Episode 80
“I feel this every time I come here, but it truly does seem like an excellent place to spend the summer.”
As Sasha entered the drawing room, Mr. Turner, who had been sitting on the sofa, lifted his head toward her and said so. Sasha nodded as if to say she agreed, then sat down across from him.
“Everyone who visits says the same thing. Perhaps that’s why it was once even called a haunted mansion.”
“I’ve never heard that story before. When was that?”
“When the duke before last was living here. When everyone in the mansion was dragged out on charges of rebellion and the place was left in ruins, they say it was more than a little desolate. Apparently the air turned cold just from going near the walls.”
“……Oh. I was expecting something a bit more occult. Not a family history so difficult to speak of.”
“Occult? You don’t believe in ghosts.”
“Not believing in them does not mean I don’t enjoy them.”
Just as they were exchanging their usual idle chatter, skipping over greetings as always, a maid entered, pushing a tray.
“In any case, you came at just the right time.”
Once a cup of tea had been placed before each of them and the maid left the room with the tray, Sasha spoke. Mr. Turner replied with his usual indifferent expression.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Miss Grayson welcome me. You always looked as if you’d seen your own funeral whenever you saw me. Especially after the Dowager Duchess passed away.”
“Who on earth would be happy to see someone who comes without fail to check their homework?”
“For someone who says that, you never skipped it once.”
Mr. Turner took a sip of the tea set before him. The rich bergamot filled his mouth. He thought this every time he came here, but at the very least, the tea was truly excellent.
Just as Mr. Turner was about to begin that “homework inspection” as he always did, Sasha shook her head, as if to say she had something to tell him first.
“As early as tomorrow, I have to leave this place and go to the Fincher estate.”
“Fincher? Ah, how long will you be staying?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t gauge that either. I can’t tell how the conversation with the count will go.”
“The count? Why? Is he demanding an enormous dowry?”
When Mr. Turner raised an eyebrow and asked with a look of faint concern, Sasha shook her head.
“No. It’s probably…… something like permission for the marriage, I suppose.”
Mr. Turner stopped drinking his tea and stared at Sasha with a slightly foolish look on his face.
“Permission?”
“Yes.”
When Sasha answered calmly, Mr. Turner belatedly swallowed the tea he had been holding in his mouth. Any lingering trace of the subtle, fragrant bergamot had already vanished.
“From what I heard, haven’t you already made quite a lot of preparations? The dress, the jewels—you’ve prepared so much that it wouldn’t be strange if you got married a week from now.”
“Yes.”
“And yet you are only now receiving permission?”
“Yes. Strictly speaking, the permission I received was from his grandmother. In any case, the count said he wished to meet me privately. So I have to go.”
Mr. Turner had been looking at Sasha as if to say, You truly are hopeless, but at her added explanation, his face returned, at least somewhat, to its usual expression.
“Ah, I see. But surely he won’t oppose it at this point.”
“Who knows. But even if it’s only a marriage in form, I want to do my utmost. There absolutely cannot be any rumors of discord or gossip after the marriage.”
“Ah, yes. Do your best.”
When Sasha stared at him silently, Mr. Turner raised an eyebrow as if to ask, What? and added,
“I don’t know what you’re expecting.”
Just as Mr. Turner was about to say that he had no talent for encouragement, Sasha opened her mouth.
“Unlike Lance Field, if I go there, I have to keep staying until my business is finished.”
“……Yes. I suppose so. It is quite a distance, too.”
“So…….”
Sasha trailed off cautiously, watching Mr. Turner’s reaction.
“Ah, I understand what you’re worried about.”
Mr. Turner nodded as if he had understood at once.
Sasha let out a low sigh.
“Other things can be handled as much as possible by exchanging them through the mail, at least for now. Studying the Lint language, or writing reports on classical plays, things like that.”
“Yes. As for attending regular family gatherings, I will consider your recent visit to the duchy as fulfilling that requirement.”
“……Then what do I do about the rest?”
Mr. Turner looked at her as if to ask, What?
Sasha answered irritably.
“Raising that damned potted plant, tending the greenhouse, regularly inspecting the mansion’s facilities and servants, managing the annex…….”
