Chapter 78
Just as the Duchess had said, it had been Sasha herself who told Jeffrey about the hidden room in Dilton Manor. After all, there was no way that finicky old woman would have told Jeffrey, whose prospects had been rotten from the very beginning.
Young Jeffrey Grayson had been trapped in Dilton Manor after the funeral of his uncle and aunt, passing the time in boredom. Given the atmosphere, he could not even run wild and play more than usual, so his ill temper had reached its peak.
That was when young Sasha Grayson called out to him.
It was the thin voice of his young cousin that had faintly reached him from inside. When she asked him to open the door and let her out, Jeffrey remained silent for a moment instead of answering right away. Then Jeffrey spoke toward the inside of the door.
“Why should I? If I let you out, I’ll obviously get scolded by that old witch. Why would I?”
It was a truly low-class retort, perfectly fitting for a child his age. At Jeffrey’s words, the movement inside ceased—the movement of someone who had been turning the doorknob with hope only moments before. The tiny girl, who barely came up to Jeffrey’s nape, spoke again from inside.
“You won’t get scolded. I’m only going to one room. I promise. I’ll just stop by that room and come right back here. I really will.”
“What room? The kitchen? The bathroom?”
He had expected his young cousin to do no more than whine about being hungry or bored, so her unexpectedly composed answer caught him off guard. It was a little strange. His cousin, who was said to have lost her senses from the shock and could barely speak properly, was speaking more maturely than Jeffrey, who was three years older than her.
In fact, Jeffrey’s level seemed beneath even that of the young girl.
“What room is it? Come on, tell me. Is it like your hidden base?”
Young Sasha had once again fallen silent, making the listener feel suffocated with frustration, but the sound of Jeffrey’s childish, pestering interrogation seemed to reassure her in another way. Yes. To Jeffrey, who was only ten years old at most, a hidden space in the mansion would have been nothing more than a “base” where he could play to his heart’s content without adult supervision.
Whether young Sasha had seen that far ahead when she told Jeffrey about the room—well. There was no way to know now. Perhaps it would never be known.
In any case, when Jeffrey approached the door, Sasha told him in her thin voice how to enter the secret room. She said that if he knocked on the wall in the corridor leading to the main drawing room on the second floor, on the side where there was a portrait of a noblewoman holding a basket of roses, he would eventually feel that the space behind one part of it was hollow.
That was the spot, she said. If he pressed firmly, the wall would slide backward, revealing a hidden passage.
After hearing that much, young Jeffrey straightened up from his crouched position.
“Done?”
After finishing her explanation, Sasha spoke toward the outside of the door as if asking him to open it now. But no answer came from outside.
After hearing only about the secret room from Sasha, Jeffrey turned around and left the annex without another word. He immediately headed for the second floor of the main house. Half-excited with anticipation, he went to see for himself whether that absurd story was true.
As Sasha had said, there really was something hidden there. However, it was filled with nothing but darkness, and the musty odor was so strong that it was far too gloomy to make into his base. He did not like it. Jeffrey looked around the space, which contained a desk, a sofa, and a table, then returned to the corridor.
Just as when he had entered, there was no one there when he came out into the corridor. No one saw Jeffrey emerge from that secret space.
The master of the manor, along with all the servants, had been completely preoccupied with the funeral. Thanks to such lax security, Jeffrey had been able to enter and leave the place with ease.
Even after confirming it with his own eyes, Jeffrey did not return to the annex. Instead, as though he had already forgotten about it, he headed back to the garden and bullied and played with the young pages.
It was the same during dinner. Even though he plainly heard his parents and grandmother discussing young Sasha, he was too busy eating meat with his fork.
He acted as though he had forgotten all about it.
“Hey.”
His next whim did not come until noon the following day. Jeffrey returned to the annex and called out loudly as he stood in front of the door where his cousin was imprisoned. But no answer came from inside. Nor did he hear the tearful sobbing he had hoped for.
It was boring.
Jeffrey knocked on the door several times, then kicked it.
Still, there was no answer from inside.
……This is really fucking boring.
Jeffrey left the annex just like that. But this time, another whim took hold of him. Guessing which room his cousin was probably trapped in, he walked around the outside of the annex. There, he found a window that was so tightly locked that anyone would have thought someone had been locked inside.
The latch was fastened quite firmly, and there was no way young Jeffrey could open it with his strength. Besides, he did not want to go to that much trouble. Instead, he picked up a nearby stone and threw it at the window.
