Chapter 149
“……Then…….”
Just as Isaac, unable to bear the embarrassment, was about to rise from his seat, Sasha caught him by the shoulder and pressed him back down. It was a negligible amount of strength, but though Isaac looked bewildered, he lowered himself again as she guided him.
Their eyes met at the same level once more. Sasha stared at him in silence, her face expressionless. Isaac looked back into her green eyes, impossible to read. From time to time, she wore a face like that, utterly empty, and whether then or now, it was always what struck Isaac the most.
“……Sasha.”
Even though he had said with his own mouth that he was fine, and even though she could plainly see he seemed perfectly all right, it appeared she meant to examine and confirm it for herself. Her lean fingers pressed over his rough cheek, then returned to the scar at the corner of his mouth and swept over it once.
It was a shameful scar from his cadet days, when he had still been terribly inexperienced. A scar maliciously carved with a knife, solely to engrave humiliation upon him for the rest of his life. Unconsciously, he had always been reluctant to show this scar to her. As though he did not want her to see the right side of his face if he could help it, he would tilt his head askew, or when circumstances did not allow it, he would always, without realizing it himself, pretend to stroke around his chin and try to cover it.
Sasha now knew everything about him. What he liked, what he disliked, and even what he wanted to hide.
Though he was the one who had handed over everything, heart and all, Isaac had felt no small amount of regret when he realized it, because just as she had come to know him, he, too, had come to see through her.
When they had not known each other well, she had often been generous with even embarrassingly frank compliments and comfort, but now that they had grown this close, she was not actually like that. Like Isaac, she disliked showing her honest side, and surprisingly, she found it a little awkward to offer sincere praise.
……Whenever someone felt ashamed or sad, rather than offering comfort, she tended instead to make them face it directly.
Yes. For instance, the way she treated this scar.
Whenever he unconsciously raised a hand and touched around his chin, she would, with an indifferent face, lace her fingers through his and pull his hand down. Then she would stare at him calmly, as though to say, Is this what you were trying to hide? and without a word, kiss him over his scar.
Though she was surprisingly stingy with expressions of affection, she was brazen in that way.
“Were you all right?”
The woman lifted one cheek that had been resting in his palm. Isaac suppressed the urge to stroke the tender flesh he could feel beyond his rough hand, and asked calmly.
“You saw, didn’t you? It ended safely.”
“Of course the result was fortunate, but I’m asking whether it wasn’t difficult getting there.”
“……I was fine. Because you sent Mr. Turner, I was able to settle it easily. Thanks to His Majesty, I avoided summary judgment, but if Mr. Turner hadn’t been there, the trial would have dragged on endlessly…….”
Sasha trailed off. Then, as if something had welled up in her, she wrinkled the bridge of her nose; it was one of her habits Isaac had only noticed recently.
“You must have seen this in the papers too. I was adopted by that lady.”
“…….”
“They say there were people who shouted about how one could be adopted by someone who was already dead, but it seems the lady had anticipated even that and had carefully prepared a separate will.”
The face that looked at him again was expressionless, as though she had finished sorting out her emotions in the meantime. But regardless, Isaac loosened the impulse he had been holding back in a different sense. Slowly, he stroked her soft cheek. Compared to him, her skin was so pale and tender that he feared even the slightest rough touch might chafe it, so he stroked her with great care.
Her green eyes looked at him as he stroked her cheek, as though wordlessly comforting her. Then, without declining, she buried her cheek in his palm and rubbed against it gently.
“So, has the matter on your side been resolved safely?”
“……For now. I have certainly tied the General’s feet.”
“I saw it in the papers. It looked as though he was preparing to flee. Talking about retirement and the like.”
“…….”
“There’s no movement from the ducal house. If anything, it’s strange. People keep talking about the accident involving his younger brother and his wife, and yet they haven’t released any position at all.”
Sasha spoke in a low voice, quietly and evenly, as if reciting.
“Rumors about Jeffrey are still circulating too. It’s not as if he only behaved like a wretch once or twice, but now the things he did are suddenly on everyone’s lips.”
And was that all? Even accounts from witnesses claiming he had shown an obsessive sort of harassment toward Sasha were pouring out one after another.
It felt strange at this late stage. Had those splendid gentlemen from the club Jeffrey used to surround himself with suddenly come to look down on him?
Even when Jeffrey had come to the wedding and caused that small disturbance, the people of society had not easily carried the news outside. They had only talked among their close acquaintances in whispers. And yet even that was now being discussed by people. It was a story conveyed to her by none other than Miss Carroll herself.
