“I’ll be off. Listen to your mother.”

Eloise smiled at Mr. Surberton’s words as he boarded the carriage.

“Father, I’m twenty-six.”

Wasn’t this the kind of farewell meant for young children? Mr. Surberton clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“You said the same thing last year when I went to Newham. And what happened when I returned?”

“…The stable almost collapsed because a support beam was missing. But that wasn’t…!”

Just as Eloise was about to protest her innocence, Mrs. Surberton pulled her daughter’s arm.

“That’s enough. I’ve already heard your excuse a hundred times—that it wasn’t your fault the horse got spooked. Let’s move on. You should get going, dear. The Dowager is waiting for you as we speak.”

“Yes, I’ll be off now.”

At the mention of the Dowager, Mr. Surberton’s face darkened.

The coachman from Camborne lightly flicked the reins, and the horses swiftly picked up speed. Before long, Mr. Surberton’s carriage disappeared from sight.

“He was in good health until last year… How did things take such a sudden turn?”

Eloise wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders as she grieved, silently praying that the Dowager would have more time and peace.

A few hours after sending off Mr. Surberton, a village errand boy arrived with a letter.

“A letter from Blissbury!”

“Thank you. Here, take this.”

Eloise picked up one of Emily’s baked cookies and handed it to the boy. Watching him dash away in delight, she quickly wiped the smile from her face and turned her attention to the letter from Blissbury.

“To the esteemed Mr. Surberton… from your friend, Sergeant Thornton.”

She couldn’t help but think how unfortunate this was. The man seeking her father had no idea he had left just a few hours ago.

Had that been all the letter contained, she would have simply placed it on her father’s desk and forgotten about it.

The sergeant might wonder why there was no reply, but it wasn’t Eloise’s obligation to inform him. Besides, opening a letter not addressed to her would surely result in an earful from her mother.

Not to mention, she dreaded the scolding she’d receive from her father upon his return.

But the moment she saw the words “Reply Requested” at the bottom of the envelope, she swallowed a sigh.

‘Is it something urgent?’

Eloise recalled the books she had borrowed the last time she visited.

Afterward, she had checked the study again, but there were no more books from Blissbury left in the house.

‘Could it be something other than the books?’

If it were anything significant, her father would have already spoken with him about it.

Eloise stared at the envelope for a moment before walking to her desk and picking up a paper knife. She carefully slit the envelope open and pulled out a single sheet of paper.

To the esteemed Mr. Surberton,

I recently heard about the summer festival in Blissbury. I understand it’s an annual event, but it wasn’t mentioned during the last briefing, so I was unable to provide an answer to the residents who were expecting it.

Would you be able to visit Blissbury when you have time?

As always, your friend,
Ryan Thornton

A true soldier, indeed. The letter was frighteningly direct, containing only the necessary details.

Of course, this wasn’t a love letter, so there was no need for elaborate flourishes. But even among friends, letters typically began with a comment on the weather or a poetic musing on nature.

Yet Thornton’s writing was so plain it was as if he suffered from a fatal condition that prevented him from embellishing his words.

‘Still, what should I do about this?’

It was clear from the letter that her father had failed to mention the summer festival to Thornton.

In the past, Eloise might have suspected that the sergeant simply hadn’t been paying attention.

But lately, she had noticed her father’s memory deteriorating. He was repeating things he had already told her more frequently and forgetting tasks he needed to do.

‘And he won’t be back for a while.’

Her father had set off for a destination that would take a full week’s travel by carriage. And who knew how long he would be staying there?

After some thought, Eloise went up to her room, sat at her desk, and pulled out a sheet of stationery from the drawer.

She hesitated for a moment. How should she phrase her response?

Then she made up her mind. She would strip the letter of any pleasantries, just as Thornton had done.

She had no desire to write to him in a friendly manner.

Her response was concise:

She explained that her father was away for an extended period, so she had read the letter in his place.

It seemed her father had simply forgotten to mention it, but as Thornton had heard, the festival was indeed held annually in Blisbury at the behest of its patron, Baron Stanford.

