Translator: Nox

Chapter 135

#<Episode 135>

“He is noble from birth. The eldest son of a family that has been around for eight generations. A cultured gentleman who has taken the typical elite course of public school and Cambridge, a respected landowner in his hometown. Compared to him, I am nothing. My origins are humble, and I have no inherited wealth. Half of my success was made possible by Mrs. Granchard and my father-in-law. No matter how capable I am, if they hadn't introduced me to big cases, I would have been just another mediocre lawyer.”

“I don't know why you lack so much confidence. Your skills are renowned in England.”

“The fact that I only have skills is my lifelong inferiority complex. Is it even possible to become a self-made lawyer in today's British society? I am destined to be dragged around by the powerful for the rest of my life.”

He clasped his hands together as if praying.

“The thought of having to compete with him makes the inferiority complex inside me run wild. I'm ashamed. I should have been honest with you, at least. I shouldn't have given you another wound. I'm sorry, Laura. Forget everything I said. Even my courtship.”

Laura turned to him. Their eyes met in the air. His eyes were desolate.

“I loved you from the moment I first saw you. I still love you. I will love you in the future. But I will give up hope of winning you back. Ian Dalton is a wonderful husband. Marry that man.”

“You said it was a mismatch in social class, didn't you?”

He chuckled.

“That was ridiculous nonsense. The man who is chosen by you is blessed by God. Ian Dalton is one of the few men who deserves to be blessed. He loves you very much. He would risk his life for you.”

Laura lowered her eyes.

“This is not the time to be having this conversation.”

He stared blankly at the fireplace before getting up and approaching Laura. He stood right in front of Laura and looked down at her.

“Laura, do you remember the day we first met?”

He bent down on one knee. And he gently took Laura's hands.

“It was at a Ball during the social season. You felt dizzy because of the stuffy air, and I supported you and took you to the terrace. You sat like this on the terrace chair, and I crouched in front of you and massaged your hands. Like this.”

He gently massaged Laura's hands. Laura smiled.

“I was thinking, ‘Why is he massaging my hands when I don't have indigestion?’”

“That's a relief. If you had said that, I would have been intimidated and quickly left you. We talked for over an hour on the terrace that day. Then you left, saying you had a gentleman you promised to waltz with. I sat in the spot where you had been sitting for a very long time. Until the end of the Ball.”

Laura remembered too. Even as she went to waltz, she felt a little sad. She wanted to talk to him more.

“The next day, I was walking through Hyde Park, thinking of the auburn-haired lady I had met the night before. Hoping that I might run into her. And my wish came true. You were taking a walk in a white dress and a light green parasol. At that moment, I knew I loved you.”

“So that's why you had such a bright expression.”

“You remember that moment too.”

“Of course. Women cherish the memories of their first love as much as men do.”

“……How wonderful it would be if this conversation of ours was a chat between an old couple on a sleepless night. I always wanted to have seven children who resembled you while dating you.”

“Oh, my. I'm glad I didn't marry you.”

The two laughed.

“Thank you, Laura. For creating such beautiful memories in my youth. And I'm sorry. For giving you indelible wounds. I will pray for your happiness in the future. Even if it is happiness with another man.”

He bowed his head and kissed the back of Laura's hands.

As she received John Ashton's kiss, Laura felt the wounds of the past slowly fading away.

Until now, Laura had only remembered the past as pain. But the first love of seventeen that was revealed in the place where the wound disappeared was dazzlingly beautiful. A first love that was as clumsy as it was exciting and lovely. That time was also the purest memory of youth for Laura.

Loss. Reproach. Frustration. All of that was chased away by the radiance that memory emitted.

Laura stroked Ashton's red hair. And she said sincerely.

“I forgive you.”

He slowly raised his head and looked up at Laura. Laura was smiling gently like the Virgin Mary.

“I forgive everything you said was a sin. You are clean now.”

He smiled with a sad face. Tears welled up in his purple eyes.

“Thank you, Laura. Thank you.”

Laura nodded. Tears streamed down her face as well.

At that moment, the bedroom door burst open. Mrs. Chelsea shouted with an excited face.

“Her fever has gone down! Oh, God, thank you!”

* * *

Cecilia woke up in the morning.

Laura stayed by the child's side all day. Wiping away the child's sweat, taking care of her meals, massaging her arms and legs, and listening to the rest of <A Study in Scarlet>.

The child, who had spent a happy day, fell asleep with an angelic face in the evening.

Laura came out of the room. It was time to go home now.

“Laura.”

John Ashton, who had followed her out of the room, called her.

