Chapter 66
66
Ruined Paradise
Another letter had arrived. This one was quite thick.
“What do you plan to do, Mr. Leamer?”
The postman asked in a low, subdued voice. Through autumn and into winter, he had been Bill’s secret accomplice in diverting Kyle’s letters. It was a sign that his heart was just as heavy as Bill’s.
“You can’t hide it forever.”
“I know.”
Bill nodded and let out a deep sigh.
“I’ll tell her myself, so to Leila…”
“Yes. That’s the way it has to be. I won’t say a word.”
“I’m sorry. For dragging you into this.”
“Why wouldn’t I know it’s all for Leila’s sake? No one’s heart must be more conflicted than yours, Mr. Leamer.”
The postman smiled as if he fully understood that sentiment.
He knew better than anyone, having been the one to deliver the little girl named Leila Llewellyn to this Arbis. He knew just how much Bill Leamer’s life had changed before and after her arrival. That it was his love for that child that had transformed him, and that he had become a far happier man because of it.
Once the postman had left, Bill returned to the cottage with the letter. Leila had already gone to work, leaving the house empty.
As he went to put the new letter in the drawer where he kept the others, Bill Leamer impulsively pulled out the whole bundle. If he told her the truth, Leila would be disappointed and angry. He was afraid of that, but he couldn’t keep up this deception any longer.
Bill Leamer tied the letters together with string and set them down at the end of the dining table.
He planned to tell her that evening. Leaving them right there like this would keep him from cowardly sealing his lips again. Once he resolved himself, a strange calm settled over him.
No matter how much he thought about it, the right thing was to let Leila choose. And he would respect her decision completely.
After checking the chicken coop and picking out a plump one to slaughter for dinner, Bill strode toward the duke’s Glass Greenhouse. He had just finished tending the flower beds as usual and was heading to the shed beside the greenhouse to chop firewood for the hearth when a familiar voice called out abruptly.
“Hey, Bill!”
The zookeeper, who had worked alongside him in Arbis for many long years and was also his friend, approached him.
“The butler asked me to tell you not to stack firewood next to the generator, please.”
Bill’s brow furrowed deeply at the man’s words, delivered with a hearty laugh.
“That damned monster acts like it owns the place!”
Ever since the mansion had brought in this bizarre thing called electricity, a generator had been installed in the shed. It supposedly produced electricity when it ran, but to Bill, it was nothing more than a headache that roared with terrifying noise.
“I’ll handle it, don’t worry.”
Grumbling, Bill Leamer resumed walking toward the shed next to the greenhouse. The moment he opened the door, the generator’s roar assaulted his eardrums.
“Damn it all! That noise is unbearable no matter how many times I hear it.”
Bill glared at the electric generator as if it were his mortal enemy. His aversion to the dizzying modern contraptions flooding the world these days was another deep point of connection he shared with Lady Norma of the duke’s household.
Staring down the house-sized intruder that had invaded the once-quiet shed from the days before electricity, Bill demonstratively stacked firewood right next to the generator. Creating even this much of a barrier helped muffle the awful racket a bit, making it easier to work.
“It’s especially loud today, that blasted thing.”
Shaking his head, Bill began moving the firewood piled at the back of the shed to the generator’s side, where it wailed in protest.
The old days were better.
He felt that sentiment even more deeply today, one that Lady Norma was always repeating.
The children’s reactions to the start of vacation were polar opposites. Some were jumping for joy, while others were utterly heartbroken.
Among those in the latter group, little Monica, who was sunk in the deepest sorrow, left tear stains all over Leila’s skirt before finally heading home that day as well. Leila waved for a long time at the girl who kept turning back, waving her hand, and sniffling as she walked away. What worried her most was that leaving this school would be a huge wound for Monica.
She had to say a proper goodbye to the children she’d taught before transferring.
With that resolve, Leila returned to the classroom and busily packed her things. To roast chicken, she needed to start preparing dinner earlier than usual. On the way home, she planned to buy Uncle new socks and a sweater, and pick up a nice bottle of wine to share. When she told him she’d be working in another city starting next semester, he’d probably feel a bit slighted. They might need a glass or two to make up.
As she was taking off her indoor shoes to put on her outdoor ones, Leila couldn’t help but chuckle.
‘Think that’ll stop me from taking them?’
The duke’s silly remark from the charity performance night suddenly came back to her, as he’d eyed the shoes he’d left by the bench. It was still astonishing to think the duke was capable of such a thing. She’d pegged him as the type who wouldn’t crack a single joke until he was laid in his coffin.
Was it because the season of utter quiet had finally arrived?
Her relationship with that man had been peaceful lately, too. At first, even that had felt precarious, but at some point, she’d been able to relax. She was curious about the reason but didn’t want to dwell on it. Maybe he’d simply lost interest. That was what she hoped for most.
Leila buttoned her coat securely and left the school briskly. She loaded the box of her belongings into the bicycle basket and pedaled faster than usual toward town. Since the basket was full, she’d tied the bulkier items tightly to the rear rack with string.
