Chapter 164

 

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Melody arrived at the Hatfield mansion with her questions still lingering and was guided to the music room.

In the middle of the room surrounded by keyboard and metal instruments, there was a sofa and table set up for entertaining guests.

However, when Melody entered the music room, no one was sitting on that sofa.

The young nobles were each sitting in front of their favorite instruments, casually playing popular melodies.

“Miss Higgins!”

The Hatfield young lady sitting in front of the keyboard was the first to notice Melody and immediately approached her.

“Welcome, we were waiting for you.”

The Hatfield lady with beautiful silver hair flowing down immediately linked arms with Melody in a friendly manner and guided her to the sofa.

Soon, the five young nobles who had been fiddling with their instruments all gathered around Melody.

Most of them were women, with only one man.

And regardless of gender, they began sending those sparkling gazes they had shown since yesterday again.

“Um, well.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Melody smiled awkwardly and looked around.

“Please feel free to keep playing your instruments. You were practicing an ensemble, right?”

At her suggestion, they took turns answering.

“The ensemble isn’t that important!”

“We were just passing time while waiting for you Miss Higgins.”

At the mention of waiting, Melody quickly bowed her head.

“Ah, I apologize if I made you wait.”

At this, everyone shook their heads simultaneously. Miss Hatfield shrugged her shoulders and looked around at her friends.

“It’s alright. Everyone lacks manners and arbitrarily moves up the appointment time as a habit… Oh my. Look at me. I didn’t even offer the guest a cup of tea.”

Miss Hatfield tapped her small lips with her fingertips, then hurriedly placed a new teacup in front of Melody.

“Here, have some.”

Melody picked up the teacup and looked around at them. Despite their curious gazes, they all kept their mouths tightly shut.

“Um. If you don’t mind me asking.”

And while looking at everyone, she brought up the topic.

“If… you have something to say to me, could you please tell me first?”

They looked at each other’s faces, gauging each other’s reactions.

“I don’t mind at all. Actually, I had a feeling you had something to say to me, so I’ve been curious all along.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Miss Hatfield immediately apologized.

“We were sending too obvious gazes, weren’t we?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“If it made you feel unpleasant, we apologize, Miss Higgins.”

“I didn’t feel unpleasant. But I’ll accept your apology. Thank you. Now, feel free to ask me anything.”

They soon narrowed the distance and sat close to Melody.

“Um… Miss Higgins. Did you perhaps receive a marriage proposal recently? At Norris Park.”

Surprised by the unexpected question, Melody shouted “What?!” but it was completely drowned out by the words they spoke in succession.

“I heard you received a bouquet of flowers so large it was difficult to hold with one hand?”

“What were the words of the proposal? It must have been a very romantic story, right?”

Melody stammered, trying to answer that it wasn’t like that.

“That was just…”

But then she recalled pretending to go through the normal procedures of proposal and rejection with Stewart.

“That’s right, it was… a marriage proposal. Yes, it was, but it’s not a story worth telling…”

“No way!”

Dylan, the only young man at the gathering sitting farthest out, jumped up from his seat.

“Mr. Middleton told me about it.”

“What? What did he say?”

Melody turned to him in surprise.

“Actually, I was at the game table with Miss Higgins and Mr. Middleton when they were playing cards at the club.”

“At… that time?”

“Yes! When Mr. Middleton faced the match of his lifetime with Miss Higgins cheering him on.”

Dylan clutched his heart as if greatly moved.

“I can’t forget it even now. As soon as all the cards were revealed, Mr. Middleton laid that honor at Miss Higgins’ feet.”

Everyone listening to his story with bated breath gently shook their heads.

Muttering things like ‘Love is truly great,’ and ‘Anyone who doesn’t know that magnificence is unfortunate.’

“……”

But as far as Melody remembered, there was not a shred of romance in that scene.

If she had to find something good about it, it would be that Mr. Middleton, who thought such a card combination would never appear again, decided to quit gambling.

Unaware of her thoughts, Dylan’s story continued.

“And the next day when I went to the club again, Mr. Middleton happened to be there.”

“…Surely he wasn’t playing cards again, right?”

“He wasn’t.”

Melody was relieved. Thankfully, it seemed he was keeping his promise…

“Instead, he kept staring at the card table and asked me if I had any cash.”

…Or not.

“So when I said I did, he asked to borrow money to gamble with.”

Sad predictions never fail to come true. Melody buried her face in her hands.

Gambling with someone else’s money, wasn’t that the end of depravity?

“So.”

Melody lifted her head with a slightly gloomy face.

“Did you lend him the money?”

“Of course not.”

The young man answered with a bright smile.

“I just gave him the money.”

“…!”

“In return, though it’s not quite right to say that, I asked him to tell me about the marriage proposal.”