It was not a very welcome development. Did it not mean that the ducal house had so little room to spare that it could not even suppress Jeffrey’s trivial rumors?
“I hear the Hound has loosed his men.”
“……The Hound?”
Isaac, who had been silently listening to her story, spoke.
“Among the agents, there has long been a man of ill repute. He calls himself a ‘fixer,’ and he is said to be famous for showing no mercy in his methods, just as his work is clean.”
When Sasha stared at him without a word, Isaac continued.
“The ‘Hound’ is someone who has long taken care of the dirty affairs of those in high places.”
“The duke hired him.”
“Yes. And he has released his subordinates. The undercover agents who had been watching him for some time followed their movements…… and confirmed that their target was the old man named Theodore whom you mentioned last time.”
He was a little worried, considering her attitude earlier, but Isaac began explaining to her without hiding anything. In his own way, he had yielded his stubbornness. Apart from his desire to protect her, it meant he had now fully acknowledged that she was in the same boat as them.
“While I dealt with the matter in York, Wilson tracked the movements of the Hound and his men. And it seems they finally found the place where the servant is hiding. So now, we are going to strike them in return.”
Crackle.
The fire in the hearth, already dying down, crackled one last time, sending up its final spark.
“Even if I am wanted, His Majesty is backing me, so I will be fine. Sasha. And if anything, being in this position makes it easier to move quietly…….”
Isaac trailed off. Seeing her expressionless face, he belatedly faltered, as though stung by guilt, and let the end of his words fade.
Sasha stared at him, at the way he could not meet her eyes properly and avoided her gaze in silence.
Tightening her grip on their interlaced hands, she slowly buried her lips in his palm and kissed it. His palm, callused and faintly smelling of dust, earth, and oil.
Then she pushed the sleeve of his already unbuttoned shirt down to his elbow. The skin on the inside of his sun-browned wrist was revealed. The marks she had once left on him were long since cleanly gone.
“Sasha.”
Whether Isaac called her name with a stunned face or not, Sasha buried her lips against the inside of his wrist. And, as before, she bared her teeth and bit down hard enough to leave a mark.
Only after carving a mark clear enough to satisfy her did she lift her head again. With a face that appeared indifferent at a glance, she spoke as if whispering.
“Promise me you’ll come back safely.”
Their foreheads touched. When Isaac stared at her without a word, she urged him on, stroking over his scar with her fingertips as though tapping it.
A promise. It was only proper not to make a promise one might not be able to keep. Wasn’t a will something one always wrote as a matter of course whenever one entered a battlefield, whenever one undertook an operation? If anything, when he thought of the possibility that he might fail to fulfill her wish, it would be right to tell her he loved her as though it might be the last time.
But Isaac could not do that. He could not tell her, when she looked so stubborn and was practically pressing him to promise, that he could not.
“When you come back, let’s have another wedding.”
Instead of urging Isaac again when he did not answer, she said this.
“Haven’t we already had two?”
“Those were for other people to see. Just the two of us, in that little church.”
The old church in Lance Field.
Isaac felt a sting deep in his throat.
It was just as Isaac was about to open his mouth and say something. Behind them, a door opened, and the fierce sound of wind and rain rushed in, followed by the sound of the door quickly closing again. It seemed Wilson had come in, thinking this much time should be enough, then hurriedly left again.
But Isaac did not even glance that way and simply stared at Sasha.
Slowly, he nodded.
“All right.”
He recalled an emerald ring in a jeweler’s shop that he had, without even realizing it himself, taken note of on a street he had often passed through before.
＊＊＊
The day was overcast. Even so, thanks to the sweltering summer air, it did not feel particularly cool. Sasha stared blankly up at the train in front of her, which was belching steam.
People began hurriedly lining up and boarding the train. Sasha soon boarded with Miss Iver, who had returned after buying the tickets. They headed toward first class and walked straight in.
Unlike the ordinary seats, where everyone sat in rows facing forward, the first-class compartments were divided by section, each able to hold up to four people. Miss Iver naturally took the lead as she walked, opening the door and trying to let Sasha enter. Sasha shook her head, then sent Miss Iver in first.
Then, with her body only half pushed inside, she paused and stuck her head back out to look to the other side. Her eyes met Wilson’s, who was leaning there calmly and smoking a cigarette. Sasha held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded and went fully inside, closing the door.