Chapter 99
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She didn't think 'tomorrow' would come so soon.
Dana thought to herself as Theodore walked through the door as soon as the morning business was done.
"Morning, Dana."
He greeted her lightly, then walked over to Mick and Rachel. As he said something, they turned to look at her at the same time. Dana looked up at Theodore in confusion.
"I have an emergency and I'm going to send them on an errand, is that okay?"
Dana didn't answer right away. Afternoon customers were rare, but not nonexistent, and she didn't want to send them both out at the same time to empty the shop.
"If it’s not too urgent….”
"It's urgent, please."
For a moment, she wondered if he was trying to tell her something confidential about the investment. Dana glanced back at Mick and Rachel.
"If you two don't mind...."
"We'll be fine, of course!"
They looked at each other with wide smiles on their faces, the price of the errand being quite high.
Thank you, bye, and goodbye, followed by a flurry of greetings, and then ding, the door opened and closed.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
As Dana turned around, she felt something strange and stopped. Her head tilted to one side. She blinked a few times and looked at Theodore again. He was just sitting down in the empty seat by the window.
The man's long body settled leisurely into the chair, and he opened the newspaper. The sunlight streaming through the window cast a halo over his side.
Suddenly, a scene from the past came to mind.
When was it?
It was probably the day she first met Celeste. He was shaving, bathed in that hazy light.
Dana glanced at his sharp side profile and shook her head. She turned and walked toward the kitchen.
“I'm a bit torn, actually, the development plan is a bit outrageous, and I'm sure there will be some backlash, as Mr. Wisburne said, and most of all, I don't like to deal with troublesome things.”
With those words, Dana slept soundly last night.
Of course, the doubts that had been nagging at the back of her mind hadn't completely disappeared, but she was sure of one thing at least.
That he would not walk over her, casually, as he had so long ago.
On top of that, Theodore had given her what he called an 'explanation', and that was very encouraging.
"Dana."
Theodore called out to her.
"May I ask for a cup of tea?"
Her mouth opened and closed, and she blinked a few times,
"Yes."
She smiled. It wasn't until she walked over to the shelf in the kitchen partition and pulled out a menu that she realized why she felt so strange.
Their conversation just now was like an etiquette textbook.
There was nothing strange about that, per se. Time had passed, the place had changed, and their relationship had changed.
Besides, this was Theodore Macmilan, heir to a prestigious family, and he could be very polite, gentlemanly, and well-mannered when he needed to be.
What made Dana feel strange now wasn't simply that he was acting differently than before.
It was strange to realize how casual and respectful their conversation was, and it made her stomach churn.
Dana pressed her palms to her heated cheeks. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she pulled out the paper with the menu.
Was she remembering something she'd forgotten too suddenly?
As she stared at the paper with the tea names and descriptions, another scene from the past unfolded before her, as if she were flipping through a book.
"You're that maid.”
That was her first encounter with the word "tea" through Celeste.
"It's a mixture of rooibos, mint, and orange peel. It's also called Hoya. The madame also likes it, so remember it. I'll teach you the proportions and how to make it later.”
She didn't know it at the time, but 'hoya' meant 'fond recollection' in Old language. Dana chuckled to herself, thinking it was a perfect name for her current mood. Feeling a little silly with the menu in her hand, Dana stood empty-handed in front of Theodore.
"How about just black tea? Unsweetened."
He looked up from his newspaper.
“... I'm a little embarrassed to offer you tea. It's a little awkward to ask, 'What would you like’?"
Dana smiled out of the corner of her eye.
Theodore stared at her for a long moment without speaking.
It was awkward again, and she blushed slightly. Her mouth moved of its own accord.
"I know you don't like bitter flavors."
As soon as she said it, she regretted it.
....Why do I keep doing this?
It was as much a mistake as a whisper.
"I don't like bitter things.”
She remembered what he'd said that one day, and like a domino effect, it triggered a chain of forgotten memories.
The kiss they had shared in a drunken rush, the chocolate he'd given her a few days later when he'd visited with the Duchess.
“I was rather ungentlemanly.”
"I brought it for you, as an apology.”
Theodore seemed to have the same memory as Dana, judging from the way he looked at her.
The air currents, once calm, were instantly turbid, as if a drop of ink had been dropped into clear water.
Dana's mouth went dry as she sensed a flicker of heat in his quiet eyes.
"Uh..."
Dana could barely get the words out.
"... I'll make it straight..."
She made a run for the kitchen. Standing in front of the stove, she tried to calm her racing pulse. But her mind was flooded with memories and thoughts, like a dam breaking, and she couldn't think straight.
Complex thoughts inevitably lead to carelessness.
Dana forgot that she'd already boiled the water to a boil, and her bare hand slammed into the handle of the hot kettle.
"Aah!"
Her muffled scream must have traveled down the hall. Theodore put down the newspaper and began to walk briskly toward the kitchen. Dana quickly poured cold water into a bowl and dipped her finger in it. A burning pain shot up her fingertips.
