11 - 11
Your Ryan
<Episode 11>
Chapter 2: A Bustling Town
The invited guests left satisfied, but Mr. and Mrs. Serverton did not.
“I understand how you feel about Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave. However, I can’t say that your attitude was right. You are confined to the house for a week.”
Mr. Serverton, who was usually lenient with his daughter, was firm this time.
Eloise, too, admitted that her behavior had gone too far, so she quietly retreated to her room.
“That’s a good thing! You need to be careful about your health, especially in this season. Look, the weather was so nice yesterday, but this morning there was frost? Going out on a day like this will only give you a cold.”
Emily genuinely welcomed Eloise’s confinement, thinking that she would have fewer opportunities to nag her about wearing a hat all day and wrapping a shawl around her.
However, she soon realized she was wrong.
“Hello, Emily. I’ve come to see Eloise.”
Since Thornton’s visit, the young women of the town had been coming to see Eloise, seeking information about him.
“Miss is ill and cannot see her friends.”
“Oh, that’s such sad news. Then I’d like to offer her some comfort for a moment.”
The friends were not about to back down unless Eloise was on her deathbed.
Eventually, Emily, realizing that she couldn’t handle it alone, asked Mrs. Serverton for help.
Mrs. Serverton, who had come out determined to send her daughter’s friends away, changed her mind when she saw their resolute eyes.
“Hmm… come to think of it, I suppose a short visit is possible.”
The eyes of those who had come were burning so fiercely that Mrs. Serverton had to retreat for a moment.
As the chattering ladies all entered Eloise’s room, her room, which was quite spacious, became full.
As soon as Emily closed the door, saying she would bring tea, questions poured out before greetings.
“Eloise, you saw him, didn’t you? What was he like? What color was his hair? What about his eyes? Is he physically sound? No, more than that, how old did he look?”
Eloise covered her ears at the barrage of questions.
“Wait a minute, can you please ask one at a time?”
At Eloise’s words, the ladies looked at each other. Then, everyone’s gaze was fixed on Julia.
She was the second daughter of Mr. Ogilvy. She was also the lady whom everyone in Feltham acknowledged as ‘most in need of marriage.’
“First of all, how old is Thornton?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Oh, twenty-nine! So young!”
“Wasn’t that the exact age of the man Lucy was proposed to last time?”
“Well, those who have been in the military tend to be over thirty, so twenty-nine is still young!”
“Anyway, it’s a good age for a marriage prospect!”
A single short answer of twenty-nine led to a multitude of conversations.
While her friends were chattering, Eloise swallowed a sigh.
Last night, she remembered Thornton’s face as he seemed flustered when she argued with him.
The moment she turned her back on him and returned to the second floor alone, she suddenly came to her senses.
Even though they were gentlemen, men tended to show displeasure first when their opinions were refuted.
Since she didn’t want to talk any more anyway, she greeted him and came upstairs…
‘It’s obvious. He must have been fuming inside, thinking, “What does she know?”’
Besides, wasn’t he the one who had seen Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave up close? So he would never change his mind.
‘No, still! Wasn’t his life saved thanks to the Lieutenant Colonel!’
It wasn’t that she was trying to defend the Lieutenant Colonel for no reason. Even in Feltham, one could know the troop deployments of the enemy and friendly forces.
Moreover, among the books piled up in her father’s study, the part that Eloise was most interested in was tactics.
From ancient to present, the more she read, the deeper Eloise’s interest grew, and when translating old documents, Mr. Serverton would even ask his daughter for advice on military tactics.
Eloise repeatedly reviewed the Ingon Battle on the map.
She applied all the tactics she knew, and considered all the possibilities for the 57th Infantry Battalion to survive other than retreat, but the answer was always the same.
No matter how many hundreds of times she reconsidered, everyone would have died if they had not retreated as Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave had ordered.
Also, there was no way to save other battalions.
The Lieutenant Colonel must have known that his retreat would be criticized. He simply couldn’t bear to see his men die like dogs in a battle where there was no chance of victory.
