Chapter 49 – You Only Need to Behave Yourself

Robert drank the rest of his coffee while taking in the look of obvious fluster on Sasha’s face. Then he raised a hand and summoned a waiter. Sasha, having received the breakfast menu from the hotel restaurant, whispered in a small voice meant for him alone to hear.

“I’m sorry, but I hadn’t planned on having breakfast here today.”

“Whether you knew it or not, the Baron needs to eat. You were not thinking of delaying the mealtime of the elderly guest who came to see you any further than this, were you?”

Hearing those words, Sasha looked up at the gentleman seated across from her without meaning to, and their eyes met. Somehow, now that he said it, he did look hungry…….

“Then anything at all……”

Sasha tried to put off making the decision herself in a fading little voice.

“I’m sorry, but my hotel does not have a dish called that.”

Robert replied without letting her off. Sasha’s finger, wandering over what to choose among too many menu items, finally picked one somewhere in the middle. Only then did he hand the menu back to the waiter.

‘She had gone so far as to make sightseeing plans.’

The more he thought over what Sasha had said to the manager, the more it made him let out a dry laugh. He had not needed to worry about her. But that was separate from the fact that he did find it curious that he was not included in those plans, if she had asked him to come with her. Why was she incapable of expecting even the smallest thing carelessly. Despite saying she liked him.

“Her Majesty the Queen has taken a very great interest in you, Miss Sasha. She wishes to meet you as soon as possible before the Salon exhibition opens, if possible as early as this weekend. Would you be able to come to the royal palace that day?”

Baron Auguste began speaking by bringing up the most important matter of all for Sasha, her audience with the Queen.

“Of course. It was because Her Majesty summoned me that I came to Laurent. I can go to see her whenever she wishes.”

Swallowing dryly, Sasha sat stiff and tense as though she were already seated before the Queen herself. Robert clicked his tongue. It was absurd, and somehow admirable too, that she should be in such a state merely at hearing the Queen’s name, while still treating him without much reserve.

“Then I shall send a carriage to the hotel in the morning. You may come to the palace by carriage.”

“No, there is no need for that. I can take her by automobile.”

Robert rejected the Baron’s proposal on Sasha’s behalf. Sasha, eyes going wide, hurriedly shook her head.

“Please don’t. You do not have to go to all that trouble on my account. I can get there perfectly well by myself.”

The man who had now been refused three times said, without the least sign of embarrassment,

“Do not worry so much, Sasha. It is not as though I am going all that way just for you alone. I have business at the royal palace that day as well, and I am only saying I can take you there on the way.”

As if telling her not to misunderstand, Robert made that fact clear to Sasha. Her face turning scarlet with embarrassment was worth seeing.

It was true that Baron Auguste had asked it of him, but there was also the fact that Robert had deliberately joined them because he was curious about Sasha’s reaction. Even at this moment, with an important meeting scheduled immediately afterward. He glanced at the watch on his wrist and checked the time. It would be tight getting there by the start of the meeting, but he did not regret coming here all the same.

“But that means you would have to come all the way to the hotel. Wouldn’t that be too much trouble?”

“My apartment is closer to the hotel than the Baron’s house is. And the royal palace is closer to the Baron’s house. If we are to speak in terms of efficiency, as you say, then going by carriage would be far more troublesome.”

He stopped speaking and quietly looked at the woman still deep in thought, then asked,

“Or is there some other reason why you cannot ride in my automobile?”

At those words, Sasha’s eyes wavered helplessly.

Robert liked it when this woman became restless in front of him. A woman helplessly shaken by a single word from him. Transparent green eyes that did not know how to hide it. He quite liked the quiet ripples that spread there, like a pond disturbed by a pebble thrown in now and then. Enough that all the trouble of stopping by the hotel instead of going straight from the apartment to the meeting place seemed a trivial matter.

‘So long as it stops at an appropriate point, perhaps it would not be bad.’

It was a kind of amusement that caused no problem, so long as the line was not crossed. For Sasha, and for him.

“No. It isn’t that. Then I’ll simply go in your automobile, Your Grace.”

In the end Sasha obediently gave in and followed his suggestion. Baron Auguste readily agreed as well.

“If it is you, of all people, then I too can entrust her to you without worry, Duke of Guienne.”

At Baron Auguste’s words, Robert calmly lifted the corner of his mouth.

This much kindness, this much distance, this much line, just enough to seem proper in other people’s eyes. Their relationship would remain for a long time at just this suitable level. So long as he did not once again cross that line through some impulsive mistake like the incident last time.