"I got burn just a little, it's okay."
He was right next to her. Her senses were heightened, and the scent of his clean, heavy scent penetrated too deeply.
Dana turned at an angle. Theodore peered over her shoulder at her fingers in the bowl of water, assessing the extent of the wound.
"Don't worry, it's not even funny to call it scalded."
"Go sit down."
Theodore said and washed his hands. Then he reached for the kettle on the fire pit. Dana's mouth opened as she realized what he was about to do.
"No, you don't have to."
She blurted out.
"It's all better, I can...."
"It's not the first time I've made myself a cup of tea."
She flipped to the next page of her memory book.
Yes, the man had brewed the tea himself.
"I've been studying the tea ceremony since I was ten," he had said, "because if you don't know how to taste tea, you're bound to be fooled by someone like Celeste.”
Dana was terrified that day, but she was also in awe of the man's unblemished hands and his unhurried movements.
With the same graceful touch, Theodore lifted the lid of the tin case and smelled the tea leaves.
As Dana watched, she pulled her finger out of the water. It was still red, but the pain had completely dulled, as if it had healed.
The fact that it didn't hurt triggered a strange impulse. Her lips began to move uncontrollably.
"That day... you broke the teacup on purpose."
The man's hand stopped shaking the tea leaves, but Dana didn't notice.
"...I remember that day... I thought the world had ended."
Theodore put down his teaspoon. He stared into space.
"There were a few more similar incidents: you told me I smelled like a maid, you dropped your bow tie on purpose, you made me pick through the lady's presents, and then you tried to frame me for stealing them."
Her finger, which she had thought was fine, suddenly throbbed. Dana looked at the burn again. A blister was rising. The transparent membrane looked like it would burst at the slightest touch, spilling blood and fluid.
"It's okay, I'll just put this on."
Dana muttered to herself, opening a drawer and pulling out a small tube of ointment.
"Noah got me this because I hurt myself like this sometimes."
She didn't even realize she was talking about her husband.
"Go away, it smells bad, and of course Noah asks me what it smells like every time I put it on...."
The cap of the ointment was lifted and a truly strange odor assaulted his nose, but Theodore didn't smell it at all. He was swaying precariously in the middle of a violent storm.
As Dana applied the ointment, she suddenly realized.
Why, out of the blue, she'd brought up a story from their past that haunted him.
He wasn't the only one who wanted to release emotions. She wanted to release all the emotions she'd held onto before she left.
It was just hard to stop once it started. Her mouth kept moving, as if it had a momentum.
"I always thought of you as a cat."
Theodore turned away completely. Dana's sideways glance was shrouded in a misty veil.
"A scary cat that won't eat and plays with mice. I thought, 'What's wrong with him, is he bored, or did I do something wrong,' and then I realized, 'Maybe he just doesn't like me’.”
It wasn't a bad feeling, and it wasn't like she was beating her chest in frustration, but the events of the day struck a chord in Dana's heart.
"Of course, I don't blame you for all this."
Dana smiled and found a rolled up piece of gauze and began to unroll it.
"I think this is the first time in years that I've even thought about it."
She meant it. She still didn't understand why Theodore had done it to her, but it wasn't something she'd kept bottled up inside, resenting and blaming.
"But I've wanted to talk to you at least once, to tell you why I had to leave that day, so unceremoniously, and why I'm still so wary of you, even after all these years... Things like that. You didn't like Dana, the maid, no, you almost loathed her at first."
“…”
Theodore, standing there with a puzzled look on his face, turned his focus back to Dana and noticed that she was fumbling with the gauze on her own.
He snatched the gauze from her and carefully wrapped it around Dana's finger. He brought the ends together and tied a knot.
"Thank you."
Dana snapped out of her fuzzy memories and emotions and faced him, a little wistfully.
"I did it because I hated you...."
She muttered, almost to herself.
"Yeah, I had reason to."
Dana felt a little sorry because she seemed to have been talking too one-sidedly. It seemed so gloomy to see him standing there in the distance.
She tried to make light of it, to crack a joke, to defuse it somehow, but Theodore interrupted.
"I once went to an imperial boarding school, and there was a boy in my history class named Daniel, and there was a girl."
Dana waited breathlessly for his next words.
"And he always took her things and hid them, like hairpins and bouquets, things she liked. One time he ripped off her ribbon, and she couldn't stand it and sprayed water down his pants."
Dana had no idea why he was telling the story, but she decided to go along with it.
"...They...didn't get along...much?"
"Everyone thought so, but then he asked her to dance at the Christmas party that year."
Dana's jaw dropped.
"I really thought he was a psycho, but then I realized I'd done the same thing."
"Oh, you did......."
Dana replied without thinking, then paused.
Same thing.......
For a moment, Dana wondered if she had misunderstood.
The same thing.
The bizarre behavior had been motivated by liking and gaining attention.
She couldn't help but frown.
Theodore stared at Dana for a moment, then spoke again.
