Chapter 12
What on earth is happening?
Hermia mechanically blinked her eyes, trying to discern whether the scene before her was a hallucination or reality.
The wedding cake lay in tatters on the floor.
Walter Rockford had surprisingly quick reflexes as he caught Mel Greenwood.
The guests held their breath, rolling their eyes in shock.
And the Count and Countess stood frozen with equally stunned expressions.
“Su… Surprise!”
The Countess was the first to regain her composure, breaking the silence with a shout. However, despite her cheerful tone, her face clearly showed her confusion.
“We prepared a s-surprise event for you all!”
Although she was the most surprised of all, she seemed to be blurting out anything to salvage the situation.
The Countess swiftly turned her head and glared at the musicians with eyes like a wildcat. The startled musicians began playing strange tunes one after another.
“……”
Hermia’s gaze returned to Walter and Mel.
Mel held tightly onto the arm of the fiancé she had just been holding. It was as if she was determined not to let him go.
‘There’s cream all over his sleeve.’
For some reason, that thought came to her first. The jacket that had been clean and pristine was now crumpled and smeared with white cream due to Mel’s tight grip.
It seemed that Walter didn’t care about his clothes at all. She could see him mouthing “Take her away” to Henry.
As soon as Henry nodded briefly and gestured for his subordinates, two soldiers approached and seized Mel’s arms.
Just as everyone’s attention was about to follow Mel being led away, Walter straightened his posture and addressed the crowd.
“Thank you to our distinguished guests who have made the difficult journey from afar.”
In an instant, the garden fell silent, and after confirming that all eyes were on him, he continued speaking in a calm voice.
“The Count and Countess have put in a lot of effort for today. Please give them a big round of applause.”
Meanwhile, the soldiers quickly escorted Mel out of the mansion.
The bewildered guests began clapping hesitantly at first, but soon the front yard of the Count’s residence was filled with applause as if it were a performance venue.
After the servants tidied up the disheveled floor, Hermia and Walter’s engagement ceremony proceeded as if nothing had happened.
Everything felt both natural and forced, like a broken wheel being turned by sheer will. During the following proceedings, Hermia moved like a puppet under his lead.
Still in a daze and feeling isolated, she suddenly became aware of a romantic melody softly lingering in her ears.
Guests gathered in small groups chatting or enjoying waltzes while holding hands with their partners.
Hermia didn’t even notice when a diamond necklace was placed around her neck. By the time she regained her senses, she found herself dancing with Walter while adorned with something heavy and blue around her neck.
“I’m sorry.”
“……?”
Walter, now wearing a new jacket, apologized. Not understanding what he was apologizing for, Hermia looked up at him silently.
“Melissa… That maid from earlier is someone I know. I never expected to meet her this way, so I showed you an embarrassing sight.”
“Is Mel’s real name Melissa? Melissa Vansen?”
It was an innocent question born out of pure curiosity. She needed to confirm whether her assumption was correct.
Walter looked down at her with a surprised expression as if asking how she knew that before slightly narrowing his eyes.
“You’ve read the novel.”
“What if I hadn’t? I might have known beforehand that Mel is the daughter of the late Count.”
As she asked teasingly, Walter quickly offered his deduction.
“If you hadn’t read it, you would have asked what ‘the novel’ is first. If you had known Melissa’s identity already, I believe you wouldn’t have let her act freely on a day like today. Am I wrong?”
“…You’re right. All I know is what’s in the novel.”
‘That’s why it was even more shocking. I never thought Mel would actually be the protagonist of “The Stolen Lady” and that she would be my cousin.’
Hermia conveyed her unspoken thoughts through her gaze and turned away from him. It became difficult for her to keep looking at his face.
If anyone could recognize Mel, it would undoubtedly be someone like Walter; thus, Mel’s status must be certain.
That meant there was an increased possibility that whoever killed Jack Vansen could very well be her father.
‘A coward like my father would never do such a thing’—that assertion no longer held any weight. The realization that her biological father could be a murderer sent waves of fear washing over her late in coming.
Carefully looking at Walter’s shoulder instead of his face, she asked cautiously,
“So what happens now?”
Will my father get arrested while Mel returns as a Countess? Just like the title of the novel?
What about me? What will happen to our marriage? Are we really going to break up right after getting engaged today?
It was a question laden with many implications. Walter seemed to ponder for a moment before responding clearly.
“First, we will check on Melissa’s condition. I think everything can be discussed after we confirm that.”
She nodded silently. That’s right; he is a soldier after all.
Breaking off an engagement isn’t really that difficult. After all, she had once gone through discussions about wedding dates with Frederick only for it all to fall through later on.
‘But if the Duke cancels our engagement to marry Mel instead, it would cause quite an uproar in the capital.’
