Chapter 161
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“Captain Isaac Wilton Pinscher.”
The Queen’s chamberlain spoke as he looked at Isaac. Isaac, who had been wiping at the sweat dampening his forehead, met his gaze and offered a greeting.
Naturally, the blazing midday heat did not spare the palace simply because it was a palace. Isaac followed behind the chamberlain down the marble corridor. Red velvet curtains hung over the windows that lined the walls one after another. It seemed even palace people were not especially good at enduring summer.
While he was idly thinking such trivial thoughts, the chamberlain glanced back at Isaac and said,
“Her Majesty wishes to speak with you today not in the reception room, but in her private garden, Captain. It is an honor.”
It sounded as if he were urging him to hurry up and be delighted. With an expressionless face, Isaac replied, “I see.”
Without any particular reaction, the chamberlain resumed walking ahead. Before long, they arrived at the glass doors leading to the Queen’s private garden. Isaac had been here once before, so he wondered how much could possibly have changed. Following the chamberlain into the garden with an unmoved expression, Isaac raised his eyebrows at the unexpectedly more splendid sight.
The Queen’s garden had become even more magnificent than when he had last visited. Between the hedges, roses of every color exuded their distinct fragrance. From the marble fountain at the center of the garden, streams of water caught the sunlight and scattered in rainbow hues. The Queen was seated at a white iron table beneath a pavilion not far from the fountain.
“I greet Your Most Exalted Majesty.”
Drawing on the memory of his previous visit, Isaac paid his respects smoothly and properly. Looking down at Isaac as he knelt on one knee, the Queen smiled benevolently.
“Sit. Let us have tea together.”
“It is an honor, Your Majesty.”
“I apologize for summoning you when you are already busy. I understand you are on your way back from the military court.”
“That is correct.”
Isaac answered as much and sat down across from the Queen. He did not follow it with any courteous reply to the Queen’s words, such as saying it was quite all right.
The chamberlain looked at Isaac as though he were something strange, but the Queen shook her head once, as if to tell him not to interfere.
Isaac truly was tired. Since he had put things off, he had been forced to respond to all sorts of investigations and summonses at once, and on top of that, he had to go through the military trial schedule. His mind was in complete chaos.
Soon, a cup of red afternoon tea was placed before each of them.
“I called you here because I wished to inform you, if only briefly, of our plans going forward.”
The Queen lifted her tea, took a sip, and spoke.
“As for that regrettable train incident in Wordington, a dedicated headquarters will be established within two days. Putting aside the young duke in question, we intend to thoroughly investigate how a wanted hired killer was able to board safely along with as many as eight of his subordinates. Trains have only just begun to be seen not as terrifying lumps of scrap iron but as vehicles more convenient than carriages. We cannot allow them to appear once again as objects of fear in the eyes of the people, can we?”
Isaac followed the Queen’s example and took a sip of tea.
The Queen went on to tell him that the investigation into the Duke was also proceeding separately beneath the surface. She said that all those involved had already been summoned and were being investigated in secret, and that only after the investigation was completed and the findings compiled would they be announced to the public.
General Thurston, who had fallen from power, would have to be called back to court. This time, not to a military court, but to the royal court. And the Duke and Duchess would likely be summoned alongside him as well.
“Captain.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“There is one more reason I called you here separately despite knowing how busy you are. I wanted to say thank you. To you, Captain, and also to your wife, Mrs. Pinscher.”
“……”
“You have suffered much. From now on, everything will proceed smoothly.”
In truth, Isaac still could not quite believe it. Perhaps it would only feel real once the news that General Thurston, as well as the Duke and Duchess, had been arrested appeared in the newspapers. That their suffering had finally come to an end.
Instead of responding to the Queen’s words of encouragement, Isaac remained silent. A rush of emotion had welled up in him all over again.
“If I had my way, I would have liked to summon the rumored Mrs. Pinscher as well.”
“……My wife still…… needs stability.”
If the Queen called her, Sasha would of course comply. Not because she was purely happy to do so, but entirely under the pretext of doing it for him, her husband.
Unable to say that honestly, Isaac settled on a suitable excuse. The Queen smiled as though that alone was enough for her to understand.
“I believe Mrs. Pinscher is quite perceptive and intelligent.”
“She is. She is far more than I deserve.”
The chamberlain, who had been standing quietly near the Queen, raised his eyebrows again. The Queen gave a small laugh at Isaac’s candid answer.
And so she decided not to say that this was precisely why it was fortunate his wife had married him. The supposition of what might have happened if she had entrusted herself to someone else was, at this point, nothing but a useless one.
The Queen then gave him news about Jeffrey. She seemed well aware that Jeffrey had been quite fixated on Sasha in a personal sense all this time. She told him that while he would likely be released after the investigation before long, people would be assigned to him separately, so he would have no chance to approach Isaac or Sasha.
The moment Jeffrey’s name came up, Isaac’s eyes slanted askew. If that bastard came to him on his own two feet, it would be rather welcome. Did he not now have a perfectly proper reason to beat him to a pulp?
“It seems I have kept you too long. You may rise, Captain.”
“It has been an honor, Your Majesty.”
Isaac rose from his seat as if he had been waiting for the words. Then, just as he had when he arrived, he offered a courteous bow before following the chamberlain out of the garden.
After confirming that their figures had completely disappeared into the distance, the Queen gestured to the attendant behind her. Soon, from deeper inside the garden, a small girl in a dress came pattering over to the Queen and sat beside her.