Having reached that point in his train of thought and arrived at a clean conclusion, Robert rose from his seat.

“Then I shall be leaving now. I hope you two enjoy your meal.”

“What about breakfast?”

The dishes they had ordered a moment earlier were just being brought out. Sasha looked at him as though she had been betrayed and asked urgently.

“I have already eaten. Take your time.”

With a brief laugh, the man left the dining room, leaving her behind. His was an elegant stride suited to his neat, polished appearance without the slightest excess. And yet the walk of the Duke of Guienne, who never ordinarily hurried, seemed a little faster than usual today. It was an unavoidable choice if he was to make it to his somewhat tight meeting schedule.

* * *

On the weekend morning, Sasha changed into the neatest and cleanest clothes she had brought from Manolie, then came down to the hotel entrance to wait for the Duke’s automobile. Watching the line of carriages waiting to enter the hotel and the coachmen with pipes in their mouths.

Not long after, a familiar automobile stopped in front of her. The man seated inside it was dressed for riding. Narrow white trousers and boots that came up to the knee. His shirt fastened all the way to the top and his deep brown coat made him look more formally dressed than usual.

“Is there a riding ground at the royal palace too?”

Once inside the automobile, Sasha asked with curious interest.

“There is nothing that place does not have.”

Robert’s voice, with one leg crossed over the other and his hand resting on top, sounded a little cynical.

“Riding clothes suit you well too. You look splendid, like a real gentleman.”

At the compliment, which seemed to be spoken in complete sincerity, Robert gazed absently at his own reflection in the glass window. Well, perhaps. He had never thought this sort of clothing looked splendid. Suddenly finding the shirt buttoned all the way to the neck a little stifling, he tugged it down slightly. Raoul, holding the wheel in the front seat, gave him a quick glance.

“Drive, Raoul.”

Robert, noticing Raoul’s unease, gave the brief order. Raoul, who had been about to say something, gave up when he saw his expression and focused on driving. And he remained silent all the way to the royal palace. Raoul sensed that something was changing. Some ominous change that might bring with it a great upheaval.

“I wonder what kind of person Her Majesty the Queen will be. Will she be dignified and elegant, just as the rumors say?”

Sasha murmured almost to herself. Her voice trembled as if she were nervous.

“She is a more unassuming person than people think. If only you do not frighten yourself too much before you stand in front of her, you will be fine.”

After considering it for a moment, Robert made a suggestion.

“Treat her as you treat me, Sasha. Being informal with me is something you are rather good at.”

At those words, Sasha’s complexion turned a little pale. Is that all right? Feeling puzzled, Robert reached his hand toward her. But his fingertips only brushed her for an instant. Because in that moment she had avoided his hand. The line between Robert’s brows twitched.

“If I have been too informal with you all this time, then I’m sorry.”

Robert slowly curled up the hand whose touch had been refused. He had not wanted an apology. Nor was he blaming her. This woman could not possibly not know that, so why was she suddenly acting like this. As though she were trying to place even more distance between them than now.

“I’ll be careful from now on. So you too…….”

Sasha swallowed her words again and again as if her throat were closing. Her trembling voice clung faintly to the fingertips he had curled into his palm.

“You too, please do that. So that I won’t mistake you for someone who is too close to me.”

Robert tapped lightly on the leather seat. It had been a flawless beginning to the day. In truth, he had even thought that he was in quite a good mood when he left the apartment that morning. At least, until Sasha had said that.

“Nothing has to change. You only need to behave yourself, Sasha. Then there will be no problem.”

Robert reached his conclusion without much thought. He had no particular dissatisfaction with the current situation. No, in truth, he was rather satisfied with it. So surely it was simply a matter of Sasha adjusting. It was something he had already thought through several times, and yet no matter how often he considered it, no other answer presented itself. It was such a clear solution, and yet Sasha shook her head.

“No. I’m not used to Laurent’s refined ways the way you are. If I like something, then I like it, and if I don’t, then I don’t. I don’t really understand things like an appropriate line in between. So please, don’t be so kind to me that someone like me would misunderstand. I’m asking you.”

“It sounds as though you are saying I’ve tormented you.”

Robert’s voice dropped in an instant. Feeling the chill in the automobile, Raoul cautiously glanced into the back seat. Even to him, Sasha’s words had a point. If one did not wish to become the subject of a dirty scandal, there was nothing excessive about being careful in advance.

The problem, however, was that the Duke had never before shown this kind of exceptional and unrewarded kindness to anyone. And so no one knew how he would react when that kindness was refused.