***
—Madeline, 17 years old. (The present)
The time had flown by and it was May. This meant that London’s social season was about to begin. And the start of the social season meant that Madeline’s debutante was approaching.
But Madeline was unperturbed. It wasn’t her first time, and she knew her social debut would not be very successful.
War was war, and even putting that aside, it was a season without substance. I only remembered that it was hectic with matching dresses and learning to dance.
And how much more money would be spent on the debutante? It was foolish to pretend that the social world was everything without knowing the misfortune that was to come.
Whether Madeline was depressed or not, the Baron was buoyed by the thought of going to London. He felt good about getting together with friends to hunt and play poker.
‘All the good gentlemen must be in London.’
Madeline said sarcastically inwardly.
* * *
She could not break her father’s will to sit in the train’s special compartment. Madeline’s mouth was tight. She couldn’t understand herself playing this foolish game.
But a promise was a promise. She had to think of it as the price for preventing her father from making the bad investment. Madeline barely suppressed her cynical heart . But no matter how hard she tried to put it out of her mind, she was depressed by the thought of the war and social season.
‘I’d hate to be invited to that tedious gathering of the ladies.’
It was a complicated ritual and formality.
Madeline lost her appetite at the thought of once again being tormented by the tactics of ladies and gentlemen who subtly disrespected her because she was from the countryside. Conversely, dealing with the bourgeois, who had illusions about the title of nobility, was also not very palatable.
When the train arrived at the station, the platform was swarming with people. It was a bustling city, the exact opposite of the countryside.
There were cast-iron cars on the streets and posters of movie theaters… Her heart really burst at that moment, thinking about how much fun she had when she first came to London. Even now, she still felt very excited. London had always been a part of her mind.
“I hate those cars. Those scraps of iron are really ugly. Madeline, hold on to this father’s arm.”
“…….”
A distant relative, a Marchioness, who lived in London, would be her “guardian” all the time in social gatherings. Guardianship was not a thing, not even in Victorian times. Madeline sighed. She was already tired of knowing how much the Marchioness would torment her in her new self-appointed role as mother.
Once she arrived at the townhouse, she would have to get a good night’s sleep, thinking she would look around London tomorrow.
****
London’s social gatherings began to ripen around May and reached its peak in the summer. The ladies and gentlemen of the upper classes had been indulging themselves in clubs, banquets, balls, and parties.
People seemed especially excited that year. Intellectuals grandiose that war would never happen, people praised the never-ending peace and acted as if the sparkling present would last forever.
Movie posters, music, dance…. Hot-faced men and women exchanged words of love in Hyde Park, and demonstrations and debates were actively taking place all over the city.
London was a festival. A festival that would not end until it ended. Madeline was alone in that mirage. It was not very good to know the future. Besides, no one would believe that there would be an inevitable and terrible war.
How could there be anything pleasant about knowing such a horrible fact? No matter how much she was in the middle of the banquet hall where the party was now in full swing.
Madeline stepped back behind a pillar and sipped her champagne. Her awareness of the “debutante in audience with the king” was over in the blink of an eye, and she was taken from one seat to another for several days, to the point of losing all her energy. The Marchioness, who claimed to be her “guardian,” was nagging a lot then and now.
Madeline was just now realizing that it was very difficult to play the role of an innocent 17-year-old girl.
In the past, she would have tried to look good while she was here, but now she didn’t want to do that again.
It only seemed very strange to see people fighting over the etiquette that would soon become old-fashioned.
Now she almost forgot who she was attending at the party.
‘Am I being too pessimistic? Anyone else….’
Madeline Loenfield stood in the distance behind the banquet hall and watched people dance in pairs. Gentlemen came to her and asked her to dance, but each time Madeline politely refused.
After four times of refusing, people no longer bothered her.
After seeing Madeline behave coldly, the Marchioness’s face turned rotten in real time. But it could not be helped. Madeline really wanted to bring her life back to life, not to redo the role of a socially decorated doll.
She needed time alone to think about what to do with the life that had come to her again.
It would be nice to have a profession, write, play the piano, and be responsible for herself. She wanted to develop what she had been thinking about all these years. She wanted to live like the people she read about in the newspaper. She wanted to do all the things she couldn’t do because of her husband.
It was when she was killing time with a dull stretch of imagination. A huge shadow hung beside her.
“Huh?”
Madeline turned her head and there stood the source of all her problems.
“…….”
People’s eyes began to focus on the two of them. It was only natural, since this was the sight of the heir to a wealthy, high status Count talking to a lady who was just making her debut in the social world.
