Chapter 30 – Hiding a Woman Away

Sasha, who had ridden all the way from Eloise’s house without stopping even once, quickly parked her bicycle in front of Hawthorn Mansion and went into the garden. She wanted to paint right this moment so badly she could hardly bear it. It was the first time she had felt this way since returning from Lorthez Castle before.

“Hello, Mr. Robert!”

Mr. Robert was sitting on a beach chair in the garden, stretching out his legs in a cool-looking shirt. Green shadows fluttered lightly across his forehead. He raised a hand in casual greeting. Without even having time to exchange words, Sasha vanished into the mansion in an instant.

Robert, who had expected that the woman who had returned would first thank him, put down the book he had been reading at this unexpected turn of events. She looked hurried, as if something were chasing her.

Even while he waited, Sasha Vinoche did not come out into the garden. Robert, who had gone back to reading the book he had picked up again, placed a bookmark in the middle and leisurely rose from the beach chair. If she would not come, then he had no choice but to go find her.

Beyond the atelier window, he saw the woman painting. Several still-life objects had been placed on the table. Narrowing the space between her brows, she tested the composition this way and that, then without hesitation put paint on the brush. Her hair, tied up and twisted into one so it would not fall loose, was long. Her side profile in the light shimmered with a pale golden glow, and because she was holding the brush in her mouth, white teeth and the tip of her red tongue showed between her parted lips.

Robert stood there watching for quite some time, but Sasha never noticed him. At length, turning away, Robert headed for the study instead of going back to the garden. He lit a cigar and stood by the window, smoking for a long while. By the time one cigar had burned down halfway, the man set it down in the ashtray and changed his shirt.

While fastening the buttons, he could hear Sasha’s light humming drifting through the window. A popular song that had reached the end of fashion in Laurent long ago. Listening to the sound carried on the hot breeze, he felt drowsily at ease.

And a few days later, Robert found a painting drying in one corner of the atelier. It was the side profile of a man sitting in a crowded cafe in Laurent. Strangely enough, there was a glass of lemonade in front of the man rather than coffee. He had no difficulty recognizing that it was none other than himself.

* * *

“Robert! How long has it been!”

When he opened the door at the deafening ring of the bell, Christopher barged in and threw his arms around Robert. Robert frowned, endured it for a moment, then, seeing no sign that he meant to let go, shoved his friend by the shoulder. Christopher obediently stepped back.

“To think the man who said he’d come to Metz once he was finished with his business in Laurent would suddenly be in Manolie again. You’re a friend whose face is hard enough to see even once. Why on earth do you like this place so much when there’s not even anything to do here?”

“Come in first.”

Ignoring the grumbling, Robert went inside first. Christopher, who had been annoyed because the appointment they had made to meet in Metz had been broken, soon accepted it. Right. Robert had always been this kind of person. Ever since their academy days, he would seem perfectly normal, but if something suddenly caught his interest, he had a strangely obsessive streak.

‘So this time he must have taken a liking to the mansion he built out in the countryside where no one can recognize him.’

Well, his pleasant summer vacation in Metz with charming beauties had gone up in smoke, but exploring the rustic life Robert had fallen into did not seem so bad either. Christopher laughed brightly and slung an arm over Robert’s shoulder.

“All right. If I’m lucky, maybe there’s a cute country girl living nearby.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

At that oddly sharp response, Christopher glanced back toward the carriage behind him.

“Could you not be so quick to drive me away? I didn’t come alone this time.”

Eleonore, who had handed Leroy to the coachman, was getting down from the carriage.

“When you clearly said you were coming to Metz and then there was no word from you at all, I went to your apartment, and as it happened, this lady here suggested we come together.”

Christopher smiled triumphantly. Contrary to what was widely known in society, Leroy was not Robert’s illegitimate child, but Madame Eleonore really was his mistress. There was only one reason for keeping a woman with a child beside him.

“I really don’t understand why ladies like cold men so much.”

Robert’s gaze was far too dry for a man looking at the mistress who had come to see him after so long. Since his friend showed no sign of taking the lady’s hand, Christopher offered his own to Eleonore.

“Because difficult men always stir curiosity. Gentlemen often seem to forget it, but women, in fact, also possess a desire to conquer.”

Replying elegantly, Eleonore took Christopher’s hand and stepped down from the carriage. The handsome blond man flashed his teeth in a bright smile.

“Oh dear, then you don’t know. If you want to make a man a prisoner of love, you have to seize him intensely at first sight. It’s impossible to conquer a man’s instincts through effort.”

“Is that so?”

As always, Eleonore wore that tender smile men liked.

“Of course, that could change depending on whose effort it is.”

Christopher grinned and shrugged.

“It’s been a while, Robert. I’m sorry for disturbing you during your holiday.”

Turning her attention, Eleonore apologized to Robert while holding Leroy’s hand after he had been lifted down from the coachman’s arms.

