“Eloise.”

A low and gentle voice rang in her ears. Eloise thought she was dreaming.

“Elsie.”

However, when the sensation of a cool and rough palm covered her forehead, Eloise vaguely realized that this was not a dream.

It was just that her eyelids were too heavy, as if weighed down by a rock, and wouldn’t open.

Eloise mumbled in her sleep. Her voice was indistinct, as if her mouth was full of candy.

“How… are you here…”

“Ha.”

A soft laugh, like a sigh, gently opened her eyes.

“What do you mean, how am I here? I came because I was worried.”

“…Arch?”

“I heard you were back, but when I didn’t see you for over a month…”

At that moment, Eloise sluggishly sat up. Archibald was startled and flustered by her dizzying appearance.

“Wait, are you okay to get up?”

“I’m fine. What time is it now?”

“Hmm… The sun hasn’t set yet.”

So it was already close to evening. On a Sunday when the whole family had gone to church, she had eaten a simple lunch alone and closed her eyes for a moment, but it seemed she had slept for several hours straight.

Although she managed to sit up with difficulty, Eloise still had a dazed expression on her face.

Watching her, Archibald finally burst into laughter without resistance.

“I was going to complain about you not informing me of your return earlier. But I can’t.”

“Right… Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Elsie. I’m sorry about Miss Bailey.”

“Arch, that person…”

Eloise, who was about to abruptly ask about Ansel, covered her eyes with one hand, groaning.

“…Shall we go out for now? Let’s take a walk.”

“What? There’s no need to overdo it.”

“I want to walk. I’ve been inside the house all day, so my body feels stiff.”

Even though they were old friends, it wasn’t entirely comfortable to be alone together in the bedroom.

Fortunately, Archibald readily got to his feet.

“Alright, then. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”

It started with the story of how a relative living in the capital was no longer living in that house, which was troublesome.

Nevertheless, the story of how she came to live in that house, the story of how she started working at the bead factory, the summer scenery and people of Brightnam, the square and streets, and even the story of Mrs. Mullitch’s strange cat were all told in succession before the two could finally bring up the main topic they had been putting off.

“I really had no idea such a thing would happen.”

“…”

“Even until the morning of the previous day, he had breakfast with the Earl as usual, and there was no request to assist with any separate outing preparations.”

Eloise and Archibald were sitting side by side near the hill path not far from the house.

It was an afternoon with quite a strong wind. The sun seemed to set soon.

“Then how did it become known that he went to the capital? There was no one who didn’t know that fact.”

“Well, when the young master tried to ride a horse from the stable, the stable servant asked where he was going. The young master was displeased by that question, so even though the servant thought there was no way since it was the day before the wedding, he told the young master that the horse was tired and couldn’t go far…”

“So what did Earl Ansel reply?”

“…’Then this fellow won’t do. I have to go to the capital.'”

So in the end, he rode the horse himself and covered that distance, not even taking a carriage. And on the day before the wedding, without informing anyone.

Although expected, the more she recalled it, the more her heart felt devastated.

“Arch, will that person be okay? What did the Earl say?”

“…”

The second daughter of the Bailey family was worrying about someone now. Archibald, who momentarily forgot his words, looked at Eloise with a blank expression.

Honey-colored hair holding a faint sunlight fluttered along her delicately contoured profile. Her starry eyes were directed toward the far northern sky.

“The Earl didn’t say much as usual. He didn’t seem to be particularly trying to find the young master. The mansion was just filled with silence.”

“That means…”

When he was young, Ansel said that his relationship with his maternal grandfather was distant.

At that time, Eloise, who couldn’t even imagine a grandfather who didn’t love his only grandson, didn’t take those words to heart.

Because she had no way of knowing his status or the complicated circumstances of a noble family.

“In fact, the Earl didn’t even have a proper conversation with the young master for several years after he came to Longfield. It was surprising even for the servants who had long served the Earl that he cared so much about the young master’s marriage…”

“…It’s understandable for him to be angry.”

“He must have been very disappointed too.”

After a brief silence, Archibald asked.

“Eloise, did you meet the young master?”

At those words, Eloise’s mouth was stuck, and she stiffened with tension.

But soon, her tightly risen shoulders slumped weakly. It was because of Archibald’s gaze, which seemed to know everything.

“Yes.”

“Did he confess his love to you?”

“…Yes.”

