Chapter 3.5

She guessed that was a joke too. What man could not laugh at his own jokes?

They made their way through the crowd and headed towards the less crowded wall. It reminded her of the ring, but she had something to ask him.

“Did you send me something other than a handkerchief?”

Like a signet ring. The errand boy who brought it said that Mr. Burns had sent it. She was worried to have understood it wrong, but unfortunately Count Burns nodded his head.

“Is that, by any chance, the Count’s?”

She had a sudden thought. If she did not know him, she would have thought that he had usurped a foreign nobleman. But Count Burns, whom she had known for the past few days, did not seem like the kind of man to snatch the signet ring from.

“It is yours now.”

She hesitated at Count Burns’s relaxed answer. It was hers now, did he give it to her? She asked again in disbelief.

“You gave it to me? Completely?”

“Yes, Lady Biscon, it is yours.”

That man was crazy. She was sure of it, so she asked cautiously.

“You know what you gave me was a signet ring, right?”

“I know.”

“Do you even know what it is?”

“Yeah.”

Crazy it’s crazy. Slowly, she began to withdraw from Count Burns. But she was Lady Biscon. That means she had to break up politely.

“I need to find Julia.”

She tried to get away from Count Burns by using Julia as her excuse. Where did she really go? When they started dancing earlier, she was next to a pole. But even when she looked at not only that pillar, but all the pillars in the venue, Julia was nowhere to be seen. Was she behind a pillar? It occurred to her that she should really start looking for Julia, not to get away from Count Burns.

“Are you talking about Miss Escalee?”

Count Burns looked around and he asked me.

“What color was the dress she was wearing?”

It was light pink. There were ruffles on her sleeves. After hearing her explanation, Count Burns made a strange expression and asked again.

“How old is Miss Escalee this year?”

What did looking for her have to do with how old Julia was? Even though she thought it was strange, she answered meekly. 

“She is eighteen. She is graduating from the academy next year.”

“She is old enough to get married.”

What does that matter? As she frowned, Count Burns raised his hands as if he had misunderstood. She explained it to him.

“Unmarried women shouldn’t be alone with a member of the opposite sex.”

“Oh, is that so?”

‘Huh?’

It felt like a play. But Count Burns had an expression as if he had heard that for the first time, so she thought it was my mistake and continued.

“It’s not very good for your reputation if people find out you’re alone in a closed room.”

“What if my reputation is bad?”

“The best thing is to marry the person you were with.”

At her words, Count Burns began to think of something. She said as she walked along the wall looking for Julia.

“In the old days, if you couldn’t get married, you went to a monastery or you couldn’t get married for the rest of your life.”

Not so much now. However, backwords follow. ‘Why were you doing that there?’ To the point where one couldn’t show their face to the social world for a while.

“If you are engaged and you are alone with someone else, it can be grounds for a breakup if you are caught.”

‘So Count Burns would do well to beware. I’ve seen men who are less handsome than this guy act stupid. I have heard of a man who was murdered by a woman’s brother after refusing to marry a scandalous man. It’s a very old story.’

She was about to give Count Burns a warning about what she had heard. If that’s the case, she’d rather be on the killing side than being killed.

“No.”

They walked along the wall looking for people, but Julia was nowhere to be seen. However, she couldn’t ask others about Julia’s whereabouts. It’s worse when rumors spread that she’s out of sight of her companion. She frowned, not knowing what to do. Where did she go? Although Julia was feisty, she was not such a silent child.

“Let’s look toward the terrace.”

At Count Burns’ words, she was the first to say that it couldn’t be. A terrace for a ball like that was truly a place for a secret meeting. But it was winter story. She heard that there was no better place to enjoy a tryst than on the terrace where no one wants to go out because it was cold. It’s hot summer now, and everyone may have gone out expecting the night air to be cool. And Julia might be among them.

“Maybe she’s in the break room.”

At Earl Burns’ point, she remembered the break room. Maybe Julia was sitting in the break room. In the end, they each decided to check out the terrace and the common room and parted ways. She went to the common room, Count Burns to the terrace.

