Chapter 19

“You have to untangle what’s knotted before you can start anew……”

Judith clenched the ball of thread in her hand and turned the child’s words over in her mind. It was too thorny a thing to simply let pass. It felt exactly as though the old woman had seen through the confession from thirteen years ago, and Judith’s throat tightened.

“What are you doing here?”

At the hand gripping her shoulder, Judith turned her head. Johannes was breathing hard. Beads of sweat gathered on his forehead and ran down along his temple. In his shaking pupils, like those of a parent who had lost sight of a child, there flickered both anxiety and relief. Judith rose to her feet.

“I ran into someone I know.”

“What?”

The area around them was noisy with the sudden swell of people. Johannes held Judith by the shoulders and frowned. Again. Judith looked at him suspiciously as he rubbed one ear with his palm. His pale complexion looked terrible.

“Let’s go somewhere quiet first. It’s too noisy here.”

“……”

Johannes roughly seized Judith’s hand. The way he moved through the crowd as though fleeing was precarious. Walking after Johannes, Judith wondered whether she should tell him what the child had said. That you had to untangle what was knotted. A few days ago, she had reproached him for pretending not to know despite hearing her confession thirteen years ago, but Johannes’s response had been the same. Mere avoidance. If she was going to untangle what was tied between herself and Johannes, she first had to deal with that confession from the past, but Johannes refused to face it. She did not want to suffer that humiliation again. The part about it applying to both of them was probably wrong as well. Johannes only wanted to continue their friendship, nothing more. They had ended up spending one night together somehow, but even the way he treated that night like a plaything gave her the answer. There would be no new beginning.

* * *

“Here.”

Johannes stopped in front of a café decorated with a tree and lights. Seen through the window, the interior looked like a scene from a fairy tale. Log tables, lace-edged tablecloths with rounded hems, and antique plates and ornaments set on top stirred a childlike delight.

Johannes grabbed the round doorknob and pulled. The moment the door opened, the spreading aroma of coffee and the rich scent of baked sweets stirred her appetite.

“Go on in.”

“Ah. Right.”

As Judith stepped into the shop, the door closed slowly behind her. She had expected him to insist on following, yet Johannes turned away of his own accord, which was both admirable and unsettling. Had he not always been the sort who followed after her and teased her no matter how much she said she disliked it? Judith turned her head slightly and looked at Johannes’s back as he moved farther away. Somehow, he looked drooped. Had he really been badly shaken earlier? Her chest felt strangely tight.

“Judith?”

The one who recognized Judith standing there blocking the entrance was Madame Loewe. Louise Loewe widened her eyes and slowly took in the appearance of her granddaughter.

“Grandmother.”

“What brings you here?”

“I happened to see you while passing by, so I thought I’d come say hello.”

“You saw us?”

Madame Loewe wrapped one arm around her granddaughter’s shoulders and narrowed her eyes. Judith was half-pushed along to where her grandmother led her. Only after standing where her grandmother had guided her did she bite her tongue. If her grandmother asks how she saw her when she wasn’t even sitting by the window, what is she supposed to say? Judith let out an awkward laugh and shrank into the corner.

“The madeleines here are excellent. And their milk tea is quite good too.”

Contrary to her worries, Grandmother simply pushed the café menu toward Judith.

“I’ll order whatever you recommend, Grandmother.”

“Yes. Do that. Ah, and this is.”

Madame Loewe handed the menu back to the café owner standing beside the table and turned her gaze to the seat opposite. Naturally, Judith’s gaze followed to the sofa across from her. Before her grandmother could even finish the introduction, the lady sitting opposite opened her mouth.

“Oh my, isn’t this Miss Loewe? How grown up you are! Don’t you recognize me? I taught you piano from about the time you were seven.”

“Ah. Teacher Marie.”

“So you do remember. What an honor. To meet you again like this, I’m truly delighted. You were pretty as a doll when you were little, and now you’re beautiful like a rose in full bloom.”

