Chapter 23
***
Khaled raised one eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Because I'm here to live."
Green eyes, tinted with guts, glittered at him. Khaled smirked, as if even those eyes were plastic.
"We'll survive this somehow."
"You're going to pretend to be a lucky damsel in distress so you can fix your armor."
"......."
"Shameless."
She was exasperated, but he was not wrong. His words were accurate.
"I doubt anyone is stupid enough to fall for your flimsy act."
Aubrey replied firmly.
"There will be, and if there isn't, I'll make one, so I can live a life where I never have to beg someone like you to save me again."
At that point, Khaled could no longer laugh. Aubrey stood up, looking at his stern face. She managed to speak without trembling, without stuttering, but her heart was already pounding, and her fingertips were trembling slightly.
"I would appreciate it if you could think of something else."
"......."
"Please, Count Lavonne."
She curtsied and stomped out. Aubrey took one look at her hand, still trembling slightly, and hastily tucked it into the width of her dress skirt.
In hindsight, she realized she'd done something crazy, the man's face hardened. He sat there, unmoving, until she bowed and left the room. She wondered if she'd provoked him, if she'd made a fool of herself.
"No. I did well."
Aubrey shook her head and wiped the anxiety from her mind. The moment she showed weakness, she would be gone. It was a truth she'd learned early on the island.
People were meaner to those they trust, and that was the only reason he was mean to her, Aubrey thought. The daylight streets were quiet and the sun was warm. Aubrey rubbed her now chilled hands together and made her way to the sweet shop.
"I did good, I did good, don't worry."
Aubrey muttered, her lips still stiff with nervousness, and when she saw the sign for Damond's, scrawled in a playful handwriting on the red sign, she broke into a run.
* * *
Café Borno.
Lehman drew the curtains back neatly, as if that was enough, and stomped inside.
"I think it's time for you to go."
His voice was monotone, his eyes hard. He felt sorry for my boss, who sat in the same position after the woman left, smoking a cigar.
"You had me doing all sorts of odd jobs as soon as I got here, and now you're curtaining the cafe? What the hell is this, what else have you been doing while I've been gone?"
Lehman, who had been left alone to take care of things in Lavonne while Khaled was away, returned to the city a week ago. When he arrived with a pile of work that needed his approval, his boss told him,
"I want you to deliver this to the Ravant’s residence.”
"Me?”
“Yes, you.”
‘Me?”
‘Are your ears plugged?”
That wasn't the only bizarre instruction from the boss.
"Call Borno and empty the cafe. Not a single ant in sight.”
"You're buying it? You've already brought Sarbonne to Lavonne.”
"To meet someone.”
He wondered who the hell was that his boss had to rent out an entire cafe to meet, but there she was, dressed modestly. Aubrey Sandalwood, a woman with a last name he'd never heard before in his life. Lehman remembered her face, which was quite impressive.
She had a pale, makeup-free face with light freckles on both cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her red hair was pulled back into a braid and to one side, and she wore what looked like a straw hat. Not the kind of woman his boss would ever be attracted to, Lehman thought of her as a prospective subject.
The boss wants to sponsor a poor but bright girl. That was it. Until he heard an amazing conversation from inside.
"What the hell is your relationship with her? She’s not what I think she is, is she?"
"Which one is the one you think she is?"
"I'm not in the mood for jokes, and it's not even funny. Do you know how much paperwork I have to go over today? Those damn Blackstones have changed their minds about ransoming us, and there's even a complaint from the merchants around Cannon Hall!"
Khaled raised his hand. Lehman, realizing that it would fall on deaf ears if he spoke now, turned away without another word.
"I'll have a cup of coffee, so get organized, and then you really should be on your way."
Lehman left, but Khaled's posture didn't change. He went from sitting slumped to lying down for a very long time on the couch. His cigar was still burning in his mouth. As he closed his eyes and blew out the white smoke, he suddenly burst out laughing.
"What do you want?”
He never thought he would hear those words. He never thought he would hear them when he read Aubrey Sandalwood's letter. She would freeze in front of him with her makeup-free face and her freckles showing, and she was so brazen and imposing in person.
He guessed that's her nature, living like she's dead to the idea of meeting and marrying a decent man. It was ridiculous.
"So I'm going to live a life where I never have to ask someone like you to save me again.”
The smile vanished without a trace from his fine features. Just as he hadn't expected to be asked what he wanted, he hadn't expected to be told that she would live a life where she would never meet an a*shole like hi . It was hatred and contempt so unmistakable.
"You're annoying."
The muttered words were followed by a long puff of smoke.
* * *
Khaled was grabbed by Lehman and led out of the café. He tried valiantly to glare at his boss, who was stretched out on the couch, and Khaled laughed at him.
Upon returning to his study, Khaled showed Lehman what he had been waiting for. His eyes flicked quickly over the stacks of papers before him, and he made a decision without hesitation.
"Tell Blackstone's that we're not interested in settling. And contact Angeladay. Find out the requested amount and salary quotes, and start with something reasonable."
"Yes, sir."
Lehman's jaw dropped in amusement. He, too, had grown tired of the Blackstones' brazenness. So what if they had the most popular theater actors in the world. If they missed out on a guaranteed hit, it would be downhill from there. Lavonne was a thriving cultural city.
