“There’s something I’d like to ask.”

With those words, the cozy atmosphere of the evening meal froze in an instant.

Mr. Bailey, who was about to stab a roasted cabbage with his fork, awkwardly put down his utensils and broke the silence at the table.

“Elsie, did something happen?”

The flickering flames on the candlestick cast dark shadows on his haggard face.

Eloise found it painful to look at her father like that, but she answered without showing it.

“Would it be alright if I go back to the capital again?”

“What? Why?”

“It’s getting harder and harder to stay at home. I tried in my own way, but it’s not getting any better.”

“……”

In fact, Eloise had rarely ventured outside the front gate. Not only did she not go to church, but she no longer even rolled up her sleeves to feed the ducks.

Since taking an evening walk with Archibald, who came to see her about two weeks ago, she found it difficult to even leave her room.

Naturally, her daily routine consisted of sleeping or spending time lost in thought.

Even when her family kindly tried to talk to her, she would only give a lifeless smile like a withered flower, and rarely spoke.

Sometimes she would sleep for a day or two as if she were dead. As if she were running away from reality into her dreams.

When the second daughter of the Bailey family, who had left for the capital and returned home, did not show her face outside the house for a considerable amount of time, the whole town was puzzled.

She was such a lively person that people began to speculate on the reasons, and some of them were even considered to be true.

The most prevalent rumor was that Eloise had caught a terrible disease in the capital and could not come out because it was contagious.

However, someone who happened to pass by the Bailey family’s house said they saw Eloise sitting with her family through the window, looking perfectly fine.

If she had a severe contagious disease, she would not be able to stay with her family as if nothing was wrong, so that false rumor soon faded away.

Before long, the rumor changed to say that what she had caught was not actually a disease, but the fever of love.

It was a trite story of a naive country girl having a passionate love affair with a nameless gentleman she met in the capital and being heartbroken before returning.

The speculation that she had hidden in the house because she was starting to show naturally followed, and this sensational rumor quickly spread through Mrs. Pullum’s parlor.

“Could it be that the second daughter seduced Sir Ansel and ruined her sister’s marriage?”

Eventually, there were even rumors that the child’s father was the grandson of the Earl of Huntington.

“Sir Ansel just hung out with her for a bit and left without any regrets. He probably won’t come back. It’s common for noble men to treat women that way, right? His real marriage partner must be in the capital.”

“Well, it must have been easy for him to break off the engagement like that since the other party was a commoner. He must have deceived her as if he were going to marry her and had his fun. After all, the daughters of that family are quite pretty.”

“Wait a minute. So the sisters were fighting over the same man…. My goodness, how unseemly.”

“And their parents are something else. I don’t know how they can show their faces at church.”

The family was greatly outraged when they heard the rumors, and they tried their best to strongly deny them to those who approached them out of curiosity to probe.

Now they were just tired and ignored them. People would believe what they wanted to believe no matter how much they shouted the truth anyway.

In any case, it was not a terrible infectious disease, nor was she with child, so the solution would be to let Eloise out.

However, the problem was that it did not seem like a good idea to send her out in front of people right now.

No matter how you looked at it, Eloise was suffering from a mental illness. If she were to face the overheated scandals in this state, she would surely be greatly shocked.

Since they could not call a doctor to treat an invisible and intangible illness of the heart, all the family could do was wait for time to heal everything.

Looking back now, Eloise also looked gloomy on the day she first brought up going to the capital.

At that time, the family was also worried about her sudden change.

But it was all too clear that there was no comparison between then and now.

Back then, she even convinced her mother with quite brazen words. But now……

“Eloise.”

Mrs. Bailey began to speak in a worried voice.

“If it’s hard to stay at home, won’t it be even harder outside? When you’re so weak like this……”

“Yes, Elsie. Looking at you now, it wouldn’t be surprising if you were blown away by the wind.”

Eloise’s lips drew a faint arc at the sight of her father earnestly clasping his hands together and supporting her mother.

That smile made the family’s hearts ache.

“Last time, I decided to go to the capital because I thought everything would be fine if I went there. I also wanted to go. But now, I have no choice but to go somewhere. It’s too hard to bear staying here any longer.”

