The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 58
I don’t know. What am I supposed to do?
Cecilia pressed her lips with the back of her hand, trying to swallow the sobs threatening to burst free, but she eventually buried her face in both hands and wept openly.
After several minutes, she pulled her apron up to wipe her ruined face and struggled to her feet. Before giving Ruby strict instructions, she slapped her own cheeks repeatedly, composing herself.
“Don’t follow me. Stay here and watch the jewels. I’ll be back from the Cottage.”
She hurried down the Hillside, returning with a large wooden box and a clean cloth. Ruby remained listless the whole time, hovering near the hole with eyes blinking sadly.
“Thank you, Ruby. But from now on, you must never bring sparkling stones like this again.”
Cecilia began wiping the dirt from the jewels and placing them one by one into the box.
“I’m returning these stones to their owner.”
.
.
.
What if I simply didn’t return them? My mistress would never know, after all.
She had entertained that thought, it was true. But the small Cottage had nowhere to hide anything, and these pieces were far too ornate and precious for Cecilia to keep. Besides, Blake frightened her deeply.
Yet Blake was also her benefactor—the one who had taken in Cecilia after her own mother abandoned her. Cecilia knew all too well that if she didn’t return the jewels, her heart would feel choked with guilt for the rest of her life.
Cecilia had memorized Blake’s daily schedule on her very first day at the Main House. Now she cradled the wooden box wrapped in cloth protectively against her chest and hid in a corner of the Corridor, her eyes fixed anxiously on the Office door.
Before long, the door opened and Blake’s personal attendant emerged.
She held an empty wine glass and swept past Cecilia in a flash. She glanced at Cecilia with a hint of curiosity, but seemed to assume she was simply passing through rather than attending to any business there.
Cecilia felt her heartbeat accelerate sharply. As she imagined what would happen in that room next, her teeth chattered and her whole body trembled.
What if she begged for forgiveness and it wasn’t granted?
What if Blake told her to leave at once? Or demanded she pay everything back in money?
Then she heard heavy footsteps descending the nearby stairs behind her. Cecilia quickly pretended to fix her hair, looking away. She waited until the sound of those footsteps faded completely, but then—strangely—they came striding back again.
A large hand suddenly gripped her shoulder and turned her around.
“Cecilia.”
Cecilia hurriedly hid the box behind her back.
Davion was catching his breath, looking down at her with concern.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened? Why are you crying?”
Cecilia only then realized she was crying again.
She stubbornly kept her mouth shut and shook her head. But as she backed away from him, she stumbled into the wall and lost grip on the box.
As it hit the floor, the box let out a cry of protest, its lid flying open. The jewelry inside scattered across the floor at Davion’s feet.
‘No!’
Cecilia panicked and threw herself down, scrambling frantically to gather everything. Davion, startled, stepped back a few paces, then knelt on one knee and pulled the damaged wooden box toward him.
He picked up a ring and examined it carefully before his eyes. Then, narrowing his gaze, he asked.
“This… isn’t Mother’s ring?”
At that moment, Cecilia finally released the tears she’d been holding back.
“What do I do? Ruby caused a disaster…”
Now the dam truly broke. Cecilia wept and wailed, pouring out the entire story with sighs of despair mixed in.
After hearing the full account, Davion gazed quietly at the box filled with jewelry and murmured with a note of wonder.
“I thought the story about a magpie that collects jewels only happened in fairy tales.”
“If I go to her first and beg on my knees, won’t she forgive me?”
“What?”
Davion’s expression darkened. He reached toward Cecilia’s apron, where she held the rings, and spoke with harsh authority.
“Do you think it’s easy to kneel before someone else? Stop foolish thinking like that. Give them to me. I’ll take care of it.”
When Cecilia still hesitated, he practically snatched the rings from her.
“Don’t follow me. Just wait here.”
After helping Cecilia to her feet despite her swollen eyelids and blurred vision, he picked up the box and entered Blake’s Office without hesitation.
All the while, Cecilia stood gripping the corner of the wall until her knuckles turned white, staring at the closed door with desperate longing.
About ten minutes passed before the Office door opened again.
Davion’s hands were empty.
“What did she say?”
Cecilia couldn’t help but ask first. Davion thrust both his newly freed hands deep into his trouser pockets.
“She asked if you had klepto tendencies. Then she got angry and said that if this was some kind of protest, I should tell you to keep it reasonable.”
He added with a shrug, as if it were nothing at all.
“At this rate, all the tires might be missing from the car by tomorrow morning.”
Cecilia frowned. She didn’t understand what he meant.
“You didn’t tell her I had them, did you?”
“Of course not. This is outright larceny, Cecilia. If Mother had decided to report you, you could have ended up in prison.”
“What?”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She’d assumed that if she wasn’t forgiven, she’d simply be turned out.
Prison. At the word, Cecilia shuddered as a chill ran down her spine. Davion, as if he’d expected this, clamped his mouth shut and exhaled a long breath through his nose.
“You know as well as I do that our mother doesn’t easily believe tales from the crow. She refuses to credit even the mirages that appear on the battlefield—and those actually exist.”
“B-but then wouldn’t this be unfair to you?”
“What? No, who exactly is worried about whom here…….”
……
Davion swallowed his words, his eyebrows twitching slightly. It occurred to him, too late, that he should have played the wounded card a little more convincingly, and he ran his tongue over his teeth with belated regret.
Cecilia reached out with trembling fingers and gently seized the fabric of his sleeve.
“In any case, thank you. Truly.”
“Still, I’m useful enough as this household’s young master, aren’t I?”
Cecilia wiped her damp lips with the back of her hand and nodded.
In that instant, Davion thought he glimpsed a smile on her lips like spring sunlight. Emboldened, he drew the hand that had been fidgeting in his pocket into the open and gently stroked Cecilia’s shoulder.
Before the unstoppable impulse could sweep him away, he excused himself, rubbing the back of his neck that had flushed crimson. But almost at once he turned on his heel and strode back toward her, pulling her hand open and pressing something into it.
“Please—don’t hurt yourself.”
Cecilia watched his retreating figure sniffling, her hair mussed in embarrassment.
She unfolded her damp hand, marked by his touch.
Two bandages lay there, nothing more.
* * *
The next morning, an ambulance from Urbrick City Hospital pulled through the front gate.
Having heard of Betty’s return early that morning, Cecilia’s mind drifted toward the Cottage even as she worked in the Main House. She glanced out the window every few minutes, and the moment the ambulance crossed the gate, she crossed the fields with eyebrows raised in swift strides.
“Grandmother!”
Betty lay on a stretcher with assistance from the hospital staff.
Seeing that her complexion had improved considerably since before hospitalization, Cecilia smiled with relief. But Betty, scrutinizing her maid’s uniform as she stood in the doorway, suddenly grew angry.
“You came straight from work, didn’t you?”
“……Yes?”
Caught off guard by her sudden displeasure, Cecilia could not help but be flustered.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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