Happy Days
Mrs. Etman had filled the table with food and beautiful decorations to show her welcome to the guests she had invited. It was a warm reception that took Leila, and even Dr. Etman and Kyle, by no small surprise.
“Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Etman.”
Leila offered the greeting she had practiced dozens of times throughout the day and held out the gift she had prepared: peach preserves in a pretty glass jar, and a bouquet of roses.
“Thank you, dear.”
Mrs. Etman accepted the gift willingly. Relieved, Leila smiled, and at last a smile touched Kyle’s lips as well. Looking at her son, Mrs. Etman’s eyes grew cold for a moment before recovering their usual light.
Dr. Etman had said that once the results were announced, they should marry the two children. Kyle’s acceptance was certain, and so would Leila’s be; the marriage was all but settled already.
With a girl like that, in this fashion—my son.
Mrs. Etman clenched her hands tightly beneath the table. It was infuriating, yet she no longer showed any open opposition. She knew her husband and her son too well. Stubborn resistance would only backfire.
“Eat plenty, Leila. I prepared all the things you especially like.”
Steadying her breath, Mrs. Etman faced Leila with a gentler expression. Leila blinked in surprise, then a bright smile bloomed across her face. Looking at that pretty face, Mrs. Etman felt a strange surge of anger.
She must have bewitched my son with that face and that smile.
The thought, which had already gone that far, made her skin crawl; she quickly seized her water glass. The cold mouthful sliding down her throat felt far too vivid.
“Thank you so much.”
Offering thanks that rose from the heart, Leila smiled faintly once more.
She was a truly good and kind girl. Mrs. Etman knew that fact all too well. And that very fact had now become another major reason she never wanted to take Leila as a daughter-in-law.
If only the child had some flaw, her heart might have been easier. If she could hate her for something hateable, dislike her for something dislikeable—then at least she would not feel this crushing sense of being a wretched, contemptible person.
Now Mrs. Etman hated everything about Leila Lewellin. Her kindness, her cleverness, even that pitiful station of hers—all of it.
“Leila, I hear Dr. Lorenz at Ratz University is an authority on ornithology.”
Noting his wife’s hardening expression, Dr. Etman abruptly changed the subject.
“Once you enroll, be sure to take Dr. Lorenz’s classes. Having a scholar like that as your teacher will be a great help to you.”
“Really, dear. You speak as if Leila has already entered university.”
Watching anxiously, Mrs. Etman spoke without thinking. Dr. Etman and Kyle looked at her with puzzled faces.
“There’s no chance Leila would fail.”
“Exactly, Mother. Leila couldn’t possibly fail.”
How can face and manner and even the heart toward that girl resemble each other so completely? Swallowing the words that had risen to her throat, Mrs. Etman once again wore a kind smile.
“That’s true enough. Leila is such a clever child.”
When she smiled, Leila across the table also held a shy smile.
Bill Remmer had kept his mouth firmly shut about the past Leila had left behind in Lovita. That she had lost her parents overnight, been passed from relative to relative, and finally come as far as Berg was all the people of Arvis knew about her.
Linda Etman hated that more than anything. A family without a single proper relative to take the child in and raise her. A child abandoned and abandoned again, who had drifted even beyond the border. Just thinking how lowly her origins must be made her shudder.
It’s not as if I’m asking for something so grand.
If only Leila had been a child from an utterly ordinary family, she would not have stood between the two children with such a petty heart. How could a girl raised with no foundations at all become the excellent mistress of a household? The girl’s insistence on going to university grated on her just the same. Seeing her harbor a dream so mismatched to her circumstances, one might even wonder if her greed was not considerable. It did not seem Kyle could be happy taking such a girl as his wife.
So I must stop it.
Mrs. Etman clasped her two hands tightly together beneath the table.
She had to prevent this marriage no matter what. By any means necessary.
News of Leila Lewellin’s acceptance to university was delivered by the very same postman who had once brought little Leila to Arvis.
While Leila was out walking in the forest, Bill Remmer took the notice and stood stock-still in that spot for a long while.
“Mr. Remmer?”
The postman looked at him with some concern when he failed to answer the congratulations. His face, which had been so calm only moments before, was flushed red.
“Are you all right, Mr. Remmer?”
“……Nothing to make a fuss about.”
Bill scrubbed roughly at the corners of his eyes with his thick hand.
“I was just thinking for a moment.”
He raised his voice and barked for no reason, yet the rims of Bill’s eyes were already damp. Knowing well that the rough, blunt-looking gardener of Arvis had a tender heart, the postman discreetly pretended not to notice and nodded.
“In any case, my sincere congratulations. To think Leila will be a student at the empire’s finest university—my own heart is full of pride.”
