Episode 87
“What on earth do you mean by that, all of a sudden?”
“I’m not joking.”
“I’m sure you’re not. So explain.”
“There’s someone who suffered the exact same symptoms as your sister and made a full recovery.”
It was good news she had never imagined. Tears sprang to Rowina’s eyes at the welcome tidings, and she covered her mouth.
“Really?”
“Yes. What matters is what comes next.”
Cedric paused, glancing around warily, then finished.
“They say that person is in Ethelwood. I’m leaving as soon as I’m ready. Damian will come with me too.”
“That’s wonderful! Oh, thank you.”
Rowina clasped her hands together as if in prayer and looked up at the sky.
“But what does that have to do with marriage?”
“Using the recent increase in smuggling as a pretext, all Crottians are currently barred from entering Ethelwood. They’re inspecting forged identification thoroughly too. But if I have a marriage certificate, and proof that I intend to naturalize, they’ll allow me to enter and exit.”
In short, the situation had become the reverse of before. It was not Rowina, but Cedric who needed marriage in order to gain her nationality.
“There’s no other way. No time for one either.”
“But I can’t do that. Not because I don’t want to.”
“I know. They’ll put surveillance on you.”
Cutting off Rowina’s words, Cedric nodded with a look of full understanding. Then he added,
“But not today.”
“Ah.”
Rowina’s eyes widened at the belated realization. It was true. The gazes that had followed her inside the mansion and when she went to the hospital were absent. It was because she had come with Cecilia. At the same time, Cecilia’s strange words came to mind.
“Did you know I would come here today?”
“Yes. We have one pair of eyes and ears inside the Rudeville mansion now. That’s why I said we had hope.”
It did not seem as though he meant Cecilia. The moment a curious light entered Rowina’s green eyes, Cedric spoke playfully.
“By the way, I’m sorry the proposal is so shabby. I wouldn’t have anything to say even if you rejected me.”
“No. If Lauren can be cured that way, I couldn’t ask for more.”
It did not feel real that Cedric would become her husband and she his wife. Only the fact that Lauren could be saved filled Rowina’s mind with overwhelming force.
“Thank you, Rowina.”
“There’s no need to thank me.”
She was smiling faintly at his quiet words when Cecilia’s voice calling for Rowina came from afar. As the sound drew closer, Cedric kissed Rowina on the forehead one last time.
“Four days from now, here, at this time. I’ll bring the priest.”
* * *
Fortune came at an unexpected moment, in an unexpected place. While Cedric left the gazebo at a brisk pace, and while Cecilia led her back to the Rudeville mansion, Rowina tried to hide her rapidly beating heart.
If Cedric found a way to treat Lauren and Lauren was cured, she would no longer need to remain forcibly held by Killian. This time, she would truly vanish so that he could never find her.
“Cecilia, is the Rudeville mansion an old one?”
Inside the rattling carriage, Cecilia, who had been listening only to the sound of the rain, turned her head toward Rowina.
“Yes. When Father bought the mansion, the owner said the main building was over a hundred years old. Compared to that, the annex was built only about ten years ago. They’ve been renovating and using it ever since.”
A mansion more than a hundred years old. Back then, this country had been plagued for a time by conflicts large and small. In that case. Something flashed through Rowina’s mind.
“If it’s such an old mansion with so much history… there must be hidden passages or rooms here and there, right?”
“Mm. I do know a few passages leading underground, but even the errand boys know about those.”
At that affirmative answer, Rowina inwardly rejoiced. A passage even the youngest child working in the mansion knew would be difficult to use, but there were surely other passages.
“It was a shame it rained so much today. How about going again soon?”
“All right. Let’s go together.”
Cecilia nodded and looked out the window again.
Perhaps because of the rain, the weather was gloomy. By the time they returned to the mansion, the dark clouds had made everything around them dim.
Rowina waited until late at night. Then, when even the servants would all be asleep, she searched every corner of her room for a passage. She pushed at the fireplace and took every book off the shelves as well, but no mechanism revealed itself.
“I need to find a passage so it will be useful when I run away later.”
It was only the beginning, but time was pressing. Draping a shawl over her shoulders, Rowina took a lamp in one hand and left the room. In the dark, empty corridor, she lifted the frames hanging on the walls one by one and looked behind them. But even after searching the vast mansion for hours, she found nothing. Covered in dust, Rowina finished searching the last corridor and sank down against the wall.
