Episode 93
As he had told her before, Isaac had, of course, attended far more weddings than Sasha had. Only the places and the people changed; weddings were always much the same wherever one went. The order of ceremony was so tedious he could recite it, and the phrases often used in the officiant’s words and congratulatory speeches were now familiar enough that he could imitate them roughly.
So even when the day before the wedding arrived, Isaac was not particularly nervous. The ceremony itself would proceed according to a predictable form, so he thought all he had to do was exercise more patience than usual and endure it.
As if to mock that confidence, the circuitry of his mind began to malfunction from the moment his nose touched Sasha’s small, soft nose at an angle and pressed against it. Only after Sasha took his hand and signaled as if to say that was enough did Isaac slowly draw back, then remove his large hand that had been hiding their little trick from the people watching.
What had he done after that? He could not remember very well. As Sasha took his hand and led him, he turned toward the people sitting here and there, and following Sasha’s lead, awkwardly waved at them in greeting.
……And then.
When he came to his senses, they were in the middle of the reception.
“……Isaac.”
“…….”
“Darling.”
Isaac looked at Sasha with a dazed, flustered expression, as if he had just woken from sleep. At some point, they had changed out of their ceremonial attire into a suitably splendid tuxedo and dress.
Before Isaac could ask with a reluctant face, “What did you just say?” Sasha held out her hand to him.
“Everyone is waiting for the first dance.”
Only then did Isaac look around after her. The largest hall in the mansion. In that place, decorated with more care than usual for this day, they had to dance their first dance. The first dance of the man and woman who had held their wedding. That was the unspoken rule that announced the beginning of the reception ball.
Isaac belatedly took the hand she offered, laying it over his own. Then, as they had practiced, he pressed his lips to the back of her hand and made a plausible attempt at imitating the reverent kiss gentlemen gave ladies. After that, he wrapped one arm around Sasha’s waist and led her to the center of the hall.
Only then did the orchestra begin to play. It was a familiar melody. The piano tune he had grown sick of hearing over the past few days of dance practice struck his ears through the orchestra’s many instruments, each sound made more delicate, more daring, and more plaintive.
Isaac led the dance with steps that had, in his own way, improved remarkably, and looked down at Sasha’s face with a sullen expression. Darling, she said. Sasha was finding more and more amusement in teasing him.
“Smile.”
When his gaze had fixed itself, without him realizing it, on her soft nose, Sasha whispered with a bright smile, only loud enough for him to hear.
“People are still watching us.”
Without answering, Isaac dropped his gaze, which had been glaring at her innocent nose, down to the floor.
“So, how do you feel? Your impressions.”
“Impressions of what?”
“It’s your first wedding in life.”
“What do you mean, first wedding? As if there will be a second…….”
“Of course there will be a second. Have you forgotten?”
The instant his movement faltered and their steps fell out of sync, Sasha gently applied pressure to the hand clasped with his and took the lead toward herself. Isaac, with his large frame, obediently moved according to her. His stubborn-looking mouth opened as if twisting.
“……You’re already considering remarriage…….”
“We have to do it once more in the capital.”
The words that had been slipping out in a gloomy tone without him realizing it stopped short. Sasha replied as if it were obvious, then raised her brows.
“What did you say? I must have misheard.”
“I said I remember. Yes. This is the first, and that will be the second. Yes.”
He could feel Sasha staring up at him at his profoundly unnatural answer. Isaac turned his gaze for no reason toward Sir Joseph and his wife, who at some point were dancing near them.
When their eyes met, Sir Joseph gave Isaac a warm greeting with his eyes. Isaac awkwardly dipped his head, then looked back at the floor near Sasha.
“I don’t really know about impressions. I simply feel as though I’ve been wearing clothes that don’t fit me all day.”
Isaac answered honestly, then cautiously glanced sideways at her.
“……Was it all right?”
“What was?”
“Just, whether I behaved too awkwardly. Unlike Miss Grayson, I have no talent for acting…….”
“You were natural. You just looked like someone moderately nervous.”
“……I can do better the second time.”
When Isaac said this with a rather solemn face, Sasha smiled softly.
Then, with his face slightly reddened, Isaac cleared his throat and said,
“That kiss as well. For the second time, I think it would be good to tilt my head slightly so our noses don’t touch.”
“……Oh. ……Yes.”
Since they were discussing something embarrassing, Isaac was speaking without even looking at Sasha.
Naturally, Isaac could not know what expression had appeared on her face in that instant. He simply hoped she was not looking at his nose as if inspecting it, the way he had done to hers earlier.
