Chapter 132
By the time the carriage entered Erishol, it was already early evening, with the sun sinking below the horizon. Even taking the season into account, the sky had darkened early. Through the small window cut into the carriage, Isaac looked up at the sky, which was nothing but rain clouds. Soon, with a tap, a single drop of rain fell onto the window.
By the time they climbed the hill where Dilton Manor stood, the rain was pouring down without cease. The carriage stopped before the manor’s high walls. Isaac handed the coachman two coins and stepped down. A servant who happened to be near the front gate recognized Isaac and immediately opened it for him.
Seeing that Isaac held an umbrella but did not open it, the servant quickly offered him the umbrella he himself had been using, but Isaac shook his head, passed him by, and walked straight across the garden toward the entrance.
It only looked like an umbrella on the outside. Hidden between its ribs were keen blades capable of cutting off a man’s breath in an instant. Isaac could not tell whether he ought to be relieved that he had not ended up swinging it at York, or regretful.
The information he had been given during his outing—unpleasant, unnecessary—churned chaotically in his mind. Isaac let out a low sigh, climbed the steps to the entrance, and stepped into the hall.
“……Ah, you have returned, sir.”
The one who greeted Isaac as soon as he entered was Jason, the butler. As always. Yet Isaac narrowed his brows in question when he saw the butler’s pale face, which for some reason seemed more stiffly rigid than usual.
“You will be needing a bath. I will call someone and have hot water prepared.”
“……Where is Madam?”
“The mistress returned an hour ago. She has gone up to her room to rest.”
Isaac nodded, then headed straight for the central staircase. But just as he was about to ascend, he stopped. A couple of pieces of luggage placed near the stairs had caught his eye.
“What are those?”
“Ah, there are a few people who will be leaving their positions today.”
Jason answered hurriedly and picked up the bags, moving them into a corner.
“Did Madam dismiss them?”
“……No. She did not.”
Isaac had been out all day, so he did not know that earlier that afternoon, certain people had come and turned the mansion upside down. Much less did he know that they had visited not only the townhouse of his grandmother Caroline, but also all sorts of relatives and acquaintances, behaving as though to threaten them.
Jason looked at Isaac’s face, which truly seemed to know nothing at all, and wondered how on earth he was supposed to explain this. How could he possibly say outright that, because his mistress had been accused, several of the servants had taken fright and were quitting as if fleeing?
Jason recalled what had happened just an hour ago. Not long after Sasha had returned from her outing, men calling themselves bailiffs had come to the manor.
The young mistress’s face had been exceedingly calm, as though she had already known they would come.
“Within the deadline written on the summons, I will retain a lawyer and cooperate faithfully with the official investigation. So please leave for now.”
That was what had happened an hour ago.
Fortunately, instead of questioning the hesitant Jason further, Isaac merely said, “Then that’s fine.” Then he turned again and went up the stairs.
The rain was falling without pause. As the sun set completely, the manor sank into a darkness deeper than usual. It was an old mansion that gave off a gloomy air even on ordinary days, but with the damp, rainy weather added to it, it felt even more sinister.
Isaac was about to turn on the second floor toward the bedroom when he stopped. Through the sound of the rain, he could hear the murmur of a conversation from the other side. After hesitating, he carefully headed that way because it was a voice he knew.
Sasha’s voice was coming from there.
“How many are leaving in total?”
“Three.”
“And how many are planning to leave?”
Through the door, which stood open by a small crack, Sasha and the head maid were visible. Beside them was a maid with a familiar face. She was the maid who had bravely stayed by Sasha’s side when the matter with that man Butler had occurred. Isaac recognized her at once.
Allison, the head maid, let out a deep sigh and said,
“……About two. I know what you are worried about. They are all merely timid, not loose-lipped, so you need not worry on that account.”
“They only kept their mouths shut because they were timid. Now that the Grand Lady, whom they feared most, has passed away, what would they still be afraid of? ……The bailiffs, I suppose. But if there is anything fortunate, it is that they did not know very much to begin with. Even the secret about me is proof enough. None of you knew anything.”
“……My lady.”
“In any case, please make sure they are given generous severance pay at least. This is allowance money I had saved separately all this time. And……. Allison, I am all right, so do not look at me that way.”
Before the head maid could reply, Sasha took her hand.
“The Grand Lady truly had an eye for people. Even after something like what happened today, so many people have chosen to remain here. Thank you. Of course, I know you are not doing it for my sake. It is all thanks to the Grand Lady. ……To be perfectly honest, until quite recently, I could not grow attached to any of you. But now, speaking with each of you like this, one by one…….”
Sasha could not continue. The moment Isaac’s eyes met hers, he quickly stepped back.
“Let’s speak more later. For now, please rest today.”
