#Side Story 7

—

The carriage soon reached the quiet mansion district.

As Ellin stepped out of the carriage, she saw someone running toward her with light steps.

“Eddie?”

The person running with his hat off was her brother.

“What were you thinking about so deeply? I called out quite loudly, but you didn’t notice.”

Eddie’s face was bright despite breathing heavily from running.

She realized anew that her brother, who had always been bedridden in childhood, had now become a healthy young man.

Come to think of it, he seemed particularly dressed up today.

“Where are you going all dressed up like that? Do you have a date? Don’t tell me it’s that person from the hospital……”

Before Ellin could finish speaking, someone called Eddie’s name affectionately and crossed the street from the opposite side.

Eddie wasn’t the only one who had dressed up.

It was just as Ellin had expected.

The pretty and cute nurse Eddie had met while staying at the Royal Hospital approached with a bright smile on her lips.

“Hmm. Just as I thought.”

Ellin poked Eddie’s side knowingly.

“Not yet. I’m going to confess today.”

Eddie quickly whispered to his sister while smiling brightly at the approaching woman.

“Oh. Not bad.”

Ellin also looked at her with an awkward smile, trying not to show anything.

“Your Grace.”

The cute nurse who finally approached greeted Ellin with proper etiquette.

“It’s been a while. You look very pretty today. It’s different seeing you outside like this.”

Her face turned red at Ellin’s words.

“Is today a special day?”

When Ellin asked innocently, she glanced at Eddie before answering.

“There’s a small party with the hospital staff.”

“Ah. I see. So you’re going together as partners. Have a good time.”

Ellin quickly wrapped up the conversation, perceptively not wanting to take more of their time.

“See you next time.”

As she entered the mansion with a wink to Eddie, she looked back and couldn’t help but smile at the awkward and clumsy appearance of the two from behind.

Her mood became bubbly and good, in stark contrast to the serious thoughts she had while riding in the carriage.

“What has you in such a good mood?”

Grandmother Isabella, who must have seen Ellin’s carriage from inside, was waiting at the entrance.

“It seems spring has come for Eddie too.”

“No wonder he dressed up so nicely and left early this morning. But why have you come so early today?”

Isabella seemed more curious about Ellin’s early visit than about Eddie.

Only then did Ellin recall why she had sought out her great-aunt so early in the morning.

“Actually, there’s something I really wanted to ask you.”

Isabella’s wrinkled face became serious along with Ellin’s.

“Has something happened with the Duke again?”

When Isabella’s voice grew quieter, Ellin reassured her that it was nothing serious and gently linked arms with her.

“The weather is so nice, let’s talk while taking a walk together.”

So the two headed out to the walking path leading from the back door of the mansion.

“It’s been a while since we walked side by side like this. Last time, I nearly fainted when you said you were marrying the Duke. What shocking confession are you planning to make today?”

Ellin laughed lightly, remembering how shocked Isabella had been back then, before starting to speak about what she really wanted to say.

“Did my mother have someone she was seeing before she married my father?”

Isabella tilted her head at Ellin’s question, as if wondering what this sudden nonsense was about.

“You know everything about my mother, don’t you? You were like friends. I was wondering if there were any secrets about my mother that you haven’t told me.”

Isabella stopped walking and looked at Ellin.

“Ellin?”

The moment she saw Isabella’s surprised eyes, Ellin became certain that there was indeed something.

“Did you hear something somewhere? Why are you suddenly asking such things?”

Ellin honestly revealed everything without hiding anything.

“Actually, I’ve come to know someone named Alment Garcien. I’ve met him too. You already know him, don’t you? Since he’s a very famous painter.”

“Yes. I know him.”

Isabella tried to answer calmly.

But to Ellin, it seemed her great-aunt knew him not as a famous painter but as someone with a different significance.

“He told me he knew my mother. When I showed him my mother’s picture and said I was her daughter, he was very shocked. I’ve never seen someone look so shocked before.”

“……”

No response came from Isabella.

But the old woman’s eyes were shaking more complexly than ever before.

Ellin gently pressed the arm she was holding and said.

“I’m right, aren’t I? What I’m thinking.”

She didn’t ask indirectly because she wanted to confirm her intuition wasn’t wrong.

In fact, Isabella’s eyes alone had already given her the answer.

“I’ve heard that everyone thought it strange that my mother suddenly married my father. Could my mother’s hasty marriage, almost like she was running away, be related to this?”

She had wondered about this for a long time.

Why her mother had married someone like her father.

The two seemed so mismatched that it was impossible to imagine them as a couple before marriage.

