Chapter 20
***
"I saw the forest for the trees."
Aubrey said, her voice still full of laughter. Nicholas scratched his head, persistently asking what on earth she had seen. He gazed out into the darkness of the forest.
"You mean that forest?"
"Yes. Because I was found in that forest."
Nicholas looked flustered for a moment. He lowered his eyes and apologized for asking.
"I must have asked something I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."
"No, it's not depressing, and it's not something you shouldn't have asked."
Aubrey shook her head softly. She could still feel the lump in her throat from the laughter she'd let out, thanks to Nicholas. Someone who was pleasant to be around. No, someone who made her feel good. Nicholas Atherton, Aubrey thought, was that kind of man.
"So, can I ask you something?"
"Ask what?"
"How you lived before you came here."
Aubrey turned her head and looked into his eyes. They were very serious, without the slightest hint of mischief. He also looked a little nervous.
"It's not a funny story."
"I'd love to hear it, if you don't mind, because I've heard a lot of rumors about you, but I've never heard the real you."
Aubrey's ears twitched a little at the word rumor, and then she remembered that everyone had known about her, even back when she'd made her first steps into the social scene.
"Then answer me first."
Aubrey smiled brightly and turned to face him. Nicholas stared at her for a moment, taking in her figure-the hem of her dress fluttering slightly as she moved, her red hair, her slender arms crossed behind her, her clear green eyes looking up at him.
"Anything."
In that moment, the answer was obvious.
"What are the rumors about me?"
"Huh?"
Nicholas asked, stunned.
"The rumors about me, what are they?"
"Oh, that's......."
The rumors about Aubrey Sandalwood were endless. They ranged from that she was a beggar girl whose birth was never proven, to that she was so ugly that the Earl of Ravant never let her leave the house.
None of it was good news. As Nicholas looked away, trying to think of a response, Aubrey bounced in place, blocking his view.
"Master, you were supposed to tell me."
"Um......."
"Master?"
Nicholas broke down and laughed. At the same time, he placed a hand on Aubrey's shoulder.
"I'm going to answer you, but stop running, you're going to hurt yourself."
Aubrey nodded, and soon they were walking side by side, in step.
"It's just that Count Ravant is sponsoring a girl, and she's incredibly beautiful, so he's hiding her away in his mansion and doesn't want to show her. Something like that."
"That's it? I didn't realize the rumors about me were so good."
"There were some bad ones, too, like the one about you not being the illegitimate daughter of the Count of Ravant, but that was just a bunch of mindless gossip from people who didn't know any better, and now everyone knows you're the Countess's niece, so......."
Nicholas, who had seemed to be talking calmly, gradually blanched and mumbled his words. Aubrey couldn't help but laugh at the sight.
"Ah, so that's why everyone was looking at me so strangely that day."
"That day?"
"The party at the duke's mansion, because strangers came up to me and looked at me like, 'You're the girl of rumor?' It was rumored that I was my uncle's illegitimate daughter, so I guess I deserved it."
Beside Aubrey, who nodded, Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief. He felt bad about lying to her, but it was better than ruining her mood by telling her the rumor as it was.
"And now I suppose you'll answer my question, Miss Aubrey?"
"I......."
Aubrey, smiling as ever, suddenly quieted. She almost blurted it out without thinking, caught up in the moment. No matter how gentle and kind the man next to her was, there was no way he could possibly understand her past.
From birth, others could never understand each other. Just as she had once failed to understand the nobles who vacationed on Crysis Island.
"I was supposed to be in Finnswood."
Aubrey paused for a moment, then resumed pacing and talking.
"My father died when I was very young, so I'd been living with my mother ever since, but even then, I was only five, so I barely remember anything."
Aubrey chose her words very carefully. The struggling mother and daughter managed to keep in touch with her sister, Barbara, and stayed in the manor's outbuildings, but her mother found work and headed to the port city of Camshire.
There they were happy for a while, but then her mother fell ill and died, and she lived off the money she earned by helping merchants in the marketplace.