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome. I'll come again in a week. By then, Cecil will be able to play Chopin for me.”

He held out a hand.

“Goodbye, my precious friend.”

Laura took his hand.

“Stay healthy until we meet again, my friend Mr. John Ashton.”

Laura left the guest room.

As she walked down the hallway, Laura prayed that there would be a carriage available in front of the hotel. She didn't show it in front of Ashton and his daughter, but she was very tired. In fact, she was also a patient.

From noon, she felt her strength failing. Her energy was running out, and her appetite disappeared. By evening, her head was so dazed that she only smiled mechanically no matter who spoke to her. Her fever was starting to rise again.

She went down the stairs. Her knees trembled every time she bent her legs to step on the lower stairs. She grabbed the handrail and barely reached the first floor.

She went to the entrance and asked the doorman to call her a carriage.

“Oh, what should I do, madam.”

He looked at the entrance with a troubled expression.

“It's the timing right after the performance at the nearby opera house, and the weather is like this, so it will be difficult to get a chartered carriage.”

Laura looked outside through the glass door. White snow was falling heavily on the darkening streets of Bath.

“The first snow of the year is falling today of all days.”

The doorman smiled apologetically.

She went outside and stood under the hotel's wide awning. And she began to wait for a chartered carriage to come to the hotel.

After 10 minutes, 20 minutes, not a single carriage was seen.

Her feet were cold from the chill rising from the ground, and her face was freezing from the biting wind. Although she was wearing thick clothes, the symptoms of her body aches returned, and chills began to sweep through her body.

Her head became increasingly hazy. Proper thinking was fading away.

‘Oh, what should I do?’

Laura tried hard to come to her senses and think. If she kept standing like this, she felt like she would collapse. But she couldn't walk to the Laurellia Hotel in the snow either.

‘Oh, right, there was an umbrella shop nearby? It was located one block away. Let's buy an umbrella there and use it to go to the station where the chartered carriages gather.’

Laura, who had become foolish due to the fever, couldn't even think of the fact that she could borrow an umbrella from the hotel front desk or John Ashton's room and went out into the street.

The snowflakes that fell heavily landed on Laura's hair, which was not wearing a hat, and melted coldly. Ice shards hit her entire face. She covered her face with a sable fur scarf and walked slowly. Gentlemen without umbrellas who raised their coat collars and hurried along and lovers who hugged each other tightly under one umbrella passed by.

They were each busy and did not realize that a lady with a sable fur scarf around her velvet coat was staggering along.

Finally, she saw the umbrella shop in front of her. Quite a few customers were rushing into the umbrella shop. This was probably because no one had expected it to snow before November.

Laura went under the awning and looked at the shop window, shaking off the snow that was all over her body. Her face reflected in the glass was all red.

‘It wasn't this bad when I first caught a cold.’

Laura reached out towards the shop door.

At that moment, the door opened from inside the shop with a tinkling bell sound. A gentleman wearing a thin Frock coat came out of the shop.

Laura saw the man's clean Adam's apple at her eye level. And then she saw his beautiful chin and lips, his neat nose, and his black eyes.

“Laura?”

Mr. Dalton was standing in front of her.

* * *

The two stared at each other as if time had stopped.

In the meantime, several customers avoided the two and went in and out of the shop. They glared at the young man and woman who were blocking the entrance.

But they were not aware of anyone. They were just looking at each other.

After a while, Mr. Dalton came to his senses first. He carefully took Laura's arm and led her to the side.

“Laura.”

His entire face was rough. He was pale like a consumptive patient, and he had lost a lot of weight, making his facial contours stand out. But he was still delicate, still a kind face.

He frowned.

“Are you so dumbfounded to see me that you're speechless?”

“…….”

“You must be angry with me. I told you so many times not to follow me, but I came to Bath like this, and I was caught tailing you and surprised you, and I even got into a fight with your first love.”

Laura couldn't understand what he was saying. She was just focusing on putting his lips in her eyes and listening to his voice.

“But I swear to God. I didn't have a dishonorable fight. And I haven't been tailing you since the day I ran into John Ashton. This time, it's just that I saw you going to the Parnis Hotel in a carriage with John Ashton even though your cold hadn't gotten better, and I was worried, so I…….”

He suddenly stopped talking, lowered his head, and touched his forehead.

“Damn it, I revealed that I was watching the hotel entrance. What a fool…….”

The snow was getting heavier. Her clothes were slowly getting wet from the snow blowing in. Laura's body was getting colder, and her fever was getting higher.

But, Laura didn't care about that.

Mr. Dalton raised his head again. He had a face that looked like he was about to cry.