Chapter 23
****
The mansion on the outskirts of Progen.
At the end of a dimly lit corridor, a maid and the Duke faced each other, counting the minutes of silence. The maid Molly, captured by Noah, looked at him with panicked eyes.
Trapped under the arms of the Duke, Molly averted her gaze, but his cold fixed eyes looked down at her as if he had forgotten how to blink. His mouth was tightly shut, casting a dark shadow over his serious-looking face.
It looked like he was saying something amazing. Molly, unable to endure the breathless staring fight with the Duke, eventually spoke up first.
“Colonel, what’s going on?” (Molly)
“Delphine, don’t take this the wrong way. It’s not a confession.” (Noah)
“I know. But it’s burdensome. And I’ve been discharged from the army.” (Molly)
Molly tried to avoid Noah’s gaze, turning her gray eyes this way and that with a look of frustration.
“Did she leave because she didn’t like me?” (Noah)
“Who?” (Molly)
“The princess.” (Noah)
“I don’t know.” (Molly)
The dialogue between the two, who spoke short of words, was as brief as twenty questions, but Molly quickly grasped the state Noah was in.
Molly gently ducked out of Noah’s arms and crouched down. She held back a mumble and lightly flicked the skirt of her maid’s uniform.
Noah kept his head down, his palms against the wall. He might hit his head on the hard wall soon. He was very heartbroken. Molly didn’t know what crazy things he was going to do.
There was a little compassion on Molly’s inwardly indifferent face.
“Do you want to hear if that’s true?” (Molly)
“I’ve been pondering the matter for 366 hours. I’ve come to no conclusion.” (Noah)
“So what can I do for you?” (Molly)
“Let’s work with me.” (Noah)
When Noah narrowed his eyes and suggested, Molly’s face hardened.
“I’m just a maid.” (Molly)
“Didn’t you sneak into their mansion while pretending to be a maid? Aren’t you an expert?” (Noah)
“No, I’m not. I got paid a lot of money to do my job. I just want a normal job. What kind of maid is doing a spy job?” (Molly)
“Think of it as a normal maid’s job.” (Noah)
Noah asked simply, as if to say, go and prepare some simple errands and food. Molly, with a tired look on her face, shook her head from side to side, sounding resolute.
“It’s hard to infiltrate anymore. It was a last chance and a stroke of luck that I brought the lady* along at that time. The negotiations are in full swing and the border surveillance is intensified. It will be tough to see a fairy tale writer take a break.” (*Diana)
The original plan was to kidnap the Admiral’s eldest daughter Celine, but Molly brought Diana with her. She had abilities. Molly saw that Noah’s face was becoming more and more sullen, but she kept her eyes down and touched the dust in her hands.
“Now, the military or the imperial family won’t even pretend they don’t know. At that time, I was only disciplined for leaving my job, but if I go again, it’s the minimum shot to kill order under the military law. Rather, I’d better make a formal request for extradition.”
“You know I can’t. If I do, I’ll die right away.”
There was Noah, staring at the wall. To be precise, he was looking at a painting of a ghostly white horse that looked like it was about to pop out.
The white horse’s eyes were empty and its mane seemed to scatter like smoke. It’s as creepy as the title nightmare. It was a creepy picture, the stuff of nightmares.
“Yeah, let’s just find out if it’s life or death.”
“A means of communication.”
Noah bit his lip and let it out briefly. His tone was heavy and somber.
Molly didn’t hear his reply, then turned at the Colonel’s back as he walked along the corridor. She sighed as she tapped the bizarre painting hanging on the corridor wall.
After the sound of departing footsteps faded into the distance, she turned her head and stared at the hallway where Noah had disappeared. He was very impatient about this Princess, which was unlike him. She must be a very important person for him.
He was usually a person with complicated thoughts and it was difficult for anyone to grasp what he was thinking, but now Molly could make a simple judgement at first glance.
Because he wanted to contact the Princess*. Because he missed her. (*Diana)
***
Jeffrey looked at me with a lost expression on his face. My expression was almost entirely absent, and my tears were pouring out without warning, so he had every right to be puzzled.
“Did you like him?” (Jeffrey)
I did not answer.
He took the handkerchief out of his pocket and stepped closer to me. I didn’t let him wipe my tears and turned my head away. Jeffrey brushed back his dark hair and asked pitifully.
“Do you hate me?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Jeffrey sat low and looked up at me sitting in a chair, and people at the surrounding tables were glancing. The combination of Belford’s hero and the woman rescued by him was bound to be romantic in their eyes.
They would expect a romance between the two without knowing the hidden details.
I remembered the Duke who kidnapped me smiling as he placed a daffodil flower on my hand. The yellow color of the daffodils he had placed on my palm. The scene appeared and covered me warmly with good memories.
The sight made a ripple in my heart, which was immersed in silence. When he bought me expensive jewelry, shoes and dresses, I was actually not even impressed. I had had enough of luxury goods from my previous life.
In fact, the more I had, the more I felt empty and bereft. The romance I felt was beyond the memories that were not special. A few ordinary flowers given by the man who risked his life to come to the enemy’s country to rescue me. What I wanted. What I don’t want. That’s the difference.
A mind can look like an iron fortress that will never collapse, but one light feather can tremble it down. Noah was such a being.
