Like the light of the dusk, a warm smile tinged on his face the minute he found Leyla strolling down the forestry trail.
"Leyla!"
Kyle yelled her name aloud. Leyla, who was walking with her gaze down staring at the ground, promptly lifted her head in eyes widened.
Kyle couldn't keep the grin off his face from adoring that moment. The moment Leyla quickened her stride whenever she got a hold of his presence was always very adorable.
Leyla flashed a beaming smile as she neared closer to him.
"When did you get here?"
"I went to your cottage a while ago and they told me that you had been summoned to the Duke's manor, so I was on my way to save you."
"Save me?"
"Isn't it obvious why Lady Brandt called you?"
"Not today," said Leyla as she took a step forward. Kyle trailed behind, his stride was perfectly timed with her.
"It was Grand Duchess Norma, not Lady Brandt."
"Grand Duchess? She did?"
"Yeah, she congratulated me on passing the exam and asked if there was anything I wanted as a gift."
"And what did you say?"
"I said nothing. I just conveyed my gratitude for letting me stay here."
"Wow, it was so Leyla Lewellin-Esque answer."
Kyle just smirked at what he had guessed. He gently scooped her hand, and Leyla seemed to be less nervous compared to the past. This small change brought his level of happiness climbed by one or two notches.
They strolled along the familiar road, hand in hand, as they shared stories. It began by their everyday routines, mystery novels published in today's newspapers, and their meagre summer plans for this year. As always, the intimate atmosphere snippet mingled with their rhythmic footfall, who was walking alongside one another.
Before long, the afternoon sky was broken, and jolted the twilight from its light slumber.
When the nightfall dawned, the sea of trees was soon blanketed in its beauty. Kyle yanked Leyla's hand and dragged her into the darkness with him.
He leaned her body against the tall tree on the side of the road as she reeled, then stepped in front of her. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, yet Kyle felt as if time had halted still for eternity throughout that moment.
Leyla glanced at him, bewildered.
"Kyle?"
Her voice was trembling a tad as she spoke. Her bonnie pink delicate lips glowed attractively even in the pitch blackness of the nite.
Kyle summoned all his courage and bent his head towards her; his eyes slammed shut. The warm skin soon reached his lips, but he wasn't pleased with the touch he was getting.
Kyle opened his eyes and laughed out loud. He found out that his lips had kissed Leyla's hand rather than what he planned.
"I felt weird doing this, Kyle." Leyla was gazing at him with her blushing face while her other hand was firmly covering her lips.
As Kyle slowly raised his head, once again she spoke,
"It seems like we're doing something bad if we do this, and I…."
Leyla dropped her gaze quietly, unable to bring herself to finish her words. Her pale, long eyelashes were likewise heading down.
'Don't you think this is wrong?'
When Leyla struggled to swallow the words she so wished to talk, Kyle flashed a grin. The hue of his cheeks now had matched hers in colour.
"Hey, Miss Lewellin. An innocent person who doesn't know how to kiss like you knows what?"
"Huh?"
"Though you were chattering really loudly in the train back then as if you were an expert."
"What do you mean…Oh, gosh!" Leyla hunched over to look shorter after recalling the day Kyle wanted to leap off a speeding train after she gave him a lecture about the act of reproduction.
"T-that's…." Leyla's eyes rolled skyward, and she gulped, finding she lacked the right words to debate him. "I-I'm also not sure about that….." she softly whispered.
Her habit of muttering low when she was in a position of disadvantage had remained unaltered since their childhood, to which Kyle let out a faint sigh.
His heartbeat went loose; it was pathetic that he couldn't kiss the woman he would marry, but Kyle didn't abhor it either. His deepest wish was to win Leyla's heart, so he refused to shatter her heart merely because of his fleeting lust.
Softly, Kyle fondled her cheeks, wrapping his hands around them. And then, he kissed her. His heated lips found their way to her forehead. He tried his best not to be greedy anymore, and with that, Kyle had kept his promise.
