Chapter 53 – Do Not Tarnish My Name

Robert dealt with the troublesome people of society while swiftly scanning his surroundings. In that brief moment, wherever she had gone, the woman had vanished like mist. It had definitely been Sasha. There was no way he could have mistaken a woman with orange-colored hair, a woman who ought to have been at his hotel by now.

Caught in the crowd, Robert reflexively looked up toward the box. Left behind there, Princess Deborah was speaking with Mark, the royalist. He could feel Mark glaring fiercely at him even from afar as their eyes met. Mark’s body, turning back coldly, completely hid Princess Deborah from view. It seemed Mark was taking the Princess out through the passage that led directly from the theater to the outside.

“Even among members of the royal house, Sir Mark’s loyalty toward Princess Deborah is exceptional.”

At the quiet murmur, Robert turned around.

“I asked him. I told him something had come up and to escort her back to the palace in my place.”

The words that came out without a moment’s hesitation were a lie, but Robert truly did not care what sort of relationship the two of them had. The reason he had looked up at the box was not because he regretted leaving Deborah there, but because he realized he had judged wrongly. At the very least, he should have checked from above where Sasha was going out before coming down.

‘It is too late to think of that now.’

It was obvious that the woman he had missed had already left the theater. After pausing a moment to think calmly, the man soon started walking again without regret.

“Did a woman with orange-blond hair and a green dress happen to go outside after the performance ended?”

“I do not believe I saw such a woman.”

The doorman standing guard at the entrance before the row of coachmen retraced his memory and then shook his head. Robert turned away without asking twice. If that woman had gone outside, she surely would have stood out.

“If you mean the lady wearing a purple flower at her chest, she went toward the balcony a little while ago looking for her partner.”

At a passing employee’s casual remark, Robert headed for the balcony. His long strides crossed the red carpet quickly. Those who thought the Duke of Guienne had very important business did not stop him.

And at last, Robert found Sasha on the balcony. Thanks to Leonard, who upon seeing him hurriedly fled the spot as though he had seen a ghost, only the two of them were left on the balcony now. Sasha looked obviously flustered. Whether because she had been caught speaking about him when he was not present, or because she had not expected to meet him here.

“Who brought you here?”

Robert asked as he slowly looked over Sasha in her dress.

“I did not realize that attending a society event required your permission each and every time.”

Not knowing what had put him in such a crooked temper, Sasha’s defiant tone made Robert’s brow twitch.

“Do you think that if you do not tell me, I will not be able to find out?”

The man’s teal eyes glinted dangerously as he spoke as though amused. Frightened, Sasha shrank back a step and reflexively shook her head.

“Do not do anything like that.”

“That is why I am asking, Sasha. Who was it that brought you here?”

When he closed the distance by one step, his shadow felt as though it might swallow her at any moment. The secluded balcony was dark, and there was no one nearby. Standing tall and still, Robert quietly looked down at her.

“Countess Dubois gave me an invitation.”

Biting her lip, Sasha confessed obediently. It was not as though she had especially meant to hide it in the first place. It was only that his overbearing attitude had made her want to resist.

“Where is the carriage? If there isn’t one, I will have you ride in my automobile.”

Seemingly satisfied by her answer, Robert softened his manner a little as he asked.

“It’s all right. The Countess lent me a carriage.”

“Then what are you doing here? It is late, so go back to the hotel.”

“That was what I was about to do. As soon as I found the partner I came with. There were too many people, and I lost him along the way. Then I happened to meet Leonard and simply spoke with him.”

Hearing that she had happened to meet him and spoken with him, Robert let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Are you a fool? Do you think you are still a child? Or do you not even know who Leonard Clemens is?”

He let out an irritated sigh.

“That bastard was looking at you as a woman. He was trying to seduce you.”

“How can you be so certain of that?”

Sasha could not hold back and argued against his harsh words. Robert had not heard all of their conversation from the beginning, so he could not decide such a thing so hastily. That was unfair. Leonard’s first reason for approaching her may indeed have been that, but at least from the middle onward he had treated her seriously as a fellow artist. She was not such a fool that she could not tell even that much apart.

“It seems to me that the one treating me like a child who knows nothing is not Leonard, but you.”

“Do you even know what it means, in society, for a young woman to walk around alone without a partner?”

