Although the invited guest left satisfied, the Severtons were not in good spirits.
"I understand your feelings for Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave. But I cannot say your behavior was appropriate. A week of house arrest."
Mr. Severton, usually gentle with his daughter, was stern this time.
Eloise herself admitted that she had gone too far, so she obediently confined herself to her room.
"Good! This time of year is perfect for taking care of one's health. Look—yesterday the weather was so pleasant, and this morning it's freezing. If you go out on a day like this, you'll only catch a cold."
Emily, thinking that now she wouldn't have to grumble all day long—*"Put on your hat, wrap yourself in a shawl"*—was sincerely glad of Eloise's house arrest.
But she soon realized she was mistaken.
---
"Good morning, Emily. I'm here to see Eloise."
From the day of Sergeant Thornton's visit, local girls eager to learn more about him began calling on Eloise.
"My lady is unwell and cannot receive visitors."
"Oh, what sad news! Then I simply must console her for a little while."
The friends seemed in no mood to retreat unless Eloise was actively dying.
Eventually, realizing she couldn't manage alone, Emily turned to Mrs. Severton for assistance.
Mrs. Severton, who had gone out with every intention of sending her daughter's friends away, changed her mind when she saw their determined expressions.
"Hmm... I suppose a brief visit would be acceptable."
The visitors' gazes were so blazing that even Mrs. Severton retreated for a moment.
When the chattering ladies entered Eloise's room, her rather spacious quarters were filled to capacity.
As soon as Emily closed the door, murmuring that she would bring tea, questions began pouring forth instead of greetings.
"Eloise, you've seen him, haven't you? What's he like? What color is his hair? And his eyes? Are his limbs still intact? No, better yet—how old does he appear?"
Eloise covered her ears against the simultaneous barrage.
"Wait, please—ask one at a time!"
At Eloise's words, the ladies exchanged glances. Then all eyes turned to Julia.
She was Mr. Ogilvy's second daughter and, by general consensus in Feltham, the lady *"most in need of a husband."*
"First of all—how old is Sergeant Thornton?"
"Twenty-nine."
"Oh, twenty-nine! How young!"
"Wasn't the man who proposed to Lucy the same age?"
"Those who returned from the war are usually over thirty, so twenty-nine is still quite young!"
"In any case, it's an excellent age for a groom!"
One short answer—*"twenty-nine"*—sparked a whirlwind of conversation.
While her friends chattered, Eloise sighed.
She remembered Sergeant Thornton's face, looking bewildered when she had started arguing with him the day before.
Returning to her room afterward, she had come to her senses.
Gentlemen, though they called themselves such, were usually the first to show displeasure when their opinions were challenged.
However, she herself had not wished to continue the conversation, so she had said goodbye and left...
*It's obvious. He was probably seething with anger, thinking, "What could she possibly know?"*
Besides, he had seen Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave more closely than she ever had—he wouldn't change his mind.
*And yet! He's alive thanks to the lieutenant colonel!*
She hadn't defended the lieutenant colonel without reason. Even in Feltham, it was possible to learn about the disposition of enemy and allied troops.
Moreover, of all the books in her father's library, Eloise was most interested in military tactics.
As she read works spanning from antiquity to the present day, her interest only deepened. It reached the point where, when translating ancient texts, Mr. Severton consulted with his daughter on matters of military strategy.
Eloise had fought the Battle of Ingona on maps over and over again.
She tried every tactic she knew and considered every possible option for the survival of the 57th Infantry Battalion other than retreat, but the answer was always the same.
No matter how much she analyzed it, if they hadn't retreated on Lieutenant Colonel Wilgrave's orders, everyone would have perished.
And it had also been impossible to save the other battalions.
The lieutenant colonel couldn't help but know that his retreat would be condemned. He simply couldn't bear to watch his subordinates die senselessly on a battlefield where there was not the slightest chance of victory.
People said that a soldier's duty was to die with honor, but Eloise thought nothing could be more foolish.
