chapter 24

 

“Sienna!”

Daisy frowned and raised her voice.
It was not much different from her usual relaxed tone, but I could feel her agitation.
There was not any strength left in the hands that clung onto me.

“It’s dangerous here.
Don’t make a fuss and let’s go down together.
What are you supposed to do in there anyway? The servants will take care of the fire.”

“It’s better for one to go in and deal with it while possible than both going down.”

I glanced nervously at the door.
The smoke was still thin, there was still time.

But Daisy would not let me go.
She spoke again in a quivering voice, accusing me.

“Listen to me, Sienna.
Were you to make a scene in a place like this, do you think next time you would be invited by Count Parker again?”

“I don’t care if I don’t get one of those dumb invitations next time anyway.
And why do you think I’m making a scene?”

Come to think of it, it was weird.
I did not set the fire, I was trying to put it out, but Daisy seemed to have a different idea.

“If it’s not a commotion, then what is it? What kind of aristocratic young lady would try to get inside a flaming room with a blanket?”

Daisy continued in a derisive tone.

“Sienna, you’re trying to put out the fire? If Gertrude were to pass by, she would definitely laugh at you too.
Why do you keep doing things you have never done before?”

Gertrude was the name of Daisy’s pet dog.

Really?! I was almost enraged by her words of disdain towards me. 

“If you are a noble girl, then act gracefully accordingly.
If I were you, I wouldn’t do this…”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t have lived like that.”

It was that very moment that those words came back to my mind.

The words she left for me when I was about to part the world.
Wasn’t it similar to that time? It was the same mocking tone back then, now I felt pathetic.

Do I even need to pretend to be her friend at this point, when I have to hear something like this? It was when I was about to argue with her with my exasperated heart…

“Urgh…”

Daisy covered her nose with a frown.

It was the smell of smoke, or precisely, the smell of something burned.
I finally came to my senses.
This was not the time for a quarrel with Daisy.
The fire was growing with every second passing.

Heidi must be the top priority right now.
I shook Daisy’s hands off with a grim face.

“You denied my will again.”

“What?”

I did not even have the mind or the time to answer anymore.
‘Sienna!’ I opened the door, ignoring Daisy who was calling my name urgently.

Then the smoke that had been blocked by the door spread out into several strands.
But it was not as big as I thought.

I would be able to pull it off.
I went into the room covering my nose and mouth with the wet handkerchief in my hand.

This room was more spacious than the room beside it.
I thought the smoke was not too bad, so I opened the door to discover that it was a drawing room, and there was another room inside it.
The internal door was leaking more smoke than the external.

I grabbed the doorknob with a handkerchief that was covering my face.
When I opened the door, black smoke came out.

When I saw the black smoke that filled the ceiling, I lowered my body instinctively.
Could I really handle this? I suddenly felt anxious.

This was all because of Daisy.
If I had not had that silly fight with her earlier, I would have come in when the fire had yet been widespread.

As I crouched down, I could see the fire spread long on the floor.
Was it below the knee level? I could not let my guard down, but this much would allow me to move around.
All I had to do now was take Heidi out of here quickly.

It was not hard to find her.
I did not know if it was relief or bad luck, but she was here.
And I would have never thought that she was asleep until I saw her lying flat on the bed.

So she was sleeping alone in a room on fire the whole time? Well, at least I could now roughly guess why people could not rescue her in my previous life.

The bed was the innermost part of the room.
I had to approach her while avoiding the fire as much as I could, but I was wearing an unwieldy ballgown, so the hem kept getting in my way.
It would be the perfect material for the fire to spread, and I myself might get injured before I could save her.

In that case, let’s put out the fire first.
I first put the blanket over the fire on my way to her.

(Whoosh)

As expected, it worked.
The blanket was covered in a wide range and the flame on that area was extinguished.

Now, all I had to do was go all the way over there.
I wrapped the dress around with one hand to reduce the volume of the dress as much as possible.
With that, I walked carefully to Heidi’s front.

I slid my hand under Heidi’s waist and lifted her body. Don’t tell me she is already dead. I was worried for a moment when I saw her pale-looking face.

“Lady Coventry, you are alive, aren’t you?”

Just as I was speaking to Heidi, she groaned slightly.
She was alive! I was beyond glad to see her alive.
It was worthwhile coming here after all.

Heidi struggled to open her eyes and her pupils rounded the moment they met me.

“You are Marquis Nelson’s daughter?”

She could not help but be astounded.
But before she could process anything, she seemed about to lose her mind when she saw the burning surrounding.
If I were to wake up in a place that was about to turn into ash, I would go frantic too.

“How… what on earth is with this fire…!”

“I am sorry, but we ought to talk later.
Would you like to cover your mouth with this first?”

I handed the handkerchief to Heidi.
As she received it while still lost in a daze, I quickly pulled her out of  the bed.

“Can you walk?”

“Pardon? Oh yes…”

“Be careful with the hem of your dress.
We have to escape quickly.”

We started moving with her arm wrapped around my shoulder.
It was the first conversation I had with Heidi, yet I could not have a good laugh with her.
Instead, our life was endangered, it could not have been any worse.

“Ahhh!”