“Did he ask you to run away together, to have a wedding?”

Eloise closed her eyes tightly at the tone that sounded somewhat like an interrogation.

“No, Arch! If he had, would I be here?”

“It sounds like you’re saying you would have followed him if he had.”

“Ha, are you mocking me now?”

When she asked back in an agitated tone, he lightly shrugged his shoulders.

“No. That wasn’t my intention.”

“He just… said that the person he actually wanted was me. That’s all.”

That confession was a mess. Ansel was drenched from head to toe in the rain, and he even yelled at her.

‘Because the family is everything to me!’

It was the first time she had seen him shouting, even during his boyhood when he was always courteous. But it sounded desperate rather than violent.

It sounded like a groan of pain. Perhaps it was because he was shaking, and his rain-soaked face looked as if he was crying…

What was certain was that Ansel Blaine that night was not himself for a single moment.

Naturally, that confession also seemed unprepared. His usual composure and dignity were nowhere to be found, and only a pitiful man, like a wounded beast, was there.

It must have been a great misfortune for him to turn his back on his family, so he was probably filled with self-blame and loss.

Was that night an accident for him too?

Then Archibald asked.

“So what did you answer?”

“I got angry. Told him to go back immediately. To return and set everything right…”

“…”

“And I left that person behind and returned to Maybery. That’s all there is to that day.”

Recalling that day made her chest hot as if she had swallowed a flame. It was still like inertia even after quite some time had passed.

It was ridiculous that such a night could be summarized so simply.

She got angry and ran away. Leaving that man alone on the cold night streets.

“…I don’t know how it turned out like this, Arch. My heart still aches.”

Eloise, who had been maintaining her composure all along, finally buried her face on her hugged knees. A quiet voice brushed past her ear.

“Didn’t you expect such a thing to happen at all?”

“What? Of course not!”

Suddenly, Eloise’s head shot up. She had an expression of having heard something absurd.

“He liked Sally. You know that too. That he treated my elder sister specially. Not only did he always look for my elder sister, but he also secretly visited Maybery on my elder sister’s birthday, and he wrote a letter to my elder sister before leaving for Berth. He was always polite only to my elder sister. Like when treating a real lady…”

“…”

“You can’t say you didn’t know either. We became close because he was always looking only for my elder sister. Don’t you remember?”

At that question, Archibald quietly lowered his gaze. As if he had some unspeakable concern.

Naturally, Eloise had this thought.

Perhaps he was going to pretend not to remember to defend Ansel? After all, he was the young master he served.

“Arch, the reason I got angry that day… wasn’t just because Earl Ansel ruined my elder sister’s marriage.”

The moment her thoughts reached there, Eloise’s lips moved on their own.

“His confession wasn’t sincere. That he loved only me from the beginning! The only thing that mattered to him was persuading me right away. He had a noble status and strong pride, so it was most important for him not to be rejected.”

“Elsie.”

“He abandoned everything on impulse and came, so if he was rejected by me too, it would have been troublesome for him. But that’s deception, isn’t it!”

“Why are you so angry, Eloise?”

Eloise, who barely stopped talking at the calm voice that sounded soothing, breathed heavily.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed with an emotion that was either anger or something else.

Archibald, who was sitting with one knee raised, loosely hung his arm over it and continued.

“Then, if it wasn’t deception, were you going to accept him?”

“I don’t know if I have the right to do that, but at least if that were the case, I wouldn’t have left him alone on the night streets and ran away like—”

Eloise couldn’t finish her sentence. Tears suddenly burst out.

“Oh…”

Eloise, startled, wiped her tears with a childlike clumsy touch. She had a face that couldn’t understand her own emotions.

“Why am I like this? I’m sorry, why are the tears…”

“Eloise.”

At that moment, Archibald called out to his old friend. Eloise faced him with watery eyes.

“Shall I tell you the truth?”

“…Truth?”

At that moment, a chilly gust of wind swept past the two.

Perhaps it blew from Longfield. There was a fresh scent of the forest. But Eloise was habitually searching for a different scent within it.

Scolding herself for such thoughts had also become a habit now.

Before long, a quiet sunset was about to unfold. Eloise wiped away her remaining tears and cast a heavy gaze toward the distant sky.

It was right after that when Archibald continued.

“There was no lie in that confession, Elsie.”

“…What?”

“He liked you, from the beginning.”