Translator: Nox

Chapter 64

64

Snowy Gaze

Snow had fallen quite heavily, and the carriage couldn’t pick up speed. Leila’s gaze peering out the window betrayed her anxiety that she hadn’t quite managed to hide.

“There’s no need to be so scared, dear.”

A kind smile appeared on the wrinkled lips of Katarina von Herthart, who sat facing Leila.

“Ah, no, My Lady. It’s not that……”

“It might not be the most comfortable seat, but there’s no need to be so tense. I didn’t bring you onto this carriage to torment you.”

A faint warmth gleamed in Lady Norma’s sparkling eyes. Only then did Leila relax a little.

“For the first snow to be this intense. It looks like we’ll have plenty of snow this winter too. Isn’t that right, Mathias?”

Following Lady Norma’s gaze to her grandson sitting beside her, Leila turned her head reflexively. Just a brief brush of eyes with the duke set her heart fluttering unsteadily.

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Mathias replied with a faint smile on his face.

Katarina von Herthart skillfully guided the conversation. She asked about Leila’s school life, praised today’s charity performance, and so on. When the talk flowed to the play by the children in Leila’s class, her smile deepened.

“It must not have been easy at all, but you handled it quite well.”

Leila’s cheeks flushed at the comforting praise.

“Thank you, My Lady.”

Now even her ears were bright red. The color was so ripe and sweet-looking it seemed like it would taste just as delicious if one took a bite.

Mathias gazed at Leila, suppressing the laughter that bubbled up again from recalling that embarrassing play. Her two hands, neatly placed on her lap, fidgeted restlessly with anxiety.

A woman who had no idea how to hide her emotions. Clumsy at lying too. That must be why she could only give such a disastrous performance.

Leaning back deeply into his seat, Mathias stretched his legs out a bit farther. So that the tip of his shoe could touch Leila’s. Leila pulled her foot back in surprise, but Mathias didn’t give up.

Once they left the well-paved road, the carriage’s jolts grew more pronounced.

Leila stared down at the carriage floor with the urge to burst into tears. She’d dodged several times, but Mathias had finally managed to press the tip of his shoe against hers. It was just that much contact, nothing more, yet Leila felt as exposed as if she’d been stripped barefoot.

“You’re still such a young lady, yet you handle the children so well.”

When Lady Norma picked up the conversation again, Leila hurriedly lifted her head. The more she tried to avoid it, the more suspicious it would seem, so she decided to stop thinking about the tips of their shoes touching the duke’s.

“Do you like children?”

“……Yes, My Lady.”

“You’re clever and you like children too—you’d make a fine teacher. Don’t you think so, Mathias?”

Katarina von Herthart turned her pleased gaze from Leila to her grandson. Mathias glanced briefly at Leila and nodded readily.

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Leila’s eyes widened round at the response laced with a hint of amusement. It was probably just polite, but still an unexpected attitude. She’d thought he’d merely nod curtly and toss out a dry reply. That was the Duke of Herthart as she knew him.

“Vacation will be here soon, won’t it, Miss Llewellyn.”

When their eyes met, the duke posed the question politely.

“……Yes, Your Grace.”

Leila carefully raised her eyes, which she’d hurriedly averted, to meet Mathias’s. Stay calm, she told herself firmly. Don’t look strange. Just like the family of a servant attending the duke’s household. Nothing more.

“What are your plans for the vacation?”

As Leila finally regained her composed expression, Mathias became all the more brazenly nonchalant.

“Pardon? Well, that is……”

It was just an utterly ordinary question, yet Leila’s mind went blank, and she couldn’t continue right away. Amused by that, one corner of Mathias’s mouth twitched up faintly.

“I’ll study, help Uncle Bill with his work, and also……”

While she hesitated, the tip of Mathias’s foot, resting quietly against hers, tapped hers with a light tok. Leila nearly let out a gasp but hurried to continue.

“P-prepare for the next semester!”

In her fluster, she’d raised her voice without realizing it.

Lady Norma, who had been staring at Leila for blurting out such an obvious plan for the next semester as if it were a solemn declaration, burst into a pleasant “Haha.”

“Yes, Leila. That’s a solid vacation plan. Bill Lemmer raised you so upright and proper.”

“You’re too kind, My Lady.”

Leila whispered softly, wishing she could crawl into a mouse hole. Mathias casually crossed his legs as if nothing had happened. His brazen face only made Leila more embarrassed.

“You’re quite the excellent teacher, Miss Llewellyn.”

It was clearly teasing, yet the duke’s tone was impeccably polite. Suppressing the urge to stomp hard on the top of his foot with her heel, Leila responded with the same courteous demeanor she used toward Lady Norma.

“……Thank you, Your Grace.”

She’d resolved not to look anymore, but in the narrow carriage, avoiding the gaze of the man sitting across from her was no easy task.

In the end, the moment their eyes met again, Leila flinched involuntarily, her shoulders shrinking back. Contrary to the mischief from moments before, the duke’s eyes held no emotion—just deep and serene, like the summer river that had once swallowed her whole.

It took the carriage twice its usual time before it finally turned onto the road leading to Arbis.

Inside the carriage, where Katarina von Herthart had begun to doze off with her head nodding, silence reigned. Only the faint sound of hoofbeats and the carriage’s jolts repeated rhythmically, reminding them of the passage of time.

Mathias turned from staring quietly out the carriage window to look at Leila. At some point, she had dozed off too. She’d tried to stay awake, but soon her head would droop with a pick, only to jerk back up in startlement with a shake.