As he drew in a steadying breath, the pleasing scent littered his lungs.
The sweet scent of roses.
It was the scent of Leyla.
Matthias gingerly walked towards the window on the west side of his bedroom after taking a shower.
His routine went on wontedly. Though he slept off after midnight, he would usually be awake pretty early in the morning. He made his way to the bathroom without losing a beat and took a quick shower before getting ready for the day ahead. It had already evolved into a sort of habit, which he could do effortlessly since it had been ingrained into his bones.
Maybe, even right now.
Like it had become a habit, Matthias looked over the open window. In his garden surrounded by blossoming rose fields, Leyla was there, hard at work.
Perhaps as the day of her departure drew nearer, she had been seen following the gardener much more often recently. The two of them didn't separate for a single second and kept conversing without the slightest pause.
He once described Leyla Lewellin as a 'very reticent child' who seldom opened her padlocked lips in front of Claudine.
"Master, this is Hessen."
He heard the familiar sound of a door-knocking at the scheduled hour.
"Come on in."
Standing with his back against the windows, Matthias gave a succinct response. The chiffon drapes were rattling in the wind that wafted through the open stile.
While reading the newspaper Hessen had brought, Matthias overheard the reports about his to-do list for the day. He seemed to be having a laid-back schedule before the luncheon.
"It seems that Arvis was completely filled upon the return of its Master," Hessen added a word rather than retreating silently as he usually did.
Matthias turned to face him, setting down his teacup on the table. "My grandmother and mother would probably be sad if they heard that."
"Pardon? Oh no, master. I didn't mean that …."
"I know." A smile crept across Matthias's lips. "I know what you meant."
His momentary grin soon melted away, but his eyes stayed riveted on the middle-aged butler calmly; it was placid like a windless night. Hessen hurried off the room, after noticing the look of displeasure in his master's eyes.
Even after the bedroom door was closed, Matthias continued reading the newspaper while leaning on the windowsill. His bluish eyes, exposed through the loose strands of his hair, sparkled even brighter when the sunlight hit them.
After thoroughly reading the article about Count Klein's business-someone he would have luncheon with, Matthias put down the newspaper.
He slowly turned his head and saw Leyla walking into the flowerbed near the manor. Her braided hair beneath the straw hat was swinging as she hopped around.
The gardener appeared to be shouting something at her, and Leyla answered excitedly. She burst out laughing. Even with the hat shade obscuring her face, Matthias nonetheless could tell she was laughing with a bubbly voice.
Matthias' brows furrowed in a scowl. He ruffled his hair and slowly swept it back.
'Maybe I shouldn't have come back…."
The thought was running rampant in his head from the second he set foot on the manor ground.
His entire life had been meticulously orchestrated. It was analogous to the stairwell leading to a perfect life and he needed just to tread on it.
But, the stairwell was twisted, which muddled his steps.
And Matthias still couldn't understand why he had taken a choice that broke his perfect life cycle.
'No.'
He may have already broken it long before the night when he tore up the letter extending his military service.
It all began from the day he decided to serve an additional year in the military and postponed his wedding— the day when petty desires blindsided him.
The day when he approached her, after she fell from her bicycle.
Or maybe from the day, he didn't even remember.
He still desired her…
Matthias was keenly aware of the amplitude of his feelings.
As such, he desired that she would disappear from his life. And he believed that his desire was something right.
His state of shambles was sparked by the inner conflict between his raging emotions and guileless desires. Matthias was unable to provide a definitive answer, but he trusted the passage of time would eventually remedy the matter.
The window was slammed shut, and Matthias changed his outfit into a different one. The trellis shade slid over his face as he strode along the colonnade.
Luring by his discernment, Matthias left the manor alone and followed the forest trail leading to the river. On the underside of the dazzling moonlight, the dancing shadows loomed sombrer.
Matthias stalled for quite a while beneath the thick shadow cast by the surrounding trees to get sucked up onto reverie.
