Chapter 91
To Isaac, home had always been an uncomfortable place to be. Ever since he was far younger than he was now, he had never been able to relate to the boys around him who would burst into tears at every opportunity, saying they wanted to go home.
When his half brother Edmund, with that frail body of his, chattered on about social gatherings and the like, fourteen-year-old Isaac announced to everyone, as if delivering a notice, that he intended to enroll in the military academy. It was late summer, a little more sweltering than now. There was only one week left before his admission.
When Isaac calmly went on to explain that he had passed not only the written exam but also the practical exam with respectable marks and was due to receive a scholarship, everyone seated at the table stared at him in dumbfounded silence. Even Edmund did. Before their silent father could speak, Edmund was the first to break the stillness, attempting to ease the atmosphere by congratulating Isaac.
Diane, Isaac’s birth mother, stared at him blankly for a moment, her face devoid of expression. Then, after quietly offering her congratulations, she rose from her seat first and left. It was only later that he learned Diane had cried that day until her eyes were swollen.
He had no lingering attachment to his family. But his mother, Diane, the one person who had given birth to him, remained on his mind, and so Isaac visited home every vacation.
When he came home during his first break, Isaac’s room had disappeared. As Isaac stood there somewhat stunned, Edmund embraced him and welcomed him with the air of greeting a most cherished guest. Then he said, quite casually, that the room got good sunlight and seemed ideal for reading, so he had turned it into a study.
Edmund had always been weak, so he must have whined that even a slightly dim room was too much to bear when reading. Edmund had always taken Isaac’s things bit by bit in that way. And once Isaac left home, he openly changed his room as if it had never belonged to him in the first place.
The count gave Isaac a much larger and better room. With pleasant-sounding words that, since Isaac was growing day by day, he would be more comfortable there than in that small room. The room was filled with unfamiliar furniture. It was like a guest room.
After Isaac left home, whenever Isaac returned, Edmund always greeted him with that same unusual warmth. As though Isaac were not a member of this household, but an occasional guest, he treated him with exceptional hospitality.
And so, whenever he came, home was always an uncomfortable place. Even staying a single night felt uneasy, and after speaking with Diane to some extent, Isaac would often leave abruptly, as though he had been waiting for the chance. After Diane died of illness when Isaac was only eighteen, it became a place he had even less reason to visit.
Isaac accepted Sasha’s point, but he understood to some degree the people of the mansion who treated him like an outsider. From their perspective, the second son, who had shut himself away from the household all this time, had come in as the new master and was stirring everything up, so it was only natural they would feel reluctant. Yes. Given the timing.
Sasha knew that as well. When Isaac added, as if explaining, that Edmund’s first death anniversary was only about a month and a half away, so the atmosphere in the mansion could not help but be unsettled, she nodded as though she understood.
“Even so, that can’t be a reason to treat you poorly.”
She had nodded as if she accepted it, then looked straight at him and said that.
You are the rightful new master of this place, so it is fine for you to show that much presence. That does not mean you should develop some absurd sense of authority. As Isaac listened to Sasha’s quiet, methodical explanation, he felt a strange sensation, as though one corner of his chest were being pressed down.
Sasha was thinking only of Isaac. She was speaking solely for him. That felt oddly good. It went beyond simple gratitude; he was pleased, and it was simply, good.
It was an emotion he absolutely could not show in this house, filled as it was with people still grieving and struggling over Edmund’s death. Everyone would look at him as though he were horrifying. But with Sasha, he felt it might be all right. If he dared to honestly tell her that he was glad she had said such a thing, she would probably just say, with an indifferent face, “Is that so?”
Isaac liked that about Sasha.
“……So, I need to know about everyone on this guest list. And whether there are any people I should pay particular attention to.”
It was the day before the wedding. Everyone in the mansion was busy, and Sasha, one of the people involved, was also fully occupied with her tight schedule. When Isaac had been sitting behind the stables for a brief moment of respite, Sasha found him as if by magic.
When Isaac asked how on earth she had known he was here, she said with a calm face, “Charles told me you went this way.” Then she said there were things that required his explanation and began taking out this and that.