Sasha left Allison and Maud behind and came out of the room. Then she looked at Isaac, who stood blankly in the corridor, drenched and dripping.
Just like the day I first saw her, what a wretched state.
Isaac thought so anew.
＊＊＊
Jeremy York had said that, even for the sake of Isaac’s wife, Sasha, he had to strike at the general. The General Churston whom Isaac had seen so far was undoubtedly a man of absolute thoroughness, with no mercy in his methods. So if he had made up his mind to remove someone, it would not be particularly strange for harm to reach that person’s family as well.
But Jeremy York had then said something very strange.
“I do not know what sort of connection led that woman, of all people, to become your wife.”
He had spoken as though the very fact that Isaac and Sasha had married was extremely strange.
It had sounded truly peculiar. Of course, even setting aside matters like her true identity, the relationship between the two of them had begun so disastrously that to others, its sincerity might well seem doubtful.
“Since things have come to this, I must ask because I am curious. ……Why did that woman choose you, of all people, Captain? What did she say to you when she asked you to marry her?”
Yes. That had sounded truly strange. Did it not sound as if Sasha had had some entirely different purpose from the start and had seduced him because of it?
“……I have been accused by the ducal family.”
As soon as they entered the bedroom, Sasha turned to Isaac and said so. Isaac, who had been firmly closing and locking the door out of habit, froze with his back still turned.
Regardless, Sasha continued.
“It was something I expected to some extent, but I did not think they would come out so openly like this. I thought, at the very least, that those people would speak with me before making a decision. Because accusing me like this is no different from aiming an arrow at the duke’s mother, Grand Lady Rosaline, as well.”
“…….”
“Do you know what nobles hate most? Their family affairs becoming known to others. Having family matters no different from, or even worse than, those of the ordinary people they treat so terribly laid bare for others to gossip about. It is nothing less than a disgrace to the family.”
After checking one last time that the door was locked, Isaac turned around.
Sasha looked somewhat agitated. Only then did Isaac realize that she was still wearing the dress she had gone out in. More than that, he realized that she was far more disheveled than usual.
“Sasha.”
Isaac strode toward Sasha and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“Tell me what happened, right now.”
Only then did Sasha’s words, which had been pouring out as though in self-defense, come to a halt. She looked at Isaac with a face calmer than before.
“……In the morning, after you left, I went to the lawyer’s office. The lawyer I mentioned before. He has been managing everything concerning Grand Lady Rosaline and me. But when I got there, the building had burned down completely. Just two days ago. If there is anything fortunate, it is that the dreadful incident happened at an hour when everyone was asleep and no one was there.”
Sasha then told him about going to Caroline’s townhouse as well.
“I thought as quickly as I could. Since I have quite a few documents, including the will, I decided I needed to find a new lawyer first. And at that moment, her face came to mind. Your grandmother. Of course, it would be the first time seeing her since that incident, so she would be very angry with me, but she was the only trustworthy adult I could think of.”
Sasha went on. She explained, one by one, how while she had been speaking with Caroline, Rachel had suddenly rushed into the room; how it turned out that people called bailiffs had abruptly barged into the house; and how, while Rachel and the housekeeper bought her time, she had barely escaped through the townhouse’s rear passage and returned to Dilton Manor as though fleeing.
Her face seemed stiff at first glance, but Isaac knew it must have been an extremely frightening situation for her. Who would not have been afraid in such circumstances?
But when Isaac took a step closer, intending to embrace her, Sasha shook her head and stepped back.
“When I returned to the manor, a summons had arrived. It is in just two days. And in the meantime, they will go to the people acquainted with me and do the same as they did today. As Lady Caroline said, in order to isolate me.”
“Sasha.”
“……It is an oddly aggressive response, but it is not incomprehensible. In any case, I have found a new lawyer, so we must begin preparing for a legal battle immediately.”
Paying no heed to Isaac calling her name, Sasha cupped his cheek and tugged him down slightly.
“You, especially, as my husband, will be subjected to even harsher attacks. What worries me most at the moment is that they will try to make you out to be my accomplice.”
Her gaze was utterly resolute. As Isaac looked into her firm green eyes, he recalled the words of the intelligence agent, who had voiced doubts about Sasha in a different vein from Sergeant York.
“How much do you think she knows, Captain? Did she truly believe, in all innocence, that she was adopted as a ‘substitute’? Among the things she has opened up to you about honestly, was there nothing concerning the real one?”
As he chewed over the agent’s warning, which had sounded as though Sasha was still hiding something important, Isaac quietly looked at the woman before him. Sasha, regardless, continued speaking.
“So it would be best for you to keep your distance from me for the time being. And tell them you know nothing. It is the truth to begin with, isn’t it? You truly did marry me without knowing anything.”