A Butterfly Through the Mist - Chapter 130

‘Still, I did spare the people of House Ambrose.’

Muttering as if making excuses, Ilex gazed down at the documents placed beneath the ring with a now-sunken face.

As always with his work, anything that could have been decisive evidence had long since turned into ashes and sunk to the bottom of the sea. However, a few documents had to be preserved for future proof.

An ordinary person would never notice, just from the carriage purchase records and repair receipts, that the misfortunes that had befallen the Davenport family had actually been fabricated.

But the one Ilex had to be wary of was Tilia.

Even with just a few pieces of evidence, Tilia would realize that Cecilia Clayton had not actually left for another continent, and that her husband was nothing more than a paper doll he had created.

The man, who had been staring at them with a displeased expression for a moment, irritably yanked the bell cord.

“I want additional locks installed in the room.”

The command Ilex gave to the aide who quickly entered the office was to strengthen security.

“Especially, I think we need several more locks on the drawers.”

“I will call a repairman immediately.”

The aide promptly replied and bowed his head.

However, even after the aide left, Ilex remained wrapped in a strange unease and could not calm his mind.

Click, clack. The velvet box opened and closed repeatedly in his hand.

“I’ll tell her everything. No matter what it takes, I’ll make sure she knows. About what you did to your family. No, before that—what you did to her family!”

Amidst the noise, Cecilia Clayton’s voice, now lying at the bottom of the distant sea, forced its way into his head.

“Does she know? Does she have any idea how obsessed you are with her? How frequently you receive reports about Tilia Ambrose—”

He should have really ripped out her tongue back then.

Clicking his tongue, Ilex thought of the woman he had killed too mercifully.

But it didn’t matter. Tilia would never know what he had done. One way or another, he would make sure of it.

Click. After one final opening and closing of the velvet box lid, he pulled the corners of his lips tight into a smile.

She just needed not to know. That was enough.

He had the confidence to wear a mask before Tilia for the rest of his life.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Ilex pulled out a new cigar and, like someone needing to steady himself, took a deep drag and exhaled.

In truth, it wasn’t even right to call it a mask. Everything he showed before Tilia was sincere.

He would treat her well. He would devote himself to her without lacking in anything. So, therefore…

‘As long as this one sin isn’t revealed.’

Having finished his thoughts, Ilex regained sharp focus in his eyes and rummaged through the drawer again.

He took something out and immediately tossed it into the fireplace.

He silently watched the documents turn to ash, smoking his cigar for a while longer before turning his head back and resuming his work.

***

Opening the gift box Tilia had bought belatedly, Judy saw the simple bracelet inside and hopped around in excitement, unable to contain her joy.

“What? You bought this with your own money?”

Upon learning that it was purchased not by siphoning off Ilex’s money but through Tilia’s own labor, Judy stood frozen for a moment with her mouth agape.

“I-I’m going to… I’m going to make this a family heirloom…!”

Judy’s exaggerated reaction, shaking her hands on purpose, made Tilia burst into loud laughter, momentarily forgetting that she had cried just a little while ago.

Her clear laughter soared through the open window and reached the upstairs.

“Have you made up?”

Lady Wells, who had come downstairs to the main reception room, leaned against the doorframe and asked cautiously with eyes full of hope.

But it was a question that didn’t even need to be asked.

The sight of the two girls clinging to each other like children who had made their first best friend already gave the answer.

“I should bring out some good liquor.”

Lady Wells, watching her daughter and her daughter’s friend smiling shyly, spoke in an elated voice.

“You can’t leave out drinks on such a wonderful day!”

Thus, the wine cellar that Victor Bartlett had left behind during his business trip to Ouna was raided.

With a hearty smile, Lady Wells opened a wine bottle her son-in-law had cherished, pouring the expensive liquid generously into Tilia’s glass.

“You’re still too young. You can only have this much.”

Then she poured barely a quarter of a glass for Judy.

Tilia, wrapping her arm gently around Judy’s slightly pouting shoulders, took a sip of wine.

She usually disliked drinking because it clouded her judgment, but just for today, she thought it might be nice to get a little drunk.

“You know, Tilia?”

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one feeling that way—Grace, who had emptied her glass quickly, spoke with a slightly mischievous face.

“When you suddenly disappeared and a long time later, I learned that you were working in Ontaroa, I got so worried that I once sent Reiner to the foreign consulate where you were working.”