“Miss Diana. I believe that the Duke took advantage of your heart. I hope you won’t get hurt by it. He even tried to trick the Princess of Medea into giving up her claim to the throne. So they had to stop the marriage. You are …………”
He lowered his eyes and slurred his words. He felt sorry for me, thinking I’ve been innocently tricked. I’m a woman in my twenties with the body of a seventeen-year-old. I can’t be fooled. Under the Lieutenant Colonel’s pitch black hair, his beautiful clear eyes looked at me with pity. How could he have such an opposite light? Bright, straight and robust.
“Use.”
I rubbed my tear-stained face, remembering his words. Maybe we used each other, that’s for sure. Because I used and betrayed his heart, too.
It was like that at first. He may have changed from the first time, too. So I have to ask him myself.
It’s silly to judge someone’s heart by your thinking alone, and it’s a common mistake.
How can one make a circumstantial judgment about feelings one cannot see?
“I’m going home now.”
When I returned to the mansion, I went to my room and figured out a way to get in touch with Noah.
It was war time, of all times.
I sat down at my desk by the sunny window and started to read some books, looking for something useful.
Knock. Knock.
There was a careful knock on the door of my room, and my nanny entered. She looked to be in her fifties, her light apricot hair neatly bundled, as if she had been a redhead in her youth, and she wore neat, well-cut clothes.
She was the woman who had worked the longest in this mansion and had raised Celine and Diana since they were babies. She was also someone who was not too different from the people in this mansion, as she too watched from the sidelines as I was abused.
I gave her a disinterested look and just read the book.
“You’re reading a difficult book.”
She talked to me for the first time. Her tone was graceful and calm, and even her voice was new to me. I spoke informally to the people of this mansion, but I couldn’t speak informally when I saw the wrinkles around her eyes with traces of time.
“Yes.”
I answered indifferently. She came closer and looked at the books stacked neatly on the desk.
“Do you want to learn hand signals?”
“I’ve seen some.”
“Read military books in secret. The Lady has just been rescued from an enemy country.”
She gave me unexpected advice, even though she was always on the sidelines. The nanny smiled as she stared at me with curious eyes. Her eyes crinkled up nicely. She smiled and smelled like freshly washed laundry.
The nanny, who was holding a book in her hands, continued.
“What kind of books do you like? I like books, too. I also like to write.”
“I like……fairy tales.”
“I see. Do you know that one?”
I silently looked at the nanny’s face.
“Literature and art transcend borders and time.”
I buried myself in the silence and thought about the intent and meaning of her message. Like that, she turned around and left the room.
Was this person’s name Janet?
After the nanny left, I turned my head toward the door and thought about her. Then I suddenly remembered the fairy tale that was serialized in the newspaper.
How can I put it in the newspaper of the enemy, Progen? And I’m not good at writing.
What would Noah do?
He was not pedantic, but he was a man with a very strong head and ideas that were different from the regular people. I lifted my head and looked out the window for a moment.
The shadows of branches stretched out here and there under the dead trees, hanging long as if they were reaching out somewhere. It reminded me of the gruesome painting that hung in Noah’s mansion. I had questioned him about the painting of the demon looking down sickeningly and bizarrely on the sleeping woman.
“Do you like paintings with such a gloomy atmosphere?”
“It’s beautiful.”
“How in the world is that beautiful?”
“The meaning is beautiful. A priest painted a picture of a woman he secretly loved. He described his desire as a demon. He didn’t tell the woman his heart until he died.”
The woman would not have known the priest’s heart until his death. He didn’t tell her. I made up my mind, pulled the bell and called the servants. Soon a freckled maid with brown hair came into the room. This was the new maid I hired last time because they had to replace all the maids, including Vera, because of me.
“Can you bring me some paper and a storyboard? Charcoal will be fine.”
I was an art student all my life and majored in Western painting. I’m planning to use my aptitude to submit a painting to the reader submission section of the Belford newspaper. There’s a good chance Noah would read the paper here, too.
It would be strange if I, who had been treated like a kitchen maid, suddenly painted well with expensive oil paints. So I painted a picture that only Noah could understand with the materials that the maid brought me.
“How do I get a reply?”
I mumbled to myself, hoping that Ganor would manage to answer. After putting the drawing in an envelope and sealing it with sealing wax, I sent it off, telling the brown-haired maid to bring it to the newspaper.
The maid immediately went to the newspaper office, then came back and handed me a newspaper with an excited look on her face.
“Look at this. The Lieutenant Colonel who saved the Lady is likely to be the heir to the dukedom.”
I received the newspaper silently and read the part pointed out by the maid.
[Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Grenendall, hero of Belford. With the success of the rescue mission, he is likely to be the heir to the Duke of Grenendall. The Prime Minister’s support will be high…………]
“Look at this too. There’s a story about Lady Celine.”
The maid, not knowing that I was mistreated and that Celine had turned away from me, lifted up another gossip paper.
[ Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Grenendall risked his life in the rescue mission to win the heart of the eldest daughter* of the Navy Admiral?]
(*Celine)
I chuckled and threw the gossip paper on the table. Was the life risking rescue really for me? The question turned into a certainty.
Because it fitted the circumstances.
Unlike Noah, the reason why they judged based on a mere circumstance was because they didn’t even know or cared about the truth.