Chapter 42 – Crazy Talk

Sasha, who came back soaked from the rain, had to take to her bed again. This was the first time she had caught colds one after another in the summer.

<I told you to come back early. I knew this would happen from the moment you went out all excited this morning.>

Grandma Rollo clicked her tongue and said she had known it would turn out this way. Mr. Bresson, the doctor who was summoned again, declared after examining her that it was not serious enough to require medicine and that dietary care alone would be enough.

Contrary to Mr. Bresson’s diagnosis, Sasha suffered as though she had truly been struck down by a dreadful body-aching illness. Her body hurt so much that even simply turning over in bed brought tears streaming out, and she firmly believed there was no way this was not a severe cold.

“Sasha. Damien has come to see you. It seems he came back from Laurent yesterday.”

Grandma Elodie, entering the bedroom after carefully opening the door, brought news of the visitor.

“I’m too sick to see anyone right now. Please tell Damien I’m sorry.”

Sasha sent Damien away without seeing him, though he had come after hearing that she was ill. Damien, and the other friends who had gone to Metz, were returning to Manolie one by one as well. Their return meant summer was coming to an end, and that meant the day Mr. Robert would leave for Laurent was not far off either. Just as he had said, that he would be returning soon.

Now that her confession had been rejected, would she never see that man again?

The thought that suddenly came to her filled her with fear. Her fever rose frighteningly again. Grandma Elodie cursed Mr. Bresson as a quack while changing the wet cloth laid across Sasha’s forehead, and Grandma Rollo silently stroked her hair. Held in her grandmothers’ arms, Sasha cried and cried like a spoiled child.

The day before, Mr. Vinoche had gone to Hawthorn Mansion to return Mr. Robert’s black umbrella, the one Sasha had come home carrying. He had met the man in front of the gate and asked whether he should pass along news that Sasha was sick and convey his regards, but he had flatly refused.

<I never imagined he would say no that coldly.>

Feeling awkward, Mr. Vinoche had returned home and told Sasha. The moment she heard those words, tears burst forth and she cried all over again, and a flustered Mr. Vinoche hurriedly rubbed her back, asking if she really felt that bad. Beneath that warm hand, Sasha wept miserably.

So, Mr. Robert was a man used to this kind of thing. Used to situations where women he rejected struggled in the pain of heartbreak. And he also knew all too well that by pitying such women and acting kindly toward them, he must not give them even the slightest hope or expectation.

To Sasha, more than anything, that fact felt the most miserable of all. If only she had not confessed. If she had known it would turn out like this, that she would put him in such an awkward position. If she had known beforehand that she would end up as just one among all those same women to him. If that had been the case, then even if she died she would never have let him find out how she felt.

Sasha regretted confessing under the mistaken belief that the man felt the same way as she did. If she could turn back time, she swore she would never go to Hawthorn Mansion that day.

And yet the very next day, Mr. Robert came personally to the Vinoche house. Lying in bed and listening intently to what was happening downstairs, Sasha hoped the man would come up to her room. And yet at the same time, if he actually came upstairs, she felt torn by the urge to flee even if she had to escape through the window. But in the end, the man did not climb the stairs and simply returned to his mansion.

“It’s not as though a man that large would be afraid of catching a mere cold, so I really don’t know why he bothered coming in person if he wasn’t even going to see you. He asked me to give you this, saying your throat must be swollen.”

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Grandma Elodie handed Sasha the gift Mr. Robert had left behind. What filled the clear glass jar was candy good for sore throats. Because of that, Sasha fell into utter confusion.

‘Is giving candy when someone is sick the sort of thing that’s acceptable? Can someone show this much kindness even if they don’t like the person? But why go so far?’

No matter how much she thought about it, Sasha simply could not understand that man.

* * *

After the mail carriage had left, Grandma Elodie opened the mailbox and tore open a letter addressed to Sasha Vinoche, only to be so shocked she nearly fainted on the spot.

[To dear Miss Vinoche.

I was amazed when I saw the fountain painting you sent from Laurent last time. Of the paintings you have given me, it was the first to depict not Manolie, but a cityscape.

When I showed your painting to Queen Anaïs, Her Majesty was greatly pleased. She said it was strange that an artist with such remarkable talent as yours was still unknown in society, and said she wished to meet the painter herself.

So what I wish to ask you is whether you can come to Laurent as soon as you receive this letter. And personally, I also wish to introduce you to people in society as the artist with the most astonishing potential among all those I have sponsored so far. I assure you that this trip will certainly help your career.

