Chapter 91

185 1 0
                                    

***

Baron Alfred slipped out of the banquet hall and hurried home.

"Have you come?"

A servant greeted him, surprised by his early return.

The baron usually didn't come home that night after attending a banquet, so they wondered why he was home so early.

"And my wife?"

"She has gone out to Fenton's Lake for an appointment."

Fenton's Lake.

Wasn't that where the festival was being held today?

A chill ran down his spine, and he immediately climbed into the dismounted carriage.

"Let's go to Fenton's Lake."

"Pardon?"

"Quickly!"

"Yes, yes!"

At the Baron's urging, the coachman spurred the horses into a gallop.

An ominous thought kept nagging at him. The baron rubbed his face roughly and drily.

He knew that his young wife, Dana, had married him for money; he had made her do it.

So he lived with uneasiness in the back of his mind.

'If she came to me for money, she might go to another man for money.'

It was a kind of neurosis.

His wife was young, beautiful, and had many men around her, but he didn't believe it. Like the leading lady in the play.

Something hot surged through him.

Luckily, the carriage was stocked with alcohol.

He drank and drank and drank until he reached the lakeshore. About the time he was that drunk, the carriage stopped.

The Baron stumbled out of the carriage. It was nighttime, but the lakeshore was crowded, for it was the day of the Lantern Festival.

People with lanterns of all colors were walking around, smiling happily. There were many families, but also many couples.

'You came to this place, lying to me about being sick?'

Blood rose to the Baron's eyes in anger.

The last scene of the play he had just watched, a man and a woman having a night escape, flashed before his eyes like a thunderstorm.

He pushed through the crowd like a madman.

"Baron, where are you going, Baron!"

The startled coachman called from behind but was not heard.

"What is it?"

"Don't push!"

The men who were pushed by him shouted insults, but they did not reach the Baron.

In the Baron's drunken eyes, all women looked like Dana.

He grabbed a passerby, checked her, grabbed her, and checked her.

Meanwhile, the coachman barely caught up with him.

"My God, Baron, what is the matter with you!"

"My wife, I must find..."

"How are you going to find her here!"

The coachman shouted desperately. It was a festival, after all, and there were too many people. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

THHAAWMFWhere stories live. Discover now