Translator: Nox

21 - Chapter 21

The boy with the briefcase dashed into the mansion, the door wide open, and shouted,

“I’ve got a reply from Feltham!”

The loud voice startled Palmer, the butler, who came rushing out.

“You could have called me quietly.”

At the low but stern reprimand, the boy shrank back and showed him the briefcase he was carrying.

“Sergeant Thornton asked me to do this this morning! He said it was urgent!”

The boy, who had followed his father to work nearby in the morning and was wandering around the fields, ran into Mrs. Parker, who had come out to the front of the mansion to call someone to go to Feltham. Thanks to that, the boy was able to get a well-paid job from the morning.

“Yes, I know.”

Palmer looked flustered and put his finger to his lips, signaling him to please lower his voice.

Sergeant Thornton’s room had been lit until dawn. It seemed he still couldn’t get a proper night’s sleep. The second floor, where sounds could be heard until morning, became quiet only at lunchtime.

So he thought he might be getting some sleep, but then this loud noise.

“It’s here.”

Then Sergeant Thornton’s voice came from the top of the stairs. Palmer turned to see him slowly descending the stairs.

“I’m sorry. I thought you were asleep.”

“No, I was awake anyway. I knew this child was coming into Blissbury.”

Somehow, he seemed to have come out too quickly to have been awakened by the boy’s voice. He must have been awake but just quiet.

Ryan came down and took the briefcase the boy handed him.

‘Unexpected.’

Frankly, he thought Mr. Suberton would come straight away when he received his letter.

He could tell how much he cared for Blissbury while talking with him.

But all day, there was no reply from him. Eventually, Ryan had to send another message urging a reply.

If he had been busy yesterday, he thought he might visit in person today, but contrary to his expectations, instead of Mr. Suberton, a thick briefcase arrived.

‘Is he perhaps unwell?’

The last time he visited Blissbury, he had mentioned his health.

<I’m going back to Newham before long, but frankly, I’d like you to stay here longer. As you can see, I’m getting old, and it’s getting harder and harder to work as I used to…>

So said Mr. Suberton, looking softly over the hills in the distance.

<At least my daughter is helping me, so I can still manage Blissbury somehow. If she weren’t, it would be really hard.>

He had also said that it was hard to go up and down the stairs and that he was forgetting things a lot.

So he wondered if he hadn’t come because he was unwell…

Ryan, about to open the briefcase, noticed the errand boy looking at him with shining eyes.

He had already paid him, so why was he looking so expectant? He looked at the boy, puzzled, and saw crumbs of cookies on his lips.

“Suberton House must have given you a snack.”

“Ah!”

At that, the boy hurriedly wiped his mouth. Then he quickly put the remaining crumbs in his mouth.

Then he grinned and said as if making an excuse.

“Mr. Suberton’s cookies are the best! And that house’s young lady always gives cookies to the errand boys! When the maid isn’t there, she even stuffs them in our pockets!”

At the boy’s words, Ryan pictured Eloise handing out cookies.

She had given him apple pie with a look that said she couldn’t hate him more, but she seemed to be handing out cookies generously to the neighborhood children.

Ryan smiled wryly and said to Palmer,

“Pack up plenty of snacks and send them along. So the other children can share them.”

The boy’s face lit up at the words.

“Yes, sir. Come on, now.”

As Palmer called, the boy quickly followed him, saying,

“I have five younger siblings! And lots of friends…”

“Yes, yes. I understand. Mrs. Parker is going to give me an earful for this.”

Grumbling, Palmer took the boy straight to the kitchen. Ryan, watching the two figures disappear, opened the briefcase.

On top was an envelope. As he took it out and read it, his expression hardened.

“Mr. Suberton has to leave for an extended period?”

Damn. He sighed briefly.

When he heard about the Blissbury Summer Ball from Julia, he had been thinking of asking Mr. Suberton to prepare for the ball.

Ryan had come here as the manager, but Mr. Suberton still held the title of manager as well.

So he thought it was right for him to continue doing what he had been doing every year, but he had left because his godmother was ill.

Ryan read the letter again. It was a much neater handwriting than Mr. Suberton’s, which he had seen before. It was obviously Eloise’s.

She said he would understand if he looked at the documents and ended the letter. Nowhere did she say to contact her if he needed help or that she would visit.

In other words, she was saying she had no intention of helping and that he should take care of it himself.

“Ha.”

Ryan took the documents to the study.

He laid out everything in the briefcase on the desk and went to the filing cabinet to take out the well-organized documents.

As Eloise had said, the documents she had sent were full of mottled water stains, but the documents remaining in Blissbury were clean, without even a trace of insect damage.

He could see how hard the Suberton family had worked to preserve these documents.

‘So, since Mr. Suberton is gone, I have to take the lead this year.’

Frankly, it was a hassle. He had never done it before, and he didn’t want to.

If he didn’t have the title of manager, he wouldn’t even look at it.

Suddenly, he remembered what Mr. Suberton had said.

<If I’m ever away, you can ask Eloise. She cares so much about Blissbury that she knows everything about this place. Sometimes I think she knows more than I do.>

But Eloise, who was supposed to help, had only sent these detailed documents by someone else.

In fact, considering his relationship with her, it was surprising that she had organized and sent them in such detail.

Moreover, the annotations were not just scribbled down. She explained in detail how it was ordered, how the price was cut at that time, and that the missing items were ordered from a city other than Cambon, and through whom.

The handwriting, completely different from Mr. Suberton’s, circled and explained in detail on the stained documents.

‘It’s true that she cares about Blissbury.’

To be able to organize this much without Mr. Suberton’s help.

It seemed to be true that she cherished this mansion as if it were her own.

Still, he couldn’t be sure of everything with just the documents.

‘I wonder when Mr. Suberton will be back.’

Looking at the records so far, the Summer Ball was usually held at the end of July.

‘It’s the end of April now, so there are still three months left.’

He didn’t know how long it would take to prepare for the ball, but it didn’t seem like it would take more than a month at most. If he had to do it urgently and was short-handed, he could provide that much manpower.

‘After all, there’s a lot of money piled up in the bank.’

The price he had received for accepting his biological father, Count Willus’s, offer, the salary he had received while serving in the military after becoming an adult, and the prize money that came with various medals were all piled up in the bank.

He didn’t want to buy anything, so after buying a house in the capital, he didn’t really use it, so the money would still be piled up.

Frankly, even if he used only a portion of it, there would be no problem preparing for the Blissbury ball. No, not just no problem, but he could hold a ball as grand as the grand balls in the capital.

Still, since it was an event in this village, he didn’t want to bring the flashy and vulgar balls of the capital here and ruin the tradition.

Hoping that Mr. Suberton would return soon, he turned the documents over again.

“…Huh?”

A piece of paper of a different color was inserted between the documents.

Unlike the slightly cream-colored document paper, it was tinged with a light blue. Moreover, several flower petals were faintly printed on the paper.

At a glance, it was not document paper but stationery.

Why is this here? Did she run out of paper and use this?

He picked up the stationery, wondering. And the next moment, his eyes widened. At the very top of the stationery…

“To my ever-missed Ryan…?”

He blinked blankly for a moment. The handwriting on the stationery was definitely Eloise’s.

But to my ever-missed Ryan? Is that woman sending me a letter like this now?