Chapter 67

“A sentence?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“What kind of sentence?”

At Lea’s question, Garrick hesitated, then spoke as though forcing the words out.

“A sentence saying my father killed someone and has been sentenced to imprisonment on Edellent Island……!”

Lea’s face went white at Garrick’s words. Garrick added quickly, “My father is absolutely not the kind of man who would commit such a crime! Absolutely not! This…… something is wrong! But no one will listen to me! I tried everything I could and it all failed. No one takes any notice of what someone as insignificant as I say…… The date of execution is approaching, and if nothing changes, my father will be sent to that terrible place for a crime he didn’t commit……!”

Having said that much, Garrick looked at Lea with desperate eyes.

“I would like you to meet with the judge handling the case, my lady. You are the duchess. He would certainly accept your invitation. If it were you, my lady, you could meet the judge in person and persuade him.”

“But I…… I know nothing about judges, let alone the law.”

Lea said in confusion. What could she possibly do meeting a judge when she knew nothing about the law. Above all, something like that would require Owen’s permission. She did not even want to imagine what his reaction would be if she asked him. But Garrick seized the hem of her skirt. The back of his hand was trembling. His frail, aging father would not last a week on Edellent Island before meeting a wretched end.

It was terrible to even imagine. Lea looked down at the trembling Garrick. Seeing his hunched back reminded her of herself, shaking with fear that she would not be able to give Ben a proper funeral. And even that small pressed flower……

The words of refusal would not come out. She could not give a firm promise, but she could at least try to bring it up. Lea opened her reluctant mouth and answered.

“All right…… I’ll try…… But I don’t know how it will go.”

“Thank you! Thank you, my lady! I will repay this kindness without fail!”

Garrick shed tears and thanked Lea over and over. Every time she heard those words, Lea flinched. She always felt uncomfortable when someone said such things to her, as though she had heard something she was not supposed to hear.

Not long after Garrick left, the butler told her Owen had returned and that she would be dining with him that evening. Lea swallowed and nodded. Her feet were heavy on the way to the dining table. But she could not simply ignore Garrick’s request. In the end she steadied her trembling breath and went back inside the manor.

***

Owen had returned looking neither particularly good nor bad. Throughout dinner Lea watched him. The food was excellent, but that was precisely why she could not taste it properly.

When dinner ended and Owen rose from the table, Lea was about to speak to him in a trembling voice when Owen glanced at her as though he already knew.

“Follow me.”

“What?”

“You look like you have something to say. Don’t you?”

At that, Lea quietly followed behind Owen. It was now certain that the butler or the guards had told Owen about Garrick’s visit.

Owen opened his room door and stepped aside to let Lea enter. Once inside, Lea looked around his room briefly. It was neither overly stark nor cluttered, but there was no sense of comfort or ease anywhere in it.

Owen closed the door after Lea came in, walked straight to the sofa, and sat down. He looked at Lea, still standing, and tilted his chin. It meant she should speak now. Lea clasped her hands together out of habit and began.

“Owen. Garrick Beverfield came today…… you probably already know.”

“Yes. And my capable butler apparently couldn’t manage to hear a word of what you two said to each other.”

The green eyes were fixed on her without wavering. Lea bit her lip slightly at the quick reply. She carefully watched Owen’s expression and brought up Garrick’s matter.

“He…… Garrick Beverfield made a request of me. He said his father seems to have been falsely accused and asked me to help. He wanted me to write a letter to the judge asking for a reinvestigation. He said otherwise his father would be imprisoned on Edellent Island……”

“And?”

“……”

“Is there more you have to say after that?”

At Owen’s words, Lea’s mouth snapped shut. Owen’s expression was calm, but his eyes had gone cold. Lea wiped her hands, now clammy with cold sweat, on her skirt. She wanted to say ‘No, it’s nothing……’ and leave the room. But having seen Garrick pleading was the problem. She could have not seen it, but having seen it, walking away now felt like it would torment her in its own way. Lea swallowed and continued.

“I…… Owen. I want to ask the judge for a reinvestigation, the way that man requested. If his father really is falsely accused, that’s too…… too sad.”

“……”

Owen stared at her for a moment after Lea spoke, then gave a short, low whistle. He raised his index finger toward the frozen Lea and moved it slowly as though measuring something, then opened his mouth.

