CHAPTER 09
Seventh Street lay on the southeastern outskirts of the capital.
Most of the shops there had been passed down through generations, so the merchants all knew one another well. Whenever a new store moved in, their greatest concern was whether some unpleasant person would disturb the peaceful atmosphere they had built.
So, as soon as furniture began being carried into the newly renovated clock shop, the shopkeepers of Seventh Street gathered outside to see who the new owner was.
People had been coming and going all summer, yet it had taken nearly a year before the shop was finally ready to open.
The most curious of all was the family that ran the bakery next door. Their daughter, Liv, found herself especially interested in the young woman who appeared to own the clock shop. Standing a short distance away with her friends, she whispered,
“I heard she’s from the Crimson family.”
“Surely she’s not that woman? The one who divorced the captain?”
It was common knowledge that the legitimate daughter of the nearby Crimson family had divorced the captain of the Rubid. For quite some time, the capital of Salantie had buzzed with gossip over Captain Dumfelt confining his own mother to a psychiatric institution.
Scarlet Crimson.
She had become rather infamous throughout the capital as the woman who had sold information about her husband and then divorced him. But after about a year, with no fresh scandal to fuel the gossip, public interest had faded.
“Could it really be her?”
“Who knows? The newspapers never printed her photograph.”
Pirates who regarded Victor Dumfelt as their sworn enemy still lived in the capital. Because of the constant danger of retaliation, photographs of his family were never published.
Since Liv was about the same age as the shop owner, her parents and the neighboring merchants all nudged her forward, handing her a basket of bread to deliver.
She stepped into the clock shop.
It was the first time she got a proper look at the owner’s face.
She’s unbelievably beautiful…
That was her very first thought.
The owner of the clock shop possessed an almost unreal beauty. Her pale golden hair was braided over one shoulder, her honey-colored eyes looked soft and sweet, and even her gently closed lips were enough to make another woman catch her breath.
She stood with her hands folded politely before her, wearing an expression that was neither obsequious nor offensive.
Perhaps that expression suited high society, but to an ordinary neighborhood girl, it came across as rather aloof.
Liv approached her.
“Excuse me.”
As the owner turned around, Liv held out the basket.
“I’m your neighbor. This is a welcome gift. My name’s Liv Alrick.”
“Oh…”
The woman hesitated.
“I’m Scarlet Dumfel… Crimson.”
“You’re really that Scarlet? Captain Victor’s ex-wife?”
Liv asked in shock.
Scarlet nodded.
She accepted the basket with both hands.
Liv suddenly wondered if it was appropriate to give such ordinary bread to someone who had lived in the prestigious Dumfelt household.
Then Scarlet beamed.
“Thank you.”
Wow… she’s really beautiful…
Liv found herself stunned all over again.
She had never seen anyone so beautiful in her life.
No wonder people called her a noble lady. Since Scarlet always wore a wide-brimmed hat with a veil, almost no one had ever actually seen her face. Liv was probably the first.
Running her fingers over the basket’s handle, Scarlet smiled with obvious relief.
It seemed she had been worried about how to introduce herself to the neighborhood.
Liv asked,
“You’ve been here all summer, haven’t you? What were you doing all that time?”
“How did you know?”
“Oh, don’t even ask. This neighborhood’s tiny. If anything happens, everyone hears about it.”
“I see… Ah, I’ve been making clocks. I’m from the Crimson family, after all.”
“Really? You can actually make clocks?”
“Just call me Scarlet.”
Scarlet said in surprise.
“Okay, Scarlet.”
Liv answered immediately.
Scarlet smiled shyly before saying apologetically,
“I’d love to have coffee with you, but everything’s still such a mess right now. Soon… would you like to come over for coffee?”
“I’d love to. When you’re finished, just open your second-floor window and call me. My room’s directly across from yours.”
“Really?”
Scarlet looked even happier.
Liv had thought she looked cold at first glance, but she smiled far more easily than expected.
After saying goodbye, Liv left the shop.
Outside, the merchants—including her parents—were waiting impatiently.
“Liv, what was she like?”
“Is she unpleasant?”
“Did she even accept the bread?”
Questions poured over her.
“First of all,” Liv said, “it really is Scarlet Crimson—the woman who divorced Captain Dumfelt.”
“What? Why would someone that famous move into our neighborhood…?”
Everyone looked bewildered.
“And she’s not some spoiled noblewoman either. She says she makes all the clocks herself.”
“And she’s seriously… unbelievably beautiful. The prettiest woman I’ve ever seen.”
The moment Liv finished speaking, the curiosity that everyone had been suppressing finally exploded.
The merchants flooded into the clock shop.
A short while later, they all emerged looking completely satisfied.
“My goodness, I’ve never seen such a beautiful young lady.”
“She seemed so kind.”
“We worried for nothing all summer. If we’d known she was such a gentle girl, we’d have introduced ourselves ages ago.”
The merchants, who had feared an unpleasant new neighbor, all looked relieved.
Liv glanced nervously toward the shop, worried Scarlet might have been overwhelmed by the sudden crowd because of what she’d said.
Just then Scarlet stepped cautiously outside, raised a hand shyly, and waved at her.
Relieved, Liv waved back enthusiastically.
Scarlet answered with a bright, crystal-clear smile.
Before Scarlet realized it, winter had arrived as she immersed herself in opening her clock shop.
