“Ugh, it’s cold.”

Emily shivered and lowered the bucket into the well. After the rope descended for a while, a loud splash was heard.

As she turned the pulley diligently to bring it up, the bucket emerged full of cold, rippling water.

When the village was swept away by the flood, this well too had been covered with mud. But thanks to the engineering corps who restored it first, the villagers were soon able to get clean water again.

Emily blew on her hands, frozen from the cold water, and looked around the village.

“Really… the summer feels like a dream now.”

The peaceful village that had remained unchanged for hundreds of years was suddenly buried under mud and disappeared.

The small chimneys from which bread-baking smoke used to rise at mealtime, the streams where chickens and ducks wandered alongside dogs, the meadows where children used to roll around—all turned red in an instant.

Emily, who had rushed over in shock at the sight that resembled the hell she’d heard about in church, simply collapsed on the spot.

What was even more terrifying was hearing that her young lady had been trapped in such a place.

She had tried to calm the mistress who was wailing, but ended up crying even louder herself.

“Sigh…”

Even now, her heart pounds when she thinks of that time.

Emily shook her head and took in the village again. Compared to summer, the village had actually become cleaner. At a glance, it looked almost like Camborne, a place large enough to be called a city, much bigger than Feltham.

This was the result of the engineering corps building new houses after all the old ones had collapsed.

The roads had also been widened and repaved, with even solid stone roads replacing the once muddy paths.

No wonder people joked that things were better than before the great flood.

“Sister!”

A young girl walking from Mr. Surberton’s house waved her hand. It was Emily’s younger sister.

“Need help?”

“Rosie? What about the kitchen work?”

“All done. I got permission from the mistress to come out.”

Rosie was Emily’s sister, three years younger. After Emily decided to go to Blissbury, the Surberton family looked for a new maid. That’s when Emily cautiously asked:

“Um, if it’s alright, could my younger sister work here?”

Of course, the Surberton family welcomed the idea. Emily was relieved too. There weren’t many households in Feltham that could afford to keep maids. She would have had to send her sister to Camborne, but honestly, few places treated their maids as well as the Surberton household.

So Rosie came to stay at the Surberton house with Emily, learning the work before Emily would leave for Blissbury next year.

Rosie quickly helped Emily fill the water containers. Like sister, like sister—Rosie was also skilled with her hands. However…

“By the way, sister, Miss Eloise went out again today. Do you think that Sergeant Thornton really won’t come ba—Ouch!”

A sharp knock landed on Rosie’s head as she was chattering excitedly.

“Can’t you be quiet?”

Rosie was about to complain about being hit, but noticing that Emily was genuinely angry, she closed her mouth.

Seeing Rosie like this, Emily clicked her tongue briefly.

Her sister seemed to do her work well enough, but her lack of tact was thoroughly disappointing.

“You take the water back.”

“Sister? Sister!”

Ignoring Rosie’s calls, Emily ran toward the house. She grabbed a thick shawl placed at the entrance and headed toward the village entrance.

Her young lady, who had gone out saying she would take a walk today as well, would be sitting on the bench at the village entrance.

Emily also knew that the book in her lady’s hands had been open to almost the same page for days.

‘D*mn that Ryan Thornton!’

Emily muttered the name in her heart.

Just a few weeks ago, that name had been sacred to Emily, second only to God.

After all, he was the benefactor who had saved her young lady from that disaster. But not anymore!

Though Eloise hadn’t said anything, anyone with basic perception could tell. Miss Eloise and Sergeant Thornton had clearly been nurturing a secret affection for each other.

That’s why, after Sergeant Thornton hurriedly returned to the capital, her lady sat listlessly with a face that showed everything in the world had become boring.

Still, for about three weeks afterward, letters from Sergeant Thornton arrived daily from the capital.

It was the only time Eloise, who spent all day like someone in a daze, regained her energy.

Then one day, those letters suddenly stopped.

From that day on, Eloise would say she was going for a walk every day, but would sit at the village entrance reading a book until the postman came from Camborne.

Today would be the same.

Emily hurried toward the village entrance. Then, seeing someone walking from the opposite direction, she involuntarily frowned.

The person walking toward her was Julia.

‘She was a bit better when we were in Blissbury.’

More precisely, things were fine until Richard remained. But three weeks after Ryan Thornton left Blissbury, they too returned to the capital, saying they had received a summons.

From then on, Julia became irritable. This was understandable, as Philip, who returned with Richard, had proposed to Abigail before leaving.

The Ogilvy household, and indeed all of Feltham, was in an uproar.

Abigail Ogilvy received a proposal? And from a officer from the capital!

Philip was as excellent a marriage prospect as Ryan. So after the summer banquet, there were quite a few women who set their sights on Philip instead of Ryan, who was targeted by many.

But Philip knelt and proposed to Abigail, not to any other woman.

“From the beginning, I only saw you.”

After it became known that Philip had proposed with those words, every young lady in Feltham spoke with dreamy faces about how envious they were of Abigail, as if they had witnessed the scene themselves.

Everyone in Feltham had thought that even if everyone else got married, lame Abigail would remain single. But not only was she getting married, she was being paired with someone everyone admired.

Mrs. Ogilvy was overjoyed, but Julia was not.

“Why my sister? What’s so good about her?”

When the village ladies gathered, Julia finally couldn’t hide her thoughts anymore and grumbled.

At other times, someone might have agreed with Julia’s words, but not this time.

“Julia, she’s still your sister. Shouldn’t you be happy for her?”

The faces of the village ladies who said this wore expressions of contempt mixed with secret satisfaction.

During her stay in Blissbury, Julia had subtly boasted about maintaining a good relationship with Richard. However, Richard maintained good relationships with all the women in the village, from six-year-old little misses to Mrs. Bowe, who was well over eighty.

Richard was simply kind to all women.

But Julia had thought she was receiving special treatment and had been smug about it. Now the others found it satisfying that she hadn’t received a proposal while her sister, whom she had always looked down upon, had.

If things had ended there, Emily wouldn’t have had any particular ill feelings toward Julia.

But Julia, who had become the laughingstock of everyone, burst out in front of them all:

“I’d rather stay single than end up like Eloise, abandoned by Sergeant Thornton!”

Those words spread throughout Feltham in an instant. They probably spread to Camborne too. Otherwise, why would ladies from Camborne suddenly visit the Surberton house, looking for Eloise on flimsy pretexts?

In any case, the rumor spread, and this became a great dishonor for Eloise.

In the village, people even began to whisper openly that Eloise had committed improper acts with Sergeant Thornton before marriage.

Of course, whenever Emily heard such talk, she deliberately splashed dirty water at their feet. When no one else was around, she would even spit ostentatiously.

She wanted to do so now. When Emily made a spitting gesture, Julia recoiled in horror and stepped back.

She knew how much Emily disliked her, and that if no one else was watching, this maid would be more than capable of actually doing it.

Seeing Julia flinch, Emily snickered pointedly.

Realizing she was being mocked, Julia glared at Emily and then spoke loudly enough to be heard:

“Emily.”

“What?”

Emily answered in a surly voice.

“Such manners! I heard you’re going to Blissbury, so I suppose you think you’re above everyone now?”

“Just say what you want to say.”

Emily replied while working her lips, suggesting she really might spit.

Julia took a few more steps back, then said with a malicious smile:

“I’m telling you this because I feel sorry for Eloise…”

Julia giggled.

“Sergeant Thornton went back because a woman named Sylvia called him.”