People said that it was a soldier’s duty to die gloriously, but Eloise thought that was the most foolish thing.
The country is precious.
But life is even more precious.
‘But… Thornton’s attitude was a bit unexpected.’
Unlike other young men of his age, she thought he would openly show displeasure or raise his voice and shout, “What does a woman know?” when his opinion was refuted.
But, contrary to her expectations, he told Mr. Serverton that he was grateful that Eloise understood the Lieutenant Colonel, and conveyed his sincere wish for a good night.
She knew very well that her father was not the kind of person who would fabricate someone else’s greetings.
So, if he really said that…
“Eloise?”
“Huh?”
“Oh my, you weren’t listening at all? We were asking about his appearance!”
“Ah, black hair, blue eyes, and about 6.2 feet (189cm) tall.”
“What about his build?”
“He wasn’t much different from other soldiers who had just returned. You all know? Muscular, but overall a bit slim?”
“That’s true, but there are many soldiers who suddenly gain weight after the war.”
“That’s right. My mother told me to avoid men like that. They’re mostly people who live on alcohol.”
The friends’ chatter continued for a long time again.
The friends squeezed Eloise for information about Thornton.
Since there was no reason to hide anything, Eloise told them everything she knew. Even how much the annual pension of a discharged sergeant was, according to what she had heard from her father.
However, there was one part that made Eloise feel a little guilty.
“He may not be much to look at, but isn’t it enough if he’s tall, cultured, and has a good pension?”
Eloise closed her mouth at the excited voices of her friends as they left the room.
When her friends asked if Thornton was handsome, she had unconsciously replied that he was stubborn, expressionless, and not someone who would inspire goodwill in others.
Frankly, that was a lie that her friends would immediately see through when they saw Thornton.
Objectively speaking, Thornton was a handsome man.
With thick black hair, large and impressive blue eyes, and a jaw that had been neatly trimmed of his beard, unlike when she first saw him, he had a masculine strength.
His lips were always stubbornly closed, but to the eyes of those who were generous to young men, even that could be praised as showing conviction.
‘I can just say that’s how he looked to me, right?’
Her friends would see his face soon enough anyway. By then, they would have completely forgotten what she had said.
Eloise returned to her room after seeing her friends off.
Emily, who had followed her in, was tidying up the chairs and teacups when she found a small handkerchief that had fallen into the corner.
“Oh my, it looks like they left this behind.”
“Give it to me.”
Upon closer inspection, it was a handkerchief that Julia had boasted about for a long time, saying it was a foreign one she had recently bought in Cambon.
After hesitating for a moment, Eloise asked Emily.
“Where’s Father?”
“Master went to the pastor’s house.”
“What about Mother?”
“She went back to her room, so she’s probably sleeping?”
“Good. I’ll take this to her. They probably haven’t gone far, so I can be back soon. You can clean my room.”
Eloise was confined for a week.
Emily, who was worried about stopping her, nodded silently.
There was a lot to do.
She had to clean up the things the young ladies had left behind, feed the geese in the yard, and clean the warehouse, and dinner was waiting for her.
So, she could leave it to her young lady to deliver the handkerchief.
Eloise quickly left the house.
As expected, her friends hadn’t gone far. She could see the hats of her friends walking beyond the bushes in front of the house.
Eloise was about to call out to them, saying they had left their handkerchief behind.
“Speaking of Eloise, doesn’t she seem really carefree?”
“……”
Eloise stopped in her tracks at the sudden mention of her name.
“If I were Eloise’s age, I would be so anxious that I would have already collapsed. She’s already twenty-six, isn’t she? Abigail is disabled, so it’s understandable, but isn’t Eloise ashamed that she can’t get married even though she’s perfectly healthy?”
One of the friends raised her voice, thinking that Julia’s words were too harsh.
“Did I say anything wrong? Since we’re on the subject, seeing Eloise telling us everything about Thornton, I even felt sorry for her. It seems that Eloise has realized that she can’t even be a rival to us anymore.”
Eloise bit her lip as she listened to Julia’s voice from across the bushes.
Well, look at this?