“In a dull corner of the countryside, a beauty’s visit is always welcome. I doubt even the Duke of Guienne would be any different. The nuisance will be out looking at the garden, so I hope the two of you enjoy a pleasant time together after so long.”

Christopher, sensing Eleonore’s intention to exclude him, withdrew with a slick smile.

“Leroy. You should greet His Grace. You’ve wanted to meet him for a long time, haven’t you?”

Eleonore called to her young son, who was looking around with curiosity, perhaps intrigued by the unfamiliar place. But instead of greeting Robert properly as Eleonore had wished, Leroy hid behind his mother’s skirt. Robert stared expressionlessly at the little boy who resembled Eleonore. The younger half-brother his father had left behind, not even ten years old.

With an awkward expression, Eleonore glanced toward the inside of the open door.

“It seems Leroy is tired after traveling for so long. Could he sit down somewhere?”

“This way.”

Fortunately, Robert led them to the drawing room without a word. Walking down the corridor while holding her son’s hand, Eleonore stole a side glance at the man’s back, his manner somewhat softened compared to when he was staying in Laurent. Black hair lay softly over his forehead, and beneath his shirt his body was balanced and well-built. She let out a faint sigh. He was still a man far too good to let slip away.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Christopher wandered around the garden, he heard the sound of someone parking a bicycle in front of the gate. He thought it might be the mail carrier, but instead some woman suddenly came in and crossed the garden. When he made his presence known, the woman, who noticed him a beat too late, was so startled that she fell over and landed on her bottom.

“Who are you?”

“That’s what I should be asking. Who are you, Miss, to come and go from my friend’s house as you please?”

Christopher asked as he looked down at Sasha, sitting on the ground. Seen up close, she was quite pretty, was she not? He had jokingly spoken of a cute country girl to Robert, but he had not expected to meet one so soon. Smiling like a gentleman, he politely held out his hand.

“Are you a friend of Mr. Robert’s?”

Taking Christopher’s hand and rising, Sasha asked as her wariness eased. Even as she asked, she was already half certain. People from Laurent could be distinguished from the people of Manolie just by the way they dressed. Madame Eleonore, who had visited before, had been like that too.

“Hello, I’m Sasha Vinoche. I’m borrowing the atelier at the mansion.”

“Then a painter?”

At Christopher’s question, Sasha nodded.

“I’m curious, do you know who that man is, the one who lent you a workspace?”

“Isn’t he the nephew of the Baron who owns the mansion?”

“So that’s what Robert told you.”

Christopher asked, holding back a laugh.

“Am I mistaken?”

“No. If that’s what he says, then I suppose that’s what it is.”

He felt as though he could roughly guess the whole story.

‘So Robert had a sly side to him, more than he looks.’

I wondered why it had to be Manolie, and all this time he’d hidden the reason perfectly. I shouldn’t have dismissed it as a boring country town. I should have come at least once much sooner.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Christopher. Just call me Chris.”

The man greeted her warmly with an easy smile. Sasha gladly returned his greeting. At that moment, she was thinking that Mr. Robert had more friends than she had expected.

“What are you doing there?”

Having come out after finishing their conversation, Robert discovered the two of them together and narrowed the space between his brows.

“You finished sooner than I expected. Ah, this is Madame Eleonore. And this here is Miss Sasha Vinoche. We’ve already introduced ourselves.”

Eleonore, who had come out following behind Robert, stared fixedly at Sasha. The tired child had fallen asleep on the drawing room sofa, leaving only the two of them together. Christopher introduced Sasha to Eleonore.

Sasha watched the two of them, who seemed very close, then quickly averted her eyes in alarm. Christopher observed the scene with interest. So she seemed to know who Eleonore was, and yet she did not know that the Duke of Guienne was Robert…… .

“Guests have come today, so go back home now, Sasha.”

At Robert’s firm order, Sasha’s shoulders flinched. Christopher quickly grabbed her shoulder.

“Take your hand off her, Christopher.”

Robert’s reaction sounded truly irritated, and Christopher felt a slight chill, but if he was going to back down here, he would not have started in the first place.

“There’s no need for that. I don’t mind. Since it’s come to this, how about the four of us spend time together today?”

Eleonore showed interest in Christopher’s suggestion, but Robert’s response was lukewarm. Ignoring the signal to stop, Christopher naturally drew Sasha in.

“If you don’t like that, then let’s leave the two of them here and the two of us can go out. I think I heard there’s a beach nearby, so why don’t you show me?”

Caught by Christopher, Sasha glanced at Robert, trying to read his mood. He was wearing an expression that said he wanted her to go back home now. And she knew that was the right thing to do. She knew it, but……

‘I don’t want to.’

Sasha’s eyes met Eleonore’s, who had not once taken her gaze off her, as if observing her. Since the one brief time they had crossed paths in front of the mansion, the woman who had lingered in her mind for a long time in a violet skirt was today wearing a dark blue dress coat rich with folds.

She did not want to turn away like before, leaving Madame Eleonore and Mr. Robert behind. Sasha did not want to leave them that way, just the two of them together.