“Give my regards to Mr. Leamer.”
The grocer said with a smile as he helped her load up.
“Yes. See you again, sir.”
“Alright. Be careful, Leila! If you fall and spill that wine, Bill Leamer might just bawl his eyes out.”
Leila responded to his corny joke with a bright laugh.
The wind was cold, but the sunlight was clear and warm. Leila sped down the street bathed in the radiant golden light of late afternoon. It felt like a good day. Right up until she entered Arbis, where an unusual tension hung in the air.
“Leila! Leila!”
It was when Leila stopped her bicycle upon spotting the fire wagon racing toward the duke’s mansion. Madam Mona, her face a mess of tears, came running frantically and grabbed her hand.
“Auntie, what on earth is going on? Why Arbis…”
Leila’s gaze, darting around, froze on the smoke rising from the direction of the Glass Greenhouse connected to the duke’s mansion.
“Don’t tell me there’s a fire?”
“Worse than that! The generator exploded and half the Glass Greenhouse collapsed, and they’re saying it’s all because of Mr. Leamer.”
“What? Why Uncle Bill?”
“They’re saying Mr. Leamer caused the generator to explode, but I’ve been too frantic to understand exactly what happened. Lady Norma got hurt in the chaos, too, so the whole mansion is in an uproar. The fire was put out quickly, but the police are taking Mr. Leamer away right now…”
“U-Uncle!”
Leila spotted Bill Leamer about to get into the car with the police and ran toward them in shock. Bill, who had looked dazed and lost, met her eyes and his expression turned to one of utter panic.
“What’s going on, Uncle? They’re saying it’s your fault? No way, right? It’s a misunderstanding, isn’t it?”
“It’s fine, Leila. It’s okay. It’s nothing serious.”
He tried to force a smile, but his face had already gone pale as a ghost.
“Step aside, please.”
The policeman holding Bill ordered Leila. When she stood her ground, his eyes turned fierce. The startled Madam Mona hurried over and pulled Leila away.
“Uncle!”
Leila cried out as Bill was practically shoved into the police car. Bill waved urgently for her to back off, forcing a smile that looked like it might turn to tears at any moment.
“Go home and wait! I-I’ll be back soon, so don’t worry. Got it? Leila…”
Bill started to say more, but the policemen roughly pushed him into the back seat as if they couldn’t delay any longer. The car sped off from Arbis, leaving behind Leila’s desperate cries calling for him.
Arbis servants rushed to Leila as she staggered and collapsed. With their help, she barely managed to stand—and that was when she saw him. Duke Herhardt standing at the bottom of the mansion’s entrance steps. Their eyes might have met, but hot tears burst forth, and Leila could see nothing more.
Her sobs echoed long and loud into the gloomy winter evening after the commotion had passed.
Leila emerged from the police station with a hollow, exhausted face. She’d pulled herself together and followed to the station where Bill had been taken, but there was nothing she could do.
The accident had happened when the generator, blocked and overheated by the piled firewood, exploded and brought down part of the shed wall. Debris had flown into the Glass Greenhouse, shattering one wall, and Lady Norma, who had been inspecting the flower bed right there at that moment, had been injured. The maid nearby had shielded her with her body; the glass cuts weren’t deep, but she’d been so startled that she’d fallen and rolled, breaking a bone. Needless to say, the beautiful Glass Greenhouse, hailed as Arbis’s Paradise, and its rare flowers had been ruined beyond repair.
‘I know Mr. Leamer didn’t do it on purpose, but since the accident has happened, we can’t say he’s entirely blameless. Especially since Lady Norma was hurt.’
Even the sympathetic policeman who had arranged for her to see Bill could only offer despairing words.
‘If the Herhardt duke’s family shows mercy, it might be different, but otherwise, there’s nothing we can do.’
He’d helped her up after she’d begged on her knees and sighed repeatedly.
‘If he’s punished, does that mean Uncle really goes to jail?’
‘It’s not certain yet, but lawsuits take a lot of time and money, and if he can’t pay proper compensation, then probably…’
He trailed off, avoiding her gaze to end the conversation. His demeanor made it clear enough that the unspoken words weren’t optimistic.
Leila made her way back to Arbis without even realizing how she was walking. The only thing she could do for Uncle Bill now was beg the duke’s family for leniency. But could she? With Lady Norma injured and the greenhouse Madam loved destroyed. If she barged in recklessly and made things worse…
As she stared blankly at the mansion shrouded in darkness, a faint spark of hope flickered in Leila’s tear-filled eyes.
Duke Herhardt—that man!
The face of Arbis’s master rose in her mind amid the mansion’s lights. All those strangely unfamiliar sides of him she’d seen last autumn, when he’d been nothing but uncomfortable and frightening.
So maybe the duke…
Clasping her hands as if in prayer, Leila began stumbling across the rose garden in its winter dormancy. She rushed through the wooded path and reached the riverbank, her breath coming in gasps. Beyond that white puff of exhalation, she saw the annex by the river, its lights aglow.
Toward that light, Leila started to run.
