Chapter 45 – A Stopover

The train arrived at a stopover station. Illemang, where they got off, was a far busier city than any of the places they had passed through so far. Sasha, half dazed by the wave of people pressing around them, looked about at her surroundings.

“Excuse me.”

Robert quickly caught Sasha when she was jostled by a passerby and almost fell over.

“If you don’t want to get lost, stay close and don’t lose me.”

The wrist he held felt hot. Sasha pointlessly clenched and unclenched her damp palm once. After that, she forced herself to stay alert and tried her best not to lose sight of the man leading the way.

They crossed the crowded station and safely boarded the train to Laurent. Robert rented two entire compartments, and the two of them used Compartment 1 and Compartment 2 respectively. Compartments 3 and 4, likewise single rooms, were empty, while in Compartment 5 an elderly lady was riding with a maid. The occupants of Compartment 6, connected to Compartment 5, were the old lady’s granddaughter and her governess.

During the trip, Sasha happened to meet the young governess from Compartment 6 in the corridor and chatted with her, growing a little friendly. Miss Amelie introduced herself as a graduate of a prestigious girls’ school in Illemang who worked as a governess in order to pay her younger sibling’s tuition. She seemed curious about what relation Sasha had to Mr. Robert, the passenger in Compartment 2, but perhaps thinking it would be rude, she did not press the matter.

* * *

Not long after leaving Illemang Station, the train stopped again. Checking the watch on his wrist once, Robert rose from his seat and went out into the corridor.

“My goodness, isn’t that the Duke of Guienne?”

Before he could even ask what was going on, a voice called to him first from behind. It was the elderly lady from Compartment 5, coming out supported by her maid, who recognized him and greeted him. Robert paused to think who she was, then recalled that she was a distinguished Countess he had encountered in society before.

“Countess Dubois, I did not expect to meet you here. Had I known you were on the same train, I would have greeted you sooner.”

“I never expected to meet you here either, Duke. Surely you are returning to Laurent after finishing your summer holiday, are you not?”

Unable to hide her pleasure, the Countess came nearer to Robert. After a brief exchange, he tried to return to his original purpose, finding out why the train had suddenly stopped. Just then, as if on cue, the conductor who would explain the matter to all of them came into the compartment passage with a deeply troubled expression.

“There has been a problem with the tracks, so it seems the train cannot continue running immediately. Some damned thieves have stolen part of the railway again. The line is broken, so we cannot go any farther.”

Hearing the conductor apologize with his hat in hand, the Countess clicked her tongue. What use was there in blaming the conductor when the recent rise in scrap metal prices had led more and more frequently to this sort of misfortune, with tracks being cut and stolen. Laurent’s parliament would have to come up with a solution to this problem soon.

Robert listened calmly, then asked,

“Then when can we depart again?”

“It will take quite some time just to summon the workmen. Even if things are dealt with as quickly as possible, it will still be quite a while before we can leave.”

Unable to hide his regret, the conductor recommended a decent cafe nearby where they might wait for the time being. He added that if they returned after finishing a meal there, the problem would likely be resolved to some extent by then.

* * *

Sasha noticed that several of the other passengers from the same train were already seated inside the cafe. Guided by the conductor’s introduction to the best table in the back, they ordered souffle and crepes. Sasha added coffee with cream.

Not long afterward, another party entered the cafe. It was Miss Amelie from Compartment 6, the elderly lady from Compartment 5, and her foreign maid.

“That is Countess Dubois. She also happens to be a close friend of your patron, Baron Auguste.”

Robert quietly tipped Sasha off, since she knew nothing.

“If she is a friend of Baron Auguste, should I go and greet her first?”

Keeping her voice low, Sasha asked Robert for advice.

“No. Pretend not to know her until the Countess calls for you.”

Countess Dubois and her party ordered brioche and lemon sorbet. Robert waited until the Countess had finished ordering, then went over and greeted her. The Countess showed interest in Sasha, left alone at the table behind him, but did not greet her directly. Pretending not to know her, as Robert had advised, Sasha sipped her coffee and thought that this situation felt very much like the cautious, measuring time she had with wild animals when first meeting them in the forests of Manolie.

The sun, which had been high overhead, began gradually to sink lower. It was around the time people who had been waiting without any promise of when things would resume were beginning to murmur complaints that the conductor’s messenger came running breathlessly into the cafe. He brought word that the conductor was hoping for Robert’s help and was waiting urgently for him to come to the station.

‘If the tracks are broken, why would they need Mr. Robert’s help?’

Sasha wondered, but unexpectedly Robert did not ask further and simply left for the station. Telling her only to wait in the cafe.