“Thanks.”

A smile appeared on Count Burns’ face as she lightly thanked him before going to the break room. That man had the ability to lift and hold a person’s heart many times.

Viscountess Aston has made several common rooms. And since she had men and women separated as was customary, she only had to check half of the break room. Unfortunately, Julia was nowhere in the break room. Where the hell did she go? Slowly, she started to have bad thoughts.

She was not a child who was not responsible enough to stay out of her sight for this long. Maybe she was in a different place that she couldn’t even find. That was a crowded ball, but she was kidnapped with absurd ease just a short while ago. What if Julia was like that too?

Uneasy, she didn’t see the person coming from the other side and bumped into them.

“Ah!”

“Ugh!”

Because of the bump, she fell backwards and hit her butt. She groaned and put her hands on the floor. And she said reflexively.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see…”

“Biscon?”

It’s an unknown voice. When she looked up at the voice calling her name, she still didn’t know who it was. No, did she? However, he was not the only one who made a statement when they met.

“Do I know you?”

She asked the man who was looking at her with a terrified expression. Did they know each other? She thought about it again, but it was still the first time she saw that guy.

“No.”

The man shook his head, said that, and walked right past her. What? She stared blankly at the back of the man who was leaving in a hurry. It’s her fault for not looking straight ahead, but wasn’t that the same for that guy? In that narrow hallway… She looked up to see where the man might have come out, but the other side was just a wall. She thought it was a hallway because he was slightly inside, but it wasn’t.

“Are you okay?”

That man, where the hell did he come from? She woke up in bewilderment, but the servant approached her in surprise. She asked him, pointing to the slightly recessed wall opposite.

“Is there a door over there?”

“A door?”

At the sudden question, the servant looked at her as if she had hit her head while falling. She shook her hand to reassure him.

“I just ran into someone coming out of there.”

“Oh, there are stairs over there.”

Stairs? The stairs were in the middle of that mansion. But the next moment she realized that the stairs he was talking about were for servants. It was a staircase used by servants to move things unseen when moving goods or when guests arrived. If so, that man was a servant. Wasn’t he?

The attire was not that of a servant. Besides, if he was a servant, he couldn’t have bumped into her and left like that. She had a strange thought. A banquet with so many people was likely to involve uninvited guests. Maybe they were stealing upstairs while they’re making a lot of noise downstairs. Or enjoying a tryst. In some cases, lovers went upstairs to hide from the public eye and enjoy a tryst. Then, to avoid suspicion, they come downstairs with a time difference. Which one? After a moment of hesitation, she spoke to the servant.

“The person who bumped into me was not a servant. You’d better check upstairs just in case.”

If it’s a thief, it’s better to let them know. She went back to the place where she was supposed to meet Count Burns, hoping that if it was a tryst, the remaining woman had escaped by another route.

“Eugenie!”

Julia was there. With Count Burns.

‘Oh my gosh.’ She let out a sigh of relief and took Julia’s hand. What the hell was she doing? When they met again, Julia was a little excited.

“Do you know what I saw?”

She didn’t know what it was, but she felt like she needed to remind her again that she shouldn’t get out of her eyes. She sighed and tried to tell her that if she did that again, she would never go to proms with her again. But Julia whispered to her first.

“Baroness Kernel has a lover.”

What? Julia’s sudden words made her hesitate. Baroness Kernel? The story she heard from Lisa popped into her mind. Come to think of it, she said Baroness Kernel had a lover and she was worried about her brother.

“It’s not okay to take an interest in someone else’s private life.”

As her heart sank, she gave Julia a caution. It’s not only wrong to follow someone who enjoys a tryst, it’s also rude. Besides, Julia was still underage and unmarried. She continued talking.

“Seeing a scene like that isn’t very good for you.”

“I didn’t even see anything important. I’m just about to start…”

Having said that, Julia turned her head and looked at Count Burns. She said a little poutingly.

“Because the Count is here.”

‘That’s good.’ She sighed. And she sent a grateful smile to Count Burns.