Chapter 36 – The Problematic Swimming Pool

Robert had been certain Sasha would come the next day. He had not doubted it in the least. She was not the kind of cowardly woman who would pretend not to know what she had done.

He got up a little earlier than usual, shaved neatly, and left the mansion. After going out to the cafe and finishing breakfast, he returned to the mansion at about the same time as always. The sky, clear after last night’s rain, was bright and cloudless, and sunlight was pouring down so fiercely it stung the skin.

There was nothing different from his usual routine. In this place, peaceful to the point of tedium, nothing particularly surprising ever happened. Though yesterday’s sudden incident would have to be counted as an exception.

The man, coming leisurely into the study, sorted through the letters that had arrived from Laurent and wrote replies in order of importance. After finishing a light lunch with the sandwich he had bought earlier at the cafe, he headed not to the pool but to the beach chair in the garden.

Sitting beneath the bright sunlight that had turned radiant again as though it had never rained, he felt he could understand how Sasha Vinoche had grown up so cheerful. A woman as though made by melting together Manolie’s brilliant sunlight and its lush green forest. Bold, yet not rude, innocent and yet audacious.

Christopher, who had returned to Lafayette Castle not long ago, had said she was the sort of young lady one did not easily encounter in Laurent. But well, Robert had never seen such a woman not only in Laurent but anywhere else. A woman who boldly kissed him of her own accord, then startled herself and flew away like a butterfly, leaving only her shell behind.

Robert quietly closed his eyes. The hot wind softly stirred his hair and brushed at his forehead. Why was it that this place came to mind every summer. Why did he keep returning faithfully, without any particular purpose.

For him, the first memory of Manolie was always that young little nuisance who would suddenly appear and bother him. Sasha Vinoche, who had now grown far too much to be called a child any longer. If there was one thing certain, it was her. The woman who aroused his interest in a different way each time.

Seated in the shade, Robert sat with one leg crossed over the other and finished an entire book. Time flowed calmly like running water. At the end of it came the sound of the doorbell. A faint smile touched Robert’s lips. What manners, coming only now. Removing the glasses he had been wearing and setting them on the table, Robert walked out quickly and opened the door himself.

“It’s been a while. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

But the guest standing crookedly in front of the gate was Benoit Vinoche. Had she really brought her father along over yesterday’s matter, then. Robert looked behind Benoit, but Sasha was nowhere to be seen. Realization came swiftly. The woman had not come with him.

“What brings you here?”

Benoit, who had been waiting anxiously, became even more uneasy at the sight of Robert opening the door. The man who had returned with an air of maturity compared to four years ago truly did not suit Manolie. Judging by his looks, he was the kind of man who ought to be stirring up scandals with famous actors and singers in the city, so why was such a man spending his holiday at a country mansion pool without even fixing a broken faucet.

The most plausible theory was that this man was an idle aristocrat who had lived dissolutely in Laurent and been forcibly exiled to a relative’s villa. But now that he stood before him, the man did not look like someone who would squander his parents’ entire fortune on a baccarat game in a hotel casino.

Handsome, yes, but with a cold manner that somehow gave off a frightening feeling, he was closer to the dreadful hotel owner looking down on them from the upper floor. Then again, there was no folly greater than judging a person by appearances. One thing, however, was certain: he looked like a fine gentleman from Laurent who under no circumstances, absolutely none, should ever be associating with Sasha.

“Sasha has come down with a cold and cannot get out of bed at all. She is a child who suffers from severe summer colds from time to time.”

“I see. Did you come all the way here to tell me that?”

At Robert’s blunt manner, Benoit suddenly felt anger rise in him. He had been worried this man might flirt with Sasha, but that did not mean it was all right for Sasha to be treated coldly by him either.

“She is burning with fever, hardly able to breathe, and even so she asked that I absolutely fix the broken faucet at your house. That is why I came.”

Benoit said it sullenly. Sasha, who had suddenly begun running a fever last night, refused to say what had happened at Hawthorn Mansion even if it killed her. Then she had abruptly made the absurd request of asking whether he could go fix the swimming pool faucet at the man’s house.

Now that he was here, the man did not even seem particularly grateful. There was not a single thing about him Benoit found likable. Even so, since he had promised Sasha, he would fix the faucet and go back.