Then as always, wishing good fortune on all your journeys.

Sent from Laurent, Pierre-Auguste]

That very evening, Grandma Elodie immediately called an emergency gathering of the Vinoche family. The Vinoche family gathered in Sasha’s room, cluttered with every kind of odds and ends, spread Baron Auguste’s letter over the blanket, and stared at it intently. Did it truly say that Her Majesty the Queen wished to meet Sasha in person? Her Majesty the Queen, the very one residing in the royal palace?

It was a letter powerful enough to change Sasha Vinoche’s life entirely. Once they had confirmed what was written in it, the roof nearly lifted from the force of their uproar.

“But while Sasha stays in Laurent, who is there that we can entrust her to? She doesn’t even have a place to stay right away, we can’t just send the child to Laurent without any plan.”

The excitement died down when Grandma Rollo raised a practical problem. The only person the Vinoche family knew in Laurent was the granddaughter of Grandma Elodie’s cousin, who long ago had remarried a wealthy bourgeois merchant. And even she was in no position to take Sasha in, living as she did only by watching everyone’s mood in that household.

And sending her alone was unthinkable, since Laurent was far too complex and dangerous a city, and there was also the worry that by chance she might run into Mr. Michonnet again and suffer harm because of the bad blood from last time. Mr. Vinoche tried to find someone trustworthy in Laurent to entrust Sasha to, but there was no suitable person at all, and his worries only deepened.

* * *

“Sasha! Sasha! Look at this! Sasha!”

Panting from running all the way there, Eloise pounded hard enough to break the lemon-colored gate of the Vinoche house.

“Eloise, have you finally decided to destroy our gate?”

The man who opened the door for Eloise was Enzo Vinoche. He had returned to his hometown a few days earlier, at long last obtaining the extended leave his supervising professor had delayed and delayed over the last several years.

At the family home he had finally returned to after much hardship, two pieces of news had awaited him. One was the happy news that Sasha would be going to have an audience with the Queen, and the other was the bad news that there was no guardian available to accompany her on that journey right away.

“I already have enough of a headache, so stop making things more chaotic and sit down first. I’ll call Sasha for you.”

Enzo frowned at Eloise, who clearly could not calm her excitement in the slightest. When he glanced over, he saw that what she held in her hand was a newspaper published in Laurent. He had no idea by what route that thing had ended up in Eloise’s hands now.

Meanwhile, Sasha, having heard from Enzo that Eloise had come to see her, quickly ran down the stairs. Her body, having regained its strength after falling ill once, felt lighter than before.

Eloise had certainly brought back the thing Sasha had left at Hawthorn Mansion. The bicycle Sasha had asked Eloise to retrieve because she simply did not have the courage to fetch it herself. Eloise had readily agreed, saying that such a thing was hardly difficult at all. So there was no doubt she had come back with the bicycle now.

Sasha had also still not managed to tell Eloise the happy news she had received from Baron Auguste not long ago. But before she could even share that astonishing news, an even more explosive piece of news burst from Eloise’s mouth.

“Did you know what kind of person Mr. Robert is in Laurent?”

The moment she faced Sasha, who had come down into the parlor, Eloise abruptly asked.

“How would I know that? There probably isn’t a single person in Manolie who knows what sort of work Mr. Robert does.”

“I seeee?”

Eloise looked skeptically at her friend, whose face had stiffened unnaturally. And once she became certain that Sasha too had not known this shocking truth, she quickly spread the newspaper out on the parlor table.

《Countess Ilou, caught in a torrid affair with her young lover in broad daylight at the Corbisier Theater!》

Checking the article on the front page, Enzo scolded Eloise with genuine irritation.

“You woke me up early in the morning just to show me this kind of trashy article?”

“No. It’s not the headline that matters, I’m telling you to look at the photograph here.”

At Eloise’s protest, Enzo narrowed his eyes. In one corner of the photograph printed with the Countess’s scandal article, a man had been captured very small.

“What, that’s the Duke of Guienne, isn’t it?”

At the unexpected figure, Enzo widened his eyes and muttered. He must have been caught there by chance in a photograph unrelated to the matter. The Duke of Guienne was famous for absolutely never allowing his picture to be printed in this kind of yellow paper.

So what of it, Enzo almost thought, but when he turned to look at Sasha, her face had gone deathly white. At last Eloise, in a shock bordering almost on terror, cried out as if screaming.

“The true identity of Mr. Robert of Hawthorn Mansion was the Duke of Guienne, a famous figure in Laurent society!”