Chapter 31 – A Person She Does Not Know Well

Eleonore suggested doing something other than taking a walk on the beach. The reason was that she disliked her feet sinking into the sand.

“Then shall we play badminton?”

After thinking for a moment, Sasha suggested it.

“Is there a badminton court here too?”

Christopher asked as if surprised. Sasha looked at him quietly, then said,

“I won’t make you play in a place with just lines drawn on the ground.”

“Then I’d be grateful for that. Come on, show us the way.”

Mr. Robert’s friend accepted with a cheerful laugh. Sasha headed for the open lot where she used to play badminton with her friends. At any other time, the other children would have taken it over long ago, but now everyone had left for Metz, so it would be empty.

Sasha and Eleonore led the way, and the two gentlemen followed behind. As the elder, Eleonore asked Sasha’s opinion on things that had recently become topics in Laurent, or on society gossip. But after grasping that this clumsy country girl knew nothing about such subjects, she held back from conversation for a while, like someone who did not know what to say.

“Miss Sasha, did you say you are a painter?”

At last, Eleonore brought up a topic Sasha seemed likely to be able to answer for the first time.

“Yes. I paint. Mostly landscapes.”

“How splendid. But when you exhibit, do you perhaps use a pen name? I visit the Salon exhibition every single year, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a work bearing your name, Miss Sasha.”

At the kindly asked question that seemed to hold no malice, Sasha’s cheeks reddened.

“I’m not such a remarkable painter, so of course you wouldn’t have seen one. I’ve only ever sold a painting for money once.”

“Oh dear, then making a living must be difficult……. If you don’t mind, I’d like to buy a painting or two from you.”

Eleonore offered it as if she felt deeply sorry for her. After observing the pretty little country girl whose nape had turned red, she reached a satisfying conclusion. So even the Duke of Guienne was nothing special after all.

“Thank you for saying so, but it’s all right because I do have a patron.”

“Does Mr. Robert sponsor you?”

Her voice came out sharp on its own. Belatedly, Eleonore adjusted her tone. Fortunately, Sasha did not seem to notice.

“No. I’m sponsored by Baron Auguste. I promised that I would definitely paint one painting for him each year.”

“The Baron liked your paintings? The paintings of a painter who has only sold once?”

At this unexpected fact, Eleonore kept her mouth shut for a while.

“But what sort of relationship do the two of you have?”

After the quiet silence, Sasha asked carefully. While waiting for the answer, Sasha fidgeted restlessly. Eleonore realized that fact at once. The first thought that came to her was, How impudent.

‘Without even knowing who that man is, how dare she.’

Annoyance rose in Eleonore all the way to the tips of her hair. If Sasha were to learn that the man associating with her here in this backwater was the Duke of Guienne, would she still dare to covet him then? A man who would become the Princess’s husband?

“I don’t think that is something I can easily tell you, Miss Sasha.”

Sasha, who had been waiting for an answer, raised her head. Madame Eleonore had her brows drooping as if she were truly sorry. As though the hostility Sasha had felt just before had only been her imagination.

“If I speak carelessly to just anyone, that man might get angry. I’m truly sorry. Will you understand the situation?”

The delicate and pure beauty with black hair and blue eyes smiled in a subtly enticing way, her eyes curving gently. Just like the praise from a newspaper article she had once read, she had ‘eyes holding deep sorrow’ and ‘that smile which could surely captivate even the most stubborn gentleman.’ It was a trite expression, yet even so, there seemed to be no better one to describe the woman before her.

* * *

In the open lot they arrived at, there stood a fairly decent-looking net. In a box beneath the net were worn rackets and a shuttlecock with all its feathers gone, trimmed up and looking like a plucked chicken. Eleonore did not look particularly willing, but because Robert obediently picked up a racket, she had no choice but to join in. Christopher, unconcerned either way, stood smiling broadly as he prepared to serve.

Christopher, who at first had been casually just sending it over the net, seemed to get excited and from the middle onward began to play in earnest. The shuttle flew faster and faster, and as Robert returned it, Eleonore, left with nothing to do, grew bored, half let go of her racket, and turned into a spectator. The rally, which had been growing more intense, ended when the shuttlecock Christopher struck hard flew outside the opposite court.

“Ah, I hit it too hard. I’m sorry.”

Christopher lowered his racket and apologized, unable to hide his regret.