"I don't ask you to understand. You had every reason to think I was a cat. Fair enough."
With that, he dumped the tea leaves into a strainer and poured hot water over them. The savory, bitter aroma filled the air.
He looked unperturbed, but Dana's eyes widened in disbelief.
Okay, I don't understand.
She couldn’t understand.
"There was a boy named Daniel, and a girl.”
He spoke as if their relationship was like that of a young man and a young woman, but Dana thought differently.
What he did to her felt different than the distorted affection of a young boy.
They were schoolmates, so they must have been equals. She had memories of hanging out with her friends.
But her?
She and Theodore weren't equals at all. What's more, they only saw each other in a very short time.
Unlike the aristocratic girl who could pour water down the boy’s pants when she was angry, Dana, a maid, was completely intimidated and at his disposal. There was no clue, no room, nothing that might have suggested interest or even affection.
Above all, there was Master Edwin between them. As Dana remembered, his strange behavior had begun precisely at the waterfall.
If Master Edwin hadn't saved her from drowning, would MasterTheodore have even looked at her?
"But, Master, I... I don't understand... I don't blame you, but that doesn't mean I... I get it, honestly... I don't get it at all."
Theodore dropped his hand from the tea sphere completely. He looked at Dana with an unreadable gaze.
"I think you just didn't like that I liked Master Edwin."
His eyelids blinked slowly.
"A jealous cat, perhaps, who wanted to take away a toy his friend had fished out of the water, and I couldn't help but feel that way."
Dana clenched her trembling hands and tried to sound as calm as possible, but she couldn't stop her voice from quivering slightly.
“…”
“….”
They stood there for a long moment without speaking.
For the first time, Theodore noticed the roughness of the scars on her usually soft and smooth face. It was deep and dark, like nothing he had ever seen before.
It frightened him.
The veil that hid him shook precariously once more.
He wanted to do something to erase the scar that seemed to last forever. His arm, which had been resting casually, moved involuntarily.
But his outstretched hand was nowhere near Dana's face, and he was forced to stop.
The tinkling of the door bell pierced the silence. Dana whirled around, startled.
"Mrs. Miller!"
It was Mr. Greenwood, the owner of the pawn shop across the street, with Bilbo beside him.
What was going on at this time of day?
Dana pressed a hand firmly to her flushed cheeks and hurried out of the kitchen.
"Welcome."
The two men across the hall smiled at her. Then they spotted Theodore next to her and turned to stone.
Perhaps it was the emotions that had been stirring. Dana didn't immediately recognize the change in their eyes. She was too busy reminding herself that the pawnbroker didn't know Theodore at all.
"Hello, Mr. Greenwood. This is...."
"Oh, I know. He's Mr. Macmilan of Heredon, and you were once his maid."
Word traveled fast.
Dana thought blankly.
Greenwood removed his pipe from his mouth and bowed politely to Theodore, his eyes darting between Dana and Theodore.
After the greeting, an awkward, odd silence descended.
"Bilbo."
Greenwood suddenly looked back at Bilbo.
"Mrs. Miller seems to be busy, so we’d better come back another time."
Bilbo tore his eyes away from Theodore, barely.
"Oh... Yeah, that would be great."
Dana's eyes widened.
"But, Mr. Bilbo, Mr. Greenwood, would you like a cup of tea...."
"No, I'll come back later, I'd better get going."
"It's an honor to meet you."
The two left the shop without looking back. Dana followed them to the door, unsure of what to do.
“….”
Dana, who had followed them, turned around, a little dazed.
Theodore was standing by the window, watching them as well. Unlike Dana, who turned around immediately, he watched the two men's shadows until they disappeared around the corner.
He felt Dana's gaze on him.
"How's your finger?"
“It’s fine….."
The eyes that had been silently looking down at her pointed somewhere on the table.
There was a teacup. He didn't drink any of it. When Dana turned back to him with a questioning look, he suddenly checked his watch.
"I should probably go."
Already?
She remembered that they hadn't talked about 'investments' at all.
"I'll be back on Saturday."
"Saturday...?"
Dana frowned slightly.
"But you're leaving here soon, I thought you were going to Port Nova."
"I’m staying a few more days."
Olivia Digby.
Even through the clutter of her mind, the beautiful woman’s face came to mind.
"Can you go out that day?"
"Go out...?"
"It's your day off."
How did he know that?
"I'm going to do some more sightseeing around the neighborhood."
"Oh."
Dana nodded. But she wondered why he wanted her to go with him.
"Wisburne will be there."
The words immediately put her doubts to rest and she nodded again, wondering if he was going to make an investment decision that day.
"I'll be back by ten. Be ready."
"Yes, I will."
Theodore gathered up his newspaper. He glanced at Dana and turned away.
Dana stumbled over and plopped down in a random chair. The door slammed sharply shut behind her.
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Write a comment
Peached (Friday, 20 December 2024 01:46)
Thank you Virginie and Dora!
I love the way things are going, so excited for the next chapters.