Chapter 27.2

When Edmund entered the shop, Elia was just asking for her gift to be wrapped.

“Eddie! You said you’d be late, but you’re right on time.”

Seeing Elia smile at him was so unfamiliar.

In all the memories and dreams that had tormented him for the past week, Elia had never smiled.

<It was all because of you. You’re the one who killed me. You never returned my love.>

In his dreams, Elia accused him. He begged, but was never forgiven.

<Eddie, did you try to love me even after killing me? Just because you’re hurting and longing, does the innocent me have to love you again?>

Even young Elia tried to interrogate his guilt. He repented, but was not saved.

He said he’d accept punishment, but he never gave up on love.

As Tuesday approached, he grew more afraid and tormented by guilt.

But at the same time, he longed for it. The woman who knew nothing would probably smile at him.

He was a sinner before Elia, but also not a sinner.

He had driven Elia to death, but Elia hadn’t died.

So even knowing he didn’t deserve love, Edmund begged for it.

A sinner at thirty-two, yet an innocent fiancé at twenty-two. Even after losing twenty-eight-year-old Elia, he wanted to be loved by the eighteen-year-old girl.

‘Is she better now?’

Edmund’s gaze wandered over Elia’s face. Was she okay, or not?

She looked better than when he’d seen her in her bedroom. But her face seemed a bit flushed.

Her lips, dry from fever before, were now smooth. Maybe she’d used ointment to hide her illness.

‘If she’s still sick, maybe I should take her back to the mansion right away.’

Edmund considered sending Elia back to Roang’s mansion as soon as they left the shop.

He’d forgotten that it had been a week since they’d met, and that Elia had already chosen places she wanted to go.

* * *

‘Why is he just staring at me? Do I look strange?’

Feeling Edmund’s gaze, Elia looked down and checked her clothes.

‘It’s not that the ribbon’s come undone, or that anything’s wrinkled or stained. Is it my face?’

There was no mirror in the shop, so Elia searched for something to reflect herself, then met Edmund’s eyes. She smiled at his clear blue gaze.

“Are you done with all your work?”

“…Yeah, sorry for making you wait.”

“It’s fine. I was busy looking around too. This place is great. I could stay all day. How did you find it?”

“I just noticed it while passing by.”

“Really? You have a good eye. Ah, I just need to pay and I’m done. Eddie, do you want to look around? There are so many pretty things. It was really hard to pick a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Yes, it’s a music box, but it’s small so it won’t stand out too much in the bedroom. The music is a piano piece I’ve never heard before, and it’s really beautiful. It makes you feel sleepy. Oh, looks like the wrapping is done.”

Elia hurried over to the clerk to check the wrapped music box. She liked the pretty ribbon on the package and thanked the clerk for their effort.

“Just a moment, it was 2 gold and 87 pence, right?”

Elia muttered the price she’d heard earlier and rummaged through her purse for money. Her fingers moved busily among the tiny coins.

“50 pence, three 10 pence coins… hmm…”

Her purse felt heavy, so she thought she still had plenty of money. What now? She realized she might not have enough.

‘No! If I’m short here, how embarrassing!’

She kept digging through her purse, but of course, money doesn’t appear out of nowhere.

“Ahem.”

One of the knights watching made a small cough to get attention, then handed three gold coins to Edmund.

Edmund, holding the coins, approached Elia, who was nearly sticking her face into her purse.

“Elly, pay with this.”

“No, it’s a gift. I have to pay since it’s a gift!”

“I’ll take the money from you in the carriage. How about that? And it’s borrowed money for me, too.”

“…It’s not your money, Eddie, you borrowed it?”

“I borrowed it from the knight.”

She looked up at him suspiciously, and he pointed to a knight standing beside him. The elderly knight gave a small bow.

“Then excuse me.”

In the end, Elia poured the carefully counted 10 pence coins back into her purse and reached out her hand to Edmund.

Edmund, wearing white gloves, dropped the gold coins one by one into Elia’s hand. She counted with the clinking sound. One, two, three.

‘Wait, at the bookstore earlier…’

As Elia received the coins, she recalled the moment her hand had brushed with Nils’s when he handed her the hat. The way the hands reached out was exactly the same as now.

But Edmund’s hand, unlike Nils’s when handing the hat, did not touch hers.

