Episode 69
“W-Write it now.”
“Write what?”
“The letter. Right now. ......Write it before my eyes.”
“......I think that’s a bit over the line, Mr. Butler.”
Sasha looked at him with a smiling face and spoke. And she added dryly.
“That you somehow suffered harm due to my immature response is something I can rightly apologize for. However, you cannot set punishments as though I have committed a mortal sin.”
It was a kind of trigger.
The moment Mr. Butler spoke to Sasha in a commanding tone as if it were only natural, the image of a certain woman was superimposed over him. The face of that strict governess who always found fault with her, interrogated her, and eventually made her write densely packed letters of reflection.
Yes. She knew the man before her was not in his right mind. Even so, unable to suppress the rebelliousness rising within her, Sasha could no longer submit meekly to him.
“And above all, this is not a suitable place to write a letter, Mr. Butler. There isn’t even any stationery.”
Mr. Butler was staring at Sasha with a somewhat vacant expression. He gaped slightly at Sasha blankly, then hung his head and stammered even worse than before.
“Y-Yes. I-I know it was an u-unreasonable request. I’m sorry.”
“......”
“I-I have caused, offense. ......B-But we can still stay c-close, can’t we?”
Sasha fell silent for a moment. Then, after a brief pause, she answered, “Of course.”
Mr. Butler stared at her with an inscrutable expression at her calm answer.
“I-I must be g-going. Will you see me out?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Mr. Butler rose from his seat, and Sasha rose after him as if she had been waiting for this.
When she opened the door and went out, two maids waiting there came into view.
“The guest is leaving. I’d like to have the carriage brought around, so go down and tell them.”
“Understood.”
The young maid nodded and passed by them to go down the stairs. The remaining maid naturally entered the drawing room and began clearing away the tea on the table, which hadn’t had a single sip taken from it.
When only the two remained, Sasha naturally began to follow him from behind at a distance of one step. To anyone watching, it was clear she was on her guard. As the mistress of this house, she ought to have walked beside him at the very least. Not let him walk ahead as if he were the master.
“Earlier, truly....... I apologize.”
“You need not apologize repeatedly. I mean it.”
‘I’m sick of it, so stop apologizing,’ Sasha said circuitously in a genteel tone.
Mr. Butler whipped his head around at her tone, which held a faint edge, then faltered. The maid he had thought disappeared into the drawing room was somehow following behind Sasha.
Mr. Butler turned his head forward as if flustered. Sweat beaded heavily in his palms from anxiety. He already knew he must look like a man completely out of his right mind.
Fine. Then there’s no choice. Let’s use the final resort.
Mr. Butler began tapping the floor distractedly with the cane he had brought. Tap-tap, tap. Sasha’s and the maid’s gazes naturally turned to the cane placed near his feet. Sasha stared at the back of his head with a gaze full of disillusionment, saying nothing.
Then, belatedly, she recalled when she had encountered that creepy man who had appeared out of nowhere.
It had really been an insignificant meeting. It was barely worth calling a meeting. Sasha hadn’t even seen his face properly. At some party, he had been pushed aside by the men and was sitting hunched over. Who had been around him? Probably, roughly, yes. They must have been Jeffrey’s friends.
With light pity, Sasha helped him up, and since she meant to show sympathy anyway, she showed the goodwill of offering him a tiny handkerchief for his shoulder, which was wet with alcohol.
......Thinking back on it now, she shouldn’t have shown even that kindness.
“......Miss Grayson.”
The man walking ahead halted. The anxious tapping of his cane on the floor also stopped. Mr. Butler was leaning one hand against the wall. Then, lightly, he clenched his fist and knocked.
Here it is.
“P-Please, I’d like to talk with you for a moment.”
Mr. Butler changed his attitude. And then, the wall he pressed his palm against firmly pushed inward with a thunk.
With one more person present, the situation became even less favorable. Mr. Butler grabbed the back of Sasha’s neck with one hand, pulling her into his arms and covering her mouth, and with his other hand, he roughly covered the mouth and jaw of the maid, who was struggling more violently.
He dragged them straight inside.
Thud. The hidden door turned back into place, and the spot became a complete wall once more.
＊＊＊
Isaac Pincher arrived at Dilton Manor not long after.
