The First Night of the Last Goodbye
Mabel startled, writhing as she glanced around her surroundings. “W-what are you doing right now! Hurry and put me down. What if the neighbors see….”
“Shh. Are you trying to wake all the neighbors?”
Carlyle warned her in a low voice, and Mabel immediately closed her mouth.
The yellowish streetlamp light illuminated her face. Her cheeks were flushed from the tears, and a small tear droplet hung from the tip of her eyelashes, sparkling in the lamplight.
Before long, Carlyle arrived at the Darlington residence and helped Mabel and the trunk down side by side. She could not even lift her head and murmured in a small voice.
“Thank you for seeing me home, Baron de La Roche. I hope you have a pleasant… walk.”
“Enjoy a comfortable night, Miss Darlington.”
He gave a slight bow of his head.
But even after the greeting, Mabel hesitated at the doorway and did not go inside.
*Could it be… she still hasn’t given up?*
Carlyle stood with arms crossed in front of the gate, unhurried.
“The hour is late and dangerous. I’ll confirm that you’ve gone inside and leave.”
Mabel twisted the hand she clasped and moistened her dry lips. After hesitating for a long while, she suddenly lifted her head. Her tear-filled lavender eyes sparkled like amethyst.
“If we marry without love… won’t both of us be unhappy for the rest of our lives?”
Startled by the unexpected question, Carlyle let out a light scoff. Only then did he seem to understand the cause of all this commotion.
*Love marriage.*
It was a thought far too girlish. How many married couples actually married for love?
To Carlyle, Mabel was nothing more than a hostage held by necessity. He had no heart for fulfilling her girlish fantasy, nor did he have the leisure for it.
In any case, the word “life” held no meaning between the two of them. So the very premise that they would be unhappy for life was nothing but wishful thinking.
If this matter were safely resolved, he intended to grant her wings so she could fly free anywhere and do whatever she wished. Therefore—
“There’s no need for something like love. Why don’t you ask it of your next husband instead.”
Carlyle spoke carelessly.
Mabel’s mouth fell open. Her expression was one of pure shock.
He no longer waited. He grabbed the gate handle and pulled. As expected, the door was not locked.
He carried the trunk inside, swung the doors wide open, and gestured.
“Please come in.”
Mabel walked inside with drooping shoulders, step by step.
The moment she entered, Carlyle closed the doors without the slightest hesitation. He still didn’t leave right away, but waited quietly.
As expected, a moment later the gate creaked open slightly. Lavender eyes peeked out from the gap. Carlyle lowered his head to Mabel’s eye level. Their gazes met.
“Hah!”
At the same time as her startled intake of breath, the door slammed shut hurriedly. The lock clicked, and the bolt slid into place.
Only then, as he left the entrance of the Darlington residence, Carlyle muttered.
“…I’ll have to station a guard.”
***
Mabel leaned against the gate with legs trembling. When their eyes had met through the gap, she had been so shocked that she thought her heart would burst out of her chest. She pressed her hand to her chest and waited for the wildly beating heart to slow, as if it were about to pound out of her ribcage.
She had barely escaped in the middle of the night, only to be discovered by her fiancé instead of some stranger, and then nearly run over by a passing motorcar.
She had cried in terror in front of Carlyle, and he had carried her like a child back home.
This night would be recorded as the most humiliating moment of her twenty-odd years of life.
Her gaze suddenly fell on the trunk at her feet. In its pitiful state, the last shred of hope vanished. The tears that had stopped flowed back.
Mabel quietly swallowed her tears and lifted the trunk handle. Instantly, the leather strap that had been holding the half-open trunk snapped.
*Thud.*
With a dull sound, one side of the trunk fell. The belongings, tangled in a mess, spilled out onto the floor. Her heart jolted with it.
Mabel hurriedly gathered the scattered items and stuffed them back into the trunk. When she cut her palm on the glass of a broken photograph frame, she didn’t even feel the pain.
Carrying the roughly repaired trunk, she ascended the stairs with her mouth shut.
She kicked at the long skirt wrapped around her ankle with one foot and stepped cautiously, one step at a time. At the top of the stairs, Walter and Mildred’s sharp voices drifted out from the study. They were still arguing.
Mabel stood still for a moment at the top of the stairs to catch her breath, then tiptoed toward her room.
At that moment, Mildred’s shrill voice rang out loudly down the hallway.
“I know you don’t know anything! You’ve even touched Mabel’s inheritance to pay off your gambling debts!”
“You can’t be silent! Are you trying to make the servants listen too? A lot of money went into raising that child, so part of the inheritance is ours by right.”
Frozen as she was, forgetting even to breathe, Mabel unconsciously turned toward the study.
Mildred’s sobbing voice continued.
“At least she should have been left some money to support the poor thing! That’s the only thing she’s supposed to bear from the bride’s side. On top of that, the Darlington residence has been mortgaged. If we go even further, our reputation will be ruined. It’s practically a death sentence!”
Despite Mildred’s sharp questioning, Walter remained silent.
“If you’re going to see the rumor of our bankruptcy spread through high society, it might be better if I just die. So shoot me with a gun first. And you, you should kill yourself too.”
When Walter remained silent, Mildred howled.
“Say something, Walter! Promise me—you said you’d kill me first. Hah…”
“Calm down, Mildred. I’ll somehow find a way to pay for the dowry. Once the marriage is finalized, the baron will send money to clear the house mortgage and repay the debts. Once the fire is out, the rest can be handled with my allowance.”
His voice was heavy as he coaxed his wife.
“If you come to the gambling den one more time, I’ll divorce you.”
“What?”
“If you’re not bluffing, listen carefully, Walter Darlington. If you touch the gambling tables again, I don’t care if you rot and die alone in this house. I’ll leave. So swear it! You won’t do it again.”
Walter answered in a sullen voice.
“I understand! I swear I won’t. From now on, leave it alone. Anyway, the baron saw Mabel’s condition and still proposed. It’s fortunate for us. Everything will turn out fine.”
Mildred’s sobs and Walter’s coaxing voice continued.
Mabel returned to her room, forgetting even to silence her footsteps. Her whole body had grown cold.
She set the crushed trunk on the floor and lit the lamp. The trunk, half split, fell open. Mabel sat beside it and picked up her parents’ photograph frame.
She stared at the faded photograph for a long time. All she felt was vague longing; no memories surfaced.
For Mabel, Walter and Mildred had been like parents for a very long time.
They were people who expressed emotions sparingly and were strict. Yet they had raised her without shortage. They had been a solid fence around her.
But tonight, the fence surrounding her had collapsed all at once.
She had finally understood why they had rushed her into an unwanted marriage so desperately.
Mildred had been right. Bankruptcy in high society was a death sentence.
No matter how noble, bankruptcy would turn one into an object of pity and contempt. One could even borrow money or act as a guarantor.
“I’ll shoot you first with a gun. And you, you should kill yourself.”
Mildred’s voice echoed in her ears.
Mabel had also known that after Arthur’s death, all that remained for them was the flawless Darlington honor.
More than resentment for having squandered her inheritance, she feared that they would disappear from the world.
A lump had been blocking her throat and now rose, choking her. Mabel buried her face in her hands and cried soundlessly.
Tears stung her palm deeply cut by the glass.
Her heart, cut along with it, had hurt.
***
February 15, 1924, Friday.
The last night she would spend in the Darlington residence had come. Mabel sat on the edge of the bed and looked around the room.
It was unreal.
Tomorrow morning, for the wedding, she would leave this house forever, along with the room she had known since birth.