"There were a lot of kids there who had lost their parents, like me, and one day I was being chased by them. I only had a little money, but I was running like crazy to get to the mountains so they wouldn't take it away from me. I was just thinking I had to get away from them somehow. I ran and ran and ran, and I collapsed."
"And that's how the Countess found you?"
"No. It was the stable keeper out for a dawn walk. As I found out later, Vadem takes a dawn walk in the surrounding mountains every morning, and his habit saved my life."
She spilled the whole made-up story. Aubrey cautiously studied Nicholas's expression. To her relief, he was looking at her with sympathy for her struggle rather than suspicion.
"I had no idea. Even if you were the Countess's niece, I thought you were a young lady who had come from somewhere safe and comfortable."
"I've certainly lived a life that doesn't qualify me as a lady."
"No, no, absolutely not, Miss Aubrey."
Nicholas stepped in front of Aubrey and gently took her arm in both hands.
"Everyone has a rough patch in their life. For you, Miss Aubrey, that moment came a little early, so don't let it diminish your worth."
He seemed to think she was beating herself up. But his naïve consolation didn't make her feel any better. Aubrey smiled vaguely at his comment that everyone has a hard time in life.
She wondered if that hellish past really counts as a high point, and she wondered how many high points you have in your life when you say that. Not as many as she did.
Aubrey looked up at him with that thought. Nicholas was still looking at her with warmth in his eyes. He was such a sweet man. Even if he didn't fully know her.
"Thank you."
“…….”
"You're such a kind man."
There was a short silence after Aubrey said that. Then Nicholas scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"Hey, should we go back inside? They might be looking for us."
"Yeah, sure."
Nicholas didn't look at Aubrey. He walked strangely, turning his head this way and that, as if he were pacing.
"Master, it's not that way."
"Oh, that's right."
Aubrey couldn't help but smile at his innocence, even as she wondered what was wrong with this man.
* * *
Aubrey feigned illness and returned to the hall she had barely escaped from. She couldn't help it for Nicholas. She was a little sad to see him go, and she had asked him if he wanted to join her.
On the stage of the great hall, the small band from earlier was playing, and Emily was seated at the black piano next to it, her lips pressed together, concentrating on the music.
"You should sit there."
A few empty chairs were visible behind the people who were mesmerized by Emily. As they sat down, the man who had been sitting there turned around and asked Nicholas.
"Where the hell have you been? The play ended a long time ago."
As he said this, Patrick spotted Aubrey and smiled his trademark gentlemanly smile.
"I just took a little walk."
"With whom?"
"With Miss Aubrey."
Then Patrick's mouth turned up in a meaningful smile.
"What is it, why are you looking at me like that?"
"You must have had a very pleasant conversation, judging by how late you are. Am I right, Miss Sandalwood?"
"Even if it wasn't?"
"I didn't ask you, Nicholas."
"I just heard a story about where Miss Aubrey used to live."
Patrick started to look quite interested, and then he got up and moved to take a seat to Aubrey's right.
"Will I have the honor of hearing Miss Sandalwood's story as well?"
"Oh, that's......."
Aubrey looked at Nicholas in confusion, who nodded and smiled as if that was fine. A quick glance around told her that Khaled wasn't here either.
Aubrey ran her tongue over her lips and picked up where she left off. Patrick, and even Nicholas were once again captivated by the story, which had begun in a rambling tone.
Both men had been born into aristocratic families, and it was as if the things they would never experience in their lifetimes were otherworldly.
"So I just started running away, because I didn't want it to be taken away from me."
The story reached a climax. Aubrey opened up about the moment she was running from the bullies.
"I just headed for the mountains as far as I could see. I managed to get into the woods without being caught, but it was getting late."
"That. Pity."
"Even when I think about it, I don't think......."
Aubrey looked up, dumbfounded, as the man sitting in front of her suddenly spoke up. The man's unusually large frame, with his back to the stage, was finally visible. Why hadn't she noticed?
How could she not recognize this man's attitude? He turned around. His thick arms rested on the backrest, and his clear face was revealed.
"So, did you eventually make it over that giant mountain?"
Khaled asked, resting his chin in his hands. His cold, dark blue eyes watched her with interest.
***
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