The Cannondale would become its centerpiece, and it would have a tremendous impact on those working in the field. This was because Khaled promised the actors in his company that they would be guaranteed regular performances, seats, and paychecks.
So much so that people were standing at the entrance to the under-construction hall when they heard about the company's search for a permanent home. But the busy construction also brought complaints from the neighboring merchants. Khaled didn't even bother to look at them.
"We’ll just give them some compensation, that's what they're asking for."
"At least try to talk to them......."
"I don't have time for that. What's a thousand coins per store?"
"A thousand coins. Have you checked the number of complainants?"
"You'll have to adjust accordingly."
The rest of the day, Khaled worked quickly through the backlog, Lehman's notebook beside him filled with his instructions. Lehman glanced over at Khaled and smiled. His neatly swept black hair, the piercing eyes beneath it, and the new weight he'd lost made him look even more intimidating.
He didn't like the undone shirt collar or the cigar in his mouth, of course, but that was one of Lehman's favorite aspects of his boss. Khaled had a temper that would go crazy when he got into a fight, and he'd see it through to the end. When he was younger, it was athletics, and when he got knighthoods and estates, it was money.
It made the frail boy grow into a man that no one would ever look down on. Leman, who had watched him grow from the sidelines, was the one who knew him best.
"Why do you keep staring at me? Are you going to quit?"
"I get the urge when you're sprawled out on a couch in the cafe like you were earlier."
"I can't. I can't quit. The only time I’ll stop is when I'm dead."
"I know, you wrote it in your will."
And someone who knew Lehman well was Khaled Karnus, who smiled wryly at Lehman's sarcastic yet witty remark. The two men worked at their respective desks until the sun began to set. When the study was finally bathed in a reddish glow, Lehman lit a candle in the corner to illuminate the surroundings.
"You should see this."
Khaled leaned back in his chair and frowned, which meant what else was left.
"These are the packages that were delivered to the Lady upon arrival. She had a look at them and asked me to respond."
Khalad took the bundle of mail and raised his eyes to stare at Lehman.
"You really do listen to my mother."
"You should listen to her, too."
Lehman said with a heavy sigh.
"Mostly invitations. A royal ball, a charity bazaar at the Atherton's, an invitation to attend a yacht regatta next month, and......."
"I'm not going, I can't go, I don't want to go."
Before Lehman could finish his sentence, Khaled was pulling out the mail, piece by piece. Lehman, who knew this was coming, nodded in agreement. He'd rather his boss be crazy about work than crazy about socializing.
"Then I'll take it as a consensus that you will be absent."
Lehman, who had been sorting through the mail that Khaled had scattered across his desk, handed him back a letter bearing the Lambent family crest.
"Are you sure you won't be attending the royal ball? A letter has arrived from Miss Lambent asking if you wish to attend."
Had there been a letter from the Lambent family in the meantime? He didn't know. Khaled rubbed his tired eyes and yawned.
"What the hell. Don't you know?"
"Just out of curiosity, have you ever thought about getting engaged?"
Khaled threw up his hands. It meant get out. Lehman gathered his things.
"I assume you're attending the royal ball, and I'll be sure to reply to Miss Lambent accordingly."
"Leave."
"Go easy on the cigar. If you die before me, who do I work for? You're not going to write me a letter of recommendation."
"Get out."
"If you're going to keep smoking, write me a letter of recommendation first, and bye."
Lehman turned to leave the study, but paused as a realization dawned on him.
“Boss, that woman from earlier."
Lehman stood there, contemplating whether or not to ask, when he felt the piercing eyes on his back.
"Is that her? The one you met on Crysis Island?"
As Count Lavonne's secretary, Lehman's first order of business was to learn about Crysis Island.
"I met some people there.”
That was it.
Lehman could still remember the look in his eyes. The frosty way they'd skimmed over his report on the island's uglier side. The boss must have met Aubrey Sandalwood in Crysis.
Aubrey Sandalwood, who must have been a slave or prostitute on the island. No matter how he thought about it, that was the only explanation he could come up with, because she acted like his boss had a fatal weakness.
"If she's who you say you met on the island, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask her to leave......."
"What if?"
Lehman turned around at the playful tone of the voice. Khaled was staring at him, a thick cigar between his fingers.
"I think you should keep your distance. I don't know what brought her here, but you know, about the island."
"I'd like to."
Khalad gave him a loose smile. He really wanted to distance himself from her, because every time he looked at her determined face, he kept seeing the same foolish bastard from his distant past, the same half-blood who'd tried to make himself a nobleman. Khaled took a new drag on his cigar through slightly parted lips and blew out a puff of white smoke.
"So I told her to go away, and she said no."
Khaled laughed at the fact. Lehman shook his head.
"So what are you going to do, keep meeting like this? What if other people find out?"
"Yeah. I don't know what I'll do."
Scowling, Khaled rose from his seat. He crushed his cigar roughly into the ashtray and raised his eyes to Lehman.
"You want me to kick her out?"
***
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Write a comment
Romy (Saturday, 02 March 2024 20:36)
Their conversation is just....
pinayAKO (Sunday, 14 April 2024 20:16)
he wants her to go away from him..but hes the one led her to cling with him by triggered her or teased her from her past..whts wrong with him? i can sensed him obsessive and possessive savior