Chapter 17
17. You and Me, Just Two?2021.10.28.
Arthur took one more puff of his cigar before pressing the half-smoked stub directly into the ashtray to extinguish it. He then glided over to the table and pulled out a chair with one hand. Drag. The sound of the chair scraping across the floor rang out.
“…….”
He turned his head at an angle and looked at Reina. Followed by a slight tilt of his chin.
“…….”
Realizing just how upset he was, Reina went pale.
“…….”
Reina stood there in a daze for quite some time before finally managing to move her feet. Creak. She approached the chair he had pulled out for her. Arthur quietly slid the chair in for her, then dragged another one right up beside her. Thud. He sat down and crossed his legs away from her side. He picked up his utensils and immediately began cutting into the steak. Without a word.
“…….”
Marina and Brody, having missed their chance to slip away, couldn’t refuse and awkwardly pulled up chairs to the table, sitting down around it. The table was laden with the most precious and exquisite dishes the Julius kitchen had meticulously prepared.
“…….”
In the frigid silence, broken only by the clink of cutlery. The three maids began to savor the delicacies with queasy expressions, as if they might choke. * * * Once the maids finished their meal and scurried off with the trolley, Arthur let out a short sigh. He ruffled his hair and turned to the frozen Reina.
“Let’s talk.”
Knock knock. But a knock immediately sliced through the air like a baton pass.
“…….”
The visitor’s voice came from beyond the door.
“Miss.”
She recognized it right away. It was Doctor Lorenson, the family physician who had promised to come every day to tend her wound. * * *
“…….”
Doctor Lorenson called out “Miss” from outside the door and waited patiently. Ever since learning about the sham marriage, standing before Arthur made him feel uneasy and cautious. But yesterday, Arthur had known everything and still treated him kindly. If he shrank back like a guilty man just because Arthur’s attitude had changed from yesterday, it might upset him even more. So Lorenson resolved to keep up his welcoming, friendly, and pleased demeanor. He wanted to be warm toward him and give the impression that, even if he was angry for a moment over the marquis family’s neglect, this was ultimately the place he would return to. Clunk. Instead of saying come in, Arthur opened the door himself.
“Ah, Sir Arthur.”
Doctor Lorenson doffed his hat in greeting and flashed a broad smile.
“I’ve come to redress the miss’s wound…… but……”
Lorenson trailed off. The groom’s aura was icy. With a bewildered look, Doctor Lorenson gazed up at Arthur.
“Sir……?”
“…….”
Arthur smiled brightly.
“Doctor Lorenson.”
……Then why did he look so displeased?
“Come in.”
Reina fidgeted restlessly behind Arthur, her face flushing bright red as she sat there.
—I’m not going to eat you, so just the two of us for a bit.
Her heart plummeted at his low, muttered words as he rose from his seat, her pulse thundering. * * * Arthur stood at Reina’s side with his arms crossed, watching the family physician dress her wound. In the strangely ominous atmosphere, even the sociable and affable Doctor Lorenson clamped his mouth shut and silently disinfected Reina’s injury.
“…….”
What in the world was causing this dreadful mood? According to the marquis and his wife, Sir Arthur had seemed aware since before the Triumphal Procession that the miss had been swapped out. If that was true, then his attitude hadn’t shifted because he’d only just learned about the sham marriage yesterday or today……. At first, Lorenson thought maybe something unpleasant had happened between him and Reina, the maid impersonating the miss…… But now, the family physician began sensing something off, a growing incongruity that there was more to it. Arthur’s gaze had been fixed piercingly on his face since earlier. Something…… different from yesterday……
“…….”
Suddenly, it felt like Arthur was scouting enemy lines with that stare. Yesterday, at their first meeting, he’d responded to Lorenson’s greeting with a fresh, friendly air. Now, there was an odd undercurrent of hostility. Had Reina said something unfavorable about him to Sir Arthur……?
“How long have you worked here?”
Arthur asked abruptly. His tone sounded gentle.
‘Was it my imagination……?’
Gauging the mood a little, family physician Lorenson smiled readily and replied.
“A little over thirty years.”
Arthur gazed at him steadily and offered a plain smile.
“You’ve been here a long time. Serving the marquis family for generations?”
“Haha……. I certainly hope so. If Sir Arthur allows it.”
Doctor Lorenson fretted that he might come across as overly fawning, so he modulated his tone to keep it light and felt a touch embarrassed.
“But our family’s ties to the marquis family began with me. Thirty years ago, the former marchioness took a liking to an insignificant young doctor like me—far more than I deserved—and that’s how it started.”
Alvin Lorenson wanted to make a good impression on Arthur. The Julius marquis family was full of rough edges, absurdities, and outright outrages, but it had long since become his ‘foolish child’ of sorts. After all, he’d been here for thirty years, they paid well, and alongside Head Maid Mrs. Hurst and Head Butler Jim, he was one of the mansion’s three veteran fixtures, respected by the staff. He took a certain pride in the work. Alvin Lorenson wanted to become a retainer serving this marquis family down through the generations. But Alvin Lorenson stopped at mentioning his connection to the former marchioness, holding back anything more. He had a son the perfect age to boast about for generational loyalty, but there were still too many awkward tensions. He didn’t know how furious Arthur was over the sham marriage, or whether things would even resolve smoothly……. Arthur said nothing more.
