3
Your Ryan
<Episode 3>
Although he was a bit older, considering he was a soldier who had returned from war, his unmarried status was quite understandable.
A retired soldier without a wife. Moreover, a man from a collateral branch of a baronial family, sent here by the baron for recuperation.
‘He must have distinguished himself.’
‘Even if not, he must be a friend of the baron.’
‘Perhaps he’s the son of a wealthy landowner or the second or third son of a noble family?’
The ladies’ hearts swelled with hope.
Then someone said,
“Let’s keep this information among the ladies of our Feltham.”
“Yes. There’s no need to let Cambon know, is there?”
Feltham had more than enough daughters of marriageable age. So, they didn’t want to inform the more glamorous daughters of Cambon about this good opportunity.
A stronger alliance than ever was formed in Feltham.
The ladies sealed the agreement with the scent of tea and exchanged glances.
“By the way, when is the new steward supposed to arrive?”
“According to the letter, he should arrive within a week. But it’s not certain.”
A week.
The ladies busily calculated in their heads.
There wasn’t much time left. But it was enough time to take their daughters to Cambon and dress them up prettily.
“Thank you so much for sharing the good news, Mrs. Serverton!”
“You’re the best, Mrs. Serverton!”
The ladies of Feltham praised Mrs. Serverton without exception.
At the same time, they pitied her.
‘I wouldn’t have shared this information if I were her, poor Mrs. Serverton. She must have completely given up on her daughter’s marriage.’
Just as they had daughters, this house also had a daughter. Eloise Serverton, who was well past the age of marriage.
Her bright brown and deep green eyes were full of life, as if they contained the beautiful colors of the countryside.
Moreover, her slender figure and soft lines revealed the unique beauty of a woman.
Nevertheless, the ladies did not consider Eloise as a rival to their daughters. That was because…
“Miss! Where are you going!”
At Emily’s shout, the ladies’ gazes turned to the window.
There, sitting on a baggage cart without a hat, whipping the horses, was Eloise, looking a mess that no one could call a lady.
A slight sense of relief crossed the ladies’ faces.
No matter who came as the steward, they wouldn’t take a liking to that young lady who didn’t have a shred of elegance.
“Miss! Your hat! At least take your hat! Or even a shawl…!”
Ignoring Emily’s desperate pleas from behind, Eloise whipped the horses.
As if understanding their mistress’s urgency, the horses vigorously kicked their hooves.
The rattling baggage cart crossed the stone bridge and left the village road. It was heading towards Blissbury.
Normally, she would have been captivated by the beauty of the wildflowers in full bloom and smiled at the spring breeze brushing her cheeks, but now Eloise’s expression was more determined than ever.
‘A week.’
The moment she heard those words through the door, Eloise immediately climbed onto the baggage cart.
‘I have to hurry.’
She thought she would have to wait at least a month, or even two, but it was only a week.
The new steward must be in a hurry. Perhaps he would arrive at Blissbury even sooner than he had announced.
‘Oh my goodness. If I had known, I wouldn’t have left the paintings there.’
The mansion had an excellent Painting Room. A quiet and beautiful place where no one would barge in when the door was closed.
Whenever her father went to Blissbury, Eloise would follow him and spend time there. And she had left one of her secrets in that beautiful place.
‘My paintings!’
If she were a proper lady, she should naturally paint beautiful nature. But since she had been painting only flowers, grass, and trees since she was young, she was now sick of landscapes.
So, next, she painted animals and insects. Of course, she soon got tired of that too. Now there was only one thing left.
Humans.
She could paint other pictures at home, but not portraits.
First of all, Mrs. Serverton hated it.
<To paint humans when there is such beautiful scenery! It would be better to paint scenes from mythology or historical moments! Why would you insist on painting coachmen, maids, or postmen? That’s not something a lady should paint!>
Then, as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have, she hurriedly threw Eloise’s sketches into the fireplace.
But Eloise wasn’t one to give up. She had a nature to finish what she started.
So, at home, Eloise only painted pictures that pleased her mother’s eyes, and in the Painting Room at Blissbury, she painted people as she pleased.
Of course, she put the paintings she drew in the cabinet there. She couldn’t take them home!
‘If the new steward were to see them…’
She didn’t think that someone coming for recuperation would look around every nook and cranny. He would probably only manage the employees, just like her father.