Marie, with her warm and generous face, dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief while taking Judith’s hand and shaking it. Judith was flustered. She had rushed all the way here at the news that her grandmother was with someone neatly dressed, only to find that person was her former piano teacher. If it was Teacher Marie, Johannes would remember her too, since he had taken lessons with her as well. If Johannes had followed her grandmother, he should have been able to identify who she was with. Yet all he had said was that she was with someone neatly dressed. She had been completely fooled. She had shut herself up in the lab just to avoid running into him, and clearly he was taking revenge like this. Even that pitiful look that had scraped at her nerves might have been an act.

Without showing it, Judith dug her nails painfully into her palm. She regretted having worried about that bastard even for a moment.

“Thank you for seeing me so kindly.”

“Of course. Ah, a new doctor has come to the hospital I go to. He said he was curious about the young lady of the Loewe family too.”

Why would some new doctor be curious about the gloomy young lady of the Loewe family? Was he someone interested in archaeology? Scratching at a bit of skin beside her nail, Judith offered a politely gentle smile.

“So he must have seen that ridiculous newspaper advertisement too.”

Madame Loewe spoke in a voice whose anger had not yet cooled, then took a sip of tea.

“No. It was before the advertisement appeared. He said he thought you would be quite a beautiful young lady, resembling the master of the Loewe family, and that he very much wanted to meet you at least once.”

When Teacher Marie spoke in a subtle tone, Madame Loewe straightened her posture at once. She leaned forward toward the table and focused on every word coming from Teacher Marie’s mouth.

“Did he really say that?”

“I’m telling you, he did. He said he had read the column Miss Judith wrote. He said the direct and bold style had won his favor. So he had been wondering what sort of person you were. He even grumbled, asking whether you ever caught cold.”

That could not be true. If he had been so curious about Judith that he would grumble about whether she ever even caught cold, then he would have come to the lab or made an appointment by saying he had something he wanted to ask about her column. There were occasionally men like that. Men who hated seeing a woman occupy a professor’s position and write for newspapers or magazines as though she were an intellectual. The new doctor was probably one of them.

“Would you like to meet him?”

“What?”

Judith, lost in thought and following the café owner’s steps with her eyes as he brought over the ordered tea and plate of madeleines, jolted in surprise.

“There isn’t much time left until Christmas, so this is a good opportunity.”

Madame Loewe spoke meaningfully as she sipped her tea. Looking at her grandmother’s profile, Judith swallowed a sigh. This was not a situation she could refuse. In the end, this time she had no choice but to follow her grandmother’s wishes. Judith nodded weakly.

In her fear that King Pirap’s old book might be taken from her, she had failed to think things through properly. She should have questioned the fact that the sender of the telegram was Johannes Meyer. If she had, she would not have been pushed into an introduction she did not want. D*mn Johannes. Her belated regret struck her hard in the chest. Judith pressed at her stifled heart with her fingertips.

“I will.”

“Really? You two will suit each other wonderfully. That doctor is quite handsome too. Of course, not enough to compare with you, Miss. Ahem. At any rate, I’ll try to arrange an appointment as soon as possible.”

Teacher Marie covered her mouth with one hand and laughed. Whatever pleased her so much, the smile would not leave her face. Judith forced the corners of her mouth upward into a smile.

“Now eat a little, Judith.”

With a face more affectionate than Judith had ever seen, Madame Loewe urged tea and madeleines on her granddaughter. It was a relief, at least, that she seemed to have won back her grandmother’s favor. Judith poured milk into the steaming tea and stirred it with a teaspoon. Then she lifted the teacup to her lips. Other than the fact that the intermediary was her grandmother’s acquaintance, it was not a bad proposal. If he was a doctor, then surely he would have basic manners. He would be different from the men she had met through the newspaper advertisement. Right. Better to think of it positively. Repeating King Pirap’s old book to herself, Judith erased her unpleasant feelings.