Chapter 7

“You’ll bore a hole through the ceiling, Father.”

“If anything gets pierced by my gaze, Hazel’s heel will break the floor first.”

As if proving his words true, there came from upstairs a constant clatter of heels and the sound of chairs being dragged. The lively voices and excited laughter of young women were enough on their own to raise the spirits of the men in the same house to the highest level.

“Father!”

“Father, look at Hazel. Isn’t she pretty?”

Today Hazel was wearing a pink dress that brushed lightly against the floor. The small butterfly-shaped embroidery scattered over the dress was Sally’s handiwork.

Just then, a knock sounded from outside the door.

In an instant the house grew busy. By old custom, Hazel disappeared into her room, and Colin, as the male sibling, greeted the guest.

Hazel pressed her ear to the keyhole and listened to the conversation outside. She heard her brother’s voice.

“Kyle Strauss, if you want to take Hazel, you’ll have to defeat me first.”

“If a soldier attacks a civilian, that’s a crime, Brother.”

The teasing voice was definitely Kyle’s. Hazel cheered inwardly.

“I haven’t enlisted yet, so I’m a civilian too. A duel, Strauss!”

“Are you planning to make Sally a widow?”

“Well said, Kyle. I have no intention of becoming alone just yet. I’ll keep hold of my immature husband, so hurry up and go see Hazel!”

At Sally’s exasperated voice, loud laughter burst out downstairs. Hazel, still clutching the doorknob, jumped in surprise.

According to custom, Kyle was supposed to come all the way to her room, then take her by the arm and lead her downstairs. That meant that, in a place free from the eyes of any adults, even if only for a brief moment, she would be alone with Kyle.

Unable to do anything about her nervousness, she sat down in front of the dressing table. Looking at her made-up face in the mirror, she felt as though she had become a noble lady all ready for a ball. She had never thought of herself as particularly vain, yet once again she keenly realized just how much one’s surroundings affected one’s state of mind.

Even while she was doing that, time passed and Kyle drew nearer.

Step, step, step, step.

In time with the growing footsteps, Hazel’s heart also pounded.

“Hel, it’s me. Can I come in?”

“Come in, Kyle.”

The door opened slowly. Hazel sprang to her feet. Her lips had gone dry.

He was dressed in a black suit. Just as she had expected, the jacket carried a fine sheen. His neatly combed-back hair was tidy, and even his brows showed signs of grooming.

In his hand he was holding a bouquet of roses. Since most of them were still in bud, it seemed it would take quite some time for the bouquet to come fully into bloom. Embarrassed for no reason, Hazel only stared at the bouquet, when a voice that sounded equally embarrassed reached her ears.

“It’s my first time buying flowers…… they said taking less-bloomed ones means you get to look at them longer.”

He must have thought she was dissatisfied with the not-yet-open bouquet. Hazel shook her head. Even if he had picked wildflowers and tied them with a ribbon, she would have felt thrilled.

“The flower shop lady was right. Thank you, they’re really beautiful.”

Hazel buried her nose in the bouquet and slowly steadied her breathing. The scent of roses rose faintly.

To her, the man with the sea-green eyes said those words again. With a face more mature than in childhood.

“You’re pretty too.”

* * *

That day, the two of them hired a covered carriage.

“You first, Hazel.”

Dressed smartly in a stylish suit, Kyle looked extremely excited. Hazel had only hoped that the sound of her pounding heart would not reach the person in front of her.

She still did not know why Kyle had asked her on a date. In her reply to the letter from Alice, who had sounded even more excited than she was, Hazel wrote that perhaps he had wanted to spend his last days in Sainsbury with his oldest friend.

Standing before Hazel like that, Kyle whispered in an excited voice from beginning to end.

“If my pace is too fast, tell me. It’s my first time escorting someone.”

“It’s your first time escorting someone?”

“Yeah. Entrance to the hall on Eve Day is only allowed from age fifteen. Thanks to that, I’m getting to go out on Eve Day for the first time in three years.”

“What were you doing until last year?”

“Keeping Mother company.”