As those thoughts crossed her mind, Hermia instinctively let her imagination run wild again.
In her mind’s eye, Mel appeared dressed in pure white wedding attire walking down a crimson aisle.
Gone were the dark maid’s clothes; instead, she wore an elegantly adorned dress made of silk lace just like a princess from a fairy tale.
At the end of the path, Walter, dressed perfectly as a groom, greeted the bride with a charming smile. Mel, beaming like the spring sunshine, took his hand.
Under the ringing church bells, the two finally happily exchanged rings and shared a vow with a kiss.
Fans of “The Stolen Lady” might rush into the streets to celebrate. That would be the ending they desire. The image of Irene leading the crowd naturally came to mind.
But the imagination didn’t stop there. She also envisioned her father, bound with ropes and looking haggard, being dragged away by officers along a street scattered with falling petals.
As the daughter of a murderer, she was faintly smiling in an old nun’s habit, isolated from the world.
‘Why am I smiling like someone who has resigned to fate?’
The final scene was unnecessarily vivid. Hermia muttered gloomily to herself.
‘I hope a decision is made quickly…’
So that she could find another groom before becoming a nun.
Wait. Should she meet Frederick one more time?
Among the suitors, he had been the most decent-looking and had some money at home.
As the slow waltz came to an end, she saw a subordinate of the Duke returning from afar with a shoebox. At the same time, her feet began to hurt as if by some cruel joke.
When Hermia shifted her gaze over her shoulder, Walter immediately stopped moving and looked back.
The subordinate, who had run over sweating profusely, wore an extremely apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry. There were no sizes above 4.5 among the ready-made shoes, so I couldn’t get size 5.”
Hermia unconsciously pushed Walter aside and waved her hands exaggeratedly.
“No! Size 4.5 is fine. I’m wearing size 4 now. Anything is better than that! Thank you so much.”
“Oh, not at all, my lady!”
“Good job. Return to your post.”
Walter spoke stiffly as he snatched the box from his subordinate’s hands. Then he took Hermia to a chair wrapped in white cloth and removed her small shoes.
Hermia interpreted his actions as an attempt to make up for running off earlier to help Mel.
It’s like he’s saying, ‘I’ll do this much for you, so don’t blame me for what happened earlier.’
The gesture felt far from romantic.
Meanwhile, the invited guests pretended not to watch them while stealing glances at the couple.
It was already astonishing that the sole heir of Duke Rockford was engaged to an illegitimate child of a Count; goodness gracious!
Not only was he not proposing but here was the Duke kneeling like a servant to change her shoes! The earlier incident had long been forgotten in their minds.
In truth, Hermia was too preoccupied with her own feet to notice their astonishment.
‘My feet are really ugly.’
They seemed slightly crooked, and her toe bones appeared too pronounced. Lost in such thoughts, she suddenly turned her gaze toward the new shoes.
The young soldier had bought shoes adorned with delicate embroidery over leather.
As Walter slipped them onto his own feet while speaking, he added,
“To avoid any misunderstandings, I swear today is the first time Melisa and I have met since we were children.”
“Excuse me?”
What is he suddenly talking about? Ah, is he trying to assert that he isn’t the author of the novel?
Thinking it over makes it quite plausible. Mel could have sought out the Duke for help after regaining her memories.
A childhood friend helping restore her rightful status by using a novel to reveal the truth—
Wait, that’s actually pretty convincing.
‘Is he making excuses now because he thinks I might speculate like that?’
Even after putting on her shoes, Walter didn’t rise but kept his gaze fixed on hers.
“So what I mean is that Melisa and I are nothing…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t misunderstand.”
His expression brightened slightly at her firm tone.
“Really?”
“Really. Why would you go through such trouble? You could just round everyone up and arrest them all at once.”
“…What?”
“I’m not being sarcastic. Objectively, the Rockford Dukedom is the pride of the kingdom, and you are especially a hero of the people. So why would someone like you need to write a troublesome novel?”
“What do you mean…?”
“I don’t think you conspired with Mel to write a book either; therefore, I won’t misunderstand.”
Hermia felt quite proud of her reasoning. Then she lightly patted Walter on the shoulder as if to reassure him and stood up from her chair.
Feeling the stiff texture unique to new shoes as she stood in place and tapped her feet a few times, she then walked toward the dessert table.
After all, it wasn’t something that would conclude right now; it felt foolish to be ruminating over it endlessly.
Mel crashing into their engagement ceremony was one thing; she couldn’t miss out on what would be both her first and last meal of today.
‘My goal is to eat as much as possible while my stepmother is busy handing out party favors.’
With this clear purpose in mind, Hermia didn’t notice him standing there with a dazed expression on his face.