On a chilly Wednesday morning in December, she wrapped herself in a thick wool cape and came downstairs.
Warm morning sunlight poured into the charming little shop, bringing a radiant smile to her face.
The very first thing she did was light the fireplace for Andrei, who hated the cold more than anything.
As the fire crackled to life, the clocks she had made shimmered mysteriously in the warm light.
A large grandfather clock stood against one wall, while wristwatches rested inside glass display cases.
The purple silk cushions that held the watches had been chosen personally by Andrei.
The two of them had even sewn the small cushions themselves, and just as Andrei had predicted, they had become one of the signature features of Scarlet Crimson’s Clock Shop.
She swept the floor, dusted the dirt outside with her broom, and finally placed a welcome mat in front of the entrance.
Her morning preparations were complete.
At precisely ten o’clock, her only employee, Andrei, arrived.
He handed her his bag while she held it, then stretched up to lower the awning, which was far too high for Scarlet to reach.
She carried his bag behind the counter before hopping onto her bicycle.
“I’m heading out.”
“Come back early and get some work done.”
Knowing that Wednesdays were when Scarlet visited Isaac Crimson, Andrei repeated the exact same thing he had said the previous Wednesday before going inside to prepare coffee for customers.
As Scarlet pedaled away, she wondered for perhaps the hundredth time whether it was acceptable for an employee to have more ambition than the owner.
Every Wednesday at the same hour, as she rode through Seventh Street, the shopkeepers she had grown acquainted with waved to her.
She always smiled and waved back with one hand.
Leaving Seventh Street and following the tram tracks eventually brought her to the Crimson estate.
Getting off her bicycle, Scarlet picked up her handbag and walked inside.
Near the porch she spotted her cousins, Marilyn and Arnold, enjoying a leisurely lunch with several friends.
Marilyn clicked her tongue.
“I told you. If I’d been the one to marry into the Dumfelt family, I wouldn’t have ended up crawling back like this.”
Pretending not to hear, Scarlet continued toward the house.
A piece of bread suddenly flew through the air and struck her on the head.
She paused.
Arnold stepped directly into her path.
Annoyed that Scarlet wouldn’t even look at him, he sneered,
“Imagine a divorced woman wandering around wherever she pleases. What has the world come to?”
Used to Arnold picking fights for no reason, Scarlet simply tried to walk past him.
Instead, he grabbed her by the headscarf, clutching a handful of her hair beneath it, and yanked her backward.
“Where do you think you’re going? Ignoring people now?”
“Stop.”
“Stop? Stop what? What are you going to do about it?”
He shook her by the hair.
“Am I wrong? If you were going to abandon your brother, the least you could’ve done was keep your husband.”
Afraid Isaac might hear, Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut instead of crying out.
Then she heard slow footsteps.
Isaac was descending the central staircase, supporting himself with both the railing and his cane.
Arnold glanced toward him.
Isaac’s eyes were covered with the clean white cloth his caregiver changed every day.
Finally Arnold released Scarlet.
“I’m only letting you go because I feel sorry for him. Even seeing his own little sister treated like this, he can’t do a damn thing.”
Isaac’s skin was so pale from rarely leaving the house that it seemed almost translucent.
He smiled gently.
Facing the direction of Scarlet’s voice, he said,
“Scarlet, let’s go upstairs.”
Scarlet hurried over, picking up her fallen headscarf.
“Why did you come down? I was coming up.”
“I came to meet you.”
Unable to see what had happened, Isaac simply smiled.
Supporting him carefully, Scarlet led him back to the attic room where he lived.
“It’s freezing.”
She murmured as she set down her handbag and lit the brazier.
Isaac lay back on the bed, quietly turning his head toward the sound of her voice.
Ever since the carriage accident that had taken his eyesight, he had depended on the care of his younger sister.
Even after she married, that had never changed.
Scarlet locked the door.
From her handbag she took out a vial of medicine she had purchased using more than half of the money Gregory had given her.
The day she regained consciousness after the interrogation, she had found the medicine waiting in her hotel room.
Inside her wallet had also been instructions explaining how to obtain it.
Risking her life, she had ventured into the black market where goods stolen from pirates were secretly traded.
Isaac lay perfectly still while she dripped the medicine onto the cloth covering his eyes.
“Do you think it’ll really work?”
Only after Scarlet spoke did Isaac smile, as though released from a trance.
“I hope so. Otherwise all your money will have gone to waste.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
The medicine had cost enough to open her clock shop and even buy a bicycle.
It was unimaginably expensive.
Although most pirates had already been eliminated, someone still had to venture onto the pirate island itself to obtain this enchanted medicine.
No one would have risked it without being paid such a fortune.
Yet Scarlet never once regretted the expense.
No matter how much property their uncle controlled, Isaac was still legally the head of the Crimson family and the rightful Count Crimson.
But when he was young, he had been deemed too immature to manage the estate.
Now, because he was blind, their uncle, Evil Crimson, continued acting as his guardian and prevented him from controlling any of his own inheritance.
If Isaac regained his sight, their uncle would no longer be able to justify remaining his guardian.
That was their hope.
But there was no guarantee this medicine would actually restore Isaac’s vision.
They had spent six months obtaining it…
…and another six months administering it.
Yet there was still no sign that his eyesight was returning.
Sometimes they both wondered if they had simply been deceived.
But neither of them ever voiced that fear aloud, unwilling to deepen the other’s pain.