He wouldn’t check which carpet to lay in which season, how many pieces of silverware were in the kitchen, or what kind of paintings were in the old cabinet in the Painting Room in the corner of the mansion. Still, what if he saw them…!
Eloise, looking pale, hurriedly drove the baggage cart. To rescue her social reputation and face.
From the beginning, the horses of the baggage cart were not born to run fast. As a result, even though she hurried, it took her two hours to reach Blissbury.
“Oh my, Miss Eloise.”
Mrs. Parker from the kitchen, who happened to be in front of the mansion, widened her eyes as she saw Eloise getting off the cart in a hurry.
“What is this state you’re in? Did Mrs. Serverton just watch you come out like this?”
“If she had, I wouldn’t have been able to come here. You know how my mother makes a fuss even if I tie a ribbon in the wrong order. More importantly, has the new steward arrived?”
“Oh dear, we also received a message. He’s about to arrive soon. But Mr. Serverton is still…”
“Great. So, he hasn’t arrived yet!”
Eloise passed Mrs. Parker and entered the Blissbury mansion.
As she entered the entrance, the coolness unique to well-built stone buildings enveloped her body.
Her body shivered, which had been sweating from passing through the fields full of spring sunshine.
‘Oh my goodness, I should have brought a shawl.’
Even though the illness she had as a child was completely cured, her body was still more susceptible to illness than others when the seasons changed.
She remembered Emily’s desperate voice calling for her. Should I have taken it then?
‘It’s going to be noisy when I get back.’
Her mother’s nagging was a given, and Emily would join in too.
It was a terrifying sight just imagining it.
Eloise, shivering again, hurried to the Painting Room.
Blissbury was perfectly organized as always. This was thanks to the efforts of her father, the steward, but above all, it was thanks to the people working in this mansion, who were known for their diligence even in Feltham.
Mrs. Parker, who was in charge of the kitchen, Warren, who was in charge of the garden, Mr. Palmer, who had retired from working for the Newham noble family and was taking care of the internal affairs here alone, and so on.
Although there weren’t many of them, they were all diligent and skilled people, so Blissbury was always clean, even though it was a mansion that the owner rarely visited.
‘I hope the new steward is a good person.’
Although it wasn’t hers, the mansion she had seen since she was a child was like another home to Eloise.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that half of her memories were here.
So, even if she couldn’t come here as easily as before, she hoped that Blissbury would remain as beautiful as it was.
‘Since he’s coming for recuperation, he won’t make any big changes, right?’
Hoping that would be the case, Eloise entered the Painting Room.
When she opened the cabinet in the corner of the room, a pile of papers fell out.
“Oh my goodness. Why are there so many?”
She had been practicing diligently for a while, but she didn’t know there were this many.
After taking a quick look outside and confirming that there was no one around, Eloise laid out the paintings on the floor.
When she first started painting, the proportions of the human body were awkward, but the more recent ones were more natural.
But now was not the time to be satisfied with her progress.
Eloise’s hand quickly pulled out a few paintings from among them.
All of those paintings had one thing in common.
They were all nudes of human beings who were truly not wearing a single thread.
That wasn’t the only problem.
Eloise found a painting of a male nude among them. The moment she checked the painting, her face turned red.
That was because all the figures in the painting had the face of Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Wilgrave.
She couldn’t possibly find a nude model in Feltham, let alone in this Blissbury.
So, she copied from a nude art book that she had obtained with difficulty.
But the paintings in that art book had no faces. The artist judged that the moment he drew faces, many people would use his book for lewd purposes rather than as a reference book, so he didn’t draw them.
So, Eloise’s paintings also always had no faces. Looking at the paintings with only the body drawn, Eloise thought.
‘Still, it seems like it will be complete if I draw a face.’
So, she decided to try drawing a face. But whose face should she refer to?
She couldn’t bring herself to draw the face of any man she knew.
So, she used her imagination to draw a fictional character, but she still couldn’t hide the awkwardness.
Was there no one she could refer to without feeling guilty?
Unable to draw with the faces of people around her, Eloise faced the face of a man reflected in the flickering candlelight before going to bed.
It was the portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Ryan that she had obtained by even writing a letter to her relatives in Newham.