Mathias’s gaze, fixed on Leila’s closed eyes, slowly trailed downward. Even in the dim interior of the carriage, the necklace he’d given her emitted a soft glow. His eyes, drifting lower bit by bit, came to rest on the carriage floor. Leila’s small shoes placed next to his looked almost like a doll’s footwear. Just as he found himself marveling at how those feet could run around so tirelessly without tiring, the carriage came to an abrupt stop.

“Goodness, Bill! Why are you out here all the way?”

Leila’s eyes snapped open at the coachman’s booming voice. Still sleepy-faced, she peered hurriedly out the window.

“With the weather like this, I got worried about Leila.”

“Leila’s riding in this carriage. Lady Norma was kind enough to look after her.”

“Leila’s in there?”

As snippets of their conversation drifted faintly in, Katarina von Herthart woke from her nap as well.

“M-My Lady……”

Leila gazed at Lady Norma with a bright smile already blooming on her face. Reading the child’s heart, Katarina Herthart nodded gladly.

“Go on, Leila. Go to Bill Lemmer.”

“Meeting Bill Lemmer was a blessing in that child’s life.”

Katarina von Herthart murmured with utmost contentment.

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Offering his habitual reply, Mathias looked at the now-empty seat across from him.

Spotting Bill Lemmer waiting, Leila left the carriage without hesitation. Mathias could only watch helplessly as the woman flew down into the gardener’s arms. He didn’t much care for the feeling of having something of his stolen away.

“Even his own daughter wouldn’t get that from him. Who’d have thought Bill Lemmer had such a tender side. Probably not even God expected him to do so well.”

She kept exclaiming in admiration, continuing on about the gardener and his foster daughter.

“So for Bill Lemmer’s sake too, it would be good if she stayed in Arbis. Why on earth does she want a transfer?”

Her grandmother’s idle words suddenly clawed at his consciousness like sharp shards.

“Leila Llewellyn is transferring?”

“Yes. She wants to go to another city. I just don’t understand why all young ladies are so eager to leave their hometowns. Once you live life, you realize home is best.”

Katarina von Herthart clicked her tongue briefly.

“The village school principal told me earlier. The children adore her, and the parents love her too, so he wants to keep her at the school somehow, but she insists on changing schools. With the engagement to Kyle Etman fallen through and all, I can understand wanting to leave, but they’re so attached—how could they bear to live apart?”

“……I see.”

“He told her to think deeply and decide by early next year, so it’s not finalized yet. I just hope Leila stays by Bill Lemmer’s side.”

She looked genuinely regretful.

“The principal’s distant relative runs a big general store in the city, and they’re eyeing Leila as a match for their son. Broken engagements happen to young women all the time, and though her circumstances aren’t great, she’s pretty and clever—no shortcomings as a merchant’s wife. Maybe finding her a good match will change her mind; the principal plans to play matchmaker himself.”

“Yes.”

“If Bill Lemmer doesn’t like that prospect, maybe I should step in. I’ll have Hessen ask around if there’s a refined, upstanding groom candidate not too far from Arbis. For that poor child, the best life would be to marry, build a family, live near Bill Lemmer, and continue teaching. Don’t you think so, Mathias?”

As Katarina von Herthart chattered on, the carriage pulled up in front of the mansion.

Instead of repeating the expected reply, Mathias opened the carriage door and stepped down. The approaching coachman flinched and stepped back.

Mathias had already smoothly adjusted the lapel of his neat coat before turning.

“Shall we go, Grandmother.”

His expression and gesture as he offered his hand to his grandmother were as courteous and elegant as ever.

Katarina von Herthart gladly took that hand and alighted from the carriage. The sound of their footsteps echoed into the deep night of the mansion’s marble lobby hall.

Bill Lemmer and Leila Llewellyn entered Arbis around the time the duke’s carriage departed from the front entrance, and the freshly fallen white snow faintly obscured its tracks.

“I thought at least you wouldn’t laugh, Uncle!”

When Bill kept laughing nonstop after hearing about the disastrous play, Leila huffed indignantly. It wasn’t much of a rebuttal. It only made Bill’s laughter ring out even louder.

“It’s fine, Leila. Well, it must have been cute. Very much so.”

“Not all the audience was like you, Uncle.”

Leila grumbled but ended up chuckling despite herself. Hearing Uncle Bill say it was okay made everything feel truly okay.

As they chatted amiably, the two turned onto a path at the edge of the rose garden. Bill, who had been glancing at Leila’s shoes, cleared his throat with a hem-hem and stopped walking.

“Want a piggyback?”

“What? No!”

Leila burst into giggles at the out-of-left-field suggestion.

“Do I look like a little kid? I’m fine, Uncle.”

“I’m the one who’s uncomfortable. That limp-limp of yours is seriously annoying.”

Gruffly tossing out the words, Bill plopped down squarely in front of her, presenting his back.

“Uncle.”

“If you don’t get on, I’ll carry you over my shoulder.”

“You’ll strain yourself.”

“What do you take me for? Even as an old codger, I could carry five girls like you with ease.”

Faced with his utterly stubborn attitude that brooked no refusal, Leila reluctantly climbed onto Bill’s back. Dispelling her worries, Bill stood up effortlessly and strode toward the woodland path. Leila, who had been stiff and awkward at first, soon found her laughter again.

White puffs of breath spilled from Leila’s chattering lips, scattering amid the snowflakes. Bill’s hearty laughter naturally followed suit.

Thicker snowflakes quietly settled over the footprints that ran side by side before merging into one.