Chapter 67
“Then… you could just do the same.”
“You mean do whatever I want?”
“You’ve been doing that all along, so why stop now…?”
He let out a dry laugh at her cheeky retort and suddenly scooped her up. It was as if he were asking if she could truly take responsibility for those words. Her feet left the floor so abruptly that Vanessa gasped and instinctively threw her arms around River Ross’s neck. Her hips hit the soft mattress a moment later.
The strength with which he set her down was incredibly gentle. His habitual tenderness felt particularly poignant today. Ridiculously, her nose began to prickle. It was all his fault. At a time when the world was condemning her, treating illusions as truth, acting like this would only make her fall back into her delusions…
“I’m sorry if that’s what you thought.”
Right, it was a delusion. As River Ross had said, they were in a relationship where they merely craved each other’s bodies without a future. Since it had been a temporary contractual arrangement started as a deal from the beginning, there were clear limits no matter how much they played at being lovers.
And yet, she had been desperate for this all along. This warmth, the moment where two people press their skin together, soothing and supporting each other’s existence.
She had been holding on, pretending everything was fine, but looking back, it felt like it had been hard enough to make breathing a struggle. It would be one thing if she had intended for it, but being pelted with stones after getting caught up in a scandal for reasons she didn’t even know, Rosalyn avoiding her calls for days, and even suspecting her uncle of being her parents’ murderer…
Vanessa quickly wiped away a stray tear. The sudden onset of tears caught even her by surprise. No, really, was this something to cry so much over…? As she sniffled slightly, clutching River Ross’s shirt, he asked in disbelief.
“Are you crying, Vanessa?”
“No! I’m not… Just, for a moment… let’s stay like this.”
She added quickly, afraid River Ross might pull away.
“After that… you can do it.”
Theodore stared at Vanessa, momentarily speechless, before bursting into a laugh of pure disbelief. He felt like he finally understood how he was perceived in this woman’s head. Perhaps like a dog in heat. Then again, since they had been practically inseparable every time their eyes met, it might be a natural conclusion. Even now, he had brought her to the bed first.
He didn’t rush any further. Willingly giving up a portion of his shirt, he leaned his cheek against Vanessa’s rounded forehead and laughed lowly. He put more weight into the hand bracing him against the bed, while his other hand slowly tucked her hair—which looked like scattered sunlight—behind her ear.
“And here you were just telling me to do whatever I want.”
“…I’m almost calmed down. Just a moment…”
“I’m not going to do anything right now, so lift your head.”
“Why…”
“Because I want to see you.”
He wanted to see her. At those words, Vanessa’s entire face flushed crimson in an instant. She had no way of enduring River Ross. He was doing this while knowing full well that she liked him.
If the temperature of emotions could be measured, hers would always be hotter than this man’s. Like that night on the ship. Like that moment when she liked him so much that she couldn’t weigh anything or use any shallow calculations.
“Wait a moment. Right now… my face is a mess…”
“Let me see.”
River Ross’s large, warm hand caught her chin and tilted it up. His gaze followed, searching her face carefully as if to confirm something.
“…….”
With his thumb, he gently brushed over her wet cheeks, her eyes, and her bitten lips. Ridiculously, in that moment, she thought of Dahlia’s warm tongue. That moist, kind puppy who would lick every single scratch she got from the garden shears.
Of course, River Ross was not a dog, nor was he a man as warm as Dahlia. In the end, Vanessa let out a tearful laugh.
“It tickles.”
“I don’t know about it being a mess, but you look like you’ve lost some weight.”
“No way. Lately, I’ve been living on nothing but sweets…”
“You seem to have a bit of a fever, too.”
“It’s just because the weather is so hot.”
“Your face is far too red.”
“That’s because you’re… looking at me from so close…”
“Vanessa.”
The moment her name was called, she snapped her head up from where it had been drooping. She immediately locked eyes with the clear blue gaze looking down at her.
“If things are hard, don’t force yourself to endure it. Just tell me.”
“…It’s not that hard.”
Vanessa shook her head and dropped her gaze. She was more upset that tears kept falling over something so trivial. She bit her lip hard and then smiled as if it were nothing.