His nose had once been badly broken, so it was a little crooked. In truth, it was noticeable to the naked eye right away. Add to that his fierce-looking eyes, and among those who did not know him well, some quite naturally treated him as some sort of brawler.
“How was it for you?”
Isaac asked, changing the subject somewhat unnaturally. Sasha, who had been wearing a strange expression for a moment, soon returned to her usual face and answered his words smoothly.
“I’m not sure. To be honest, it still doesn’t quite feel real. Should I say it doesn’t feel like reality?”
“……It is the same for me.”
As they turned smoothly in a circle, Sasha naturally leaned her head against his arm.
It feels as though I’m dreaming. Isaac almost answered that without realizing it, but somehow managed to swallow the words.
The ceremony was not over yet. He had to finish it properly. Don’t relax. Absolutely not.
Contrary to the words he murmured as if brainwashing himself, Isaac’s gaze kept turning toward Sasha. The piece naturally raced toward its end. Isaac tried to focus only on dancing with her, feeling dazed as though he were dreaming.
And so he did not notice at all. The number of people, excessively small for what one might call an ordinary wedding. Even setting that aside, there were a few whose faces were as gloomy as if they had come to a funeral.
He did not notice at all that, at some point, Sasha was staring at them beyond his arm.
＊＊＊
After the reception ended, Isaac was summoned by the count and left her side for a while to head to the count’s study.
In the meantime, Sasha had to go up to the bedroom and change into a dinner dress. Now she had to sit around with the guests and have supper.
Sasha sat beside Caroline and ate, waiting for Isaac and the count to return. Every conversation that passed between her and the others was mediated by Caroline. It was not bad; rather, it was a natural picture.
Also, because every conversation went through Caroline, there was nothing particularly grating. Yes. At least, perhaps because Caroline was in front of them, they could not even show Sasha the sort of behavior that had bothered her earlier.
The problem began when even Caroline left her seat. Around eight in the evening, Caroline rose from her seat with a sleepy face.
“This should be enough. This old woman ought to withdraw around now, I suppose. So the young people can talk without feeling watched.”
Whether that was truly a joke, or words with a barb in them—well. No one but the person herself could know.
In any case, Caroline suggested that her younger sister, Lady Fenon, go upstairs with her, and when she refused, Caroline clicked her tongue and left the drawing room alone.
Dinner had been over for quite some time, and the count and Isaac still had not returned. Sasha gathered with the guests, drinking alcohol and tea, and appropriately attended to Lady Fenon, who sat beside her.
Once Caroline left her seat, the first to approach Sasha were Sir Joseph and his wife, who spoke to her in a friendly manner. They were moderately unaffected, and even after exchanging only a few words, she could tell they were quite good people.
When Sir Joseph and his wife found their courage, the others began to gather toward her one by one. Rachel was one of them. Rachel was sitting nearby with her younger brother Philip, who had only just turned ten.
The conversation naturally shifted to the birthday party where Sasha and Rachel had almost exchanged their first greetings. Sir Joseph and his wife, who had been blending in well, listened to Rachel’s story with awkward faces at a topic they could not sympathize with. But when they heard the reason why Rachel had been unable to attend the party that day in question, they exchanged glances with displeased expressions.
“Do you remember? It rained so heavily that day. But in that weather, he got out of the carriage and walked away alone. I kept calling him from inside the carriage. And then I realized it too late. He had the invitation!”
Miss Rachel was a little drunk, and because of that, she was more excited than usual. At the funny story about the bridegroom, the star of the day, only a few people who did not know the count’s family circumstances in much detail responded and laughed. Above all, Miss Grayson, who had become his wife, was smiling with a clear face that showed not the slightest displeasure, so they thought it must be all right to laugh and laughed along.
The drunkenness, her desire to look good in front of Sasha, and Sasha’s reaction, which on the surface seemed favorable toward her, encouraged Rachel even more. However, before Rachel crossed that subtle line between joke and mockery, Lady Works stepped in at the right moment and stopped her daughter.
“It seems you’ve drunk a little too much on a day like today, my dear.”
Just as Sir Joseph, unable to bear it any longer, was about to say something, wondering how long he had to keep listening to that story about his nephew, Lady Works intervened, and Sir Joseph shut his mouth again. Yet he could not easily suppress his discomfort and glanced at Sasha.
But to his surprise, Sasha seemed to feel no displeasure toward Rachel at all. More than that, when Rachel timidly whined at Lady Works’s instruction to rise from her seat, Sasha even soothed her kindly, saying, “Listen to your mother, Miss Works. And we have tomorrow as well, not just today.”