***
Madeline stole a glance at the two men drinking tea as she walked up the stairs. By all accounts, it was a one-sided conversation. It was her father who did all the talking.
Ian looked travel-tired and seemingly bored. His hair was thick and black. Long legs crossed, fingers tapping, a relaxed figure as he listened to the Baron’s words.
Madeline had never seen her ex-husband like that before.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She hoped she would never see him again once he left the mansion.
She repeated as she climbed the stairs.
‘Let’s not see each other again, even in our dreams. It wasn’t a good relationship. We’ll be happier if we’re separate.’
Before the night was over, Ian left the Baron’s mansion in his carriage. Seeing the carriage disappear into the distance, Madeline prepared to go to bed.
The wind was cold.
‘Perhaps I’m doing something wrong.’
Perhaps she had to actively intervene in the man’s life now that she was getting a new life. But the worries were fleeting.
She did not have the extra power to save him in this life. Starting with not being tied to him, Madeline was going to start her life over one by one.
* * *
-26-year-old Madeline. (The past)
Four years hav passed.
She has been married to Ian for 4 years now. Four years she has been locked in this mansion.. And, four years the world has changed rapidly.
Reading the newspaper the butler had given her, Madeline was amazed at everything.
What was happening in London transcended Madeline’s imagination. Women cut their hair as short as a boy’s and walked around in skirts that showed their knees. Men and women alike would gather in one place to dance. The dance halls were not like the elegant ballrooms of the old society.
American jazz was whirlwind popular.
If her father knew about this, he would have been terrified, but what could he do? He died and those who lived will only move on.
No one could change the flow of time. It was inevitable that the aristocracy would disappear into history.
The world really changed quickly after the war. Like a board on a gramophone, like a spinning wooden horse.
Only Madeline seemed to stay in the past. She felt like an audience member sitting in a theater that had finished showing the film.
Rather, she wondered if she was more isolated than Ian Nottingham. She may be taking it easy in this birdcage-like prison without realizing it herself.
Regardless of the changes in the world, she had always been materially blessed here.
Shortly after she arrived here at Nottingham’s mansion, Madeline began to create a rose garden. To be honest, at first she had some kind of childish expectations.
Sne thought that one day, if the garden in this ruined mansion was brought to life, Count Nottingham would get better.
She hoped he, who was physically disabled, would enjoy looking at the roses. She hoped that he would feel pure beauty and life, and that he would be relieved of some of his pain. It seemed good to watch the roses grow and talk about them with each other.
Now she knew that it was a useless hope. The Count was thoroughly indifferent to her interests. It was sad to see that it was his utmost good will to ignore even that.
Thus, this project was just a way to pass the time for her own enjoyment. A small hobby that protected her from the noise of the times. It was nothing more, nothing less.
“Hello, Mr. Homer.”
Ben Homer was the gardener at Nottingham mansion. He was the only servant hired directly by Madeline when she heard there was no one to tend the garden.
It was a rare permission granted by the man who wished to keep all his servants thoroughly under his control.
“Why, Lady?”
Ben Homer approached Madeline. He was a surprisingly delicate old man, despite his rugged appearance. When she saw him carefully handling the buds with his crude fingers, she naturally felt a surge of respect for him.
“Doesn’t this branch somehow look like someone broke it on purpose?”
It was a gorgeous cream-colored Mansfield rose. A carefully nurtured flowering branch had been broken off. It was obvious that someone had deliberately broken it.
“Oh, it looks like it. That’s outrageous.”
The old man clicked his tongue.
“People don’t even walk around here. Who…?”
The Nottingham mansion was famous in the area as the ‘Cursed haunted mansion’. Even the villagers were afraid to visit the house because of the stories about the deaths of people in the family, cursed by the spirits of the Victorian era.
In fact, Ian Nottingham, the master of the house, was much more frightening than the Victorian spirits. He would not be interested, but in the village the Count was the main character of all kinds of monstrous tales. There were rumors that he was a bloodthirsty pagan, and there were stories that he spoke with the ghosts of his dead siblings. It was strange to trespass on such a man’s land just to get a single rose.
Who could it be?
Madeline felt more strange than offended that the rose was broken.
If someone plucked it, she hoped that one flower would bring them happiness. Madeline just kept silent with a simple wish.
* * *
-17-year-old Madeleine. (The present)
Madeline went back and forth between hope and despair dozens of times a day.
At 17, she had to debut. She will soon present herself in London’s society. But if she continued like this, her own debut was bound to be ruined.
It was a future that she knew but could not change. The reason why Madeline Loenfield’s social debut was was because of the war that would soon break out.
It would be only a few months away, it was doubtful what could be changed at this point. She would not have to meet Count Nottingham, but her father’s bankruptcy and suicide seemed inevitable.