“Are you finished speaking with your guest, Your Majesty?”
“Oh, yes. My dear, did you wait long?”
“No. I was so absorbed in my book that I didn’t notice the time passing. I don’t have much left until the last page.”
With a beaming smile, the Queen embraced her niece and sat her on her lap.
“Ellie, you truly do love books. What book do you like best?”
“The Portrait of Mr. Lewis.”
“That seems like a rather difficult book for you.”
“But it’s interesting. I want to see the play too, but Mother says I’m too young and won’t allow it. I don’t understand why books are all right but plays aren’t.”
Ellie resembled Evelyn, the Queen’s most beloved younger sister, and was lovely and sweet. She was also clever, so there was no reason for the Queen not to adore her.
Still only six years old, Ellie wriggled on her aunt the Queen’s lap, then carefully looked up at her.
“What about the book teacher you told me about last time, Your Majesty? I’m not urging you.”
At her niece’s words, the Queen looked toward the door through which Isaac had just left.
“Oh. That…… I think I shall have to look a little longer. I will certainly bring you a teacher who suits your tastes. I promise.”
Only after Ellie had insisted on hooking her pinky around the Queen’s and securing the promise did she whisper, “I love you, Your Majesty,” in her ear and go off to read again. Ellie was Evelyn’s daughter, but soon she would be the Queen’s daughter as well. It was only after several years had passed since the Queen had lost her fiancé, Count Gosford, in vain that she made that decision.
That she would pass the next throne on to her.
The Queen, watching her niece’s small back recede with a pleased expression, gestured again to the side. Miss Felt, the secretary who had at some point arrived and was waiting, approached.
“As you said, it seems the Duke intended to seek asylum if things came to that.”
“Where?”
“The Principality of Malta, where His Highness the Prince is in exile, Your Majesty. We have yet to find evidence that the two sides made separate contact.”
As she listened to Miss Felt’s report, the Queen smiled and tapped her fingers, tap, tap, on the armrest of her chair.
No matter how much they claimed that their ties were severed now, evidence had just fallen into her hands that they had conspired together in the past. With material evidence, as well as various suspicious psychological circumstances, now in her grasp, the Queen would finally be able to drag back her younger brother, who had long been a thorn in her side, and put an end to it completely.
This time, she would truly end it. The Queen had no intention of handing down a lukewarm punishment that would be worse than doing nothing, as her father, the late king, had done.
The Queen looked at the small back of her niece, who was lying comfortably on her stomach in the garden and reading a book.
Yes. My lovely Ellie, you must not go through hardship as I did.
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When he arrived at the hospital in the capital where Sasha was admitted, the midday sun was at its hottest.
Isaac hurriedly wiped away the sweat gathered on his forehead and the nape of his neck even more carefully than he had when entering the palace. In his hand, he carried an entire box of the blended tea Sasha liked. It was something he had chosen on Matilda’s advice. Apparently, when Sasha had stayed at the Major’s private residence, she had especially liked this tea.
If he had his way, he would have visited every day, but he had been so busy over the past few days that he had not even been able to show his face. Because of that, Isaac was feeling rather nervous. Of course, Sasha was not someone who would fail to understand his circumstances, but he worried that she might feel even the slightest bit disappointed.
Sasha, disappointed because she had not seen him.
In truth, that was his wish.
“Sasha.”
Isaac knocked on the hospital room door, and when there was no answer, he carefully opened it and stepped inside. The spacious private room was empty. As he stood there with a puzzled expression, a woman carrying a basin of water approached from behind and spoke to him.
“Captain.”
“Ah, you.”
It was the caregiver Isaac had personally hired not long ago. The young woman passed Isaac and entered the room, telling him that Sasha was spending time separately with her friends.
“……Friends? You mean visitors?”
“No. People admitted here. They’re probably in the private room at the very end of the third floor.”
Friends who were hospitalized?
Isaac listened to her with a somewhat blank expression, then headed for the stairs without looking back. Taking two steps at a time in long strides, he headed for the private room said to be at the very end of the third floor.
When he knocked, he heard a “Yes.” It was Sasha’s voice.
Wearing an ambiguous expression, unsure whether he should be relieved or not, Isaac opened the door and stepped inside.
“Oh. Captain. You’re here.”
Wilson, lying in the bed, greeted him calmly.
Isaac looked at Wilson, who was lying there wrapped in bandages over nearly his entire body—his head, arms, legs, and torso alike—then looked back at Sasha.
She was sitting at a table set up in front of the bed, playing cards with two people.
“Did Miss Nelly tell you? Ah, this is my husband, Mrs. Wilson.”
Sasha calmly introduced Isaac to the woman seated on her right. Flustered, Isaac dipped his head to the woman in greeting. Then his gaze naturally turned to the man seated on Sasha’s left.
Isaac’s head tilted crookedly to one side.
“Ah, I should…… probably get going……”
As Cedric tried to rise from his seat with a rather flustered expression, Mrs. Wilson and Sasha said at the same time, “No.” Cedric, half-risen, sat back down.
The gaze piercing the back of his head was fierce. It was the very definition of sitting on pins and needles.
“……It seems you were not injured badly enough to have trouble moving around.”
Isaac spoke while staring at the back of Cedric’s head.
Unable to endure it, Cedric rose again, only to be stopped once more.
At that, Cedric decided that game or not, he needed to lose quickly and run.