At that moment, she felt something protruding against her back.
“What is this?”
A large tapestry hung behind her. Holding her breath, Rowina carefully pulled the tapestry aside. As she groped with her hand, she felt a handle set into the inner side of the wall. Taking a deep breath, Rowina grasped it and opened it, and a small passage opened with an eerie sound.
“This is…”
A stale, musty smell rushed out at once. It was a narrow passage filled with cobwebs and dust, as though it had not been used by anyone in a long time. Covering her mouth with both hands so she would not inhale the dust, Rowina slowly stepped into the passage. The narrow passage, barely wide enough for a woman to move through only if she hunched her body as much as possible, led after about ten minutes to a fork in two directions. After hesitating briefly, Rowina turned to the right.
After going much deeper for a long while and reaching a dead end, she found a doorknob inside, just like at the entrance of the passage. Rowina opened the door as quietly as she could and stepped out, and a plush carpet sank beneath her feet. It was far softer than anything laid in the corridor. Groping along the wall as she walked, Rowina’s eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.
Her gaze, which had been sweeping her surroundings, stopped in one place. At the same time, all the blood in her body froze. This was none other than a bedroom. Someone was sleeping on the enormous bed. Raising her elbows and making as little noise as possible, Rowina approached the bed cautiously. As she slowly pulled down the blanket, the sleeping owner of the room turned toward her. For a moment, she was so startled that her heart nearly stopped; then, at the face that came into view, Rowina unconsciously stepped backward.
“Killian…?”
The passage she had found in order to escape him was, ironically, a passage that led to his bedroom in the annex. Shaken, she shook her head, and then something brushed against her heel. Rowina slowly turned around to check what it was and froze where she stood.
“…
This is.”
It was the portrait of a young woman. Blond hair and green eyes. At a glance, it looked like the portrait of his dead fiancée, to whom he had been betrothed since before birth. Thinking that must be it, she was about to look away when the frame dropped onto the carpet with a thud. And the name of the woman in the portrait entered her sight.
Rowina Devonshire, Duchess.
The person in the portrait was none other than herself. Reeling from shock after shock, Rowina drew in a sharp breath and was about to head back toward the open passage when a cold hand seized her wrist.
“…”
“…
Rowina.”
A rough voice mixed with a metallic rasp called her.
“It’s you. Isn’t it?”
“…”
Like a rusted hinge creaking open, Rowina turned around. Her body trembled like that of an herbivore standing right before a beast of prey, and her mind was filled with confusion.
But the face she met was calm. There was no sign of surprise, nor any sign of anger. At his next words, Rowina lowered her shoulders, which had been raised in tension.
“I knew you’d come back. There’s no way you could be dead.”
Killian was still caught in a dream. He was also seeing her as a hallucination. Shaking off his hand and running away would only have the opposite effect.
“That’s right. I’m not dead.”
At the silence that seemed to ask for an answer, Rowina spoke quietly and gently lowered his hand. But though some of the strength had left it, his large hand still held her wrist. Strangely, Damian’s face overlapped with his. She remembered how he would whine that he would sleep if she lay beside him when he could not fall asleep.
It was late at night. Before long, she would be completely free of this man, and then neither Damian nor she would ever have to see him again. As she gathered her thoughts, a trembling voice burrowed into her ear.
“You’re truly not dead? You’re alive?”
“I’m alive… so sleep some more.”
“Rowina.”
It was a tender voice, as if wrung from the heart. Rowina forced herself to ignore the faint tremor at the end of his words.
“I have to go.”
“I was wrong.”
“…
About what?”
“Everything. All of it.”
They were the same words as before, but both their intonation and their meaning were different. Rowina quietly pried his hand away. He was a man she hated enough to want to kill, but in this moment, he was like a child trembling with fear. Seeing him cling to her with the same face as her son’s, she could not bring herself to be cold.
It would be over soon anyway. Composing herself, Rowina slowly approached him. She brushed back his neat forehead, damp with sweat. Then she lowered her hand and closed his fingers around it.
“All right, so sleep now. It’s late.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“…”
“I stayed in the sea for hours.”
“…
Why?”
“Because I thought you would pull me in.”
His trembling hand was damp. Rowina denied the sensation. And instead of answering, she quietly withdrew her hand.
Before long, only the sound of even breathing filled the bedroom. She returned to her room through the passage with quick steps.