“Do you have a sort of…… hobby?”

“What?”

“A hobby. I mean, whenever you see someone who looks pitiful, you put on a tearful display of self-sacrifice as though you were a saintess, and then once the other person is genuinely moved, you flip around and drive a knife into them. Do you feel a kind of thrill every time you do that?”

Owen no longer made any effort to hide the sarcasm. Lea shook her head quickly and denied it.

“It’s not like that……”

“Really? Because if it isn’t, I genuinely cannot understand it. It would make more sense if you asked whether you could divorce me and remarry that man afterward.”

With each exchange, the grip of Lea’s hands on her skirt tightened. She steadied her voice, which kept wanting to tremble, and pleaded earnestly.

“I…… I just want to help.”

“……”

“He looked truly desperate…… and he was in despair. So I wanted to at least try. ……Because I knew what that felt like. That’s all. Please, Owen. This isn’t for me. That man just wants a reinvestigation. It, it’s a lawful thing to want.”

It was one of the longest things Lea had said since coming here. Even after she finished, Owen kept staring at her. The green eyes stayed fixed on Lea in a long silence. When Lea was nearly beside herself with anxiety, Owen finally parted his lips.

“How touching.”

“……”

“If it weren’t you saying it, I might have applauded.”

At Owen’s words, utterly devoid of warmth, Lea’s expression fell with disappointment. She looked ready to cry at any moment. Owen’s face twisted at the sight. He hated seeing that expression. How irritating. That face on the verge of tears was the same as it had been that day. He wanted to put his hands around Lea’s throat, but at the same time he felt the back of his hand rising, palm turned upward. The way he had wiped tears from Lea’s cheek with the back of his hand when she cried as a child.

Owen pulled his hand back and glared at Lea. Setting aside his personal grievances, he genuinely could not understand her. Garrick Beverfield, by any objective measure, was someone Lea had absolutely no reason to save like this. He was a man who had sent letters annoyingly often for his own fame and then gone around talking about it. The fact that Lea, who had kept her mouth shut and stood still as a statue through everything else since coming here, had opened her mouth for this man’s father grated on Owen.

A heavy silence fell. Lea said nothing more, but instead of opening the door and leaving, she stood in the room with her hands clasped and fidgeting, looking down at the floor. Owen swallowed a hollow laugh at that almost-protest. A sudden impulse rose in him to order her to leave and see how she would react. Would she go quietly as usual? Or she might take that man’s side.

If Lea went on talking about justice and giving more reasons why Garrick Beverfield should be helped, Owen was certain his already churning insides would get worse. In the worst case, he could not be sure what he might do.

Acknowledging that everything he had done drunk that night had been genuinely idiotic, Owen rubbed his forehead and said sharply, “……Fine.”

He rose from the sofa and looked directly at Lea. His tone made his reluctance unmistakable.

“I’ll look into the judge handling that man’s father’s case.”

“Owen!”

“Don’t get too pleased. There’s something you’ll have to do. You didn’t think a few letters would be the end of it, did you?”

Lea’s brightened face went rigid with tension again at those words. Owen ran his hand along the back of the sofa and said, “If it gets out that you helped him, a particularly irritating rumor will start circulating again. If word spreads that the duchess who’s rumored to be at odds with her husband has taken up with a young poet, things will get very inconvenient.”

Owen thought of the older men who had lectured him at the banquet and frowned. He knew well how much trouble idle rumors could grow into if left alone. Sometimes it was better to leave a rumor alone, but if he actually helped Garrick Beverfield, that rumor would turn into a headache. Especially with someone like Marchioness Kepiel, who was itching to fan the flames of any gossip, in the picture.

“So no more rumors of discord.”

“Then……?”

“Go outside. No more drifting around this manor like a hanged ghost. You’ll be going to pointless plays and outings. You’ll attend banquets too. You and I will go together and watch the magnificent antics of magnificent fools.”

Lea’s eyes went dim. Owen took her chin and brought his face close to hers, then whispered, “Don’t worry. Perhaps your father will turn up somewhere along the way.”

“……”

Though only if we travel all the way to Edellent Island. Owen swallowed the rest of the sentence and took Lea’s lips.