Episode 45
Marriage was a more complicated procedure than one might expect.
Before exchanging vows, the two families had to meet and discuss the dowry, the trousseau, and even the division of inheritance in preparation for the future. Above all, before the ceremony itself could be held, an announcement had to be placed in the newspaper.
Only after loudly proclaiming to the world for as long as a week that they were getting married could they finally hold the wedding.
Fine. Once they did that, they would become husband and wife without issue.
It was late evening. Isaac sat at the desk in his office, drinking tea as he calmly pictured the future ahead.
In truth, there was no need for him to lift a finger. That woman would smoothly handle everything on her own.
She had been the one to push this marriage forward in the first place, so without any particular intervention from him, she would surely take care of it all.
The process of meeting the families and discussing this and that would likely be omitted.
Especially on her side, since she had no parents, and even the grandmother who had acted as her guardian had passed away.
Usually, in such cases, relatives might step forward for the sake of their niece, but well. Judging by her reaction, there was a high chance the ducal family would barely attend the wedding and leave it at that.
Whenever the ducal family came up in conversation, Sasha tended to stiffen visibly.
And yet she never showed it to him. Even though something serious enough had happened for her to beat up her cousin on the spot, even though there was clearly something going on for her aunt to interfere with her relationship, she never spoke to him about it outright or sought his advice.
So, of course, it was only natural.
After all, they were merely in a transactional relationship. It would have been rather strange for her to confide in him, saying that something like this had happened.
But lately, Isaac had begun to mind it. More than mind it, he had begun to find it somewhat displeasing.
Somehow, he had one-sidedly shown her every shabby, unsightly part of himself, and on top of that had even let her meet Caroline, whom he had not intended to introduce to her. Yet she, in turn, seemed to show him nothing at all.
Of course, she had no obligation to do so.
Isaac had no right to demand it, either.
But Isaac found himself growing more and more curious about her.
He could not understand why she behaved as though she trembled before her deceased grandmother.
It was something he had naturally come to sense through their conversations. She had not liked her grandmother.
No, it was more than simply not liking her.
Well. How should he put it? It was the posture of someone whose body had been trained into obedience. As a soldier, Isaac had seen more obedient people than anyone. He could tell at once.
Sasha Grayson had named the mansion as the reason she had to marry.
She said that her grandmother, Lady Rosalyn, had left a will stating that Sasha could inherit the mansion only if she married.
The mansion where she had grown up since childhood must surely be important to her.
But there was something strange about it.
If someone had practically grown up confined there for all those years, wasn’t it normal to want to run away from the place instead?
Unless she had grown up persecuted at home, as Isaac had.
Like him.
Like himself.
“Captain.”
At the knock that broke through his thoughts, Isaac raised his head.
“Mrs. Caroline has come to see you.”
“……”
Isaac simply stared at Felix, his chin still propped on his hand.
“Captain?”
“All right. Show her to the headquarters reception room.”
“She is already waiting there.”
Ha. Isaac let out a disbelieving laugh and rose from his seat.
“Then I’ll tell her so.”
Felix, watching him pick up his jacket, said that and closed the door.
Isaac got up from his chair, threw on his jacket roughly, and walked toward the door.
On the way, as he passed by the sofa, his gaze drifted toward it. Originally, the one who had always come to find him and torment him was that woman, Sasha Grayson.
The sofa was still full of musty piles of unknown clothes, documents, and all sorts of crude odds and ends. Amid all of it, only his seat and the place across from him where she had sat were cleared in neat circles.
Just as he had cleared them then.
If it had been Mrs. Caroline, the moment he roughly picked up the clothes and shoved them aside, she would have struck him over the head with her fan before even sitting down.
She would have scolded him, demanding where he had learned such manners, and then nagged him for another three hours.
Isaac scratched the back of his neck with a slightly sheepish expression. The belated realization came over him that he had shown that woman so many things he should not have.
