I knew there were no night carriages departing.

However, since this was the capital of the kingdom, I thought there might be an exception. In other words, I wanted to believe so.

I couldn’t bear it without clinging to even the smallest hope.

But sadly, there were no such exceptions.

In the end, Eloise decided to wait for dawn in a corner of the street where the carriage had dropped her off on the day she arrived in the capital.

The memory of when she first got off here was still vivid.

How frightening the gloomy, dark streets and the vagrants crouching everywhere were.

But Eloise was no longer afraid.

Perhaps it was because she had become accustomed to the underbelly of the capital after passing through here countless times since starting work, or perhaps it was because the most frightening thing she could experience had already happened.

The important thing was that at the bottom of the deep, deep night, Eloise was not much different from them.

With her hair disheveled and messy, her clothes in disarray, and her face a mess from tear stains, she was even more so.

However, she was utterly exhausted.

As she moved under the bridge to rest her tired body, a strong fishy smell wafted through the air.

Those who had already settled there scrutinized Eloise with wary eyes for a while, but they soon turned their gaze away, perhaps not sensing any particular threat.

Biting her lip hard to prevent the tears that had just stopped from bursting forth again, Eloise leaned against the damp pillar and slowly sank down.

Both her legs and the soles of her feet still throbbed as if they were about to burst.

It was only natural, having run like mad without rest for such a long distance.

She had overworked her body, forgetting that she was suffering from the shock that had suddenly come upon her.

Her body trembled as if it would collapse at any moment, and Eloise let out a deep sigh while tightly hugging her knees.

“Haa.”

Her mind was a mess with thoughts racing uncontrollably.

What had become of Mayberry by now? How great must be the disappointment of her parents, who had been as excited as the parties involved, and her sister…

“How… How on earth did it end up like this?”

As she muttered like a sigh, her eyelashes became wet again, as if they had been waiting for it. Everything felt like a lie.

It was true that she had loved that man, but she had never, ever wished for this.

Was it a sin just to have harbored feelings for someone she shouldn’t have, without even knowing her own place? Or was this something that would have happened eventually anyway?

‘If I hadn’t come to the capital, this wouldn’t have happened.’

Her mother used to say from time to time that nothing was as fickle as a man’s heart.

Eloise knew that the reason her mother loved her husband, despite losing all their fortune to fraud, was because of his rare unwavering affection and devotion.

So if Ansel Blaine had safely married her sister, and if they had lived as husband and wife even if only formally, he might have forgotten about such things and gradually come to love her sister.

No, it would have definitely happened that way. After all, the eldest daughter of the Bailey family was a woman recognized even by his high-and-mighty family.

So even if it wasn’t the most romantic beginning, they could have eventually found their own happiness in the warmth of their bond and peace.

‘I ruined it all. Because of me…’

It seemed like her tear ducts were broken.

Her eyes already felt sore as if they were festering, yet there were still tears left to shed. Her knees, where she had buried her face, were already soaked through.

On a summer night in the capital, the wind was mercilessly cold.

Eloise curled up even smaller, whimpering pitifully. It felt as if guilt was weighing heavily on her entire body.

Even if she were to meet her family right now, she had no idea how to explain this situation with words.

How could she console them? She was terribly afraid of seeing her sister’s hurt face and the changed gazes of her family looking at her.

If she sincerely apologized, could that sincerity reach them?

Could she be forgiven?

As she cried silently for a long time with such thoughts, naturally, he came to mind.

That beautiful man who had come like rain falling without a sound, and therefore was even more terrible.

‘If I marry her, I’ll be able to keep seeing you in the future.’

How could he say such a thing? And today of all days, appearing before me in person. If it wasn’t to give me such hellish despair, then this…

‘That’s how I tried to stay by your side.’

That couldn’t be love. Selfish arrogance, perhaps. He must have just wanted to be comfortable.

So he simply chose the familiar and easy way.

She had come to the unfamiliar capital, leaving behind her precious people, to protect their happiness.

To avoid causing pain due to her own immaturity, if possible.

But how could you do this?

Family was everything to Eloise.

The man who had destroyed her world in an instant seemed more cruel than the devil.

She resented him terribly, more than words could express.

Nevertheless, she was worried about Ansel on the other hand.