She had to admit it frankly. She and her father, Baron Loenfield, were outdated dinosaurs. It was perhaps only natural that they should disappear into history. Therefore, they had to live with the times. Madeline stayed up all night recording the family’s money and property.
There was no way she could understand accounting methods such as double-entry bookkeeping, so she had to make lists. She wrote down the expenses of the house on one side and the assets of the house on the other.
The conclusion was obvious…spending had to be greatly reduced. If they sell the house, sell the estate, and live in a small cottage, they might be able to survive.
The house had to be sold when there was someone willing to buy it. She didn’t think she would get a decent price if she sold it to the Americans now.
But the most important thing was to correct Baron Loenfield’s habit of spending and gambling. That seemed like something that would be hard to change even if the sky split in two.
Madeline was sitting in the waiting room, brooding, when the Baron came to her.
“Madeline, my daughter. You must finally present yourself, mustn’t you?”
“…….”
She just now came to the conclusion that they should also dispose of their London townhouse.
The look in her father’s eyes was odd. He had a very handsome face for some to see, but to Madeleine he only looked sly, as if he were plotting an artifice.
But what needed to be said had to be said.
“Should I go to London?”
The social world would soon collapse anyway. Her father’s face twisted with astonishment when he heard her words.
“Are you depressed these days, my dear?”
“Huh?”
“You spend all day fumbling with papers and nagging about cutting back on spending. Hey, that’s not like you. It’s already strange that you’re acting like a commoner, you won’t even get married. Are you going to be a nun?”
“I never said anything about not getting married…..”
“Didn’t you say you won’t be making your social debut? Did you have a fiancé that you had decided on? Madeline. Get a grip. If you have a secret lover…”
“There is no such thing!”
Madeline was really starting to get angry now. No matter how much she tried to make his father look good, he had gone too far.
“I set up a townhouse in London, and it was all for you.” (Baron)
“Now that the subject is out, we should sell the townhouse.” (Madeline )
”Nonsense!” (Baron)
“And if you plan to invest in wine, don’t.” (Madeline)
Now she was a totally distraught daughter. But if she was going to throw out her dignity and her appearance anyway, she should have thrown them out properly.
Her father, who got hit but the mark with Madeline’s words, grabbed the back of his neck as his blood pressure rose.
“No, how do you know that? I have never told you about my business ……” (Baron)
“That investment has no future.” (Madeline)
“I don’t know if you read my letters secretly, but that is truly despicable and disappointing behavior. It was a decision to be made through Mr. Morton, the attorney, and no bother. It is not a subject of interest to a Lady.” (Baron)
Madeline jumped up. Even without looking in the mirror, it was obvious how her face looked.
“If father pays for that liquor business, I’ll……”
“…….”
“I won’t go out into the social world. Forever!”
“Hmmm.”
The Baron was utterly stunned by the harsh words that came out his daughter’s mouth.
The noble, elegant, gentle, and kind Madeline Loenfield had become a vulgar commoner in the Baron’s eyes.
“I will not even marry.”
”…what? That’s too much. Madeline!”
Her father started talking at length about how good the chateau arrangements were in France and how believable the farmer was.
They didn’t need it. The land would be ashes by war anyway. Madeline said with clear pronunciation.
“If father continues to be stubborn, I don’t have a choice. I’ll become a nun.”
“Madeline Loenfield! This is unbearable! You are grounded!”
Her father started screaming.
‘’I’ll be grounded forever, I don’t have a dowry anyway, and I can live as a celibate.’’
Madeline shrugged and went straight up to her room. Her father was yelling at her from behind.
And so began two weeks of intense hunger strike.
There was nothing the Baron could do. The social season was about to begin. In the midst of all this, the Baron retracted his investment decision, perhaps fearing that his daughter would go on a fasting struggle with her hair lost, or indeed become a nun. He burned the contract and even sent a letter to the lawyer in front of Madeline.
In any case, he was a man who loved his daughter dearly. His weakness saved himself this time.
Although she announced the hunger strike, Madeline secretly went down to the kitchen at night to eat crumbs.
Having stopped a definitive doom, Madeline Loenfield felt a little relieved, if not completely. Can she just sell the mansion, the townhouse, and the estate now?
Perhaps that would prevent bankruptcy. And then she will marry a good man and live happily ever after….
Would that be the end of it?
They will live happily together. And then?
Somehow, she felt extremely anxious in the back of her mind.
‘……Madeline, you are under no obligation to save others.’
There was no reason for her to dare to step forward and help Ian Nottingham with his unfortunate fate.
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However. At this rate, Ian would be going to go to war, and he would get shot, get burned, and seriously injured in mind and body.
If only she could say one word and change that future….