MPAWD 17

Chapter 17

“M-Miss? Did something happen?”

Anna widened her eyes and looked Lucy over, asking anxiously.

“No. Let’s just go. I want to get out of here right now!”

Lucy grabbed Anna’s hand and hurried into the carriage.

Even now, she felt like the Duke of Vallon might come chasing after her. She wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

They headed straight for the bustling shopping district where they had first met Dino.

“Miss, please change into these clothes.”

Inside the carriage, Lucy changed into the plain outfit Anna had brought and took off all the jewelry she was wearing.

However, she carefully packed away the brooch that Lucas had given her.

“What’s that brooch, miss?”

Seeing the unfamiliar brooch, Anna asked curiously.

“Well, back at the ball…”

Lucy briefly explained how she had saved Grand Duke Cretan during the hunting tournament and how he had given her the brooch earlier that day.

“Oh my goodness, the Grand Duke of Cretan! And we’re headed to Tyren now—that’s the capital of his duchy!”

“What?”

Lucy’s eyes widened at Anna’s words.

“That’s perfect! When we arrive in Tyren, why don’t we ask the Grand Duke for help?”

“No way. That would be shameless.”

Seeing the excitement gleaming in Anna’s eyes, Lucy shook her head.

A little while later, they headed to a pawnshop in the shopping district with the jewelry and dress Lucy had worn at the ball.

“These are pretty expensive items… Are they really yours, miss? If I hold onto something like this and it turns into trouble, I’d be in a bind…”

The pawnshop owner looked Lucy up and down with suspicion.

“I just need some emergency cash, so I’m leaving them temporarily. I’ll come back for them soon. But if you’re that doubtful, I guess we’ll just have to go somewhere else. Let’s go, Anna.”

Lucy deliberately frowned as if offended and spoke boldly.

“In that case… fine. But if you’re even one day late past the agreed term, I can’t return these.”

At her words, the shopkeeper began appraising the items.

Soon after, Lucy walked out of the shop with a fairly heavy pouch of gold coins in her hand. They hadn’t gotten the full value, of course, but they didn’t have time to haggle over prices.

“Mr. Dino should be waiting for us at the port by now.”

The carriage set off again. They couldn’t relax until they were safely on the boat. Lucy, still anxious, divided the money and hid it in multiple places.

If I kept it all in one spot and lost it, we’d be in big trouble.

She remembered reading once in a travel book that pickpocket prevention included spreading your valuables.

The carriage gradually left the city behind. For the first time, Lucy began to feel a hopeful sense of escape.

But the anxiety hadn’t completely faded. She opened the carriage window and peeked outside to check if anyone was following them. The dark street was deserted.

“Did you also buy a ticket for a different ship? When does that one leave?”

To prepare for unexpected situations, Lucy asked Anna about the departure time for the backup ship.

“It leaves an hour after the one to Tyren.”

Lucy nodded silently, hoping nothing would force them to take that second option.

After some time, the carriage finally arrived at the port.

Where’s Mr. Dino?

As soon as she got off, Lucy looked around for him.

“Lucy!”

She turned her head at the sound of someone calling her, and there was Dino, waving and walking toward them. Seeing him eased her anxious heart, and for the first time that day, a smile appeared on Lucy’s face.

“You’re here earlier than I thought. We still have plenty of time before departure.”

Dino beamed as he looked at her.

“You’re early too. Have you been waiting long?”

“I was too excited to wait any longer. And now that I got to see you earlier than expected, I’m glad I came early.”

He grinned and took the luggage from Anna. Seeing him hold the bag—knowing their money was inside—made Lucy nervous, and she kept glancing at his hands.

There was about an hour left until departure. Boarding would start twenty minutes prior to sailing.

They decided to sit on a bench and wait. Lucy couldn’t help but constantly scan the area, still on edge.

“By the way, what’s your reason for going to Tyren, Mr. Dino?”

Trying to distract herself from the anxiety, Lucy started a conversation.

“Tyren is my hometown. I travel between there and the capital often. What about you, Lucy? What brings you there?”

“Oh, I… I heard a relative—my grandmother—who lives there is critically ill.”

She couldn’t reveal her true circumstances. Getting there safely was the top priority.

“By the way, we’ll be sharing a room tonight. Is that okay?”

As their conversation paused and a moment of awkward silence passed, Dino looked at her with a playful smile.

“What?”

She tilted her head in confusion, and Dino chuckled softly.

“It’s a four-person cabin, but I figured you might be uncomfortable, so I bought two tickets. So the three of us will be sharing a room.”

He waved the tickets with a laugh.

“You didn’t have to do that…”

Truthfully, she wanted to pay him back for the extra ticket. But now wasn’t the time to show off. She tightly shut her mouth.

Forget pride. I need to be a little shameless right now.

They passed the time with light conversation, and before long, it was time to board. Lucy happily hurried onto the ship.

Still, she couldn’t help but look back again and again, checking if anyone was chasing her.

Soon, a crew member appeared to check their tickets. They found their cabin and unpacked. Just then, the long blare of the ship’s horn signaled its departure.

And so, Lucy and Anna successfully escaped the hellish storyline of the original novel.

* * *

Tyren was a two-and-a-half-day journey by sea.

What if the Baron has already sent people to Tyren to find me? What if they’ve already posted wanted notices or something?

Even though the ship had departed safely, all sorts of dark thoughts kept chaining one after another. She lay down on the top bunk of the cabin bed, but between excitement and anxiety, sleep wouldn’t come.

As she lay there, the events at the palace came flooding back.

Edwin…

In the original story, Edwin was a handsome, righteous man, endlessly kind to Joanna.

Lucy’s pathetic life… There’s so much untold beyond the novel’s pages. The novel only showed a beautiful world from the protagonists’ perspective…

She tried to ignore the bitter reality, but once the thoughts started, they wouldn’t stop. Even Edwin’s absurd remark came back to her.

He said it’d be better to be his mistress than the Duke’s? What kind of garbage man says that?

Lucy had desperately hoped he didn’t mean it like that. She even asked again, hoping for a denial.

But in the end, he gave no answer.

To her, that silence was as good as a yes.

And what was that—was he jealous or something?

The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed. She nearly laughed out loud.

Still, when he offered to stop the marriage to Duke Vallon, she briefly wondered if he at least felt a sense of responsibility.

But if his words were true, her only choices were to be the Duke’s mistress—or Edwin’s.

After all that, he still thinks he has a claim on Lucy? Does he still have feelings for her? Or is it just pride—he doesn’t want someone else to have her? Then why was he so cold to her in the original story?!

Following that train of thought, Lucy suddenly had a theory.

Did Edwin’s attitude change just because I didn’t cling to him? Or did he get all worked up seeing me dance with the Grand Duke?

Her thoughts naturally drifted toward Grand Duke Lucas.

“I only believe what I see. I don’t know your circumstances, my lady, but if there are any bad rumors from dancing with me, I will take full responsibility.”

“And I know you have a brave and kind heart, more than anyone else. Believe it or not, I’m actually a good judge of character.”

The look in Lucas’s eyes when he spoke with such sincerity had been genuine.

He had seen her not as the infamous Lucy Diallo from the scandalous rumors, nor the weak and sickly Sohee, but simply as a person.

With no prejudice or pity—he had looked at her with clear eyes that acknowledged her as she truly was.

That image of Lucas’s unwavering gaze lingered in Lucy’s mind.