‘——This might be bad…’
Leonardo has never felt this uneasy in his life.
Ever since the argument with his fiancée at that soirée, Chloe hasn’t shown her face once. She won’t even answer his letters.
Nothing like this has ever happened before. And Chloe has never, not a single time, said anything to defy him. Faced with a reaction he’s never seen from her, Leonardo is at a loss for what to do.
[What’s the matter, Leo? You’re miles away…… Did something happen?] (S)
Sherry asks it with a blank, curious look, and Leonardo says, [Ah, yes…… the thing is,] and starts telling her about Chloe. He’s in the middle of a tryst with the woman he loves and he can’t get Chloe out of his head. That has never happened before either, and it leaves him badly shaken.
Sherry listens, murmurs, and puts a finger to her chin. As though none of it matters much.
[Leo, I think your fiancée is probably just trying to get your attention.] (S)
[My…… attention?] (L)
[Of course. She’s sulking because she wants you to fuss over her.] (S)
[What is that…… she’s like a child.] (L)
[That’s what spoiled young ladies are like! If you give in and fuss over her now, you’re doing exactly what she wants. You’re better off leaving her alone.] (S)
[I see…… yes, you’re right! Thank you, Sherry. You really are wonderful……] (L)
The two of them gaze at each other, enraptured, and softly join hands over the table. The serving woman sets the next dish down quietly, sparing them a cool glance as she does.
[Ah, you there. Another bottle of wine.] (L)
[……Certainly, sir.] (Wife)
The serving woman — the proprietor’s wife, to be precise — gives Leonardo’s order a small nod and heads for the kitchen to fetch it. Once through the kitchen doorway, before going to the wine cellar, she takes up a pen and writes something in quick strokes on the stack of blank paper sitting on the counter.
[……Plenty to write down today.] (Wife)
When she’s finished she folds it small and tucks it away in a drawer. Only then does she go down to the cellar, and as she lifts a bottle from the rack she murmurs:
[Can’t even tell he’s despised. A nobleman who isn’t very bright, is he……] (Wife)
Carrying the finest wine the establishment has, she comes up from the cellar and heads back to the table where Leonardo and his companion are waiting.
＊
Following Sherry’s advice, Leonardo stops paying Chloe any attention.
She’ll come round and apologise eventually — that was the assumption. But no matter how long he waits, no word comes.
‘What is going on…… Why hasn’t she contacted me?!’
He waits, and waits, and there’s nothing. The tea parties and dinners that were fixtures of their engagement simply stop; not even an invitation arrives, as though none of it ever existed. At which point Leonardo does, finally, begin to panic.
And it’s around then that, in the salons where young noblemen gather, he starts finding barbs aimed at him.
[Lord Leonardo, we haven’t seen you out with Lady Calendula lately…… Surely you haven’t dissolved the engagement?] (Nobleman)
The one asking, with a smirk, is the second son of a count. Being addressed so rudely by a man of lower rank is something he ought to be angry about; instead Leonardo puts on a pleasant smile and lets it pass.
[Not at all. Her health hasn’t been good, so we’ve simply refrained from meeting. One wouldn’t want to strain one’s beloved fiancée, would one?] (L)
Losing his temper is precisely what the man wants, and Leonardo swallows his anger with effort. The harder he protests, the more truth the jab takes on, and he may only convince them they’ve hit the mark.
[Oh? Is that so? I saw her at the soirée the other night, and she looked in excellent health.] (Nobleman)
[……What? At the soirée……?] (L)
Leonardo catches his breath in spite of himself. Chloe attended a soirée without inviting her own fiancé——
[Ah, I was at that soirée as well. Most honoured to say I was granted a dance with Lady Calendula. Truly, it was like something out of a dream……] (Nobleman 2)
A second young man joins in and launches into it with a dreamy look. Leonardo listens, staring, as if watching something he can’t believe.
[How enviable. I had every intention of asking her myself, but…… one member of the royal family after another kept requesting her hand for a dance, and I’m afraid I lost my nerve.] (N1)
The first man says it with theatrical regret. Leonardo’s eyes widen, and he murmurs, [The royal family……?] in a voice that doesn’t believe it.
The eyes around him are cold, as if to ask what there is to be surprised about at this late stage.
[As I’m sure Lord Leonardo is aware, Lady Calendula is held in the highest regard among the royals as well. Beauty, dignity, and a distinguished house on top of it — she’s a lady without equal, possessed of all three.] (N1)
Delivered with that edge of sarcasm, it shuts Leonardo up completely.
He knew. He knew how beautiful Chloe was, how noble, and what family she came from. But he hadn’t understood. Not at the bottom of him; not what any of it actually meant.
[Yes, it would be far above a man like me…… but if I were permitted, I’d have liked to send her a gown and the honour of dancing with her at a soirée. For her I’d have the finest silk brought in from the neighbouring kingdom and have one of this country’s foremost designers make her the best dress of his life……] (N2)
Leonardo’s face reddens rapidly. He recognises the barb at once, and his fist clenches.
‘He’s talking about the fact that I never sent Chloe a gown……! But how does he know? The only person who knows about that is the marchioness who spoke to us at the time……’
Lost in his confusion, Leonardo doesn’t notice the cold, mocking smiles of the young men around him.
In society, a rumour spreads in no time at all. All the more so when someone of influence sets it loose. That marchioness carries enormous weight in social circles, and it takes no imagination at all to see that anything she spreads will be everywhere within days.
But Leonardo, seized by panic, can’t even notice that much.
Nor the fact that the rumour has already reached his own family——
Simplyrical 