Chapter 43
Only after several days had passed did Sasha belatedly think of it.
Come to think of it, when is he planning to tell that lady about our marriage?
In Sasha’s eyes, Lady Caroline was no ordinary person. Not only was she quick-witted, she was fundamentally intelligent and perceptive.
Sasha imagined herself and Isaac clumsily pretending to be a real married couple in front of Lady Caroline.
Sasha was somewhat confident in herself. The problem, however, was Isaac.
She was watering a potted plant, involuntarily smiling as she pictured that man acting in some ridiculous fashion, when it happened.
A cautious knock sounded.
“Come in.”
A young maid carefully peeked her head in and said to Sasha,
“Miss, Mr. Turner the lawyer is here to see you.”
＊＊＊
Mr. Turner was Lady Rosalyn’s personal lawyer.
Having opened a law office on the outskirts of the capital, he mainly took on the petty affairs of nobles.
Lady Rosalyn had soon taken the unremarkable country-born lawyer on as her personal attorney.
She said she had spoken with him a few times and found him decent. Then she added, as her reason, that he seemed as if he knew how to keep his mouth shut.
Yes. Even setting aside the fact that Mr. Turner was a lawyer, he was a tight-lipped man.
Mr. Turner’s primary work was handling every legal matter for the Gillian Foundation that Lady Rosalyn had established.
He had also drafted the will Lady Rosalyn left behind, and he was responsible for distributing the inheritance she left according to her wishes in life.
Sasha looked at Lawyer Turner with an expressionless face.
Even in Sasha’s view, he was a decent person.
It was just that he was openly Lady Rosalyn’s man.
It was just that he was the person who openly and regularly stopped by to inspect, without fail, whether Sasha had completed every last piece of homework Lady Rosalyn had left behind.
……Yes. Aside from that, he was better than most.
As always, Lawyer Turner was sitting in the drawing room with his legs crossed, staring expressionlessly at a piece of paper. Even when Sasha came trudging in with a thoroughly fed-up look and sat down, he showed no particular reaction, merely raising an eyebrow.
“Have I come too early?”
Even after noticing that Sasha seemed to be in an unusually low mood, that was all he asked. Sasha shook her head.
“No. Do what you were doing.”
“Very well.”
Even after hearing her reply, so perfunctory it felt downright chilly, he simply did what he always did and meticulously checked, item by item, whether she had violated the will in the meantime.
It had been a regular occurrence ever since that damned will had been revealed, and ever since Sasha had decided to abide by it.
“How is that marriage in question coming along?”
The lawyer asked. Even this was in a tone that made it sound utterly natural, as if he were checking her homework.
Even that irritated Sasha terribly.
“Are you still in the middle of persuading that captain?”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
Sasha answered sourly.
Mr. Turner, who had been looking over the list of assignments Sasha had handed him as though he had no great interest, finally lifted his eyes.
“Giving up?”
“Who knows.”
Mr. Turner asked again as if to confirm, then uncrossed his legs and sat up straight.
“Did he refuse violently to the very end?”
“Who knows.”
Mr. Turner raised an eyebrow at Sasha’s insincere answer.
Since she showed no sign of offering any further explanation, he decided to employ what he was best at: prying.
“Hmm. Wasn’t that man in just as desperate a position as you?”
Sasha looked at Mr. Turner without saying a word.
Instead of obediently answering, Actually, I succeeded, she quietly rolled her eyes.
As her meetings with Isaac grew more frequent, Sasha began to feel a strange emotion welling up inside her.
Was it antipathy? No, it was not antipathy. It was far deeper and more intimate than that.
Then was it affection? It was similar to affection, but that was not it either.
How was she supposed to explain this ambiguous feeling precisely?
For Sasha, who had never so much as made a proper friend, let alone fallen in love, this vague emotion was impossible to explain.
Lawyer Turner was, by any standard, not a suitable person for her to consult.
He was indifferent, and to be honest, the type who had no interest in other people.
And so, ironically, he was both unsuited and suited to being her counselor.
Sasha stared blankly at Mr. Turner’s bespectacled face, then said,
“He’s too innocent. That man.”
After hearing Sasha’s reason, Mr. Turner swept one eyebrow upward.
“Why? Did that man confess that he had truly fallen for you?”
What is he suddenly talking about?
Sasha raised an eyebrow.
“Pardon? Absolutely not. That’s not it. I’d rather he had. Then at least I’d have grounds to openly push him away.”
“……Grounds.”
“…….”
