Episode 160
A humid summer breeze tickled her temples.
The hospital backyard wasn’t as splendid as most gardens, but it had the bare minimum. Sasha settled onto a bench near the flower bed.
There were almost no people nearby. Even if staying cooped up in a hospital room was boring, it was clear that no one could muster the will to come out, as it would soon be sweltering.
Sasha swept back her falling hair and picked up one of the newspapers she had gathered. Then she began calmly scanning through it from the front page.
She had expected it, but they were all talking about that matter again. ‘Terror.’ Even the headlines contained such a provocative word. Terror. Yes. It was no different from terrorism.
News concerning General Churston was also featured, albeit with less weight. It detailed how he had been forced out of power, virtually dragged down, despite his haste to resign. It seemed there were quite a few people who had suffered unreasonable retaliation from him besides Operation Selwood. The article stated that these cases were being brought forth one after another, and he was suffering successive indictments.
Something about the Duke could be found as well. Of course, most articles mainly dealt with Jeffrey in relation to the train incident, but a small piece also mentioned that the royal family had banned the Duke from leaving the country under the pretext of investigation and issued a summons.
Above all, since Miss Iver, who held crucial evidence, had already been called in for investigation, it was clear that matters regarding the Duke would also surface.
‘If they would just squeeze Jeffrey, who has already been arrested…….’
Sasha muttered inwardly and was about to turn the page when she paused. Unexpected news was printed there. It was about the Duchess unilaterally presenting divorce papers to the Duke’s side and preparing for divorce proceedings.
She must know better than anyone that a divorce now wouldn’t absolve her of the charges.
Sasha suddenly recalled what the Duchess had said to her when they last met.
“I feel somewhat grateful to you, Sasha. Thanks to you, I’ve come to realize many things. For instance, how the child I cherished as if he were the apple of my eye actually despised and looked down upon me…….”
Now she felt she understood the reason for the sense of dissonance she had felt then. She felt she now understood why the Duchess had worn an expression of resignation bordering almost on relief.
Could it be that the Duchess’s will had been the final brake holding back the Duke couple’s ruthless plan of cutting off their son to secure their own survival?
Judging by the dates, after she had said those words to Sasha, articles had poured out oddly criticizing Jeffrey’s usual conduct.
“It’s still a pity. If you had come to me obediently, well. Perhaps I could have removed Jeffrey with my own hands.”
They were meaningless words now. But what if Sasha had acted as if relying on the Duchess, like Miss Lytton.
……If that had happened.
Following that futile speculation, an image of her from childhood rose up. The sight of her being caught smoking while hiding from the Duchess Dowager, looking at young Sasha without the slightest hint of agitation.
Sasha now felt she knew exactly what that strange emotion she had felt while watching her then was. It was admiration. Watching her boldly deviate in that suffocatingly rigid place, young Sasha had felt admiration for her.
She was a woman well-versed in handling people; she must have immediately seen through a child’s inner thoughts. She must have judged that she could win her over without even trying hard.
Until things soured because of Jeffrey, the Duchess had indeed treated Sasha quite well.
Sasha ruminated up to that point, then turned the page with an impassive face.
“……Madam!”
At the same time, a young woman’s voice came from afar.
Sasha quickly lifted her head and looked around. Among the few scattered people sitting about, she seemed to be the only one addressed as ‘Madam,’ so she turned her head in the direction of the voice.
“Mrs. Fincher! You have no idea how surprised I was when you weren’t in your room!”
“Who are you?”
“I’m a nurse your husband hired. Please call me…… Nellie. I had just gone in to introduce myself, but the bed was empty……”
She was a young woman Sasha’s age. Seeing Nellie panting and wiping sweat, Sasha apologized and explained that she had gotten permission from the nurse beforehand before coming out.
Nellie nodded, then turned her head behind her and said, “Thank you,” greeting someone.
Sasha looked in that direction following her and paused. It was a familiar face.
The man looked greatly flustered as Sasha’s gaze fixed on him.
“……It’s been a while, Miss Grayson.”
Before Sasha could acknowledge him first, the man greeted her as if stung.
And he hastily corrected himself.
“No, I should call you Mrs. Fincher now.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve been called that. If you don’t mind, shall we talk for a moment?”
Sasha invited Cedric and gestured to the nurse. The nurse nodded and sat on another bench slightly away from Sasha’s. Sasha looked at Cedric again.
“……I’m sorry. I knew you were hospitalized here and tried my best to avoid running into you, but I was trying to help a certain lady who was desperately looking for someone……”
Cedric had been spouting excuses before even approaching, then soon sat down beside Sasha with a resolved expression, keeping a certain distance.
“I wanted to apologize. The whole time.”
“For what, exactly?”
“……It was Robert and I who revealed your identity to the young duke.”
It wasn’t surprising now.
Sasha looked at Cedric without any response.
Cedric didn’t seem to particularly expect a reaction from Sasha either. He looked into the distance for a moment, took a deep breath as if to compose himself, and opened his mouth again.
“Robert…… bore a grudge because of what happened at the party. He was investigating you behind your back to humiliate you somehow. And then…… he came into contact with someone who knew about your past.”
