“……Ansel?”

Calling that name was a mistake. It was an accident caused by the lingering drowsiness, so to speak.

The numerous speculations that had come to mind before opening the door had already vanished without a trace.

Eloise felt this bewildering situation was like a dream.

That’s because this was a scene she had seen many times in her dreams.

‘Can dreams become reality?’

No. She had never heard such a story outside of fairy tales. And she was no longer a child who believed in fairy tales.

Then the man spoke.

“I apologize for the early hour.”

His tone was polite yet dry, as if addressing a stranger.

His slightly husky voice seemed lower and deeper than she remembered. Surely he must be tired from traveling a long way from the capital.

He didn’t look like he had come from Longfield.

Nevertheless, his posture was impeccable as he stood with his silk hat tucked at his waist.

The cashmere coat covering his broad upper body reflected the bluish dawn light, revealing a sturdy yet graceful frame, and Eloise’s gaze flowed down along the smooth lines of his body.

At the end of her gaze were beautiful shoes that must have been born from a master craftsman’s hands.

The well-polished leather gleamed like a mirror.

From head to toe, it was truly an elegant appearance without any flaws.

As if he belonged to a completely different world from herself, who had just woken up and was in her nightgown.

“……Ah.”

The moment she felt a vague embarrassment, the reality before her eyes suddenly became clear. As Eloise froze in surprise, the man opened his mouth again.

“I’ve come to see your father. If it’s not too much trouble, could you please inform him?”

The deep, mellow voice that flowed into her ears pooled and rippled around her heart.

Blushing at that ticklish sensation, Eloise couldn’t even think to answer and belatedly bent her knees in a curtsy.

Ansel also bowed his head slightly, but Eloise, who had turned around and disappeared into the house like a shot, had no chance to see it.

“Papa! Papa!”

Eloise, who had bounded up the stairs like a puppy that had seen snow, pounded on the door of the couple’s bedroom without even taking time to calm her wildly beating heart.

She knew it was behavior that would make her mother scold her, but she couldn’t help it.

Because Ansel Blaine was now at the entrance of the Bailey house!

It was still hard to believe even thinking about it again. She couldn’t even fathom why he had come. Why so suddenly…….

“Eloise! What’s all this commotion at the crack of dawn? Really……”

Mrs. Bailey opened the door somewhat irritably, wearing a nightcap with lavish frills all around.

Behind her, her father could be seen approaching sluggishly, yawning widely. Eloise, who had no patience to wait for him, hurriedly reported.

“The Earl of Huntington’s grandson is here.”

“Yawn….. Seems he’s come a bit early this year. But Elsie, did you really need to tell us this now……”

“He’s downstairs right now! He says he’s here to see Papa!”

“……”

At those words, Mr. Bailey froze mid-yawn. His wife’s expression turned equally dumbfounded.

“Lord Ansel has come to see me? At this hour? Why?”

“I-I don’t know. But it seems important.”

Well, it’s not like they were close enough to visit for trivial matters.

But the problem was that she couldn’t imagine what important business could exist between Ansel Blaine and her father.

Whatever it was, the urgent matter now was to send her father down immediately. After all, they couldn’t keep a noble gentleman waiting at the entrance indefinitely.

“Dear! Hurry and put on some clothes, clothes!”

“Ah, alright, darling!”

Mr. Bailey hastily threw on an indoor jacket and left the room.

It wasn’t a good idea by any measure to keep the Earl’s grandson waiting for long.

His wife, who had stopped him by pulling on his sleeve, carefully arranged his graying blond hair that resembled a bird’s nest.

“……Thank you, my love.”

Mr. Bailey flashed an awkward smile as if to hide his nervousness and hurried down the stairs.

Not long after, the sound of greeting the distinguished guest and guiding him to the study could be heard.

By the time the study door closed with a thud, Sarah had also woken up, and Mrs. Hurst seemed to have risen as well, as the first floor kitchen area suddenly became busy.

“Surely the Earl’s grandson hasn’t come to swindle my husband. He’s an honorable cadet at the Royal Military Academy, right, girls?”

The two daughters couldn’t confidently answer their mother’s question.

The honorable cadet who had received a knighthood from the royal family was too far removed from the boy they once knew.

So they could only exchange questioning glances.

The sisters were sitting side by side on the bed, waiting for their father’s call.

Eloise suddenly regretted the fact that she had grown up. If she were a little younger, she would have stood outside the study door and eavesdropped on the entire conversation.

“Sister, why do you think he came to see Papa?”

“Well……”

Sarah, looking pensive, was about to answer but stopped. It seemed that no matter how much she thought about it, nothing good came to mind.

