Anyone entering or leaving the ducal estate had to have their identity strictly verified beyond any doubt.
That thought brought me a measure of relief.
“Oh, to tell the truth, I also—”
Just as I was about to blurt out where I worked, my foot caught on a tree root.
“Ah!”
I lost my balance and pitched forward, but the man’s hand darted out to steady me.
“Careful.”
“Oh, thank you…”
Having barely regained my footing, I dipped my head and lightly brushed down my skirt.
The man slipped the strap of his bag back into my hand, which had come loose, and spoke.
“Walk slowly. The ground here is uneven.”
I nodded, tried to calm my racing heart, and fell back into step behind him.
A long time seemed to have passed, as the eerie calls of owls drifted faintly through the depths of the forest.
The chilling atmosphere only unsettled me further.
I wondered what Tilda was doing right now.
Was she blaming herself for not staying by my side?
…And that boy, surely all alone in his room.
He was no doubt sitting with a scowl, furious that the maid who had gone out to gather raspberries had not yet returned.
He was probably planning to shower her with reprimands the moment she stepped through the door, demanding, “Why did you take so long?”
No, wait…
Did he even know I was missing?
When I pictured his bewildered, distressed face, my chest tightened without my realizing it.
“…zzy!”
My feet froze.
Startled by my sudden halt, the man walking ahead stopped as well.
…Did I mishear?
I knitted my brows and strained my ears.
Yet nothing reached me except the same dismal hooting of the owls.
“What is the matter?”
“Nothing…”
I shook my head, pretending it was nothing of consequence.
The moment I was about to resume walking behind him—
“…Lizzy!”
Callius?
Letting go of the bag strap I had been holding, I turned around in confusion.
Then the voice sounded again.
“…Lizzy!”
“Lizzy? Is that your name?”
The man’s question reached my ears, but my feet had already dashed toward the sound before I could think.
“Young Master?”
…That was impossible.
Why on earth would Callius be here?
Still, my hands blindly felt through the air, as if he might materialize right in front of me at any second.
“…Lizzy!”
“Master! Is that you, Master Callius?”
The voice was drawing nearer, little by little.
And then, the very next moment—
“Lizzy!”
Someone threw their arms around me in a crushing embrace.
The momentum sent us tumbling to the ground together.
I felt the weight of his body gently pressing against mine, strands of his hair brushing against my face.
Shallow, ragged breaths struck my ear.
“Lizzy, you are all right…”
“Goodness, Master! How on earth did you get here?!”
I cried out, sitting up with a dazed expression.
“They told me… they told me you were gone.”
“What? Did you come all this way just to look for me?”
I reached out and patted over Callius’s body.
My fingertips brushed against the cloak wrapped tightly around him.
He seemed to have worn it to block the moonlight creeping toward his skin.
“Truly… did you come here only to search for me?”
I asked again, my voice filled with utter disbelief.
“No matter what… to come alone, and looking so precarious…”
When I tried to pull the cloak further down to shield his face, Callius caught my hand and asked,
“…Wait. What exactly happened to you? And what about the one who took you?”
“Oh, I managed to get away safely. Then I met a kind person, and I’ve been walking back with him. He’s right there!”
I pointed in the direction where the man had been standing.
Strangely, no answer came from Callius.
After a moment, he murmured, his voice drenched in bewilderment.
“…There is no one there.”
What?
No one?
I turned around and called out to the man.
“Excuse me… are you there?”
Yet the silent woods offered nothing in return save the echo of my own voice.
What was this?
He had been standing right there only a moment ago.
Had he arrived like the wind and vanished like the wind?
‘I could not even thank him…’
While I stood staring blankly at the spot where he had disappeared—
“Young Master! Miss Lizzy!”
The sound of rushing footsteps broke through the woods, alongside frantic cries.
“Miss Lizzy! Young Master! Where are you?!”
“Lizzy! If you can hear me, answer!”
It was Brandon and Tilda.
The familiar voices brought a rush of relief, and I shouted back with everything I had.
“Here! We are here!”
The shouts drew nearer and nearer.
“Miss Lizzy! There you are! Young Master! Are you all right?!”
“Lizzy!”
The moment they spotted us, the two of them rushed over, frantic with worry.
“Lizzy, are you hurt? Your face is a terrible mess.”
Tilda fretted, dusting off my clothes.
“I am all right. But how did the Young Master get out here…”
“Oh, do not even ask! We tried everything to stop him, but he insisted on going out to find you! He declared he would go alone, and we could barely keep up with him!”
Tilda vented bitterly, as though she had been waiting for the chance to let it all out.
It was hardly surprising.
There was no way they could simply let Callius roam the forest alone in the dead of night.
‘Even so, he ignored everything and came out here…’
Meanwhile, Callius gripped my hand tightly, as if terrified that I might slip away again.
‘I thought he would not even bat an eye if I disappeared…’
The warmth bleeding from his hand into mine made my chest tighten involuntarily.
“Now then, Young Master. Take my hand and stand up slowly.”
Brandon spoke, seeing to Callius in my stead.
Then Tilda reached her hand out toward me.
“Come, Lizzy. Take my hand and get up. We can hear what happened in the forest after we return to the mansion. Good heavens, your dress is in tatters.”
“…I am sorry to have worried everyone over something like this.”
“Sorry? You are the one who went through a terrible fright. Come, let us get back so you can be treated and rest.”
At that moment, I thought the night was a blessing.
Had this been broad daylight, the pain Callius suffered would have been far worse than this.
“Come, let us return to the mansion!”
Urged on by Brandon, I leaned on Tilda and began to walk.
Our hands clasped together, we left behind the darkness that swallowed the forest, step by step.
Slap!
The Head Maid’s palm struck Mary across the cheek.
It was a callous hand, roughened by years of hard service, and the sting was evident at a single glance.
It was no wonder that Mary’s cheek flared red and swollen in an instant.
Dorothy, kneeling beside her, was in no better state.
Her cheeks were flushed as red as apples from the sheer number of blows she had taken.
“Just this once… please, just this once, forgive me…”
“Silence!”
At Melissa’s harsh voice, Mary and Dorothy flinched instinctively.
From the sheer rage in the Head Maid’s tone, they knew this would not pass quietly.
A caning?
A docked wage?
No, the matter was no longer so simple.
The prospect of losing their lives was now very real.
“Instigating murder! Do you have any idea how grave a crime this is?!”
They knew all too well.
The world went black before the two maids’ eyes, then nearly white with sheer shock.
Instigation of murder was treated with no less severity than murder itself, carrying a dreadful punishment.
If things went on like this, the gallows was their certain fate.
Driven to that realization, Mary suddenly clung to the hem of the Head Maid’s skirt, pleading desperately.
“Mercy! I know nothing!”
Then, her face twisted with malice, she pointed straight at Dorothy.
“It was her! She planned everything! She said once Lizzy Swan was gone, we would get our old positions back, and she seduced me into it! I was only following orders, Madam!”
Dorothy, listening to Mary’s words in stunned horror, could endure no more.
She too grabbed the hem of the Head Maid’s skirt and screamed.
“No! It is all a lie! Mary was the first one to suggest luring Lizzy to the cliff! Using Dean was her idea as well! Please, believe me!”
Hearing those last desperate attempts to shift the blame, Melissa’s expression only hardened into something even colder.