“Mademoiselle, my master says she wishes to meet you.”

Once Robert had left his seat, Countess Dubois once again took an interest in the young lady left alone. The Countess’s maid came to Sasha’s table to convey her master’s wishes, and, still not very fluent in Brissen, stammered out an invitation for Sasha to join them. Thanking the Countess warmly for her kindness, Sasha happily moved to her table.

“The Duke tells me you are a talented painter. Since we are traveling, I suppose you cannot show me your paintings at present?”

The Countess cast her a kindly look, showing a hint of regret. Seen up close, the Duke’s traveling companion had the sort of face that would easily win people’s favor.

“I saw you whispering with the Duke earlier. The two of you seemed rather close. The Duke said you are distantly related. Is that true?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Sasha soon answered that it was.

“I do not know anyone in Laurent in particular. The Duke agreed, at my father’s request, to bring me as far as Laurent.”

“Ah, indeed, that is just like the Duke of Guienne. That man may truly be called a patron of the arts. Both publicly and privately, in many respects……”

Trailing off, the Countess smiled meaningfully. Miss Amelie, sitting at the same table, blushed as if she had heard something rather embarrassing. By now, rumors had already quietly spread all through Laurent society that the Duke of Guienne and Madame Eleonore were lovers. Morally questionable perhaps, but outwardly they made a splendidly well-matched pair.

It was an age in which influential gentlemen commonly maintained relationships with famous opera actresses or ballerinas, supporting them financially while keeping them as companions. For a man of the Duke of Guienne’s standing, that was even more to be expected. Of course, that did not mean the Duke and Madame Eleonore could ever marry.

The only two people at the table who did not understand the Countess’s meaning were the foreign maid, whose command of the language was poor, and Sasha, who was ignorant of Laurent society gossip. Concluding that Sasha knew little of the relationship between the Duke of Guienne and Madame Eleonore, the Countess smoothly changed the subject.

“It seems that was not the sort of thing to say in front of a young lady. But I meant nothing bad by it.”

In any case, there was no one in Laurent society naive enough to believe that the Duke of Guienne and Princess Deborah were marrying for love. And yet there was likewise no one who would deny that they were the most suitable pair. Through this marriage, the Duke would gain the support of Brissen’s royalists and shares in the railway company.

‘The reason the conductor sought the Duke’s help must be much the same. Merely the fact that the Duke of Guienne is aboard this train will solve many problems, delays included.’

Setting down her cold spoon, Countess Dubois smiled with quiet meaning. Present-day Laurent stood at the center of a violently changing world stage. It was a city where new ideas and scientific advances poured in like the tide and piled up like mountains even overnight.

The pace of that development was so fast that new systems and new ways of thinking could barely keep up. And thus the city of romance called Laurent sometimes changed its clothes at night and became a city of love affairs and adultery.

“What were you talking about? I would like to believe you were not discussing unpleasant rumors about me.”

The man, having finished with the conductor sooner than expected, returned and said it naturally as he set a hand on Sasha’s shoulder.

“What a thing to say. One needs suitable material in order to speak ill of someone. So even a man like you fears other people’s gossip?”

Bursting into delighted laughter, the Countess said it as though surprised.

“Only those who have nothing to lose do not fear it. I am not nearly as bold a man as you think.”

“How modest. There is no one here who does not know that you are the boldest businessman in Laurent.”

The Countess, glancing between the young painter who looked somehow a little tense and the Duke of Guienne, who seemed oddly displeased, spoke up.

“I would invite you to join us, but I fear my maid might commit some rudeness toward you, Your Grace, so I shall postpone that pleasure until next time.”

With a mischievous glance at her foreign maid, who still did not understand Brissen very well, the Countess spoke teasingly. The maid, not even realizing the Countess was speaking about her, was too busy stealing glances at Robert. Noticing that the maid already looked half in love, the Countess smiled faintly. Truly, there was reason enough for the Duke’s rivals to accuse him of conducting business with his face.

As the train remained stopped at an unscheduled station, time passed idly, and before they knew it the sun was setting. Around the time the Countess’s young granddaughter had begun nodding off, the Countess decided it was time to return to the train.

“Madame! The Mademoiselle you spoke with earlier asked that this be given to you. She said that, since she is traveling, this was the best she could do, but even so she wished to repay the kindness you showed her.”

The one who hurriedly called out to Countess Dubois, just as she was gathering her things and rising, was the cafe owner. The Countess received the gift the young painter, who had left the cafe before them, had entrusted to him in advance. The woman in the picture, delicately sketched in pen, was smiling gently from the center of a handkerchief embroidered with tiny flower patterns. It was the smallest and warmest portrait she had ever received.