She was concerned about his words that followed after saying his family was everything, that he had left everything behind. Wondering if he might still be standing in front of that gate, soaked in the rain…

“…Who’s worrying about whom?”

Eloise let out a hollow laugh like a sigh. She must have gone crazy from exhaustion.

Or her reason had become paralyzed by a situation too difficult to accept.

The fact that she had decided to wait for the morning sun in a place like this showed that she wasn’t in her right mind now.

‘But I don’t know when the first carriage comes… There’s no other way to get home as quickly as possible.’

Although she still couldn’t think of what to say, she needed to see her family’s faces. She had to confess everything to her sister and beg for forgiveness.

The one fortunate thing was that it was summer now. The season with the shortest nights of the year. The season when the morning sun was the most diligent.

The summer she once loved the most, but now would remember with breathless running through the night and painful tears.

Eloise closed her eyes, hugging her shivering shoulders from the chill.

Repeating only the futile thought that all of this was just a midsummer night’s nightmare.

The journey to Longfield on the carriage that appeared in the early dawn was uncomfortable as expected.

The carriage shook incessantly due to the unusually rough driving, and a fellow passenger sneezed loudly every few minutes.

But there was no time to complain. It was because Eloise had been asleep for most of the time.

Her extremely exhausted body easily fell into a deep sleep even in an uncomfortable position.

However, unfortunately, she had dreams every time she took a short nap. Dreams about her family.

As soon as Sarah saw Eloise, she shed pearl-like tears with reddened eyes.

While constantly cursing and resenting. It was the first time she had seen such a face and heard such a voice from her sister.

“Did you have fun all this time? Are you satisfied now that you’ve deceived us completely and it’s ended up like this, Eloise?”

“No! I never wanted this…”

“It’s all because of you. You ruined everything. Now I won’t be able to get married, and I’ll have to live in shame for the rest of my life. Because of you…”

Occasionally, when the carriage stopped and people got on and off, Eloise would wake up with a face soaked in tears.

Each time, her heart was beating wildly as if she had sprinted with all her might.

Her handkerchief had no time to dry as she kept wiping away tears.

Waiting for the carriage to start again, looking out the window with blurred vision, she kept remembering Sarah from her dream.

She was a kind sister who had never raised her voice even when angry.

It was unbearable, even in a dream, for such a sister to scold her so frighteningly.

But she had to face the reality before her.

This was a completely different situation from secretly reading her sister’s letter or accidentally breaking something her sister cherished.

Eloise had not the slightest intention of ruining her sister’s marriage, and had even embarked on a reckless journey to the capital to prevent such a thing from happening.

But… when he proposed to her sister, she couldn’t fully bless them. She couldn’t genuinely rejoice with her family.

She often avoided being present when he was devoted to her sister, finding it difficult to watch, and would secretly sob at how beautiful the two of them were together.

Even after that man became her sister’s fiancé, she helplessly kept thinking of him.

Terribly, it was all true.

So Eloise had nothing to say even if she were to face scathing criticism from Sarah, who had been thrown into the misfortune of a broken engagement.

That’s why the fact that they were getting closer to home felt, on one hand, more terrifying than anything else in the world.

‘But I can’t avoid it.’

No one had given her as much love as her sister. She, too, loved her sister more than anything else in the world. So, no matter how long it took, she had to beg for forgiveness.

Even if it took a lifetime, if she didn’t do that…

“Longfield, this is Longfield!”

The carriage arrived in Longfield late the following evening. Eloise set foot on the ground with the help of the conductor.

“I’ll bring down your luggage right away.”

“I have no luggage… Thank you.”

Only after the carriage that had dropped off Eloise quickly disappeared towards its next destination did the surrounding scenery come into view.

Even in the bluish darkness, the lush green everywhere felt unfamiliar.

The fresh forest scent carried on the breeze also felt strange.

Although it hadn’t even been a month since she left, it felt like she was returning after a very long time.

It seemed as if summer here had fully ripened in the meantime.

Cutting through the humid summer night air, Eloise ran towards Mayberry.

She kept her gaze strictly forward, trying not to turn her head towards the Earl’s mansion visible in the distance.

Even though she hadn’t brought a luggage bag, her whole body felt as heavy as a rock.

Perhaps it was her heart that was heavy.