“It’s fine. I was already getting tired anyway.”

Sasha murmured and stared to the other side of the net. Eleonore, who had followed Robert when he went to pick up the shuttlecock, had taken out a handkerchief and was trying to wipe his sweat for him. Sasha’s mood sinking, she practiced serving with a gloomy face.

Soon Eleonore returned to the net and, in Robert’s place, said in a chiding tone,

“Chris, don’t play as if it were tennis.”

Once she said it, Eleonore thought that might actually be a better way to pass the time.

“Rather than this, since all three of us know how to play tennis, it would be much better if we could simply have a tennis match instead.”

Christopher, who had been taking off his jacket and vest and hanging them over the net, gave a little laugh at that.

“It seems you’ve taken quite an interest in tennis these days?”

“Of course. I even went to see the match held recently in Pailand. Tennis is the most popular sport in Laurent society these days, after all.”

At Eleonore’s words, Christopher showed interest.

“Oh ho, you went to the tennis match held in Pailand?”

“Of course. Didn’t the two of you go?”

“What are you saying. Robert and I secured tickets long ago. It was an excellent match. Personally, though, the match just before it was far more impressive than the final, which ended rather flatly.”

Sasha was bewildered. Before she knew it, the flow of conversation had shifted to the tennis match held in Pailand that past spring. Sasha knew nothing about the final match that the two of them were now discussing so animatedly. Unable to join the conversation, she idly tapped the ground with her racket, then suddenly her eyes met those of the man who had been looking at her from beyond the net.

Perhaps because he had moved so vigorously under the blazing sun, the ends of his black hair were damp. Sasha stared fixedly at him, as if spellbound by something. Beneath his rolled-up sleeves, veins stood out on his forearms.

After a long while, Robert finally turned his eyes away, then lightly shook back his bangs and swept them over his forehead. Perhaps because of the heat, he looked irritated.

A strange feeling. The warmth that had, from time to time since she was sixteen, kept her tossing sleeplessly at night suddenly came over her again in the middle of the day. A kind of embarrassment different from shame made it impossible for her to look straight at that man.

Curling her toes inward, Sasha turned her head toward the people who were still carrying on their heated discussion about the tennis match.

“I wonder why we didn’t run into each other at the stadium. I went with Madame Charmant. Her husband works at the embassy in Pailand. Still, I’m surprised the two of you attended as spectators.”

“The rules for participating as a foreign player are strict. I was eliminated because I don’t hold Pailand nationality. And Robert has no interest in playing matches in front of people.”

“Then you did have the nationality?”

At Eleonore’s surprised words, Christopher indicated Robert, who had been left out of the conversation, with a glance.

“Robert’s great-grandmother held a barony in Pailand.”

“Oh my, I had no idea.”

As attention turned to him, Robert answered as though it were nothing.

“It’s an old matter. The title was returned to the Pailand royal family long ago.”

“But in exchange, you do have the honorary citizenship recognized by the King.”

It was an unexpected fact. It was Sasha’s first time hearing that his great-grandmother had held a title as well. If he were truly a nobleman……. That, too, seemed as though it would suit him well. This summer, there had been many things Sasha had newly learned about Mr. Robert. For instance, that he was rich enough always to reserve only first-class train seats, that he had more friends than she had thought, and that he was even a nobleman.

His friends must be similar kinds of people. At the very least, Madame Eleonore was the most successful actress in Laurent. Sasha felt that if she stayed among these people, she would shrink smaller and smaller until she had gone flat.

The conversation that had seemed as though it would end soon went on much longer than expected. Christopher, Sasha’s partner, had by now even put down his racket and was absorbed in his commentary on the final match he had seen in Pailand. Unable to join a conversation known by three out of the four of them, Sasha also began to feel as though she were the lacking one.

“Then how about the three of you play a tennis match?”

At Sasha’s suggestion, all three turned to look at her at once.

“Wouldn’t you be too bored then, Miss Sasha?”

Eleonore shook her head side to side with an apologetic expression.

“Didn’t you say there’s a child alone at the mansion? I’ll go back and play badminton with that child. The three of you go and play.”

Pretending she was perfectly fine, Sasha got up, gathering the badminton racket and shuttlecock. Thinking she was fine almost made it seem true. She did not want to feel like a nuisance among these people. More than anything, she wanted to run away from the strange feeling she had felt a moment ago when she looked at Mr. Robert.