The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 64
However, his gaze drifted away once more, and his moving hand came to a halt.
Eleanor immediately hurried down the stairs to show Jeff the niece he had been waiting for. She came to a sudden stop at the entrance when she spotted April standing in the foyer, talking to Kayani.
Seven years.
In those seven years, April had blossomed into a fully mature woman.
She had been wearing proper clothes at the party, but it seemed that was the only dress she owned; the one she wore today on her way here was a dress that had once belonged to April’s mother.
“It has been a long time, Auntie.”
As April offered her greeting, Kayani was hiding the obituary she had given him behind his back, seemingly worried his mother might tear it up on the spot.
Eleanor struggled to regain her composure before speaking to her.
“Yes, it has been a long time.”
“Is Uncle doing well?”
Eleanor thought for a long while about how to answer that question.
Who could truly know what was going on inside that girl’s head?
In the face of his elder brother’s death, the younger brother had lost his speech and his hair had turned white as snow.
But who would understand the heart of this girl, who lost both parents before her eyes and then waited seven years to hand over an obituary inviting them to a funeral?
Eleanor, who had intended to throw April out the moment she saw her, suddenly turned her head away as tears welled up in her eyes despite herself.
April gave a silent smile and spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what? Why would you be sorry?”
“In truth, it’s all my fault.”
At April’s words, Eleanor felt a surge of emotion. She marched down the remaining steps and grabbed the girl’s arm.
“You, come with me.”
She then dragged April toward the study.
April followed after Eleanor, saying, “I can walk on my own.”
“You’re as ill-mannered as ever,” Eleanor snapped back mindlessly as she brought April to stand before Jeff.
April’s eyes widened when she saw Jeff, who had aged far more than she remembered.
Jeff was now the age her father had been when he met his end. Back then, her father hadn’t had a single strand of white hair, let alone a full head of it.
Eleanor spoke up. “She says it’s her fault—that the Lunos family ended up like this. Can’t you say something even after seeing her? You have to tell her it’s not true!”
At her outburst, April seemed to grasp the situation, if only vaguely.
For a moment, the sound of Eleanor stifling her sobs echoed through the study.
Eleanor finally managed to collect her emotions and spoke to April.
“Fine. Don’t pay any mind to a man like that. Let’s go downstairs.”
Just as she finished speaking, a sound like a whistling wind escaped Jeff’s throat.
The two women turned to look at him simultaneously.
His vocal cords, unused for seven years, could produce no sound, yet Jeff struggled to let out even that breathy rasp to convey something.
Eleanor rushed to his side. “I’ll understand. Just try to say anything. I can understand you. I’ll listen to everything.”
The whistling sound gradually turned into something resembling the cry of a beast.
Through a face drenched in tears, Eleanor smiled and asked, “Yes, you’re trying to tell her it wasn’t her fault, right? That’s it, isn’t it? I heard you correctly, didn’t I?”
“Ah… Ah…”
Soon, Jeff began to cough.
April rushed out and returned with a glass of water.
Eleanor took the cup. “Thank you, April. Here, drink this.”
Jeff coughed hoarsely for a long while before finally managing to swallow the water.
After drinking, he leaned back in his chair, utterly exhausted, closing his eyes and breathing thin, shallow breaths.
When Eleanor stood up to call a servant to help her husband to bed, Jeff caught her hand.
Eleanor looked down at her hand held firmly by her husband, then spoke to April.
“Dear, won’t you stay the night? It seems he has so much he wants to say to you…”
“Elli…”
“…”
“Elli…”
For the first time in seven years, Jeff Morrow had made a sound.
“Elli, my love…”
Eleanor slowly turned back to look at Jeff.
She realized then that the first thing her husband wanted to call out after seven years of silence was her name.
Eleanor remained convinced that the reason Jeff had opened his mouth after seven years was his niece.
Of course, she had no intention of denying the fact that when he realized he could make a sound, the first name he wanted to call was hers, and the first thing he wanted to say was that he loved her.
Whatever it was, Eleanor’s powerful insistence that they must hear what Jeff had to say made it impossible for April to leave the Morrow estate.
Exasperated, Eleanor said to April, “Look at the time. You were thinking of going back to the Lunos estate in the middle of the night?”
When it snowed like this, a carriage couldn’t make it up the hill. April, who had intended to walk up from the base of the slope, fell silent as Eleanor hit the nail on the head.
It felt strange to have someone worrying about her.
It felt doubly unfamiliar because the Lunos family rarely had anyone as hot-tempered and expressive with their emotions as Eleanor.
The next day was Sunday, Fezin’s day off, and he had suggested they share a meal. She figured things had worked out for the best.
While the bedroom was being prepared, April played chess with Kayani.
Kayani spoke. “Inspector Fezin caught a cold.”
“Yes, after he went and jumped into the sea himself.”
Kayani nodded and continued. “You see, with sea swimming, you’re supposed to be done once you get out. You shouldn’t keep going in and out… But he kept diving back in to check where you were, noona.”
“He was probably just monitoring me.”
“Do you think so?”
Kayani tilted his head and looked at April.
In the boy’s face, the features of a Lunos man were beginning to surface. He looked more like April’s father—the previous Head of the Lunos Family—than he did Jeff.
April remarked, “You look like my father.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that often. That I take after my uncle.”
Kayani gave a bashful grin, seemingly pleased to be told he resembled his uncle, who had been famous for his good looks.
The chess match wasn’t even a struggle. April won easily.
Unlike Kayani, who viewed the game as a social device for conversation, April focused entirely on the board.
Only those who focus on the game think of the next move. It was only natural that Kayani suffered a swift defeat.
As they finished the game, Kayani checked the obituary she had written once more.
“It’s in May.”
“Yes. It’s the month when the good season begins.”
“True, there’s no season as beautiful as our May.”
The funeral was set for May.
Since seven years had already passed and the ceremony was merely a formality now, she had chosen the most beautiful season in the Grand Duchy.
Amidst the perennial snow of the lonely mountains and the greenery that was breathtaking every single year, she had finally resolved to let her parents go. She didn’t dislike April, the month she was born, but she wanted her parents’ funeral to be held when things were beautiful.
April often thought about the month of April.
The beauty of May didn’t suit her, so she preferred having been born in April.
A season that was neither winter nor spring.
The snow accumulated throughout winter begins to melt into a mess, and the sky is so overcast and rainy that a blue day is a rare find.
A season where not a single flower blooms.
And yet, the reason she didn’t hate April was that it was the season when the greetings of fishermen, who had endured the harsh winter seas, became heartfully long.
After saying goodnight to Kayani and entering the bedroom, April hesitated at the excessively lovely atmosphere. It was the result of Eleanor, who had only sons, manifesting her suppressed desire for a ‘daughter.’
In truth, it wasn’t entirely Eleanor’s fault. During her happy days, April had been a girl who wasn’t satisfied unless everything was glamorous.
Because Eleanor remembered the girl she was up until the age of fourteen, she had chosen such a flamboyant canopy and ruthlessly wrapped ribbons around the wooden bedposts.
The basket on the table was overflowing with roses.
Standing in a bedroom decorated with every beautiful thing the house possessed, April found herself unable to speak for a while. At first out of embarrassment, and then out of a sense of longing.
Everything she once possessed had been her parents’ love.
And that was likely what had disappeared as well.
April gritted her teeth and closed her eyes very slowly to keep the welling tears from falling.
Lying in bed, she thought once again that she had been right to seek out her relatives.
No matter how many times she thought about it, it had been the right choice.