A lawyer was still a lawyer. He had a fair amount of skill when it came to digging into a person’s psychology. Even if, in itself, it was merely a mechanical sort of interest.
Mr. Turner pushed up his glasses, which had slipped slightly, and said,
“You put quite a bit of effort into that man, didn’t you?”
“I did. We even went on things like dates. We went to Mrs. Malkin’s restaurant, and we set a rowboat afloat in the middle of the lake and talked.”
“Ah, that far?”
Listening to Mr. Turner’s unimpressed reply, Sasha let out an irritated sigh.
“Because I judged that, for me, he was worth investing that much time in. Once we actually talked, he turned out to be a man with a deep-rooted distrust of people as a whole, but he himself wasn’t bad.”
“Wasn’t bad? Do you mean you enjoyed talking to him?”
“That’s not it. Of course, it wasn’t as if I had no curiosity about him as a person, but, well, even if it was only a marriage in form, he was still someone I was going to marry, so I had to know what kind of person he was, didn’t I? So……”
Sasha trailed off.
Why on earth did the image of Isaac standing stiffly in front of the restaurant as if he had stolen someone else’s suit, and the distrustful glances he had kept casting at her throughout their conversation as if he suspected her rather than felt any goodwill, keep disordering her thoughts? She truly could not understand it.
Since she herself could not make sense of it, she stopped talking and simply glared at Mr. Turner.
Mr. Turner was not a good person to consult, but because of the nature of his profession, he had done plenty of things similar to it, and he accepted Sasha’s inexplicable glare as if it were familiar.
“That man was completely different from what I expected.”
“……What did you expect from him?”
As Mr. Turner responded to Sasha’s mutter, he thought,
‘Ah, I’ve become rather skilled at counseling.’
Whether or not Mr. Turner was thinking that, Sasha continued, glaring at the blameless floor.
“He was more of a gentleman than I thought. Of course, no matter what the rumors say, he was born the young master of a noble family in the first place……”
“Of course. Miss Grayson, if he had gone around all day behaving the way he did when he caused that uproar at your birthday party, then never mind being a soldier, he would have been locked up in a mental hospital the whole time.”
At Mr. Turner’s perfectly reasonable reply, Sasha let out a dumbfounded, “Ha.”
“I don’t just mean that unexpected courtesy. I mean he was quite kind.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Of course, at first he was truly blunt. But the more time passed, the softer he became. He treated me very well. Of course, he was terribly awkward about it.”
“So he was kinder and more courteous than expected. Was that such a fatal flaw that it made you want to throw away all the time you had spent on him?”
Mr. Turner asked calmly.
For a moment, Sasha stared at Mr. Turner with blank eyes.
“……No. I told you. It’s just because of me.”
Mr. Turner now openly rolled his eyes. However, he did not look irritated. He merely looked a little inconvenienced.
“His unexpectedly courteous and kind side made you……”
“Enough of that. It’s just that, while talking to him, before I knew it……”
“Before you knew it?”
If she said it out loud, it would be as good as truly admitting it.
Was she really supposed to confess those feelings that left even herself dumbfounded?
She was not pleased by it, but the words came out obediently. It was possible because the person before her was Mr. Turner.
“When I talked with that man, I felt strange. I was envious.”
“In what specific situation?”
“When I met his grandmother. When I realized that he was someone who received plenty of his grandmother’s love, that is, when I saw him being nagged with affection by that lady. But then, when I saw the irritated look on his face, as if that were something truly bothersome and ordinary……”
Sasha had unwittingly poured out everything she had kept inside, then belatedly snapped back to herself and jerked her head up.
“What is the problem with that?”
Mr. Turner, who had been listening to Sasha with an indifferent face, replied.
“Isn’t it natural for someone who does not have something to look at someone who does and feel envy and jealousy? Miss Grayson, you were entrusted to an orphanage from birth, and even after you came here, you were not exactly raised with love. It is only natural that seeing such a sight would make you feel envious.”
“…….”
Sasha stared blankly at Mr. Turner as his words spilled out without so much as a filter.
Then, belatedly, she replied,
“It’s strange that you attach the title ‘Miss Grayson’ while saying something like that.”
“Because I don’t know your real name. What is your real name?”
Mr. Turner asked with an unmoved face.
A brief silence passed.
Sasha answered with a somewhat dazed expression.
“……I don’t know. There were three names I was called there.”
“…….”
“……Is it important to know my real name?”
Mr. Turner replied coolly.
“No.”