This was not a relationship in which she could dare demand answers. She should have refrained from speaking to him at all, let alone asking questions. The realization came too late, and her wavering eyes were fully exposed to his gaze. Her inner state had been laid bare.

A reproachful look followed. With the horse’s tearing screams as a backdrop, the shadow of his sharp nose darkened like the face of a death god.

Then he gave a faint, quiet laugh.

“You kept calling out to me. I almost thought I’d acquired a little sister I didn’t know about.”

It was open mockery. Shame flooded Lisa and her throat constricted to the size of a pinhole.

Maybe it was being in this single room that barely fit two people. Her head must have gone strange for a moment.

Why did she always end up showing him only her most wretched side?

Counting the insubordinate glare she had given him in the study yesterday, she had crossed a considerable line with this man.

“I’m sorry. I was only worried about Titan.”

The horse being hurt was partly her responsibility as well. It had been an accident, but Renato had leapt to avoid trampling her as she came around the path, and this was the result. She would certainly face severe punishment when she returned to the manor, but she at least owed him a proper word of thanks first.

“And earlier, I was able to come through safely because of you. I could have been badly hurt.”

The accident had happened in an instant, so Renato had probably only reacted on reflex to avoid an obstacle. It was hard to say he had specifically protected her. Still, gratitude was gratitude.

Sheila’s advice about adding plenty of words when speaking came back to her, but her mouth still wouldn’t open freely. Instead she produced the practiced forced smile.

Lisa consciously pulled the corners of her mouth upward.

I am a clown. I am a clown performing. She repeated the suggestion to herself and moved the trembling muscles of her face.

It was a small mercy that there was no mirror here. Seeing herself like this directly would have been too awful.

Renato, who had been toying with her in a half-joking way, changed entirely in an instant.

His smooth brow pulled together in a sharp frown. His thick eyebrows shot up like the wings of a startled bird. Cracks spread across his grim face, and something almost violent radiated from him. She half expected him to reach for the rifle on the table and aim it at her head.

“Tch. Unbelievable.”

A large hand reached toward her. Her entire jaw was caught in a rough grip.

Lisa froze with her mouth still curved in that practiced shape. Her cheeks were dented by his fingertips and her chin was pressed flat by his thumb.

“Mm.”

Stale breath collected inside her clamped-shut mouth. Her vision blurred as tears threatened, and through it she could see Renato taking in her hair.

Her forehead, fully exposed, was free of the loose strands that usually framed it. She had taken care to learn how to braid her hair from Anna, and the neat style had held all this time.

Understanding struck like lightning. As she grasped how this man must be seeing her, she felt the blood drain from her body all at once.

He shook her small jaw and spat out a harsh condemnation.

“Brazen little thing, at your age.”

The forced smile crumbled into something close to tears. Renato clearly believed she had changed her hair and was smiling prettily to appeal to him. The thought of using her face to attract someone was something Lisa found deeply repellent, and she wanted to sink into the floor and disappear.

Renato clicked his tongue softly and straightened up. He stared at her for a long moment with a contemptuous look, then shook his head as though he had seen something distasteful and walked out.

* * *

The snow storm clawed ferociously at the outer walls of the hut.

She had stopped wondering whether she should have gone back to the manor the moment the accident happened. Going back up would have been impossible.

Renato hadn’t returned for a long time, so she went once to peek into the stable. He was fully occupied tending to the suffering horse.

Thinking it would be good to have something simple to eat, she searched the hut. She found a few tins on a shelf and set them by the fire. She took out the blankets folded in the cupboard and made up two sleeping spots.

Time passed slowly as she sat waiting in a daze. She knew she shouldn’t let her guard down, but her eyes fell shut before she realized it.

When the snow stops and it’s light, I’ll go back to the manor no matter what, even if the snow hasn’t fully cleared. Titan needs treatment urgently, so pushing through the accumulated snow is nothing. How long will it take to recover? When that one boy broke his leg a while back, he wore a splint for a few months. A sturdy horse might heal faster.

Her half-submerged consciousness drifted between waking and sleep. She sat curled up on the floor in front of the fireplace, her head nodding.

Bang, bang bang……

A gunshot rang out right beside her. The ear-splitting sound jolted her upright. She looked around the unchanged interior, then rushed outside.

The moment she opened the stable door, the smell of gunpowder hit her. Renato was standing with his back to her, holding a rifle.

“Titan!”

A dark wetness spread beneath the black body that had fallen in the straw. The four legs still twitching in that strange, fluttering way were proof of a life fading out. Death’s shadow fell over the space in the faint lamplight, adding grief to the final moments of a creature that could not speak.

Lisa pressed both hands over her mouth as her stomach lurched. A sob she couldn’t hold back escaped between her fingers.

“How…… how could you kill him?”

“His leg was broken.”

The answer was infuriatingly calm. He had said nothing all the times she had asked, and this had been his intention all along.

While she had been worrying about Titan and making plans for the morning even in her half-sleep, Renato had taken the rifle and gone out to shoot the horse while the drowsy girl wouldn’t notice.

Her head spun and her stomach heaved. Lisa was nearly out of her mind as her voice rose.

“You could have shown him to a veterinarian. We didn’t know if he could recover.”

“There’s no option but euthanasia for a horse like this.”

“How can you be so certain of that? Shouldn’t treatment at least be tried?”

She pushed back with her chin raised, voice sharp. The image of Titan’s sleek black coat, the finest horse in the Maldini stable, was vivid in her mind.

Renato pressed his mouth into a flat line. He said nothing more and fixed her with a cold, cutting stare.

She was aware she was behaving badly again. But Titan was dead. It didn’t seem right to shoot him without even letting a veterinarian assess the injury. A small, timid anger clung to the corners of her upturned eyes.

Renato turned to face her fully and narrowed his eyes. That alone was several times more intense than anything she could throw at him with words.

He exhaled shortly and came toward her with long, deliberate strides. The edge in his bearing suggested he might put a few bullets in her as well, and no matter how furious she was, she couldn’t hold her ground.

Her body shrank back on instinct. When the distance between them closed to the point of collision, even her breath stopped.

“……”

He brushed past her, their clothes barely touching.

Renato walked into the hut without a word.

The howling winter wind rapidly froze Titan’s body into a solid, cold mass.