“You said his expression wasn’t good, right?”

“Yes. He didn’t seem angry, but… he felt cold somehow, sister.”

“……”

At that moment, there was a sudden commotion downstairs. As the two women looked at each other with surprised faces, the sound of a carriage leaving could be heard.

“Huh? Leaving so soon……”

“Sally!”

Before Eloise could finish her sentence, the door burst open. Mrs. Hurst’s already ruddy cheeks were even more flushed, probably from running up the stairs.

“Mr. Bailey is calling for you.”

At those words, two pairs of bright blue eyes widened simultaneously.

“Go down quickly, child.”

“……Yes, ma’am.”

Sarah took a deep breath and stood up gracefully. The neckline revealed beneath her elegantly styled hair was very beautiful.

Eloise, who had been staring blankly at it, noticed that her sister’s hand, which was smoothing the back of her neck to check for any loose strands, was trembling slightly.

Suddenly left alone in the room, Eloise felt strangely peculiar.

The surprise and trembling she had felt when she encountered Ansel, who had appeared as if out of nowhere, seemed to still linger at her fingertips.

For some reason, he had said he wanted to see her father, and after meeting him, her father immediately called for his eldest daughter.

Only the eldest daughter…….

“What on earth……”

A few guesses flashed through her mind, but none of them made any sense. So all she could do was wait for Sarah to return and explain the whole story of this incident.

To suppress her bubbling curiosity, Eloise sat at her desk.

Then, as if performing a secret ritual, she took out the key with a serious face and opened the old jewelry box with embossed acanthus leaves.

With a small click, her modest treasures were revealed.

A wood pigeon’s feather, grandmother’s ring, smooth pebbles and seashells…..

What she carefully picked up from among these small and precious items was a diary with a dark brown cover.

The faded diary, opened to find a blank space, smelled of old paper.

As she inhaled that scent deeply, her mind gradually calmed. It was indeed the right choice.

“My goodness, I’ve fallen behind by several days.”

Unlike her usual self, she hadn’t been able to write in her diary lately due to her unsettled feelings.

She couldn’t randomly write her unorganized thoughts in her precious diary. But perhaps it was because she hadn’t been writing in her diary that her mind was still in turmoil.

Above all, there was something she really wanted to write about now.

By the time that thought occurred to her, Eloise’s hand was already opening the ink bottle.

‘It was a reunion after several years. It must have been about 8 years since we last spoke?’

Of course, he was very dry. Even though he had the moist dawn dew on his shoulders.

Not only that. His emotionless, quiet eyes and voice clearly conveyed the fact that his purpose for visiting was certainly not Eloise Bailey.

But Eloise was not young enough to be hurt by such an obvious thing.

「Today I woke up early because of the sound of rain, and in that early dawn, I thoughtlessly thought of him.

Yes. For quite a while.

Then suddenly a visitor came. At a time when everyone would be asleep, of all times.

But when I opened the door, would you believe that Lord Ansel was standing in front of me?」

“So this is… because I don’t want to let the emotions I felt today just fade away.”

The pen tip, which had hesitated for a moment, began to roll busily across the paper again.

“Yes. That’s all it is.”

「Even if you don’t believe me, I have nothing to say. I wouldn’t have believed it either. But I’ll write a little more detail so as not to be misunderstood as a liar.

When I opened the door, I smelled rain-soaked earth and roses. It was clearly the scent of Mayberry, but mixed with a very fine and delicate fragrance.

At first bergamot, then a faint rosemary…….

You know who this scent belongs to without me having to say it.

The color of his eyes was very pale and transparent.

I was really moved because they were the same eyes I had loved. I never thought I’d see them again.

You can’t imagine how perfectly he was standing in front of me. Unfortunately, I don’t have the confidence to express it in words. But what I can say for sure is that I had thought that maybe my memories had been beautified since it had been so long since I met him…….

The Lord Ansel in front of my eyes was several times more beautiful than my memory.」

Just as she wrote that far, the door suddenly opened.

Eloise, who hadn’t heard any footsteps at all, startled and a drop of black ink fell from the tip of her pen.

“……Ah.”

She needed to close the diary before her sister saw it, but the ink was spreading in a round shape.

Eloise looked back and forth between her diary and Sarah with a flustered face.

“Sister, did Papa……”

“I’m getting married!”

“What?”

At that moment, Sarah approached and grasped her sister’s hand tightly. As if that hand was her only hope, so desperately.

Her lips with fine lines uttered an unbelievable sentence.

“Elsie….. He proposed to me.”