Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 81
Getting a new practice outfit wasn’t difficult. Even if Count Lasphilla was sensitive about money, he wasn’t so stingy as to not afford that.
However, Cecilia had longer and slimmer limbs than most, so ready-madeclothes never fit her snugly.
Practice clothes, after all, need to allow for easy movement. Of course, in actual practice, one would have to dance with cumbersome lace adorned all over.
Cecilia’s current dancing skills were so poor that she could twist her ankle even when turning barefoot and bare-bodied. There was a long way to go before she could dance in full dress for the real world.
“Custom clothes will take some time.”
“Is that so?”
“Take a break for now. It’ll give the bruises on your feet some time to heal.”
Mary pursed her lips as she looked down at Cecilia’s bruised feet.
She had long realized that Cecilia was being bullied by Louise and Caroline.
‘It’s impossible not to notice. She dresses and undresses me every day.’
When the clothes were torn, she was shocked but kept her mouth shut, suggesting she knew Caroline was the culprit.
So it was unlikely she would just stand by. Otherwise, she would have taken the laundry maids to task long ago.
‘Always quick-witted in matters like this.’
Cecilia snorted softly and shook her head.
“No. If I don’t practice dancing even for a day, my body stiffens up.”
“But other clothes would… well, they might be quite uncomfortable for you.”
Mary chose her words carefully, trying not to imply that Cecilia was incapable of dancing in regular attire. Cecilia responded to her maid, who was painstakingly choosing her words.
“I’ll just borrow from someone else until my clothes are ready.”
“From whom?”
“There is someone. Someone whose body size matches mine perfectly.”
* * *
“You want to borrow a dress for dance practice?”
“Yes.”
“What about yours?”
“It got ruined. I only had one, and it’ll take time to get a new one made.”
Lilith laughed scornfully at Cecilia’s calm reply.
“Just one? Have you been getting by with just that? And you’re a daughter of the Count?”
A daughter of that damn Count, yes.
Cecilia managed to suppress her rotting expression and smiled awkwardly.
“I’ve always struggled with dancing.”
“Well…”
Lilith hesitated and shook her head. Even a hedgehog finds its young soft, but Cecilia’s dancing was truly beyond redemption.
“Could you help me out this time, Miss Lilith?”
Cecilia subtly requested dance lessons, but Lilith turned her gaze away, pretending not to hear.
“…Look through the wardrobe. There should be a few dresses I don’t wear.”
Cecilia opened her wardrobe with a resigned smile, revealing a dazzling array of dresses filling the large cabinet. Her wardrobe was even more extravagant than Caroline’s.
‘Why buy so many dresses you can’t even wear them outside?’
Each time she saw such pointless extravagance, irritation bubbled up. All of Lilith’s rebellion amounted to was buying clothes and trinkets. And yet she claimed to love her daughter.
You should have just taken me and run away.
You knew I was struggling. You knew I didn’t want to be here, you knew it all.
…No, I understand. You had no choice.
Cecilia, overwhelmed by her feelings at an inopportune moment, suppressed her emotions and picked out a dress.
Lilith hadn’t danced even once since she came to the Count’s house, so the dance dresses must certainly be stashed away in a corner.
Let’s see, the very back… that box, perhaps?
Under the dresses hung on hangers, there were old boxes. Without much thought, she pulled one out and opened it.
Lilith, who had been looking elsewhere for a moment, sharply cried out.
“Not that! That one is…!”
The box was already open, and Cecilia saw its contents.
Her hand holding the lid froze like stone. Her gaze was fixed on what was inside the opened box.
A white petticoat glittered as if diamonds had been sprinkled over it. At the top, a doctoral bonnet was neatly folded.
An all-white wedding dress, fashionable since the princess’s wedding.
“Hah…”
The dam holding back her emotions broke. A cold sneer burst through Cecilia’s lips.
Lilith stood frozen, unable to say a word, and Cecilia slowly stood to look at her.
The expressions of both were desolate.
Cecilia dropped the box lid to the floor. She quietly rubbed her forehead.
She had discovered something that should never have been found.
No, the real problem was that Lilith should never have had it in the first place.
This was different from the many dresses Lilith had invested in for her unfulfilled dreams. If Adam had gifted this to her, Cecilia would have cursed her father first.
But the owner of this wedding dress was never Lilith from the beginning.
“Miss Lilith.”
Cecilia asked with a subdued voice.
“Why is the former Countess’s wedding dress here?”