Robert did not even snort. What should he do? Was he supposed to innocently take the clearly suggestive gaze of a man worn smooth by society, and mistake it in turn for goodwill toward a friend.

‘Not unless I’ve lost my mind.’

Twisting his lips, he smiled.

“You do not want to be treated like a child? You want me to treat you that way instead?”

The man who had caught hold of her slender waist pulled her into him all at once. Sasha inhaled sharply. The breath scratching past her throat was sharp. As his knee pressed in as though to bind her, the space between her thighs became tightly entangled, and their lower bodies, pressed together without room enough for a sheet of paper between them, were hot.

The finger she had once secretly kissed, that finger she had thought so very long and beautiful, moved following his gaze. The finger that slowly traced along the edge of her dress where her shoulder was bare hooked like a claw just as Sasha tried to push him away. As the soft fabric was dragged downward in a long slide, an open and unmistakable gaze landed on the exposed curve of her chest.

“You do not know. With what feelings I…….”

Robert released the frozen woman at once. Sasha staggered, her legs giving way. Staring at the wrinkled cloth, the man said in a lowered voice,

“Do not say things you cannot bear the weight of.”

Sasha drew back hesitantly, widening the distance between them. Somehow he looked angry. His voice had neither risen nor grown rough, and his manner was elegant as always, but still.

“Weren’t you the one who decided not to concern yourself with me anymore?”

Perhaps the words came out twisted in that moment because she had cried after seeing him sitting side by side with Princess Deborah in the box not long before. A man who confused her with actions she could never understand, and who made her toss awake in strange heat through sleepless nights. And then afterward, as though it were nothing at all, he would again drift away and go to stand beside another woman.

“You do not care whether I date Leonard or not. You ride horses with the Princess and go to performances with her, so why can’t I do the same?”

Sasha defied him yet again. In that instant Robert’s expression hardened frighteningly, but Sasha, who had lowered her head because she did not dare meet his eyes and say those words, did not see it.

“You may not be involved with Leonard Clemens. If what you want is a man, then I would rather find you a suitable one myself.”

After a long silence, Robert said calmly. Sasha jerked her head up as though she could not believe what she had heard. Robert gazed at the clear tears slowly gathering at the corners of Sasha’s eyes. To confirm that his words could still wound her.

“There is no need for you to behave like a woman in heat, Sasha. Do not tarnish my name, since I must be the one to introduce you into society.”

At those cruel words spoken behind a kind mask, the woman’s heart was slashed to pieces, and her body trembled with humiliation. Her dazed eyes, uncertain whether she had really heard him properly, reddened in an instant. The tears brimming in those large eyes finally spilled and ran down her cheeks.

Robert looked at that pitiful face that kept shedding tears. He had not meant to make her cry. And yet in that moment, he could not deny that he was captivated by the woman crying because of him. By that terribly transparent and beautiful green, those absinthe-colored eyes that led him toward improper desire.

* * *

Raoul, who had parked the Duke’s automobile before Corbisier Theater and was waiting anxiously, brightened at the sight of Robert finally coming out, only to be horrified at once. Because the woman buried in Robert’s coat was not Princess Deborah, but Sasha Vinoche.

There was no time for Raoul to demand an explanation. Robert courteously pushed Sasha, who seemed about to protest something, into the automobile and shut the door.

“What about Princess Deborah?”

Raoul, hurrying to start the car before they could be seen, asked at once.

“I told her to return first.”

“Your partner, whom you attended with? You sent her back with a single sentence?”

At Raoul’s appalled reproach, Robert glanced toward the seat beside him.

“Still better than a man who abandoned his partner without a single word.”

Sasha had her lips pressed tightly shut and stubbornly stared only out the window. He did not know who the partner she had spoken of was, but all the carriages had already gone. Countess Dubois’s carriage, which Sasha had ridden in, was gone as well.

Together with the sound of Raoul’s sigh, the black automobile drove down the night streets lit by gas lamps. Fearing scandal, Raoul let Sasha out not at the entrance of the hotel but at a quiet place behind it.

“I’ll go in first. Thank you for bringing me back today.”

The woman, who had been silent until they arrived, suddenly left those words of thanks and sprang out of the car. She had looked as though she had no wish at all to speak to him, but it seemed something weighed on her mind enough that she could not bear to say nothing until the very end.