Chapter 43
Winter was far away, but summer was close. There might at least be a chance to pick fruit and make compote. She hoped there would be. If she were a little luckier, in autumn she could make chestnut jam, and in winter…….
No, no. Given even the smallest opening, her thoughts always flowed in such selfish directions. For her to remain at the mansion through summer, autumn, and winter would mean that his treatment had shown no improvement over the course of several seasons. Or that it had failed.
Rose scolded her own heart.
Don’t be any more selfish than this. Don’t be greedy. Haven’t you committed enough sins already?
“What about summer?”
“Summer, um…… Please don’t make a swing. It wouldn’t make sense for a maid to play on a swing.”
It had been nothing more than a tiny mutter, but sharp-eared Ezekiel did not easily let even the briefest word she let slip pass him by.
Rose hurriedly made up some excuse at random.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Even so, it wouldn’t exactly look good. I’m someone who came here to work, after all.”
Ezekiel tilted his head.
That could not be right. To begin with, Rose was not merely an employee who had come to do simple work, and even when it came to the employees who had come solely for work, so long as the mansion’s schedule ran properly in its appointed order, he had never interfered with what they did in their leisure time.
Besides, when he imagined a girl with long red hair sitting on a flower-decorated swing, feeling the breeze sway gently around her, a hollow tickle stirred in his stomach. It would be an exceedingly lovely sight, yet sometimes Rose’s delicacy was rather difficult to understand.
Still, after pondering it a little longer, he accepted Rose’s opinion. For now, even if they hung a swing in the garden, which had hardly been maintained and was in utter disarray, there would be nothing to see but a desolate scene.
Moreover, with snow in winter and rain in spring and summer, Derosa’s outdoors was damp all year round, so it was hard to say that the scenery was particularly charming.
If that was the case, it would be better to surprise Rose with it as a gift after they moved mansions later.
He would take a large spruce and a sturdy apricot tree, both already tied with ropes, and plant them in the garden. He wanted to decorate the area beautifully with fruit trees and flowers, then hang a swing with his own hands. Taking Rose’s height and build into account, he would trim and carve the wood to suit her exactly, and tie on sturdy ropes. There, Rose would not be an employee, so she could ride the swing as much as she liked without worrying about other people’s eyes. If he made one, Rose and the child would probably play on it from time to time.
“These statues are holding hands. Like us.”
Rose, who had examined the statue in the meantime, added an explanation. Ezekiel drew up the corners of his mouth in a smile and put a little more strength into their linked fingers.
Neither of them hurried their steps. The night was long, and the walk was peaceful. Whether they chatted softly, or did not speak because they were listening to the sounds of grass insects and trees, it was all good in its own way. She simply liked this time. She liked this person.
The two of them slowly circled the garden, tying additional knots on several garden trees that could serve as markers.
The next statue they found was of a man and woman embracing each other. A man and woman facing each other, a man and woman holding hands, a man and woman embracing. Now that she looked, all the statues displayed in the garden took the form of lovers.
“I see lovers embracing to my left.”
“Ah, right. So it was around here.”
Before long, the rope Ezekiel held in his arms was beginning to run out. As they walked along the dry, rustling path through the unkempt shrubbery, Rose suddenly voiced a question that had occurred to her.
“Why did they put up so many statues of lovers? I don’t see any other statues, only pairs of men and women.”
“You’re finally curious about that?”
“Finally……?”
“I was waiting for you to ask.”
“Why?”
Ezekiel’s steps suddenly stopped. Taken by surprise, Rose stopped as well. Ezekiel turned her around, released her hand, and cupped the back of her small head, drawing her toward him.
His lips descended.
By the shortest straight line, a direct advance without hesitation.
Even ordinarily, he often pressed his lips to Rose.
“I want to feel your breath.”
More than before, he wanted to hear and touch the fragments of her in more concrete ways. For instance, her calm, low voice, the footsteps he had described as seeming to dance, her soft yet cautious touch, and the like.
At times, he would touch her face to check the direction in which her gaze flowed. Once, when the pulse beat beneath the wrist he had caught without thinking, he had pressed his thumb gently over it and counted its rise and fall. He said that when he did, he felt as if her form grew faintly clearer beyond the black curtain covering his eyes, and it put him at ease.
Because she had grown used to his frequent physical affection, Rose unconsciously adjusted the angle first and responded to the kiss. She parted her lips and accepted him.
After savoring Rose’s warmth and texture for a long while, Ezekiel drew his lips away slightly and whispered.
“So you’d do this.”
They had put up the statues to make them share such a deep kiss?
Even with her mind hazy from the heat that had swept through all five senses, it was a story she could hardly believe.
“Surely not.”
“You don’t believe me? Look to my right.”
Without pulling his face away, Ezekiel moved his head toward the right. Rose, naturally drawn along, glanced around from the corner of her eye and found a solitary statue of lovers. They were kissing.
“If you go out for a walk in the garden with someone of the opposite sex you fancy, the statues guide you to face each other from the entrance of the mansion. Next you hold hands, then embrace each other, and when you reach the end…….”
Ezekiel lightly bit her lip, drew on it, then let it go.
“Like this.”
“They really set them up on purpose?”
“It’s an old tradition among the noble families of the North. Since the weather is usually bad, there aren’t many suitable places to go far around here, and there isn’t much to see or enjoy, either. So when you want to ask someone on a date, you subtly suggest a walk and hint at it that way. If the other person likes you, the statues serve as a rather decent excuse while you stroll through the garden. That’s why the gardens of northern mansions are also used to gauge the other person’s feelings.”
“I had no idea. Then when I asked you to go out to the garden, you must have laughed to yourself.”
“I liked it very much.”
Rose stood still, gazing at his cool, well-shaped mouth, from which a soft smile still kept escaping.
“My lady will not become the mistress of Valdemaera. No matter which family you look at, there has never been a case of a mere maid becoming the mistress of a house.”
On a momentary impulse, she reached out and touched the corner of his mouth.
“Why?”
“Just because.”
“That’s rather sudden of you.”
Sudden…….
She felt it anew. So he had originally been this elegant a man.
Once the effects of the medicine had cleared, the man possessed an exquisite balance of dignity as a noble and restraint as a soldier. When he turned his head somewhere, he did not roll his eyes; he placed the tip of his nose in that direction. Then the slight lift of his chin added a haughty grace to his profile.
Rather than a deliberately calculated movement, it seemed like a habit performed unconsciously through long years of education. They said that well-bred people revealed their good birth in the way they ate, spoke, and walked, and here was a living example.
All at once, the vast gap between Ezekiel and herself felt real. Merlo’s warning kept circling in her memory.
“I know someone who uses contraception in the same way as him. Originally, matters like this fall under the purview of the lower servants who handle odd jobs.”
She had never imagined that a single lemon would invite suspicion. And from someone other than this man first, at that.
“Just who are you, my lady?”
“……I am.”
Sometimes, she wanted to forget who she was. Though she knew she must not forget, she wished for the impossible.
“Major.”
Had this man ever felt that way, too? Had there been days when he wanted to deny himself or run away?
“Major, have you ever imagined yourself as someone who is not a Valdemaera?”
She waited for a slight opening and began carefully. She had not even reached the main point. And yet, as soon as he heard her first words, Ezekiel answered firmly.
“No.”
It was a denial that left no room for anything at all.