*The country is important.*
*But life is more important.*
*But... Sergeant Thornton's behavior was somewhat unexpected.*
She had thought that he, like other young men his age, would openly show displeasure when his opinion was challenged—or raise his voice and shout: *"What does a woman know?"*
But contrary to her expectations, he had conveyed through Mr. Severton that he was grateful to Eloise for helping him understand the lieutenant colonel's position, and wished her good night.
She knew perfectly well that her father would never invent another person's words.
So he really had said that...
"Eloise?"
"Hm?"
"Oh, you weren't listening at all! I was asking about his appearance!"
"Ah—black hair, blue eyes, approximately six feet tall."
"And his physique?"
"Not much different from other soldiers who've just returned. You know—some muscle, but overall rather lean?"
"That's true, but after the war, many soldiers quickly gain weight."
"Indeed. My mother told me to avoid men like that. She says they mostly drink."
And again the chatter of her friends reigned for some time.
---
## — Revelations and Regrets —
The friends extracted every piece of information about Sergeant Thornton from Eloise.
She had nothing to hide, so Eloise told them everything she knew—even the annual pension a retired sergeant receives, something she had heard from her father.
However, at one point Eloise felt a twinge of shame.
*"He's not exactly handsome, but he's tall, educated, and has a good pension, right?"*
Hearing her friends excitedly chatter as they prepared to leave the room, Eloise remained silent.
When her friends had asked whether Sergeant Thornton was handsome, she—without even noticing—had replied that he was stubborn, emotionless, and unlikely to inspire sympathy.
Frankly, it was a lie that would be exposed the moment her friends saw Sergeant Thornton for themselves.
Objectively speaking, Sergeant Thornton *was* handsome.
Thick black hair. Large, expressive blue eyes. And his chin, unlike when she first saw him, was clean-shaven now—it looked masculine and strong.
His lips, it was true, were always stubbornly compressed, but for those favorably disposed toward young men, this could also be considered a mark of strength of character.
*I'll simply say that's how he seemed to me, and leave it at that... My friends will see him soon enough. By then, they'll have forgotten I even said anything.*
After seeing her friends off, Eloise returned to her room.
Emily, who came in next to tidy up, cleared away chairs and teacups—and found a small handkerchief in the corner.
"Oh dear, someone must have forgotten this."
"Let me see."
Upon examining it, she recognized the handkerchief Julia had recently boasted about, claiming she had purchased it in Cambon and that it was foreign.
After a moment's hesitation, Eloise asked Emily:
"Where is Father?"
"The master went to visit the pastor."
"And Mother?"
"She returned to her room—probably resting."
"Very well. I'll take it myself. They haven't gone far; I'll be back shortly. You finish tidying my room."
Eloise was under house arrest for a week.
Emily, wondering if she should stop her, nodded silently instead.
There was much to be done.
She had to clean up after the girls, feed the geese in the yard, organize the pantry—and there was dinner to prepare besides.
So she could entrust the handkerchief delivery to her mistress.
Eloise hurried out of the house.
As she expected, her friends hadn't gone far. Their hats were visible behind the bushes in front of the house.
Eloise was about to call out to them, saying they had forgotten a handkerchief, when suddenly—
"And Eloise, you know, is so carefree, isn't she?"
"..."
Hearing her name, Eloise stopped.
"If I were her age, I'd be going mad with worry. She's twenty-six, isn't she? Abigail limps—that's understandable—but isn't Eloise, healthy as she is, ashamed that she's still unmarried?"
"Julia! Eloise told you everything about Sergeant Thornton out of concern for *you*!"
One of her friends, finding Julia's words too harsh, raised her voice in protest.
"Did I say something wrong? While we're on the subject, I actually felt *sorry* for Eloise when she kept telling me about Sergeant Thornton. It seems she's realized she's no longer our rival."
Eloise bit her lip as Julia's voice drifted from behind the bushes.
*"Oh, is that so..."*
---