The story of her father falling for her mother and ardently courting her was well-known.

She thought perhaps her mother had resigned herself to her father’s active pursuit and married him.

Because sometimes there were couples who married that way and lived unhappily.

Though they married, his affection for her mother probably cooled as quickly as his rapid love had formed.

That’s why she believed her father didn’t give love to her either.

No other reason came to mind.

“What exactly did this Alment person tell you?”

Isabella’s words sparked Ellin’s imagination.

The scenario she had imagined while riding in the carriage, which had seemed absurd, now might actually be true.

“Could that man possibly be my real father?”

Isabella staggered at Ellin’s direct question, as if hit by dizziness, and grabbed the nearby wooden bench tightly.

“Grandmother!”

Ellin quickly supported her, alarmed.

“Are you alright?”

“Let’s sit down for a moment. My legs feel weak.”

Isabella seemed more shocked now than when Ellin had confessed long ago that she would marry the Duke.

Seeing her pale, bloodless face, Ellin regretted her approach.

She should have asked more carefully.

“I’m sorry. For saying something so strange suddenly.”

Ellin tried to take back her words.

Even to herself, it seemed too absurd.

“No.”

Isabella, with a somewhat calmer face, seated Ellin beside her.

“This is actually good. I thought someday I would have to tell you, but I never dreamed you would bring it up first. Everything in this world happens in its natural course.”

“Grandmother……”

Ellin composed her nervous heart and gently held her great-aunt’s hand.

The story Isabella told her after catching her breath was astonishing.

Her mother’s past and her own birth.

It was hard to believe.

* * *

A few days later, Alment visited the ducal residence again.

Having gladly accepted the Duke of Linderto’s commission, he frequently visited the ducal residence to paint the portrait of the ducal family while staying in the capital.

This naturally gave Ellin time to grow closer to him.

Though sitting still on the reception room sofa where sunlight streamed in was quite tedious, Dominic devoted his time for his wife’s sake.

Of course, there were many times when only Ellin and Ian were painted separately because he was too busy with external schedules.

Those times were meaningful in their own way, allowing her to comfortably share various conversations with him.

“He probably doesn’t know. That your mother was carrying you in her womb when he left.”

Alment Garcien, concentrating all his attention on the canvas, had no idea what thoughts filled the mind of the Duchess sitting before him.

The young and beautiful lady with a gentle smile on her lips and soft eyes continuously examined him without taking her eyes off him for a moment.

Whether there was any resemblance to herself.

Looking at him this way, his profile seemed similar, and looking that way, his atmosphere when concentrating seemed similar too.

The eyes, the tip of the nose, the lips. Even the emerald eyes that turned greenish in the light.

Whether it was just her feeling, Ellin thought everything about him resembled her.

When she first learned about him, she was completely confused.

But now, she didn’t hate that fact.

Why her father had no affection for her, why he cared more for his remarried stepmother and her daughter.

She had been troubled not knowing back then, but now she felt relieved to know the reason.

Baron Nilson might have been deeply in love with her mother to propose despite knowing she carried another man’s child, but he couldn’t be a real father.

After marriage, resentment and hatred probably sprouted in him rather than love for her mother.

Her mother, who married unwillingly, probably didn’t have much affection for her father either.

Now she could understand him.

He must have suffered alone, tormented by the fact that he proposed knowing her mother’s past.

Unable to tell others because of his pride.

Thinking about it made her feel rather pitiful toward him.

While Ellin was lost in these thoughts, Alment, who was painting her from the opposite side, also recalled a certain time from the past.

‘I thought she seemed familiar from the first time I saw her, and she turned out to be Marisa’s daughter.’

He fell into the illusion that he was painting Marisa again, whom he had painted when he was lovesick.

Though it was an unfulfilled love, the thought that the Duchess before him was Marisa’s daughter made him feel somewhat attached.

His instinctive feeling was why he had accepted to paint the portrait.

“Uuuung, wawang!”

The child who had been nodding off next to his mother on the sofa cried out upon waking.

That sound broke the peaceful quiet that had been like a painting, and Alment stepped away from the canvas.

“I think we should stop here for today.”

He said, looking fondly at the child throwing a sleepy tantrum in his mother’s arms.

“I’m sorry. He’s still young and finds it difficult to sit for long.”

Ellin also said, holding Ian in her arms and rubbing her cheek against the child’s.

“Since it will be dinner time soon anyway, would you like to join us? My husband should be back soon too.”

He nodded with a smile at Ellin’s kind invitation.

“I’d be delighted.”

He readily accepted while tidying up his painting supplies.

This way, day by day, the two grew closer little by little.