It did not make the loud crash he had expected. Perhaps the space directly in front of the window was blocked by something like a thick curtain, because all he heard was the patter of tiny shards of broken glass falling onto the floor.
No sound came from inside.
That was the extent of Jeffrey’s whim. Leaving a hole in the window, he simply turned around and went back to the main house, pretending it was none of his concern. When he returned, the Duke and Duchess were already preparing to leave. When his mother asked where he had been, young Jeffrey irresponsibly answered, “I don’t know,” and then followed them onto the carriage and left the place.
That was everything the present-day Jeffrey Grayson remembered. With an expressionless face, Jeffrey smoked as he looked at the men before him.
One of them was pitifully short, while the other was annoyingly handsome—at least in the face. No, he was rather pretty.
“So my lovely cousin is actually a fake who only resembles her in appearance.”
Jeffrey Grayson asked expressionlessly as he looked down at the shorter man.
Robert Bloom nodded as though he had been waiting for the question. Cedric Osmond could only stare at the floor, feeling miserable in every possible way.
“Interesting.”
Contrary to his words, Jeffrey muttered while smoking, his face showing no interest whatsoever. Had the young Sasha of that time escaped through the window he had broken? Had she really visited the secret room and then returned to that room as she had promised?
……If she hadn’t.
“I’ve started wanting to meet that man too. The one who fed you that ridiculous story.”
He ground his cigarette out carelessly in the nearby ashtray, then gestured arrogantly.
“Bring him to me as well.”
＊＊＊
“Oh my, it’s raining.”
The Duchess’s hand, which had been covering the back of Sasha’s hand, finally pulled away. Sasha turned her head with the Duchess and looked out the window. It really was raining.
“I should be getting back soon.”
“Yes. You should.”
Since the weather had turned like this, the Duchess merely nodded plainly instead of urging Sasha to stay longer before leaving. Sasha put on her gloves and began preparing to leave, putting her hat back on as well. Outside, the maid who had accompanied her was already calling for the carriage.
“Sasha, as I said earlier, if you ever have any troubles, come to me first. Even though we are not related by blood, we are family, are we not? In truth, I would have liked to have kept you by my side from the beginning, but your mother was terribly stubborn.”
Sasha quietly listened as the Duchess spoke of Rosaline more freely than before.
However, the Duchess stopped there and did not continue.
“Now, come along. I’ll see you off.”
Her hand was placed softly on Sasha’s shoulder. It was an appropriate sign of intimacy.
For some reason, Sasha felt that the Duchess seemed somewhat ‘relieved.’
As they headed toward the entrance, the sound of rain became clearer. The rain seemed fairly heavy. The maid who had come with Sasha was already waiting for them with an umbrella.
“More importantly, Sasha, I sincerely hope this matter does not drive a wedge between us.”
“Of course not, Aunt. I was the one who hesitated over whether I should write to you first.”
“Who would have thought that Jeffrey, of all people, would make things so awkward between us? I truly want us to be like mother and daughter, Sasha. The kind of relationship where we can freely share things we cannot tell anyone else. For example, stories about your peculiar fiancé.”
At the words that approached her so blatantly once again, Sasha smiled without answering.
The Duchess smiled back at her.
“When we meet again, will you tell me why you chose him?”
“Of course. Please forgive me for not being able to tell you everything yet, as things are still at a delicate stage, Aunt.”
“You really have none of the qualities of a young person these days.”
The Duchess responded playfully to Sasha’s tactful refusal, making an exaggerated show of disappointment. They were now standing right in front of the carriage.
Just as Sasha had bowed politely and was stepping away from her to board the carriage, the Duchess gently took hold of Sasha’s hand once more.
“Sasha. Get home safely.”
With the sudden closing of the distance, the acrid scent of cigarette smoke reached Sasha. It drifted over to her. The smoke was so strong that the tip of her nose instinctively wrinkled.
“Yes, Aunt.”
Instead of frowning, Sasha continued to smile and bowed politely to the very end before climbing into the carriage.
After the door closed, the carriage carrying Sasha drove straight along the well-kept roads of the ducal estate and out toward the middle of the vast grounds.
The Duchess stood there blankly, watching until the carriage had receded to the size of a finger and disappeared into the distance. Only then did she turn around. She took a new cigarette from her clothes and lit it on the spot.
“I’m still confused. It certainly seems that her memories were erased.”
She then muttered with an expressionless face before climbing the stairs and heading straight to her bedroom.