“Aren’t you going to let me in?”

When he asked in a pressing tone, Robert at last stepped aside as though telling him to enter. Benoit silently braced himself like a soldier entering the center of enemy territory at last, then set foot in Hawthorn Mansion while keeping watch all around him.

“The pool is this way. It rained yesterday, so things are still wet. You should probably watch your step.”

“No need to worry about that.”

Already full of negative feelings, Benoit followed behind the young man leading the way while glaring at the back of his head. This elegant young man, surely unemployed, was far taller than he was. Benoit disliked the fact that a man this grown did not know how to fix even a single broken faucet and had simply left it that way. Though perhaps that was only because he was already looking at him with slanted eyes.

“I will not ask why that child was at the swimming pool instead of the atelier, nor how she came to know that the faucet was broken. But I would appreciate it if you would be careful so that such a thing never happens again. I am quite sure I already said as much before.”

Having gone around the mansion and arrived at the problematic pool, Benoit gave a sharp warning.

“That would be so, provided your daughter does not spy on my swimming pool again.”

Benoit, who had been examining the broken faucet, choked on a cough at Robert’s calm reply. Watching with his arms folded, Robert kindly pointed toward the trees where Sasha had hidden the day before.

“She was hiding around there.”

Silence hung for a while. Benoit lowered his head and quietly repaired the faucet as though he had heard nothing at all. Like a great stake planted in place, the owner of the house remained where he was and observed the bare minimum of manners by handing him whatever tools were needed from time to time.

“It must have been a mistake caused by curiosity.”

Only after a long while, once the work was done, did Benoit say it in the tone of an excuse.

“I sincerely hope so as well.”

Fortunately, the man, whose face gave no clue at all to what lay inside him, showed no particular sign of displeasure.

“Still, it is true that the child behaved rudely, so I would like to apologize.”

Benoit removed his hat and apologized. He knew it would look hopelessly inadequate to the man before him, who was accustomed to Laurent-style manners, but even so, a man of Manolie did not want to feel cowed.

“There is no need. I already received an apology from her herself. And thank you for helping repair the house.”

Robert raised him back up with impeccable courtesy. Not forgetting to express thanks for fixing the broken faucet, either. It was a very clean greeting, yet somehow the way he drew a line felt cold.

More than anything, even though Benoit had clearly told him that Sasha was so ill she could not get out of bed, there had not been a single polite word of concern. Benoit, though relieved by that fact, still felt strangely unsettled in one corner of his heart, because he knew how much Sasha liked this place.

‘This doesn’t feel especially good either.’

Swallowing a sigh, Benoit declined Robert’s offer to stay longer if he wished, left through the gate of Hawthorn Mansion, and quickly turned his steps back. Toward his family’s home with the orange tree and the green bench.

* * *

“The man walking over there seems to be Mr. Robert.”

At Rollo’s words, as she observed the opposite stretch of sand, Elodie hurriedly snatched up the binoculars. Looking closely, it was indeed the man from Hawthorn Mansion. The one who had not come out for walks on the beach ever since running into Sasha in Laurent.

Meanwhile, Robert had already drawn near and greeted the two old ladies sitting on the beach towel spread over the sand.

“I didn’t expect to see you ladies on my walk. Have you both been well?”

“As for us, unless it’s raining, we come out to the shore almost every day. It’s been you, Mr. Robert, who hasn’t been coming out for walks. In any case, it’s nice to see you again after so long. Sasha would have liked it if she had come with us.”

“Has Miss Sasha still not recovered from her cold?”

A faint crack appeared in the usually expressionless man’s face. With a regretful look, Elodie relayed the news of her poor granddaughter, suffering under the blankets in this summer weather.

“I think Bresson, the village doctor, must be a quack. Otherwise, how could her fever not go down even after taking medicine.”

“That child has always been like that. Medicine never works well on her. She has the foolish constitution of only recovering after suffering through it fully.”

Rollo answered brusquely to Elodie, who was speaking ill of Mr. Bresson.

“Sasha has always been that way. The first lucky thing in her life was probably when the painting she submitted to the art contest sold and she received a small amount of prize money.”