His world had no concept of longing since he had never had a desire of his own. There was a raw feeling that he had discovered when he was unable to get what he desired.
It was a pretty odd frisson that had seized possession of his body.
Daniel Rayner's countenance grew paler as a ghost as he got closer to the gardener's cottage. The sun wasn't yet scorching, but the sweat was already dampening his forehead.
"This is nuts."
Daniel mumbled frantic words as the cottage's roof had shown itself from the distance. Mrs. Etman told him that she wanted to temporarily withhold the tuition money the gardener had prepared,—which amounted to nothing more than a stealing act if her discourse was condensed.
'The noble and graceful Linda Etman beguiled her cousin into committing a sin in the hope of severing the poor girl's relationship with her son.'
Daniel Rayner heaved a sigh and entered the cottage's front yard. He took out the handkerchief from his pocket and again wiped his face. His grip on the briefcase stretched tightly.
He also felt sorry for Kyle, who had fallen in love with and chosen to marry a girl who wasn't a suitable fit for him. Despite their low social standing, everyone expected that the Etman family would have a daughter-in-law who was nonetheless a silk-stocking.
However, it was something Kyle sincerely wanted, and Dr. Etman supported it. He believed that Leyla Lewellin deserved to be their son's companion. Mrs. Etman, too, acquiesced in her husband's decision. But, who knows? A hidden dagger may be lurking behind her benign smile.
"Money is your foe."
After a moment of despondence, and making up his mind, Daniel gallantly strode towards the cottage. Linda Etman said that the cottage would be vacant in the morning. So if Leyla happened to be there, Daniel only needed to reason that he had just returned from Etman's home and dropped by to congratulate her on getting into college. It wasn't a suspicious excuse, given that they had met and known each other before.
With cautious, Daniel knocked on the front door. Guilt seeped into his veins as he prayed Leyla was inside, and this scheme would fail. Yet, the thing that greeted him inside the house was all quietness.
Daniel then pulled on the doorknob, and feelings of despair and hopelessness started to blend into one. As his sister had assured him, the door was unlocked.
'But, sis, didn't you mention that even if the money was stolen, someone would undoubtedly help her in paying her tuition? Even Dr. Etman was willing to pay for her tuition fees.'
Linda Etman stiffened her cheeks with a bitter smile when Daniel questioned her in bewilderment.
'I know my husband better than you.'
'But why….'
'The missing tuition was just an excuse.'
'Huh?'
'An excuse to break her heart.'
A sigh punctuated his silent reply.
Daniel refused to comment and could only blink slowly. He had no interest to become involved in their household matters and this shameful deed just made him feel more guilty and disappointed in himself. But he kept grasping at straws, although it made him feel like a despicable person.
He was only helping his cousin sister to keep the gardener's money for the time being; Daniel recited that rationalization thought a thousand times in his head before summoning the courage to enter the house.
He completed the job quickly. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief after successfully leaving the cottage with a bag of money. He had rolled the dice and succeeded in his role on the game board. He just has to hand over the scruffy cash to Linda Etman and then go home, content in the knowledge that his laborious efforts to protect his family would be repaid in full in the near future.
Daniel opted for a loop along the riverside to avoid a situation where he might encounter the gardener. Worse luck, his prudent choice landed him in a pickle when he met paths with a young man near the river.
Seeing Daniel Rayner, the young man stopped his sluggish steps. Without even a speck of suspicion or surprise in his face, the young man stood still and regarded him stoically.
'Is he one of Arvis's employees?'
It was not long after his momentarily nonchalant attitude soothed him; Daniel's complexion soon grew like a death warmed up.
Wearing a comfy shirt, that young man didn't look like a servant as he strolled down the riverside at the busy time to start the day. Moreover, his princely face had all the hallmarks of the familiar figure he recognized.
The very face that was featured countless times in newspapers and which he could only see on many occasions from a distance.
The young owner of a heaven-like place called Arvis.
It was Duke Herhardt .