“…….”
Doctor Lorenson applied a final layer of thin, flesh-colored gauze to Reina’s wound before rising. He stepped back to prepare another medicine he’d brought.
“…….”
Clatter clatter. On the tray before him sat a bowl of the ‘inky black-red liquid’ the marchioness had ordered prepared. Alvin Lorenson opened his medicine bag, pulled out the pill he’d separately prepared in a glass vial, and casually set it beside the medicine bowl. It was an antidote to neutralize the ‘inky black-red liquid’s’ toxicity. It would preserve the contraceptive effect the marchioness demanded while minimizing harm to the body……. Though some strain was inevitable.
‘……This poor girl sure gets the raw end of it.’
Alvin Lorenson swallowed a silent sigh.
“…….”
In his time at Julius, he’d witnessed, heard about, and endured countless scandals too shameful to speak of outside these walls, but this took the cake. A sham marriage against the imperial family, no less. And getting found out, blowing it all up like this. Of all the marquis family’s wild escapades, this was hands-down the worst. With the whole world crowding the front yard, hailing it as the couple of the century and the Triumphal Procession of the century……
‘……Part of me hopes they get a proper dressing-down this time and the marquis couple finally pulls themselves together……’
But the opponent had to be the imperial family. It was too risky to just let fate take its course. If it weren’t the imperials, he wouldn’t fret over the house’s very survival or heads rolling……
‘This is bad. It has to get sorted without turning into a massive uproar……’
Alvin Lorenson carried the tray with the medicine bowl and pill over to Reina. She already wore a resigned expression, knowing full well what medicine he’d brought—but she looked up at him puzzled at the sight of the pill beside the inky black-red liquid.
“…….”
If Arthur had any compassion, he’d realize he needed to let this girl go soon, or he’d ruin her life……. Alvin Lorenson added quietly.
“……It’s a pill that lets you take a bit less of the medicine. The effect stays the same.”
“…….”
Catching the deeper meaning in the doctor’s words, Reina nodded faintly after a dazed moment and murmured.
“Thank you……”
Alvin Lorenson didn’t respond. Frankly, it felt wrong accepting thanks while making her swallow something like that. * * * With the family physician gone, Arthur and Reina were finally alone. Arthur glanced at her. For some reason, after drinking the herbal tea, she seemed far more composed.
“…….”
The nagging irritation that had been bothering Arthur eased somewhat. He didn’t want to see her wilted and dejected at the sight of his displeasure. It was like watching a bird snared in a net, flapping desperately to break free—then, after one scolding, folding its wings, losing all its spark, and slumping in defeat. He hadn’t expected to feel this way. At least the frantic flapping that had annoyed him was gone.
“…….”
After a moment’s hesitation, Arthur broached the subject casually.
“That tea you had at the end?”
Reina, her smile a touch subdued, paused like a held breath before answering.
“It’s herbal medicine. They say it’s good for the body.”
She seemed to have been searching for an opening herself, as the words flowed on.
“……I’m sorry. It’s not that I hate being alone with you. It was just…… unfamiliar. Kind of embarrassing too……”
Reina touched the nape of her neck. She looked awkward, her cheeks faintly pink. She hesitated, as if the words wouldn’t come. Then she murmured so softly it was barely audible.
“……I just couldn’t look.”
At what? Arthur narrowed his eyes. Her voice had shrunk to a whisper.
“……Because you’re too handsome……”
A bit intimidating too……. The words trailed off to near silence. Arthur stared at Reina, fixed as if pinned in place. She faltered blankly, her hand repeatedly brushing her nape. In her anxiety, it slipped over her hair, grazed her collarbone, slid to the other side of her neck, then down past her chest.
“That……”
Her tongue darted out slightly, wetting her petal-tinted lips.
“I really dreamed a dream like that for the first time.”
“…….”
Reina forced an awkward half-smile and ducked her head again.
“……Isn’t it normal to have trouble looking him in the eye after a dream like that?”
“…….”
She spoke, then pressed her lips shut again. Reina paused in that hesitant way once more, then finally lifted her head—mustering what seemed like all her courage—and met Arthur’s gaze.
“Still, for me to dodge you so rudely……”
“…….”
Arthur stared straight through her. Struggling to hold his eyes, Reina pressed on.
“……I figured it must’ve upset you. I’m sorry. I was an idiot.”
The words seemed to exhaust her; she immediately toyed with her bangs and dropped her gaze. Biting her lip weakly, as if she’d poured out every ounce of strength, she whispered powerlessly at the floor.
“Don’t be mad……”
“…….”
Silence stretched for a time. Then Arthur broke it.
“Was it me in the dream?”
“Yes?”
She looked utterly baffled, as if the question had never crossed her mind—her flushed face already answering the foolish query.
“…….”
Arthur was speechless.
“……?”
Reina peeked up at him cautiously from under her lashes, her cheeks still burning as she gauged his mood. Without thinking, her lips parted.
“Just me?”
“Yes?”
You and me, just two? It wasn’t three, was it?