“My dear. Did we do something wrong to you by any chance? Or did we make you feel neglected……”

Mr. Bailey carefully added, rubbing his drooping golden eyebrows.

“If you tell us honestly, can’t we think about it together?”

“Honestly……”

Eloise’s bright blue eyes deepened silently.

If she opened her mouth in front of her family, she would have to reveal the truth then. She had already thought about it countless times. She was prepared in her own way.

Still, she was afraid.

Her family was embracing her with generous affection as she staggered like a broken doll, but she had never shown them the bottom of her heart.

Would Mom and Dad, would Sally still love me the same way after seeing all that muck?

It saddened her that she could not be sure of that fact. Just the thought of being hated by her family made her fingertips go cold and her heart lurch violently.

‘I have to at least tell you this, dear.’

So Eloise closed her eyes and recalled the words Mrs. Hurst had told her.

‘As you live, things far worse than this can happen at any time. But no matter what happens, the fact that you are the daughter of the Baileys and Sarah’s only sister will not change.’

That’s right. She could not run away anyway. She could run away from Maybury, where her memories were buried, but she could not run away from her family.

Even if she was hated, she would always be the second daughter of the Baileys, and even if they ended up disliking her, she would continue to love these three people unchangingly.

“I liked Sir Ansel.”

Eloise parted her lips after finishing her thoughts.

“That is, from the first time I saw him. When I was five years old.”

At the sudden story, the family held their breath in unison.

In the deep silence where only a few candles were burning silently, Eloise continued her calm confession.

“I couldn’t help it. He was more beautiful and special than anything I had ever seen, and I was overjoyed just to be his friend. From that year on, I looked forward to summer every year.”

“…Yes, you talked about summer even in winter. You were like a child living for summer all year round.”

Mr. Bailey recalled his daughter’s childhood, scratching the back of his head.

“Actually, the reason I didn’t like marriage was because I knew I could never be with him anyway. I often acted unladylike because I didn’t want to admit that I was gradually moving away from my childhood. It felt like I was moving away from him.”

Eloise paused and heaved a heavy sigh. Her wall of eyes, filled with candlelight, closed tightly.

“It wasn’t until he proposed to my sister that I realized it like a fool. That my feelings for him were love.”

“……”

“…All my congratulations were sincere. Even now, I want my sister’s happiness more than my own. But as the wedding approached, my emotions deepened and I was in agony. Sometimes I secretly wished it was all a lie, and he often appeared in my dreams. I felt like I was going crazy with guilt.”

Was that why she desperately avoided Ansel when he came to see her? The couple, who were thinking that, unconsciously looked at their eldest daughter.

Sarah was just staring at the burning candle in silence.

“I went to the capital to sort out those feelings. I thought that after some time passed and the noisy emotions subsided, I would be able to get along well with my sister and the man who would become her husband.”

“……”

“The wedding… I wasn’t going to go from the beginning. In case I did something strange and ruined the ceremony…. I’m sorry for lying.”

“My dear, to that extent……”

Mr. Bailey couldn’t finish his words. Thinking of the pain his young daughter had endured alone, he choked up.

“I never dreamed that Sir Ansel would come looking for me, and I wasn’t happy at all with what he said. When I found out he had broken off the engagement, I didn’t even want to see him. I just thought of my sister’s face. I was just sad and sorry.”

Eloise’s chest rose and fell greatly. As if she were holding back tears.

“I’m still grateful that you didn’t blame me and hugged me. It must have been painful, but……”

“…Elsie, then can’t we go back to being happy like before now?”

Mr. Bailey carefully asked on behalf of Sarah, who was still silent.

“It’s not the first time we’ve been through trials. It’s all in the past now, and it will be the same with this. Sarah is also enduring it so well like this, right? So for the sake of your sister……”

“I can’t, Dad.”

Eloise shook her head weakly.

“A while ago, I heard about Sir Ansel from Archie. That day, I… for the first time… resented my family, who are neither nobles nor anything.”

She finally burst into tears, her head bowed.

“If it weren’t for my sister, I wouldn’t have had to reject him. I had such bad thoughts……”