Pretending to be stronger than anyone so that others would not look down on him was his specialty, but in front of her, it all came to nothing.
She knew all sorts of ugly and pathetic sides of him.
Isaac belatedly thought that he ought to clear away those remains sometime tomorrow. One never knew.
She might suddenly come to find him again without notice, saying she had a favor to ask or something to tell him.
＊＊＊
“Is that how you go around?”
Those were the first words Mrs. Caroline spoke upon seeing him enter the reception room.
Isaac stopped midway through the door and looked down at his appearance.
“What do you mean?”
“Is that how you always wear your hair?”
Isaac fumbled, smoothing his hair with his palm.
“If you ask me out of nowhere whether I go around like this, I would appreciate it if you were a little more specific.”
“Do you not have a comb in your office?”
“……Grandmother. In case you’ve forgotten, your grandson’s profession is soldier.”
Despite her grandson’s irritable reply, Mrs. Caroline merely sipped her tea and looked around.
Soon, she furrowed her brow and set down the teacup.
Of course. There was no way the tea would suit her taste.
“The officers here all seem to dress themselves quite well. Most of them are neat. I do see the occasional very disreputable-looking person, but for the most part, they at least seem to know how to make a minimal effort.”
“……”
The face of Second Lieutenant Whitcomb, who had wagged his tail so blatantly in front of Sasha, naturally came to mind.
Isaac briefly wondered whether he should kindly explain to Mrs. Caroline, using Second Lieutenant Whitcomb as an example.
That this 4th Infantry Regiment was full of men whose futures were so thoroughly blocked that marriage was their only salvation.
“May I come in?”
“Why are you standing there instead of coming in and sitting down already? Close the door.”
At her tone, which still treated him as though he were fourteen or fifteen, Isaac frowned.
But soon, without a word, he closed the door and sat across from her.
“How often do you meet Miss Sasha?”
She was already calling her Sasha. At the sight of Caroline saying her name without the slightest hesitation, Isaac frowned.
Then he recalled Sasha, who had treated Mrs. Caroline with impeccable courtesy despite how uncomfortable it must have been.
“I don’t know. If she asks to meet, I meet her. If not, I don’t.”
At Isaac’s blunt reply, Mrs. Caroline raised her eyebrows and looked at her grandson as if she was not surprised at all.
She looked at him openly with pity, as though she were looking at a nuisance.
But Sasha had said that even this look of Mrs. Caroline’s contained affection.
“Hm. I see. So you are the one clinging to her. Keep clinging. You’re doing well.”
“……”
She had said that all the faultfinding and nagging Caroline directed at him came from affection.
She had said that, to her eyes, it was plain to see how dearly Caroline cherished Isaac.
It had only been for an instant, but he remembered how cold Sasha’s face had been when she said those words.
Only for a very brief instant, but at that moment, that woman had…
……Without a word, Isaac turned his head and glared at the wallpaper.
Mrs. Caroline did not seem particularly offended. She was thoroughly used to dealing with a sullen Isaac.
Calmly, she continued.
“The rumors have spread quite widely.”
“What are you referring to?”
“Rachel knew them inside and out. She was making such a fuss about wanting to see you too that I had a hard time leaving her behind. I mean the rumors about you and that young lady. For now, it seems only those in the know are aware, but they’ll spread quickly enough. That young lady is quite popular.”
Isaac did not answer her and drank the tea placed before him.
It was a cold-brewed tea suited to the summer weather.
It was bitter.
“Grandmother.”
Caroline looked at him silently, as if asking, What?
“If I truly did not marry, were you planning to leave everything to that child?”
“Who?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I mean Rachel’s younger brother. That twelve-year-old.”
Caroline did not answer right away. She took another sip of the tea she had nearly spat back out after drinking it.
She drank it deliberately.
Because it was disgustingly bitter.
“That child’s name is Philip, Isaac. Not Rachel’s younger brother.”