“No matter what rumors are floating around outside, or what the newspapers are blaring, it’s not the truth. And I’m perfectly fine, without a single scratch.”
As she stubbornly insisted, he looked at her with eyes whose meaning she couldn’t discern. As if he were looking at some strange thing that defied understanding. After a long, tense standoff, he slowly nodded. “Right,” he murmured, his voice sweet.
“If you’re that fine, then I’m glad.”
“This is all because you came without a word… If I had known, I would have prepared myself. I didn’t even know you were arriving today.”
“My business in the south finished a bit early. Though I have to go back to Linden in four days.”
Vanessa stared at him blankly, her eyes wide. She wanted to act nonchalant, but she couldn’t entirely hide the hollow feeling in her heart.
“…In four days? So soon?”
He nodded as if it were nothing and rose from the bed. His movements were natural as he opened the cigar box kept by the desk, took out a cigarette, and pressed it to his lower lip.
Like a habit he wasn’t half-conscious of. His hand, which had been searching for a match as if to light it immediately, suddenly stopped. He slowly ran a hand through the hair falling over his forehead, appearing somewhat frustrated.
“I have some matters left to settle.”
“It’s a shame the schedule is so short… Actually, I have an appointment tomorrow too.”
If it were anything else, she might have postponed or canceled it, but it was an appointment with Mr. Benjamin Dawson. Furthermore, it was a meeting accompanied by an important figure he referred to as the ‘Painter.’
Mr. Dawson had played a huge role in persuading someone who had refused to come out. Since there was no knowing when another appointment could be made if this one fell through, the priority was clear.
“I’ll return as soon as the business in Linden is sorted out.”
“…How long do you think it will take?”
“I’m not sure. About ten days? There are several issues tangled together.”
Vanessa looked at him with narrowed eyes. Did River Ross perhaps believe that this summer would never end?
By then, it would already be the last week of August. Considering the schedule where soldiers on long-term leave had to return to the military during the first week of September, the time they had left was now truly short. Because summer was coming to an end.
She slightly regretted her past self, who had been so confident that she wouldn’t cling or cry. She shouldn’t have made that bet. She should have at least asked, pretending to be composed, to extend the contract until autumn—no, until next spring…
She let out a sigh. It was all a futile assumption anyway. Perhaps it was for the better. She wouldn’t have to worry about her relationship with him while her hands were already full with her uncle…
“And when that business is finished, Vanessa.”
It was River Ross’s voice that snapped her out of her endless cycle of negative thoughts. A rare emotion was reflected on his beautiful face. He looked somewhat solemn, or perhaps stiff. His eyes, exceptionally blue today, captured her gaze instantly.
It was in that moment, when she had briefly lost herself in that light.
“When that time comes, I have something to tell you.”
***
Welder Tea House was a place with no merits other than being quiet. The narrow shop was packed with dirty, old tables, and there were no customers other than an old man snoring at the bar.
Vanessa took a seat by the grime-covered window and ordered a glass of lemonade. Just as a sense of anxiety was starting to creep in that she might have come to the wrong place, the bell attached to the entrance rang.
“Vanessa. You arrived first.”
Mr. Benjamin Dawson and a man with his hat pulled down low approached her. Their clothes were heavily scented with the smell of damp summer rain.
“We’re late because of a sudden downpour. Have you been waiting long?”
“It’s alright. But my time is tighter than what I mentioned before. A maid is supposed to come pick me up in thirty minutes.”
“Then we must hurry. This is Mr. Jack Wiltshire, the representative of the Moretz Investment Company.”
“Mr. Wiltshire. Thank you for coming out like this. I’m Vanessa Siren Somerset.”
It was the moment she offered her hand with a ladylike smile. A faint smile flickered across the pale face of the man looking at her.
“Actually… it isn’t the first time, Lady Vanessa. I saw you when you came with your father as a child.”
“Is that so?”
“Back then, I often gave you shoulder rides.”
The man, retracing the past, soon let out a deep sigh.
“If it weren’t for that memory, I wouldn’t have… stepped forward for something like this.”
The man looked around the shop with extremely anxious eyes. As if someone might burst into their meeting with a gun at any moment.