But it was not a luxury Madeline could afford to worry about.
“…You look rather bored at the party, Lady Loenfield.”
“…….”
Madeline’s gaze shook as she heard a voice that sounded both familiar and unfamiliar. She met an unexpected person in an unexpected place.
Someone whom she both hated and stimulated her guilt.
Her former husband.
The young Ian Nottingham looked mischievous. Naughty Ian Nottingham. It was a very raw sight for Madeline.
Ian Nottingham seemed to consider Madeline’s confusion an embarrassment. He spoke to her without a care in the world.
“I saw the Lady turn down the gentlemen’s dance requests several times. It was quite amusing. To see their faces with embarrassment.”
“…….”
“It seems that this entertainment is very boring to the Lady.”
The man’s lips drew a gentle arc line. The confidence characteristic of a young man who has been on the road to success sprang from his face.
“…That’s not true.”
The tongue in Madeline’s mouth froze and did not move properly. Her cheeks burned bright red.
“As a gentleman, I know it is not polite to speak to a lady so soon, but please understand that we have already spoken to each other the other day.”
Ian quickly added.
‘I’m sure we have.’
Madeline tried her best to concentrate on the dancing men and women to the maximum extent possible. Her mind was confused.
How could this man be approaching her now? Madeline had been to this party in the first timeline. At that time she did not meet Ian Nottingham.
For Madeline, Ian was an unreachable opponent, and for Ian, Madeline was just a social newcomer. It was no wonder why they had not spoken to each other before.
But, why did it happen this time? Why would he talk to her? And wasn’t the last encounter at the Loenfield mansion quite unpleasant? Madeline couldn’t understand the underlying reason for the man’s sudden approach.
Madeline turned her head and looked at him. Behind Ian Nottingham, an army of gentlemen had gathered and they were laughing.
They were Ian Nottingham’s friends and were uniformly elegantly attired. They were leading men of politics and business.
“…….”
Ah, it was then that everything became clear to Madeline.
With his natural born confidence, Ian didn’t just approach Madeline for no reason.
It was quite amusing to see Madeline standing in the corner and refusing the men’s dance requests. So his friends made a bet to see if Ian could convince Madeline to dance.
Ian’s motive was simply curiosity or he knew he would win.
Perhaps he wondered what that woman was, because she had been cold to him in the mansion and she was cold to him at the party. Since he met her at the party like this, he felt like he had to make an example of her to those around him.
Once Madeline came to that conclusion in her head, she felt much more at ease. The liquor must have gotten the better of her, for Madeline took a steadying breath to deal with him.
“Master Nottingham, doesn’t this sight seem strange to you?
“Strange? It’s a fun sight to me.”
Curiously, Ian tilted his head to the side. Thick eyebrows drew a pleasant slant.
“No one knows what will happen in the future.”
It’s funny how people enjoy themselves without knowing about the war, the diseases, the unfortunate that’s coming their way. Madeline mumbled.
Ian Nottingham laughed. He seemed to have guessed that Madeline was still a strange woman. He replied pleasantly.
“The Lady is right. We don’t know what the future holds. So we have to enjoy the present more, don’t we?”
The man was completely oblivious to the contrition building up in Madeline’s voice.
“Master Nottingham…”
“The Lady seems to have fallen into the solemnity of the past. Let’s relax a little. Just because you don’t enjoy yourself doesn’t mean you can avoid misfortune.”
“I am not nervous. I just thought it would be a waste of time to waste time on socializing for the sake of pretense and falsehood.”
Madeline protested belatedly.
“Well….”
“I don’t mean to imply that all of this isn’t worth it. I don’t want to condemn the people who dance. I just want to…. I just don’t think it should be like this.”
Madeline felt silent after saying so. A waltz echoing through the banquet hall filled the silence between the two.
She bowed her head in embarrassment when she realized she had spoken too much in front of the man.
Ian broke the silence first. He said, full of confidence.
“What if all the Lady wants is to dance with me?”
“What?”
Madeline raised her head.
She looked up at the man. Under the flickering lights of the chandelier…. There was Ian Nottingham, without a single complex or intention, encouraging her to dance with a bright smile.
With no knowledge of the horrible future that was coming to him, the man was simply living in the present moment.
He held Madeline’s gloved hand lightly, and he asked in a very plain, somewhat pleasant tone.
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He lightly pressed the fingertips of Madeleine’s gloves . He was
“Sincerely, Lady Madeline Loenfield. Would you like to dance a song with me?”