Episode 19
A familiar sense of helplessness came over her. It seeped into her from head to toe, damp and heavy as mud.
And I don’t even know why I’m talking about this with this man in the first place. I don’t know why I’m telling him everything, either.
“……For a moment, I saw red. When I came to my senses, I was slapping her across the face.”
“…….”
“I didn’t care whether people were watching or not. I was just hitting her. But I really couldn’t endure it……. It’s not that I don’t regret it, but even if I could turn back time, I think I’d hit her again.”
Isaac silently looked down at the woman’s face as she rambled on one-sidedly.
“After getting all worked up and hitting her, only my hand ended up swollen. It’s still a little swollen now.”
Listening to Sasha mutter, Isaac stared at the back of her right hand, covered by a glove.
“It’s because you lack technique.”
At Isaac’s flat reply, Sasha let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
“I suppose so. Unlike you, Captain, I’m a civilian. I never learned things like how to hit other people.”
“If you learn, you’ll get used to it quickly. Women can sufficiently…….”
Isaac stopped speaking so earnestly when Sasha burst out laughing outright.
“So, are you offering to teach me how to assault someone efficiently?”
“…….”
Only then did Isaac unnaturally avert his gaze from hers. He himself did not know why he had prattled on like that. Normally, he would have simply glanced at her as if to say, Pathetic, and left it at that.
He did not know. Isaac still did not know much about that woman. And yet, as he listened to talk of a maid forced to mind her master’s mood, of an aunt who had chased away all her marriage candidates, as he looked at her seeming isolated within her own household, he presumptuously found himself seeing his own reflection in her.
Besides, now that he had spoken with her like this, the woman was quite normal. At the very least, she was far more humanly likable than during her previous visit, when she had kept smiling and laughing so prettily.
“Your cousin, that man called the young duke—what did he do for you to react that way?”
“Ah, that’s a sensitive matter, so I can’t tell you. But aside from that, he kept acting in ways that got on my nerves.”
After sighing, Sasha began walking again.
Isaac naturally walked behind her, about a step away.
He could see her yellow hat. It was yellow, like her dress.
“He acts as though he’s already married to me. As if lecturing me that I shouldn’t treat the servants that way wasn’t enough, he was even thinking of replacing them with people under his own command.”
“…….”
“Since we’re speaking of reputations, isn’t Jeffrey Grayson’s reputation famous among gentlemen as well? I heard there were quite a few gentlemen who spent time with him a few times, then were disgusted and fell away.”
“I wouldn’t know. As for society, the only events I attended were a few parties I followed my half-brother to, and the most recent—and last—was your birthday party, Miss Grayson.”
Isaac spoke calmly.
Sasha raised her eyebrows as if she had expected as much, yet smiled as though she found that extremely likable instead.
“I see. While they were pitifully forming gentlemen’s clubs and whatnot to drink and fool around, you were training for the sake of the nation, Captain.”
“Don’t praise me too much. You must have seen that the so-called officers here are quite lacking as well. The moment you arrived, every one of them got excited and stared at you like a piece of meat.”
As Isaac said that, he frowned as though something displeased him.
Whether Witcomb got excited and tried to seduce her or not, why had he impulsively ended up stepping in between the two of them?
“Every last one of them, without a shred of dignity…….”
Isaac muttered as if rationalizing it to himself. Yes. Dignity. As a superior officer, seeing them show not the dignity of officers but the very opposite, he must have thought he should set an example, and his body had simply moved on its own. Probably.
However, once he brought up dignity, Isaac’s face grew hot. After all, the one who had caused a disturbance that tarnished an officer’s honor more than anyone else was none other than himself.
While Isaac was grumbling to himself inwardly like that, Sasha stared at him for a moment with a curious expression. The more she got to know him, the more she felt there could be no better candidate as a marriage partner.
A man who had no affection for her, even less interest, and so little shame that it could easily offset a small degree of guilt. On top of that, now that she had spoken to him like this, he was more than she had expected…….
Sasha stopped herself from saying something with a detached, indifferent face, as if to let whatever happened happen. She naturally returned to her usual calm and demure expression.
“Thank you for listening.”
“…….”
Isaac did not particularly reply. Regardless, she looked at him and smiled.
“In any case, though it’s a little embarrassing, you’ve come to know my circumstances.”
Not all of them, though.
Sasha added inwardly as she spoke.
“In that sense, perhaps you might reconsider the proposal I made…….”
“No. That has nothing to do with this.”
After having seemed quite human for a moment, Isaac refused flatly, as if it had never happened.
“So you really aren’t in any urgent hurry, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“During your marriage meetings, to the ladies you met…….”
“Enough of that subject.”
Isaac quickly cut her off.
Sasha raised the corners of her lips, smiling in a way that looked suitably sheepish yet kind.
“I was simply curious. When I looked into it a little, it seemed your grandmother’s influence is tremendous, so you must obey her words no matter what…….”
“We’ve arrived.”
Isaac abruptly stopped in the middle of the road and said.
It was the entrance to the village. They still had to walk a little farther to reach the major’s private residence.
“I’m sorry if I made you feel pressured. It’s just that, since we’ve both come to know each other’s circumstances better, I hoped you might consider it a little more.”
“……Understood.”
Isaac answered bluntly, as if to say he understood, so she should stop.
Despite that negative tone, Sasha’s expression barely changed as she smiled faintly.
“Thank you for escorting me this far. I’ll really be going now.”
Isaac stood rooted to the spot, staring as the woman in the yellow dress passed him and moved farther away.
Only after watching her turn the left corner, enter the alley, climb the steps, and reach the front of the major’s private residence, becoming no bigger than a finger, did he turn his back.