At the unexpected name, Tilia widened her eyes and looked at the lady.

Reiner Wells was the one among the three Wells brothers whom Tilia felt relatively comfortable with. Having defied his parents’ wishes for him to become a knight and instead gone to study abroad in Ontaroa to pursue trade, he was also someone she used to subtly probe for information about Ontaroa.

“When he brought back the message that you seemed to be doing well, I was so relieved, yet at the same time, somehow hurt.”

On Lady Wells’ face, murmuring so, remained a faint trace of lingering disappointment that she couldn’t fully erase.

“You seemed to want to sever all ties with Arkansis, so I told him not to make himself known, but honestly, I was secretly hoping he would approach you.”

“Probably my youngest brother was thinking the same thing.”

Judy, who was sipping her wine sparingly like a miser while everyone else was drinking heartily, took over the conversation.

“If he hadn’t hurt his leg, he definitely would have visited the place where you were working and insisted on making himself known.”

“Reiner hurt his leg?”

“Yeah. A carriage apparently charged at him all of a sudden. It wasn’t a serious injury, just bad enough that he had trouble moving for a few weeks?”

Replying lightly, Judy glanced at Tilia’s wine glass like a hawk eyeing its prey.

“After that, his business suddenly took a different turn, and he had to leave Ontaroa to travel to the New World…”

“If Reiner had stayed in Ontaroa, he might have found out much sooner that you had actually sent letters.”

Lady Wells, pretending not to notice Tilia secretly sharing her wine with Judy under the table, sighed as she spoke.

“When things are bound to go wrong, nothing you do can stop them. Why did he have to get injured at that time, and why did everything have to happen then?”

To Grace’s words, Tilia merely gave a small smile. At that moment, she herself didn’t know why Ilex’s face suddenly surfaced and disappeared from her mind.

“…Indeed.”

Unconsciously rubbing her fingertips, Tilia answered in a faint voice.

“Why did it have to happen right then, like that…”

The feel of soft cloth brushed against her fingerprints. It was the sensation of the bandage he had tied around her fingertips after insistently applying medicine to the slight bleeding the previous night.

Why, when Reiner had tried to come find her, did something like that have to happen to him?

Suppressing a certain premonition that kept surfacing in her consciousness, Tilia forcibly lifted her glass and brought it to her lips again.

“But Tilia, is that rumor true?”

No sooner had she emptied her almost depleted glass than Lady Wells mischievously refilled it and asked teasingly.

“The rumor that you and the Duke of Davenport are deeply involved.”

“Oh my, Mom. I can’t even listen to this without some alcohol too.”

Seizing the opportunity, Judy finally managed to coax more alcohol from Lady Wells.

In the end, Tilia, seated between the two women whose eyes were shining brightly, had no choice but to stammer out her love story, her cheeks burning red as if about to explode.

***

Hot.

With her flushed, dazed face, Tilia flung open the carriage curtain. As the cold night breeze touched her burning cheeks, she finally began to feel a bit more clear-headed.

When had she ever drunk this much before? Trying to count the years with a tipsy mind, Tilia kept miscalculating and eventually gave up, leaning back against the seat.

When she closed her eyes, it still felt as if she could hear Judy’s and the lady’s laughter tickling her ears, as though she were still at the drinking party.

“When you disappeared, I regretted it so much.”

After quite a few empty bottles had accumulated, the lady, looking just as drunk as Tilia, had muttered as if talking to herself.

“I should have just closed my eyes and married you off to Reiner. That would have been much better than all these worries. How much I regretted being foolish and hesitating back then…”

“That’s just your thinking, Mom.”

Judy, who had eventually lost her drinking privileges again after having a few more glasses, retorted with a slightly sulky face.

“Even if you had tried to match them up, it wouldn’t have worked out, would it? The Duke had been following her around since academy days, after all.”

“Exactly… I was thinking foolishly…”

Lady Wells, who had been nodding off and muttering, quickly turned her head and protested.

“But Judy, your brother isn’t bad either. Reiner is so kind and reliable.”

Recalling Judy’s earlier gagging gesture, Tilia couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

Meanwhile, at some point, the sound of horse hooves pounding outside the window had stopped.

Turning her head a beat late, she saw a tall man standing beyond the wide-open carriage door.