“When exactly?”
“It was before you and I met again. Yes. Before we reunited at that old chapel in Clumber…… we were already gathering evidence. It was rather unnatural for a coincidence in many ways, so I thought you might have known. That I had approached you…… by no means with pure intentions.”
Sasha nodded and replied.
“……Yes. I knew. In many ways, you were clumsy. The timing, the place…… And above all, Mr. Osmond, you were so nervous that I caught on immediately.”
When Sasha affirmed calmly, Osmond smiled as if relieved somehow.
“But for someone who approached me like that, you spent that day only talking about yourself and left.”
“……Yes. You remember all of it.”
Sasha smiled along with him and spoke jestingly.
Cedric smiled with a face now almost contorted as if he were crying.
“So, what exactly were you trying to do with me that day?”
“……I was trying to check for a scar. I heard there was a scar on the inside of your collarbone, shaped unmistakably. I planned to check it while making ordinary conversation…… to feel you out.”
Sasha blinked at Cedric’s honest words for a moment, then soon smiled again.
Ah. That scar.
“It disappeared a long time ago.”
“……Ah, yes. That’s a relief.”
Cedric answered as if truly relieved. Now his face was on the verge of tears.
Sasha looked at him silently for a moment, then asked.
“What you told me that day, was it real?”
“Which…… What exactly did I say to you then?”
“The story about your sister.”
“……Ah.”
Tears brimming over could not even trail down his cheeks before dropping straight off his chin, plop, plop.
Cedric nodded and answered.
“Yes. It was real. That is…… it’s real.”
Once the talk of his younger sister came up, Cedric seemed unable to control himself any longer. Tears fell plop, plop onto his lap, continuously without stopping.
It wasn’t hard to guess. His younger sister must have been Cedric’s greatest weakness.
The weaknesses Robert held over Cedric must have passed straight on to Jeffrey. By the time he realized, it must have been too late.
“……I’m sorry.”
Cedric apologized once more. Now his eyes and nose were red as he sobbed like a child.
Sasha merely listened to his apology quietly, offering no reply.
Because Cedric hadn’t apologized expecting forgiveness from the start.
The nurse sitting nearby looked at Sasha with a surprised face upon seeing that beautiful man crying.
“Mr. Osmond, at this rate people will get the wrong idea.”
When Sasha pointed that out in a dry tone, Cedric quickly wiped his tears.
Normally she would have offered a handkerchief. Sasha looked down at the white gown she was wearing, then looked at Cedric. He too was in a hospital nightshirt, shabbier than his usual attire, and through the undone buttons, bandages wrapped around his upper body were visible.
Sasha stared at it and asked.
“How did you get hurt?”
Cedric stopped crying and answered.
“……Ah, I was shot.”
“By whom? My husband, by any chance?”
“……No. By the Duke’s…… people……”
Cedric stopped mid-sentence.
It was because explaining the situation in detail was awkward. That at the decisive moment, his conscience pricked him and he claimed not to have seen her husband when he had, and right then he was shot. Saying it as it was might sound like he was appealing for forgiveness—claiming that in the end he had been on her side—so he was hesitant.
But whether Cedric hesitated or not, Sasha nodded as if convinced by that brief explanation alone.
“I see. It seems they were conducting an internal cleanup separately. To them, you appeared to be Jeffrey’s man, so you were immediately marked as a target……”
Her tone was steeped in thick disillusionment. Her expression was cold as well.
Cedric rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, then looked at her.
Whether he did so or not, Sasha looked into the distance for a moment.
When it came down to it, the only direct harm Sasha had suffered because of Cedric was the leak of her identity to Jeffrey.
Did she dare have the right to accept such a tearful apology? Sasha didn’t think so.
“You don’t need to apologize to me, Mr. Osmond. Of course, that matter was truly difficult, but strictly speaking, it was my own doing, as I had tried to deceive and trick everyone.”
The face of Isaac looking at her with shattered trust and the image of herself apologizing to him over and over came to mind again. It was something she never wanted to repeat.
“……I’ve decided to live honestly now. Even if there is a slightly less miserable and less painful path, in the end you only get paid back several times over for it.”
“……”
“It may sound like impertinent meddling, but you should try living that way too. Having apologized so honestly it was almost ugly, that turned out to be the better path for me.”
As Cedric looked at her with a blank face, Sasha spoke as if pointing it out once more.
“To your sister.”
“……”
“Tell her honestly that you were a shameful brother until now. If she truly loves you, she will forgive you in the end.”
Cedric turned his head to look straight ahead. And for a long while he said nothing, rubbing his cheeks where the tears had begun to dry.
“Thank you, Miss Grayson. ……No.”
Before Cedric could correct himself again, Sasha calmly changed the subject.
“By the way, how did you know I was hospitalized here?”
“……Ah. It seems everyone involved in that matter was sent here. In my case, I was originally going to be separated off like the others, but thankfully someone vouched for me.”
Cedric glanced at Sasha as if testing the waters, but Sasha was no longer looking at him.
‘Then he must be here too.’