Chapter 35
Five full days had passed since Sasha left Lance Field, seen off by Isaac.
It was a peaceful Sunday morning. Sasha sat at her desk, writing letters.
She had been so preoccupied with Isaac in various ways that she had not been able to pay attention to such things. Once she began preparing for marriage to him in earnest, she would have even less time for them.
The number of letters had noticeably decreased compared to before. Lady Rosalyn’s old acquaintances were people she only needed to exchange greetings with a few times a year to begin with, and the same went for those who had maintained important business relationships with her.
And the letters from those she had come to know through the duchess had abruptly stopped as well. It was hardly surprising.
It seemed the duchess’s influence was greater than Sasha had thought. Seeing not only the duchess’s acquaintances but even the relatives who used to send trivial letters asking after her suddenly fall silent, Sasha felt anew just how powerful that influence was.
Amid all that, there was no reply from Jeffrey Grayson.
She could set everyone else aside, but Sasha truly wanted a reply from him.
She was curious how Jeffrey Grayson, who had treated her as his future wife as if it were only natural, would react. And since she had decided to make an enemy of him, she wanted to warn him once more not to dare lay a hand on Isaac.
But there was no reply from Jeffrey. Jeffrey Grayson, who always loved to take the lead? It was not a good sign.
Sasha tried to gauge how much time had passed since that incident.
As of today, at least three weeks had gone by.
It had also been three weeks since the invitations from the duchess—who had, at minimum, called her to the townhouse once a week to drink tea together—had ceased.
That was enough time for rumors to spread through those who had attended her tea parties by acquaintance.
For some reason, the duchess who had even served as the young lady’s chaperone no longer invited her to tea parties.
Sasha recalled Jeffrey’s swollen cheeks as she had last seen them, then his neck, covered in red marks from where she had clawed at him.
‘…Ah, perhaps the rumors have already spread quite wildly.’
＊＊＊
The church in the Clumber district was one Lady Rosalyn had attended regularly for a long time.
So, naturally, the rest of the family also made sure to visit whenever they were not too busy.
At the very least, they would send one member of the family in their place.
From the ducal family, it was usually the duchess who came. Until three weeks ago, she had sat side by side with Sasha and attended mass.
Arriving at Clumber Church early on Sunday morning, Sasha realized, as expected, that the duchess was not there.
“Miss Grayson, you are Miss Grayson, aren’t you?”
Just then, an unfamiliar voice called to her from the side.
“Ah, I’m so glad to see you here. The last time I saw you was at the party, so I never thought I’d meet you in a place like this… Ah, I mean, of course I knew you had been attending this church in the district for some time!”
The woman spoke in a fluster.
She was a woman around Sasha’s age. Her clothes looked moderately expensive, and her manner was polite.
The woman naturally took a seat beside Sasha and introduced herself as Merrilson.
“It’s only natural that you don’t recognize me. At the party, all we did was exchange greetings in passing! And to be precise, the one who greeted Miss Grayson was my friend. I only bowed with my eyes from behind.”
Miss Merrilson said with an easygoing smile.
“Come to think of it, do you also attend this church, Miss Merrilson?”
“Oh. No. No, I don’t. I’m staying for a while with an older relative. Together with my brother! Ah, that is….”
When the topic of her brother came up, Miss Merrilson became slightly restless, then trailed off vaguely. Sasha did not go out of her way to ask what she had been trying to say.
Mass began soon after, so Sasha and Miss Merrilson stopped talking and quietly settled into the service.
After mass ended, Miss Merrilson glanced at Sasha as if she wanted to continue their conversation.
“What are those tickets?”
“Ah, they’re theater tickets. For a nearby theater.”
Sasha answered casually, and Miss Merrilson nodded with her eyes wide.
“Ah, do you like plays? I like them too! What play is it?”
Without a word, Sasha took out the ticket and showed it to her.
Miss Merrilson’s eyes widened a little now for a different reason. It was a classic play famous enough that everyone knew its name.
To be precise, it was a classic play famous enough that its name alone could make one yawn.
“I truly love it as well. What a coincidence.”
Miss Merrilson said with exaggerated enthusiasm.
Sasha looked at her with a gentle smile.
‘She’s truly terrible at lying.’
“But it has been a long time since I saw it. I do like it, but where I live, they mostly perform new plays.”
“I see.”
When Sasha gathered her bag and rose, Miss Merrilson stood up after her.
Left with no choice, Sasha asked, “Would you like to walk with me to the carriage?” Miss Merrilson nodded as though she had been waiting for the offer.
When they arrived at the carriage, Sasha hesitated, then asked where the home of the older relative she was staying with was.
With an even happier expression than before, Miss Merrilson quickly gave the address.
While they rode in the carriage together, Miss Merrilson chattered without pause.
She did not live in the capital but in a nearby outlying area, and she had come up to the capital with her brother for the social season.
Following that, she spoke about the parties she had attended recently, and among them, she said, she had never seen a party as lavish as Sasha’s birthday party.
“Ah, of course, it ended the way it did… That is.”
“It became a rather unamusing mishap. Thanks to that, it seems I’ll remain on many people’s lips for quite some time.”
“It was the fault of those people who drank, Miss Grayson. Come to think of it, did you receive an apology from that, um, that man?”
Sasha paused for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes. I received an apology.”
“That’s a relief.”
Miss Merrilson replied as though she had been waiting for that.
After that, they continued their conversation on small topics.
Miss Merrilson seemed to be a woman with more than a little interest—indeed, ambition—toward the capital’s social circles, which appeared to be why she wanted to grow even closer to Sasha.
When they returned to the subject of plays, Miss Merrilson asked Sasha whether she often went to see them.
Sasha nodded mechanically and answered that every Sunday, whenever she went to church, she would go see a play after mass ended.
In other words, this had been Sasha’s fixed schedule for the past several years.
It was a schedule Lady Rosalyn had fastened upon her even after death, using that damned money as leverage.
While Sasha was unpleasantly chewing over that fact anew, Miss Merrilson opened her mouth with a shy expression.
“Actually, I’m planning to stay here for about two more weeks. If you don’t mind, how about going with me next week?”
At a glance, it sounded like an invitation to a date, and Miss Merrilson did have something rather lovely about her.
Perhaps because her motives were so transparent, she was actually easier to deal with.
Sasha readily nodded.
＊＊＊
After dropping Miss Merrilson off and returning to the mansion, Sasha confirmed that a letter had arrived in the meantime.
It was a letter from Isaac Fincher, that man.
Sasha quickly moved across the room, opened the letter, and began to read.
The contents of the letter were brief and simple. It said that he had unexpectedly ended up preparing for a trial and would likely be unable to meet her for the time being, so if anything urgent came up, they should at least exchange letters.
A trial?
Suddenly, a trial?
Sasha pondered for a moment, then sat down at her desk. Then she wrote a short message, indirectly saying that although she did not know for what reason he would be standing trial, she hoped he would prepare well.
After some hesitation, Sasha sealed it in an envelope and had a maid send the letter.
Good. It should be all right to ask this much.