It was the second unannounced visit today alone. The servants came forward before the post carriage Isaac rode in with even sharper vigilance than before, and after confirming him getting off the carriage, they exchanged glances with grim expressions.
The butler Jason arrived a little late hearing the news, as before. He had gone early to the carriage side to see off the guest who would soon be leaving together with the master. The moment Isaac got off the carriage, he furrowed his brows at the other carriage standing nearby.
“What’s that carriage? Did that bastard already come and go?”
“Mr. Pincher. What brings you here so suddenly?”
Jason asked him in a tone far more polite than before. Isaac didn’t answer and suddenly asked Jason, “Where is Miss Grayson?”
And then he strode straight into the manor.
The servants looked at Jason as if deeply impressed by his unstoppable attitude in many ways. No matter that he was someone courting the master, they couldn’t let him barge around the manor unannounced like this.
“Mr. Pincher. I shall guide you to the bedroom for now. The master is attending to the guest who arrived first.”
Isaac’s steps, which had been clumping ahead, stopped. Soon, he grabbed Jason’s shoulder with his large hand.
The coercive pressure imbued in his body pierced into Jason. Intimidating someone so they wouldn’t even think of resisting, using his innate frame, was as easy as breathing for Isaac.
“So, that guest.”
It was an immature manner of speaking ill-suited to his oppressive frame or attitude. Isaac, who was more accustomed to a commanding tone that omitted circumstances and explanations, wondered how on earth he should explain what he had heard to this foolish butler.
Can’t they just shut up and move.
“Might his name be Butler or something?”
“For the master’s privacy, that is.......”
“......Mr. Jason.”
The somewhat unfriendly, blatantly one-sided conversation was abruptly cut off by a clear voice that suddenly interjected.
Roseanne, the maid who had gone down to call for the carriage, spoke with her usual innocent face.
“The young lady and the guest aren’t coming down. I’ll go look for them.”
＊＊＊
It was dark all around. Mr. Butler’s muttered threats only amplified the sense of terror due to his unstable, stuttering tone.
His rough breathing heard intermittently, and on top of that, the maid’s panting in fear bored into Sasha’s ears incessantly, as if piercing them. Her mind was nearly on the verge of confusion.
After walking continuously, they arrived at a place where hazy light streamed out. It was similar to the manor’s wine cellar, which she had only entered once or twice. Which is to say, unfortunately, it was not the wine cellar.
Cold stone walls and stone floors added to the eerie atmosphere. Mr. Butler made Sasha and the maid kneel and sit. Unfortunately, they had already come far from that corridor, and it was impossible to gauge where this mysterious space led. Even if they screamed, the stones would clearly absorb it all.
Mr. Butler realized this as well. As if wondering when he had acted roughly, he hurriedly wrapped his arm around the back of Sasha’s neck and massaged it arbitrarily.
“S-Sorry for handling you roughly.”
After apologizing one-sidedly, he took out a handkerchief from his bosom and approached the maid. It was a movement without superfluity, as if long prepared. However, while gagging the maid’s mouth, Mr. Butler’s fingers trembled faintly the whole time.
......What on earth.
Why was he doing something he couldn’t even handle himself.
“Mr. Butler.”
Sasha spoke to him gently in a tone that had become milder than before.
“Please don’t act roughly toward that child anymore. She’s a smart girl, so she’ll understand everything you mean to say.”
She was the maid who had been clearing the seat they vacated, left the room, and naturally followed them. The face was familiar, but she couldn’t remember the name. It was something she realized anew. From the beginning, Sasha hadn’t even thought of learning the names of anyone besides the butler and the head maid.
Anyway, the maid who met eyes with Sasha nodded desperately and sent a glance toward Mr. Butler as well. However, Mr. Butler was even more brazen toward anyone who wasn’t Sasha.
“I-I can’t trust that.”
He eventually took out a long cord and bound the maid’s arms and legs. It was anyone’s guess where he had gotten such a cord.
Ah, so he had been planning this from the start after all.
“M-Miss Grayson. I just want to talk more.”
Mr. Butler, who had laid the maid down roughly, crawled on his knees over to Sasha and spoke. Sasha had been made to lean against the wall.
“Talk?”
“Yes. You misunderstand me. I wish you could know me properly. You will, you will come to like me. I’m certain.”
Mr. Butler spoke in a tone far faster than before, and with eyes not in their right mind, he looked at her as he spoke.