, yesterday…”
When she’s tired, her healing magic doesn’t work well. She had meant to fix it in the morning, but it got worse.
“Yesterday? When you gave us back the bucket after the stable, you seemed fine!”
“Actually, in the stable, Mr. Blake—”
Lily was about to explain what really happened—
“That rotten master!”
The people of Uffus were brave, but sometimes lacked patience or the ability to listen.
Giana was furious. She imagined Blake pushing Lily and stormed out.
“Giana, Giana!”
Maid Giana disappeared from the room. Lily called after her.
Lily had to catch up.
Giana had misunderstood after only hearing the first part. What would she do to Blake?
Giana looked so angry Lily imagined something scary.
“Giana… No matter what, don’t hit the master! That’s treason! Wait for me!”
Even with her hurt ankle, Lily hurried out of the room gracefully.
The halls were built of huge white bricks, and it was cold and empty, even in the morning.
Giana was already far away, almost out of sight.
She walked with fierce steps. It was clear she was ready to fight the master.
“Giana!”
Lily felt dizzy.
Just then, some other strong maids passed Giana. Lily called to them.
“Hey! Can you stop Giana? She’s the one running down the hall!”
They were the same maids who had fed Lily jerky last night.
Being brave Uffus women, they jumped high and tackled Giana.
“Got you!”
“If you move, you’ll lose a hand!”
After all the chaos, someone finally asked:
“But…what’s wrong with Giana?”
By then, Lily was out of breath but managed to catch up.
“Wow, Giana. You’re so fast! Mr. Blake didn’t do anything wrong. It’s mostly my fault my ankle got hurt.”
Then the maids saw Lily’s swollen ankle.
They reacted just like Giana.
“Our master is the bad guy? Oh, we won’t forgive him!”
“Friend, help me. My axe is hungry for justice!”
“But first, let’s get a doctor!”
Lily felt like her ears would burst.
It was actually kind of funny.
It was the loudest morning she’d ever had.
All the servants she’d known before had always been quiet—they had to be.
But these maids were so loud you could still hear them even if you covered your ears.
They even talked about killing their master. There was so much chaos after just a few words.
“They worry so fiercely—it’s new to me. I feel good, but something bad might happen if I don’t stop this.”
So Lily chose the safest idea the maids had mentioned.
“Hey, you said a doctor? There’s a doctor here? Can you bring him?”
“If your belly gets cut open, we’d need to go down the mountain for a real healer. But if it’s not that bad, we have someone.”
“Someone?”
“We’ll catch—uh, bring him right away! Please wait!”
Lily was carried back to her room, just like a queen.
Soon after, a good-looking man came in.
The maids had hurried him so much! Outside the door, he grumbled, “I can walk, you know! Hey, I’ve got two working legs!”
“If you try to walk in front of me today, I’ll smack your back five times a second!”
Then he saw Lily and smiled, embarrassed.
“I’m Il Dexter. I help the duke with his work.”
He had brown hair and glasses and looked neat and smart.
Lily was sitting on the bed because the maids had forced her. When she saw him, she smiled and shook his hand.
