Chapter 81
Isaac arrived at Dilton Manor around noon. Having risen early that morning and prepared to set out at once, he refused Sasha’s suggestion that they rest for a while before departing, a suggestion made out of consideration for him. He said that stamina was the one thing he had in abundance, and that he had endured marches far worse than this, so there was no need to worry.
True to his word, Isaac did not look particularly tired. However, his expression seemed far sharper than usual, and there was a nervous edge to his tone.
But Sasha decided not to pry into the reason.
“All right. Then I’ll come down as soon as I’m ready. Would you wait a moment?”
“Yes.”
“Inside, Captain.”
Sasha spoke with an elegant smile to Isaac, who was standing stubbornly near the front door.
“If you keep standing there waiting, people will feel uncomfortable.”
“……Ah, yes.”
Only then did Isaac move. After watching him follow a servant’s guidance into the drawing room, Sasha turned around and continued up the stairs.
The first person she saw was the butler, Jason. Through the open doorway, she could see Mrs. Allison, the head maid, packing Sasha’s travel luggage with the other maids. The moment Allison’s eyes met Sasha’s, she bowed with perfect courtesy.
“Since you may be staying away for some time, we are packing plenty of clothes. As you instructed, we selected only garments you could change into easily on your own, my lady.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Allison. How is Maud?”
Allison lifted her gaze from the backs of the maids’ heads and looked up at Sasha. She seemed a little surprised.
“……Ah, that child will soon leave the medical wing and return to her duties.”
“Instead of that, please give her leave. When we spoke briefly last time, she said it had been a long time since she had seen her family. Let her spend enough time with them.”
“……Yes, I shall do so.”
Allison quickly composed her expression with practiced ease and answered with an obedient face.
“And…… please tell her that I was truly grateful, personally.”
Sasha hesitated for a moment before adding that.
Then, before Allison could answer, she turned away and walked down the corridor.
The butler Jason glanced back and forth between them for a moment, then hurried after Sasha.
“I sincerely hope your journey will be a smooth one.”
“I hope so too.”
“Please forget what happened here, and do not worry about the people of this house. I hope you will go and return in comfort, my lady.”
At the butler’s kind words, mistaking this journey for a simple trip, Sasha drew up the corners of her mouth in a gentle smile.
“Thank you, Mr. Jason.”
“The flowerpots the late madam cherished, of course, as well as everything you have been tending to, my lady—we shall take charge of them all and manage them. ……If you permit us.”
Thinking of it with common sense, it was only natural. Until now, Sasha had been managing even the manor’s most trivial corners a little too excessively. Of course, depending on one’s perspective, some might have seen it as the admirable devotion of a granddaughter carefully tending the manor her grandmother had left behind, but Sasha’s “method of management” certainly had something rather extraordinary about it. To the eyes of the servants here, including Jason, it must have seemed somewhat strange, and perhaps made them feel vaguely pricked by guilt.
Sasha recalled the exception Mr. Turner had mentioned just yesterday, as though it were nothing important. If the servants “voluntarily” stepped forward to help her, it would be regarded as if she had carried it out herself.
“……My lady?”
When Sasha became strangely quiet, Jason cautiously called to her, his expression watchful. Sasha stopped walking and looked at the young butler standing with perfect posture about two steps away from her.
Sasha shook her head.
“No. As you said, I’d like you to manage them in my stead. Thank you.”
“Thank you for entrusting us with it. In truth, there were more than a few people who felt troubled watching you do so much on your own, my lady. Everyone will be pleased.”
“Is the carriage ready?”
Rather than respond to that embarrassing remark, Sasha changed the subject somewhat awkwardly.
“Yes. The carriage is ready. One with ample luggage space. Charles will accompany the two of you.”
When Jason answered as though he had been waiting for the question, Sasha nodded.
And what else was there? As she was thinking, Jason, who had been observing her carefully, said once more, “Please go without worry.”
This time, she could not ignore it. Sasha tightly gripped the hem of her dress and opened her mouth.
“……I’m the one who should be grateful. To all of you.”
＊＊＊
Fortunately, the weather was clear. Well, given the season, the monsoon rains would soon come pouring down, but at least at the moment of their departure, the sky was spotless and cloudless.
When Sasha climbed into the carriage holding his hand, her face somehow subtly weary, Isaac tilted his head as though puzzled, but he did not ask about it. Since the luggage the servants had stacked neatly in the storage compartment was enormous by itself, he assumed she must have been overwhelmed by the sudden preparations for travel.