“Isaac?”
Ah, right. She had been asking about the guest list.
Isaac belatedly came to his senses and quickly nodded.
“The guests…… what did you say? There won’t be more than twenty coming.”
“Yes. That’s why I need to know them all. I’ll have to speak with each and every one of them, and I can’t be rude.”
At Sasha’s reply, Isaac slowly nodded. Then, after unconsciously letting out a deep sigh, he took the list from Sasha and began explaining them one by one.
“Sir Joseph and his wife. My birth mother’s elder brother and his wife.”
“Really? Then among these people, they must be the closest and most intimate with you, Captain.”
“Not particularly. I haven’t seen them since my mother’s funeral.”
Because he had left home early and had barely interacted even with his mother’s relatives, it was laborious to dredge up memories in order to explain them one by one. Each time Isaac finished an explanation he had patiently squeezed out, Sasha briefly summarized it and jotted a short note beside the name on the list.
“And this Mr. and Mrs. Works are relatives on Edmund’s side. Strictly speaking, on Edmund’s mother’s side.”
“Oh. Lady Elizabeth. Yes. I understand. And Rachel Works and Philip Works here are obvious even without you saying it. Especially the latter. Assuming you did not marry, this young Mr. Works was to be adopted by the count and receive the title, wasn’t he?”
Sasha spoke cheerfully, with a joking tone mixed in. Instead of responding brightly to her joke, Isaac only stared at her with an uneasy expression and barely nodded.
“In any case, we should move soon.”
“What? Why?”
“This is behind the stables.”
Only then realizing that he had left her sitting roughly on the grass with him this entire time, Isaac quickly rose as he spoke. But Sasha merely looked up at him blankly, as though asking what the problem was.
“Why? I like it here. No one can see us.”
“…I can’t keep you sitting on the grass.”
“Ah, that sounded very gentlemanly just now.”
Far from getting up after him, Sasha only beamed and said something irrelevant. Soon, she took his hand without hesitation and tugged him downward as she said,
“Lady Sheffield is looking for us with fire in her eyes, saying she has to do the final inspection.”
Isaac quickly bent down and sat back beside Sasha.
“Good. I think that’s roughly enough for the guests. I tried on the formalwear this morning, so that’s done too. What else is left?”
“Who knows.”
Whether Isaac answered somewhat halfheartedly or not, Sasha was busy writing this and that on the remaining paper.
“By the way, a letter sent from Dilton Manor arrived this morning. It was from Mr. Turner, and it included something about Mr. Butler.”
For a moment, Isaac had been distracted solely by their still-joined hands, but then he jerked his head up and looked at Sasha. Sasha released the hand she had been holding and said,
“It seems he’ll be going to a psychiatric ward soon. The reporters are digging not only into that man’s social connections but even his family circumstances, so I suppose his parents have reached their limit. After holding out all this time, they apparently want to conclude the matter as soon as possible by having him admitted to a psychiatric ward.”
Isaac recalled that madman, who had not looked sane by anyone’s standards. And he turned over in his mind the sight of that man trembling the instant he saw him, instinctively lowering his body as though he had been exposed to violence countless times.
But what did he care about that bastard’s circumstances now?
“Now that their own disgrace is on the verge of being exposed, they’re abandoning him without hesitation. It isn’t a particularly surprising ending.”
“It seems his parents have already contacted Mr. Turner to ask how much they need to pay.”
Thankfully, the money received that way would become entirely “money belonging to Sasha.” Remembering what Mr. Turner had written at the end of the letter, Sasha smiled bitterly.
Isaac found this strangely chilled atmosphere somewhat puzzling and was about to ask something. But Sasha returned to her cheerful tone and picked up her pen again.
“All right. Then, um…… what else will we need for the wedding tomorrow?”
“Nothing much. We just wear those ridiculous clothes and walk down the aisle, make our vows, exchange rings…….”
Isaac stopped mid-sentence.
Still keeping her eyes fixed on the paper without even looking at him, Sasha asked,
“We have to kiss too. What should we do about our kiss?”
“…….”
Far from answering, Isaac forgot how to breathe.