For some reason, Dylan couldn’t keep his hands still and started fidgeting. He seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Mr. Middleton said he proposed with the most romantic words in the world. But those words were only for Miss Higgins, so he told me to ask Miss Higgins directly for the details.”

So that’s why everyone’s eyes lit up as soon as they met Melody.

“It wasn’t a big deal like you’re expecting.”

“But your heart must have been pounding, right? Right?”

No. There wasn’t even a slight pounding in the park.

However, there was a moment when she felt the pounding they were talking about.

Until now, she had tried her best not to recall it if possible, but…

Perhaps because they started talking about romance and heart-pounding moments, Melody ended up recalling ‘that night.’

“…Really now. You’re so adorable, what should I do?”

The whisper-like words were as vivid as if she heard them now. Even though several days had already passed.

Maybe she even remembered the sound of his heartbeat she heard in between. If Melody properly focused and recalled the memory…

“Oh my.”

At that moment, the group urging her for the story started staring at Melody with enraptured expressions.

“…It was such a wonderful story. Enough to make your face turn red.”

“What?”

Melody quickly looked around and waved her hands frantically.

“Ah, no, that’s not what it was. He probably said I was adorable on impulse…!”

Melody herself was clearly flustered as she said that. Because she ended up talking about what happened with Claude.

“Eek, did you hear that? He called her adorable on impulse…!”

“It must mean he always thinks that way!”

Melody was surprised again by their interpretation, her eyes growing wide.

“Th-That’s what it meant?!”

“Of course!”

“Tell us. What else did he say?”

Faced with the returning questions, Melody had no choice but to reveal what happened with Claude again.

“…He said he didn’t like me being far away. I mean, physically.”

More screams were heard. Some of them even hugged each other, looking overjoyed.

“But that’s not really a romantic thing to say.”

When Melody said those words, she had been stabbing something sharp into Claude’s ear. In other words, he was in a lot of pain.

“He probably judged it was better for me to be close by because he wasn’t feeling well.”

At Melody’s explanation, they all shook their heads fervently.

“My goodness, asking to be together when you’re in trouble is a polite confession that started in the classics.”

Melody couldn’t bring herself to say it, but she thought ‘There’s no way that’s it.’

If that were the case, it would mean Melody had been repeatedly receiving ‘polite confessions’ from Claude for several years now.

He was someone who had always asked Melody to be with him in all his troubles.

“Anyway, I couldn’t accept the marriage proposal. Even though Mr. Stewart is a wonderful person.”

“…I see. Rejecting is also difficult, it must have been hard for you.”

“But I’m sure an even more wonderful person will appear for Miss Higgins.”

Everyone took turns offering words of comfort, and now it was Dylan’s turn.

“Miss Higgins rejected Mr. Stewart’s proposal because of Young Master Ronny Baldwin, right?”

Melody stared at him with wide eyes. He was nodding as if he knew everything.

“I saw Young Master Baldwin at the club.”

Melody smiled a little, trying to explain her relationship with Ronny to him. That he and she were very close as long-time friends.

But before Melody could give a proper answer, Miss Hatfield angrily stood up from her seat.

“Apologize to Miss Higgins! My goodness, I can’t believe it. My friend saying something so rude…!”

“Uh, what?”

He made a tearful expression and offered an excuse.

“But… they looked very close.”

“Are you stupid?”

Miss Hatfield crossed her arms and glared at him with scary eyes.

“It’s only natural for Young Master Baldwin and Miss Higgins to be closer than anyone else!”

Since it wasn’t something to get that angry about, Melody tried to stop her.

But before she could, the other young ladies also started scolding him.

“The Higgins family has long been active under the Baldwins.”

“It’s only natural for them to cherish and care for their hands especially.”

“Attaching other feelings to that beautiful master-servant relationship is nothing short of an insult to both families!”

At their clamor, the young man hung his head deeply and immediately apologized to Melody.

“I-I’m sorry, Miss Higgins. For my nonsensical misunderstanding…”

“No, it’s alright.”

In fact, his words didn’t really hurt Melody’s feelings that much. It was just a slight misunderstanding.

Rather, what made her sad was…

“My goodness, Miss Melody. Your face has turned pale. Are you okay?”

Melody shook her head and just replied that she was fine.

After that, the atmosphere became very awkward.

Honestly, Melody was starting to want to return to the mansion.

But she couldn’t bring herself to say she would leave first. She didn’t want things to become awkward with them.

Sure, she was taken aback by the sudden question prying into her private life, but there was no ill intent in their curiosity.

‘How can I naturally leave here?’

She had already earnestly asked the coachman to come back in an hour.

He would surely wait leisurely until Melody got out on her own. There was no such thing as a servant rushing their master.

“Excuse me. Young ladies and esteemed guests.”

Just then, the door to the music room opened and the Hatfield butler entered.

He approached behind Melody and bowed deeply.

“The Baldwin ducal household has come to escort Miss Higgins.”