“I’m sorry.”
“Pardon?”
And so, as soon as Isaac sat across from her, he suddenly apologized like that. Contrary to Isaac’s expectations, Sasha, who had been calming her own complicated feelings for a different reason, widened her eyes and looked at him.
“Why are you suddenly apologizing?”
“You look very tired. Preparing everything in a single day is no ordinary task.”
“Ah. If you mean that trouble, the servants took care of it. I was just…… thinking about other things.”
It was just as he was about to ask what those things were.
“I sincerely hope you both have a comfortable journey.”
Jason held the carriage door and offered his final farewell. Behind him, the manor’s servants had all poured out to see them off.
They were people who had not been friendly to Isaac from the beginning. Seeing those people, who had been nothing short of unkind, now bowing courteously not only to their mistress but even to Isaac, he nodded with difficulty, his face uncomfortable.
At last, the carriage door closed, and with the sound of the whip, the carriage set off. It passed through the well-tended garden, went toward the wall with its sturdy iron gate, then through the gate and down the hill.
Isaac watched the scenery with a strangely indescribable expression. It was because he remembered himself on the day he first came here, walking up this hill soaking wet.
“It seems everyone has come to like you quite a bit too, Captain.”
When the carriage had descended the hill and entered an alley crowded with private homes, Sasha said this to him.
“……Well, wasn’t it meant as, ‘Please take good care of Miss Grayson’?”
Isaac answered in a mumble.
“No. Everyone was impressed by what you showed them then.”
When Isaac looked at Sasha sullenly, as if asking what that was supposed to mean, she explained.
“Even after the incident, you kept coming and going from the manor and looking after things. Right after it happened, you personally took charge so people wouldn’t panic, and you dealt with the police officers whenever they came.”
“That much was only natural.”
“Why? Because you’re going to marry me anyway?”
“……Pardon? No. No, that’s not…….”
Isaac’s face flushed bright red in an instant.
He was not used to being praised. Moreover, he was not used to praise of this sort.
“What I mean is, anyone would have done the same. The relationship between Miss Grayson and me, that is……. Even setting that aside, if anyone had been there…….”
……Damn it.
Why am I so bad at speaking?
“You mean anyone would have done the same.”
When Sasha summarized it for him, Isaac nodded, his face still red.
“……Yes. What I mean is, that’s all. It’s uncomfortable being praised for something obvious.”
I don’t think so, though.
Sasha thought that as she stared at him with a blank expression.
Isaac still wore a grimace, as though he were undergoing torture. He was looking down at the floor with a troubled expression, as if praise were poison to him.
To Sasha, the sight was somehow pitiful, and yet, for some reason, it made her want to tease him.
“In any case, it bothers me that we left before all of that was settled.”
Just as Sasha was about to speak with a smiling face, Isaac beat her to it and changed the subject as though cutting her off.
Sasha, who had been smiling mischievously, widened her eyes and made a small “Ah,” then soon returned to her usual expression and nodded.
“Mr. Turner has agreed to handle everything. He said it looks as though it will be resolved at the police level, without any need to go as far as a lawsuit. Mr. Turner will check on the progress from time to time and send letters.”
“Mr. Turner?”
“Ah, yes. Doyle Turner. Did I not mention him before? He is the personal lawyer my grandmother hired.”
After that, the two of them exchanged a few more bits of miscellaneous conversation. While Sasha spoke about a friend named Miss Carol, Isaac spoke ill of his adjutant, Felix, and when Sasha talked about the shooting club she had visited with Carol, Isaac became animated and began listing and explaining firearms that were easy for a beginner to handle.
“These days, there are also many flintlocks being made that are convenient for people like Miss Grayson to carry. They even come with leather pouches so they’re easy to keep on your person. I think they’re aimed at ladies like Miss Grayson. In any case, as you mentioned then, there are some newer models with cleaner mechanisms as well.”
Some of them were rather expensive, and some were defective, so one had to inspect them carefully. Isaac, who had been chattering on as though he had already looked into them at length, belatedly came to his senses and stopped talking. Then his eyes met Sasha’s, who had been looking at him with a somehow pleased expression.
“So…….”
Only then did Isaac’s face turn bright red.
“How far have we come?”
Isaac abruptly looked out the window as though he had developed a great interest in the carriage’s route, changing the subject awkwardly.
Haha. From across from him, he heard Sasha laugh aloud.
Isaac pretended not to hear and made a show of looking out the window.