It was as if he was deliberately trying not to touch Elia.

‘Now that I think about it, when I saw his gloves in the carriage, something bothered me.’

She tried to remember. Had the man’s hands, always wrapped in gloves, ever touched her?

‘Even when getting in and out of the carriage, it was Sir Belzen, the coachman, or Sir Hans’s hand.’

Of course, they hadn’t been close for long, and there hadn’t been any special reason to touch. So she could let it go as “maybe we just haven’t touched yet.”

“Yes, received 3 gold.”

While the clerk was getting her change, Elia turned her head to look at the music box that had confused her.

The lovers turned away from each other, not letting even their collars touch, as if in revenge.

She hadn’t understood why the music box was titled “Revenge” just a moment ago.

‘Revenge. I see.’

She realized it could be a rather sharp revenge.

She became newly aware of the man’s hand that had come close, and for the first time, she wanted to touch that hand—and understood.

She realized how much her heart could ache from not even brushing hands.

* * *

Hugging her newly purchased gift, Elia headed to the Dukedom’s carriage with Edmund.

Edmund’s carriage hadn’t left yet, so the two carriages filled the narrow street.

‘They really look like twins. Did they make them identical on purpose?’

As the knights opened the tightly locked carriage doors, Elia looked back and forth between the two carriages.

“Ah.”

Elia let out an unrefined exclamation and tugged at Edmund’s sleeve with the hand not holding the music box.

“Look, Eddie. I thought they’d be exactly the same, but the roof is a little different. The right one is more rounded at the edge. See?”

“Were you looking for something different?”

“Yes, even if they try to make them identical, since they’re made by hand, there are bound to be small differences.”

Edmund only nodded, seemingly unable to find anything to say to Elia’s idle observations.

‘…I should have kept my mouth shut.’

Why did she bother telling Edmund about the differences in the carriage roofs? He probably didn’t care at all.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting. I’ll escort you right away.”

Luckily, just as she was about to die of embarrassment, someone announced the carriage was ready. Elia walked with Edmund toward the open carriage door.

Edmund stepped onto the carriage footrest first but didn’t get in, turning slightly to Elia.

“Elly.”

“Yeah?”

“Give me what you’re holding. It’ll be inconvenient to climb up.”

“…Ah, okay. Here.”

Elia supported the bottom of the music box and handed it to Edmund, who easily took it with one hand and slipped into the carriage.

‘I always wondered why the carriage was so unnecessarily tall, but Edmund climbs in just fine. Maybe it’s not the carriage that’s tall, but I’m just short.’

Lost in thoughts of her physical inferiority, Elia was about to embarrass herself trying to climb in alone when a knight offered a hand to help.

“Let me assist you.”

She saw the unfamiliar knight’s hand, covered with small scars. For the knight, they were marks of effort, but as Elia touched his hand, she thought of the white gloves.

‘Did Eddie wear gloves because of a wound?’

Once she thought about it, she couldn’t stop. Why had Edmund never offered her a hand when getting into the carriage? Was it just because there was no need to touch, or did he avoid it on purpose?

‘Or does he dislike touching? The timing of when he started wearing gloves, too… Maybe he really does avoid touching. Why? Why does he avoid it?’

The thoughts continued even after the carriage started moving. With her mouth shut and lost in thought, Edmund thought Elia was sick.

“Elly, are you okay?”

“Yeah, uh-huh. Sorry, I was just thinking for a moment.”

“You should rest more, so I’ll take you back to the mansion today.”

“What? No! I’m fine. Do I look sick? Is that why you’ve been staring at me? I’m not sick.”

Startled by Edmund’s sudden suggestion to go home, Elia waved her hands. But Edmund’s expression didn’t change.

Elia didn’t know how to prove she was really fine, so she stomped her feet in frustration.

“Eddie, I’m really fine. If I were still sick, I wouldn’t have come out. I know how important my health is. I know if I’m sick, people around me have to suffer, and you’d worry too. So I’m fine. It’s only been a few minutes, and I just want to be with you…”

In her rush, Elia blurted out everything on her mind, then stumbled over her words when she realized what she’d said.

She wanted to be with him! If Elia from a month ago heard herself, she’d be shocked.

But it was the truth. She’d carved out precious time from Edmund’s busy days, and it was too sad to just hand him a music box and say goodbye.