The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 36
After she finished dressing, Bauman appeared, his face a warm contrast to Madame Eve’s stern expression.
“Look at this, My Lady. Young Master Pejin sent a potpourri bottle as a gift…. Oh, my goodness, you look beautiful.”
Bauman had come in carrying the bottle, only to stop in awe at the sight of the fully adorned April. However, before he could offer a proper compliment, Madame Eve’s sharp criticism cut him off.
“Gifts should be presented on a silver tray. Surely you have at least one of those?”
“Even if it’s already in a box?”
“I am saying you should place the box on a silver tray. Do I really have to explain this to someone working for the Runos family?”
“I’ll be right back!”
Bauman hurried back down the stairs.
Madame Eve clicked her tongue in disapproval and turned to April.
“Please wait here a moment. The gentleman will come up to escort you.”
“I can just go down now.”
“The gentleman will escort you down,” Madame Eve insisted coldly before disappearing.
Left with no choice, April remained seated. Preparing for a party for the first time in ages was proving to be an ordeal in more ways than one.
As she waited with a sigh, Bauman reappeared, this time with a silver tray.
“That is one terrifying noblewoman.”
“Let’s just try to stay on her good side today.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
Bauman chuckled at April’s remark.
Far from being offended by Madame Eve’s nagging, he looked as though he found the whole situation entertaining. It was hard to believe that someone as good-natured as Bauman had ended up here after a fallout with other architects.
April picked up the potpourri bottle Pejin had sent with one hand and opened the lid with the other.
As she was examining it, Pejin stepped through the door.
“Let’s go.”
At his call, April set the bottle down and spoke.
“Thanks for the gift.”
“I couldn’t exactly come empty-handed.”
From the tone of his voice, he seemed reluctant to discuss the gift further.
April accepted his reaction and looked at him, wondering where to place a single dahlia. Seeing no suitable spot on his formal evening wear, she gestured with her hand.
“Lean down.”
As Pejin lowered himself toward her, April tucked the dahlia behind his ear.
“Hmm, looks pretty.”
April burst into laughter at the prank.
Watching Pejin enter the room with his hair swept back, standing there in a tuxedo, had made her feel uneasy.
She wished he weren’t a man.
She wished she didn’t see him as one.
She hated that she liked the way he looked in a tuxedo.
Pejin, with the dahlia still as an ornament, leaned over to look in the vanity mirror.
“I can’t tell which one is the flower.”
“What are you talking about? It’s painfully obvious.”
“Ah, the flower suits me quite well.”
Now accustomed to Pejin’s antics, April simply sighed and shook her head.
After shamelessly admiring his own reflection, Pejin turned to April.
“Let’s get moving. Time to go ruin a party.”
“Are you okay with this?”
“Yeah. I’m hoping this ensures they never invite me to another party again.”
“That’s a relief. At least you’re getting something out of it.”
April chatted as she took Pejin’s outstretched hand and stood up.
The two of them sat in the back seat, and soon the car pulled away.
The car traveled well enough along the cleared roads, but the snow continued to fall steadily behind them.
Pejin looked back at the path where the snow was already accumulating and asked, “We won’t be able to return to the mansion after the party. Are you okay with staying at the townhouse?”
“The townhouse?”
“Yeah, the one belonging to the Runos family.”
“Ah. Right. We had one, didn’t we?”
“Judging by that response, it’s probably not being maintained at all.”
As they talked, the car reached the Provincial Capital.
April wanted to hear how Pejin had crossed the wintry sea in this snow, but as they drew closer to the Grand Ducal Residence, a rising tide of anger and fear tightened around her throat, stealing her words.
Fortunately, when they arrived at the Grand Ducal Residence and stepped out of the car, Pejin still had the dahlia tucked behind his ear. The sight momentarily eased her tension.
April, having watched Pejin get out first to open her door, asked, “Are you really going to keep wearing that?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you embarrassed?”
“Not at all.”
Attending the party with her in the first place must have been a significant hurdle for Pejin. Compared to that, wearing a flower in his hair seemed to bother him not one bit. Today, his shamelessness as an escort felt strangely reassuring.
April let out a trembling breath and placed her hand in Pejin’s as she stepped out of the car.
Night was beginning to fall.
The people at the party wore expressions as if they were facing a natural disaster.
Their reaction was so extreme that April whispered to Pejin, “Is it because of the officers collapsing in the basement?”
“That, and the guy who caused the carriage accident in the fog.”
“Ah, the scoundrel of the Heshan family.”
When April showed her distaste at the mere mention of him, Pejin nodded in agreement.
“The word ‘scoundrel’ couldn’t fit him better.”
“He causes an accident and then makes such a fuss about it?”
April recalled the young man from the Heshan family screaming for his life in the middle of that fog. Remembering how he had raged at her for not saving him first, it wasn’t surprising that he would harbor ungrateful, ill intentions toward her.
She could only imagine how exaggerated and malicious his description of April must have been—walking through the fog without a mask while even trained police officers were collapsing. She could hear the guests’ whispers, which they didn’t even bother to hide.
“Why are those two arriving together?”
“Young Master Pejin is an inspector. He must be accompanying her. It’s ridiculous that a suspect under investigation wants to attend a party, but…”
Hearing their voices tremble with fear, April felt her own fear subside. There was no reason to fear those who were afraid of her.
Pejin had mentioned it once before. Whether the Runos family’s fortune was large or small, once people realized the household consisted only of a female head, an old man, and two children, intruders would come.
The malicious rumors labeling her a witch had created constraints for her, but at the same time, they had become almost the only weapon April Runos possessed.
She was even grateful that they had come to their own conclusions about why Pejin was accompanying her.
April continued walking through the gaze of others, looking up at the Grand Ducal Residence’s banquet hall, a place she had once considered her own territory.
Of all the banquet halls in the residence, this small one in the garden was the one April had loved most. Even if it was called small, its scale was quite substantial. Nicknamed the ‘Summer Banquet Hall,’ it was designed to fully enjoy the Grand Duchy’s brief summers.
Most of the walls were made of glass windows, surrounded by the trees of the garden.
Even now, in the dead of winter, hosting a sponsorship party amidst the snow, the hall remained beautiful. The dresses of the guests heading toward the hall looked like flowers blooming on the snow.
Among them, the red lining of the black dress April wore beneath her fur coat stood out vividly. Because Pejin had brought a dress currently trending in the Empire directly by ship, her attire was distinct from those around her, drawing unique attention.
Pejin, noticing the stares on behalf of April, who was looking straight ahead to avoid eye contact, asked, “Is the dress too conspicuous?”
“People would stare at me even without this. Don’t worry about it. I like it.”
“That’s a relief. I was afraid I’d get scolded for picking something you didn’t like.”
“Madame Eve would have been angry before I was.”
“I wouldn’t have made it to the party at all. Madame Eve would have said she couldn’t let me leave looking like that.”
Regardless of his affection for Madame Eve, Pejin seemed exhausted by her pickiness.
Hearing that the dress was fine seemed to put Pejin at ease. He paid no mind to the surrounding gazes after that.
April found Pejin’s—to put it nicely, boldness, or to put it bluntly, shamelessness—to be quite dependable today.
Even after entering the banquet hall, Pejin focused solely on his own interests. At least, that was how it appeared to April.
Pejin spotted Heidi Dieus, breathtakingly beautiful in a snow-white fur shawl. And for a long moment, his gaze met hers as she noticed him.
In that brief moment, April thought his entire world had come to a standstill.