Sasha raised her palm and began listing them off, folding down her fingers one by one, but midway she closed her mouth, as if revulsion had overcome her in more ways than one. Yes. It was revulsion. Now that she had listed it out like this, it was truly an absurd amount.
“That person just wanted me to stay trapped here forever.”
“What was the name of the flower planted in that pot again? I remember seeing it bloom once before. It was quite beautiful.”
Whether Sasha muttered darkly or not, Mr. Turner chattered on indifferently.
Sasha’s sullen gaze turned toward Mr. Turner as though she had been waiting for that.
“How fortunate. You’ll be able to see it bloom. Jason said he would take charge of caring for it while I’m away from the mansion. Ah, and the greenhouse as well. He said he would take care of everything.”
“Is that so? Then what is the problem?”
Mr. Turner asked as if he could not understand why Sasha was so upset, nor whether she was being sarcastic with him. At his reaction, Sasha gave a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.
“Are you asking because you really don’t know? The entire inheritance attached to it is about to turn into scraps of paper. Of course, if I only think of the enormous sum of twelve thousand ond tied to the marriage, then that much is…….”
“……Miss Grayson. One moment.”
Mr. Turner, who had been listening quietly, cut into Sasha’s words.
“Didn’t the butler of this house just say he would ‘voluntarily’ take on Miss Grayson’s duties?”
“……Yes. He did.”
“Miss Grayson, you never read the will I gave you to the end, did you?”
Mr. Turner suddenly said so.
Sasha frowned.
“The trivial mansion-management clauses are considered fulfilled by Miss Grayson ‘if the servants voluntarily take on those tasks.’ That is what it says.”
“…….”
“That is why I kept asking you from time to time whether you were getting along well with the servants. No wonder you looked at me each time as if I were asking the strangest things.”
Mr. Turner spoke with a hollow laugh, as if he himself were the one who found it absurd. Sasha could not follow him by smiling in relief as though this were fortunate.
Sasha stared somewhat blankly at Mr. Turner as he said, like a scolding, that this was why printed words had to be read to the very end.
Sasha looked at Mr. Turner with a stiff face and said,
“I never saw anything like that.”
“Because it was collected on the last page under ‘Exceptions.’ The weekly worship service you must attend without fail can also be substituted in another region. There ought to be at least one cathedral in Fincher.”
At Mr. Turner’s words, spoken sharply with an indifferent face, Sasha grew even more dazed.
Sasha fell silent for a moment.
“Who was it who added those absurd conditions after the fact?”
“Who else would it be? The Dowager Duchess Rosalyn. I merely wrote down what she said. Miss Grayson, I have no authority whatsoever.”
“…….”
“It was also her opinion that they be collected on the final page. She probably knew already that Miss Grayson was the type not to read documents carefully like this…….”
Mr. Turner’s words no longer reached Sasha’s ears. They did not even flow in.
Sasha was glaring into empty air, her face rigid.
A sense of antipathy surged up in her, wondering what kind of mockery this was, now of all times.
It was the arrangement of an old woman who seemed disgustingly considerate. She had wanted Sasha, after her death, to truly live like family with the servants of this place.
……Now, after all this time.
“Miss Grayson. In any case, what I wish to tell you is.”
Mr. Turner, who had been talking to his heart’s content on his own, belatedly cleared his throat and spoke as if summarizing.
“The madam did not wish for you to remain trapped here forever. You can tell just by looking at items like making friends or marriage. The madam…….”
“Enough.”
Sasha cut off Mr. Turner and rubbed her face dry.
After she roughly swept her palm down once, her face was far stiffer than before.
“……Enough.”
＊＊＊
Good. In any case, that meant those petty assignments had been resolved.
When morning came the next day, Sasha climbed out of bed with a face that looked weary from a sleepless night. It was the same early rising as usual. Waking at this early hour, too, was a habit ingrained in her body over more than ten years.
When that old woman had still been alive, Sasha always had to rise at this hour, change clothes as soon as she woke, and go to greet her in the morning.
Sasha stopped midway through washing her face with the warm water the maid had brought in advance, and turned her head toward the potted plant by the window. Among the bright green leaves, a round bud could be seen.
The bud was green.
Still green, as if it had a long way to go before it bloomed.