She enclosed information regarding the festival, noting that the documents were originally damaged by rain but had been rewritten and were now properly stored in Blissbury. He could compare them to the originals for verification.

She concluded with a brief wish for a successful festival.

Once she had quickly written the letter, Eloise rose and made her way to the study.

She opened the wooden chest where documents were stored and carefully sifted through them.

Cough! “I’m sure last year’s transaction records were here… cough!”

These records were originally meant to be in Blissbury.

However, when rain leaked into the manor last year, some documents were damaged. They had all been brought home, painstakingly transcribed onto fresh sheets, and neatly reorganized.

The newly written documents had been sent to Blissbury, while the damp ones were set aside to be used as practice paper for transcribing. She hadn’t expected them to become necessary again.

Eloise gathered all the documents related to the banquet and brought them back to her room, placing them on her desk.

She then began writing on top of them with her pen—notes on which grocery store in Camborne had been used to procure ingredients, which numbered storage boxes held the tableware for the event, and where and how the rest areas had been arranged for guests during the lengthy banquet…

For the faded text, she relied on memory to rewrite it, while for the clearer sections, she meticulously recorded what each document pertained to.

Eloise continued organizing the documents well into the evening until her vision blurred with exhaustion, and she eventually fell asleep.

***

“Yaaawn…”

The next morning, Eloise woke up groggily, rubbing her face against her pillow.

Though she occasionally stayed up late reading, it had been a long time since she had fallen asleep so close to dawn. It was difficult to fully wake up.

“Eloise! Are you up?”

Just as she finished washing her face and changing clothes, her mother’s voice called from downstairs.

“Yes! I’m awake!”

Hastily smoothing her hair, Eloise hurried downstairs. Mrs. Surberton sighed as she watched her daughter descend the steps.

“Sleeping in the very next day after your father leaves? You should be ashamed.”

“I was working.”

“Work? Was it because of this child’s errand?”

At the mention of work, Mrs. Surberton gestured toward a boy standing at the entrance.

It was the same boy who had delivered the letter yesterday.

“You are…”

“I’m from Blissbury! I was told to bring back a reply!”

So the note requesting a response hadn’t been a mere formality.

“Wait just a moment.”

Eloise took a cookie from a glass jar and placed it in the boy’s hand. He grinned brightly, just as he had the day before, and nodded.

She quickly returned to her room and gathered the documents she had been working on before falling asleep.

Fortunately, most of them were nearly complete. She had simply been too exhausted to put them away properly.

After hurriedly sorting and compiling them into one stack, she placed them in a document bag. Then she secured the letter she had written the previous night with a string and headed back downstairs.

The boy, who had been waiting, had already finished his cookie and was now licking the crumbs off his fingers.

Smiling, Eloise handed him another cookie along with the document bag.

“Blissbury must be anxiously waiting, so take this there quickly.”

“Yes! Leave it to me! Thanks for the cookies, my lady!”

The boy removed his hat and clumsily mimicked a noble’s bow before dashing off excitedly.

Lancelot, the goose in the yard, let out a loud honk, seemingly displeased with the boy’s departure.

“Miss! So that’s why the cookies kept disappearing!”

At that moment, Emily emerged from the kitchen, catching sight of Eloise closing the glass jar lid, and leaped in exasperation.

“You gave them to the errand boys again, didn’t you? They know and take advantage of that, you know! I bet they were staring longingly at the jar!”

“We baked plenty, so it’s nice to share.”

“But those were made with a ton of nuts from Camborne!”

Sensing that Emily’s complaints would only escalate, Eloise quickly excused herself, saying she needed to tidy up her room, and retreated upstairs.

It wasn’t a lie.

Her desk, which she had hastily swept the documents onto, looked as though it had been struck by a storm.

She began organizing the remaining papers one by one, tidying up the desk in the process.

Once she had finished putting away the Blissbury documents she had taken from the study, she turned her attention to her desk.

That was when Eloise realized something was missing.

“Where did my letter go…?”