The woman’s last statement made Lily stare at her for a few seconds. This time, the sadness in the woman’s voice was too apparent, Lily could feel it vibrate through her. “You — are you my grandfather’s fiance?”
She was originally expecting the woman to deny it. But the tear that rolled on the woman’s cheeks was enough to answer her question.
“Grandmother?”
Both Lily and Madam Luo looked at the young man, probably in his early twenties, approached them. “Grandmother?” his gray eyes examined the older woman before she looked at Lily. “Did you say something to her?”
“Claude, where are your manners?” Madam Luo’s voice turned steely. “Is that how you would talk to a lady?” Her words were cold, yet comforting. Something similar to Lilian’s voice.
“Grandmother, are you alright?” he turned his eyes to the older woman. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“I am fine. Apologize to Madam Zhou.”
“I — ” guilt flashed in the man’s eyes.
“It’s alright,” Lily said. “It wasn’t a problem.”If this young man is related to Madam Luo, then it would be normal for him to ask those questions. After all, Madam Luo was already crying when he spotted her. If Lily was in that situation with Lilian, she would immediately do the same thing.
“I believe it is late now. We should leave.” The young man named Claude said. “The car is already waiting for us and I already said my goodbyes to the Grand Duke and Duchess. Here…” the man took off his dark blue coat. “Take this… it is a bit cold.”
Madam Luo was already wearing a long-sleeve gown with a scarf. She looked at Lily and smiled. “Will you have tea with me?”
Lily turned towards the young man. Madam Luo already asked this question earlier… was it possible that she had forgotten? “I will let my secretary call you tomorrow to confirm, but I already have an appointment with the Duke. How about the day after tomorrow?”
And just like that, Madam Luo’s eyes turned bright. She beamed at Lily. “Really? You know… I love talking to beautiful people. I would really have to enjoy some tea with you. We could talk about the weather and paintings and art— “
The young man let out a sigh. “Grandmother… we should leave now.”
“Oh… is it late now?” Madam Luo asked before she stood and smiled at Lily. “It seems that my grandson is bored already. We should probably start saying goodbye with the Duke— “
“Grandmother, I already said goodbyes with the Grand Duke and Duchess. The car is already waiting outside.” He gave Lily an apologetic look before he assisted her grandmother out of the hall.
Lily watched as the two left the hall, a complicated look was in her eyes. ‘Madam Luo’ She tried to recall if she had heard her grandmother Lilian mention that name before. So far, Lily can’t remember an instance where her grandmother talked about the past. Or if she did, she was not very specific at all.
Of course, Lily thought that it was because she missed her husband too much that even talking about his name would cause her some heartache. At that time, Lily was still healing from her own pains, so she didn’t bother asking too many questions.
“That woman was Madam Luo, we call her grandmother, but she is already sick.” Eliza’s voice beside her didn’t surprise Lily. The latter had been following her around all night, assisting her in everything that she does. What would surprise Lily is if Eliza would not sit down beside her after Madam Luo left.
“She is a very sweet woman.”
“Isn’t she?” Eliza chuckled. “She used to bake us a lot of cookies whenever she was in Luxembourg.”
“Oh?”
“She keeps on traveling in the countries of Europe,” Eliza said. “I am not sure if you know this but… she used to be engaged to your grandfather. They didn’t have a proper engagement, though it was more of like a verbal engagement. Everyone knew that they were going to marry each other, but it was formally announced.” Eliza took a small sip from her glass. “When your grandfather left, she was… heartbroken. Rumor has it that she followed Lilian and your grandfather around in London for a while. Rumor has it that she was stalking them and she had gone insane.”
Eliza let out a sad sigh before she continued. “But when she came back on Luxembourg, she was perfectly fine. But many people assumed that she would not stop pursuing your grandfather. She was in love, you know what I mean?”
Lily nodded. That would explain the tears that the older Madam shed at the mention of the engagement.
“However, when she came back after disappearing for so long, she completely changed and stopped talking about Lilian and avoided the people from the Royalty for a while. Everyone thought that she already lost it. After all, her father and the Grand Duke at that time were close.”
“So, she just stopped talking about it?”
Eliza nodded in response.
“Before leaving Luxembourg, the servants in the castle would say that they could hear her crying at night. However, when she came back, the servants said that she completely changed. I believe it was because your grandfather rejected her.” Another sigh left Eliza’s lips. “Poor Grandmother Luo. Despite her beauty and grace, she was not able to marry the man that she loved the most. In the end, she was heartbroken.”
Lily nodded before smiling. “This is why… it is better to just love than to fall in love.” Lily quoted a saying that she found online. “For everything that falls will end up broken. Unless… you are a ball, then you will be fine.” She smiled. “Sadly, our hearts are not made of rubber or plastic. Falling always involves breaking. And some broken things… just stay broken.”
…………..
I will publish the rest tomorrow. Please don’t forget to vote for the novel.