Everything Kyle said that day had carried a hidden meaning. That he had ignored the many followers tagging after him while waiting only for her to become old enough to go out. That because he feared some other man might reach out to her first, he had made a date request in the season before even the reeds had ripened, for a date that should only have happened in the dead of winter.

“Even after I go to Bukata, I’ll come to Sainsbury a few times a year. I’ll write often too. If possible, I’ll call as well.”

“Thank you, even if it’s only words.”

“It’s not only words.”

What kind of expression had Kyle worn when he said that. She remembered that he had tightened his relaxed mouth, as if hurt that Hazel dismissed everything he said as a joke.

“I mean it, Hazel.”

“……”

“I’ll stay in touch often. You mustn’t forget me.”

“Okay.”

Hazel kept that promise. She did not forget Kyle Strauss. She remembered everything, from the very brief bird kiss they shared in the carriage to the handsome face that had gone so red it looked ready to burst at what he himself had done.

But Kyle did not keep his promise. There was not so much as one letter, much less a phone call. Still, Hazel was all right. Like two wooden sticks crossing at one point, she thought it was only natural that after meeting once, they would move farther apart.

It was very easy to let go of a bond that had never been hers to begin with.

The last time she saw Kyle was about a month after that Christmas Eve. After blankly watching the luggage being taken out of the Woodenbury estate, she gathered her courage and walked over, only to run into Kyle by a brook.

“Where are you going now?”

“Bukata.”

All of Peter Strauss’s fortune went to his second wife, Eliya Strauss. It was said that he had left nothing at all to his first wife and eldest son.

The situation made one suspect the will had been forged, but there was no one who could openly attack Eliya Strauss. All the more so when even Peter’s eldest son, who had not yet reached adulthood, had disappeared into the military.

And so Hazel thought Kyle Strauss had vanished forever from the future before her.

But then.

Hazel opened her eyes. Beyond the car, slowed by a signal, the Strauss Hotel came into view.

Ladies in light one-piece dresses fluttered about searching for empty taxis. Their buoyant voices, lifted up by the warm weather, drifted through the taxi window. In the midst of that, the streetlamps and signboards flashed dazzlingly, urging the eyes of passersby toward them.

It was a city so splendid it could leave one’s soul numb.

But Hazel could see none of it.

Right now, she was in that dark alley where the streetlamp had flickered ominously. She could still feel the hand wrapped around her waist and the warmth pressed against her back exactly as it had been. The voice that had scolded her as if worried by her recklessness, and at the same time the glance that had discreetly swept over her to see whether she was hurt anywhere, even the fingers that had fixed her hair, fingers shaped quite differently from her own.

Her heart churned. It was a feeling she knew well. Her heart raced beyond control, and her face turned red. She was afraid someone else-taxi driver or Alice-might notice her physical reaction, and in preparation for the chance that they did, her mind spun in search of an excuse to say.

Hazel closed her eyes again. She had to admit it.

I still like Kyle Strauss.

* * *

Far away, he could see Hazel growing smaller as she walked off. Kyle stared blankly at her retreating figure until it disappeared onto the main road, then returned to the sofa. The lone teacup left behind without its owner made for a rather clumsy sight.

Lying comfortably on the sofa, he tilted the remaining glass of liquor. His mind was full of the woman who had swooped in like a butterfly and vanished in an instant.

‘Hazel……’

The little girl who could no longer be called little.

The last time they had seen each other, Hazel was fifteen. Considering that girls matured faster than boys, he had thought she was almost fully grown.

It had been a complete misunderstanding. Everything had changed. Her round eyes had grown even larger, and the jawline revealed by the wavy hair elegantly tied back into one was even slimmer than he remembered. On the face enlivened by light makeup, the lips tinted red were the finishing touch.

With this, Alice’s claim that Hazel was the prettiest in Sainsbury had been proven true. Then it must also be true that admirers lined up for her.

If he imagined the sort of gaze the young men of that small town, eager as they searched for marriage prospects, would cast on Hazel Bennett……

Kyle lowered his eyes diagonally. He could no longer ignore what had been painfully pressing beneath his belt buckle for some time now.