Offering congratulations once more, the postman left the cottage.
Bill returned to the porch cradling the acceptance notice with care. Seated in the chair, he read it over several times and gently stroked it with his fingertips. His face, growing redder and redder, fortunately recovered its usual color as he repeated deep breaths. That was when Leila returned.
“Uncle!”
Spotting him, Leila waved widely and began to run. The old leather bag slung over her shoulder swung cheerfully.
“That damned bag.”
Bill muttered with a hollow laugh. It was his tool bag, the one he had given her the summer she first came to this cottage. Even though she had come to own several better bags, whenever she went walking in the forest Leila always sought out that worn-out thing and slung it on.
“When do you plan to throw that piece of junk away?”
He grumbled needlessly at Leila as she sat beside him.
“Throw it away? It’s still perfectly usable.”
“Just throw it out already. If you work it to death like that, the bag itself will curse you.”
“Just a little longer.”
Fiddling with the frayed leather strap, Leila smiled mildly.
“I’d feel empty without it.”
Honestly, what a stubborn little thing.
Abandoning the scolding he had meant to give, Bill thrust the notice out in front of Leila.
“What’s this, Uncle?”
“You’ll know when you look.”
Leila took the notice with rounded eyes fixed on him. He had expected her to burst into a shout of joy, yet as she read down the acceptance letter, Leila’s expression only grew calmer and calmer.
“……Leila?”
Worried by the excessively quiet reaction, Bill spoke first. Only then did Leila lift her head and look at him. Her face wore a quiet smile.
At times like this it would be fine to act a little more like a young lady.
Leila’s mature attitude, enough to make his earlier tears feel awkward, had Bill scratching the back of his neck roughly. Watching him quietly, Leila’s face suddenly bloomed with a full, overflowing laugh. By the time Bill registered it, she had already thrown her arms around him.
“Making such a fuss.”
Despite the offhand words he tossed out, the hand stroking Leila’s back as she nestled in his arms was tender.
“Thank you.”
Only after a long while did Leila raise her head and whisper. Her voice was wet.
“Truly, thank you, Uncle.”
Looking at him with eyes brimming with tears, Leila smiled radiantly.
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“What foolish talk is this I’m hearing.”
Bill drew a deep breath and counted numbers. He also went over one by one the tasks he had to finish before the sun set. Even so, the heat at his eyelids showed no sign of settling. He could now be certain that this little child had brought her tear ducts with her from Lovita.
“You studied, you took the exam and passed. What did I do?”
“No. No, Uncle.”
Leila shook her head vigorously and took Bill’s hand. Even with both of hers together, her hands were too small to properly wrap around one of his.
“I……”
Clasping and fiddling with his hand, Leila’s hands were soft and warm.
“Uncle, if it hadn’t been for you, I……”
On this good day Leila wore a face that looked ready to burst into loud sobs. That was the thing Bill feared most. Even tears of joy—he did not want to see Leila cry.
He wanted her always to smile brightly. Even gathering all the affection and care he had poured into the flowers and trees he had tended his whole life could not match the heart he had given this one child. Bill knew of no flower or tree more precious than her.
Somehow it had become so.
Bill accepted that fact without resistance.
“Let’s go to the capital together around next weekend.”
Clearing his throat to settle his emotions, Bill spoke in a deliberately cheerful tone.
“Just the two of us—to Lutz?”
Leila’s eyes widened as if in surprise.
“You’ve been accepted to university, so we have to pay the tuition and register. While we’re at it, we can look around the capital a bit—well, I’ve never taken you anywhere, so two birds with one stone.”
“Really?”
Leila’s tear-filled eyes sparkled with expectation.
“We’re going on a trip together, Uncle? Really?”
“Trip, nothing. We’re only going to pay the tuition.”
“Even so.”
Looking at Leila, who could not contain her joy, regret settled in Bill’s gaze.
He should have taken Mrs. Mona’s nagging to heart earlier—that he did not know how to raise a daughter. He should have taken her somewhere nearby, shown her nice things, bought her tasty food. Why did he only think of such things now that the day to let her leave his arms was drawing near?
“It’s a large sum of money, and even if you’re engaged, I don’t like the idea of sending you off alone with that Kyle fellow again, so I’ve no choice but……”
Growing more and more embarrassed as he rambled, Bill finally let out a hearty laugh. Leila threw herself into his arms once more.
“See there, Leila. Wasn’t I right?”
Stroking her hair with a much gentler hand, Bill smiled contentedly.
“I said you’d turn into quite a fine adult, didn’t I?”
It was a feeling that could not be explained by mere words like these, yet unable to find the right ones, Bill simply stroked Leila’s head over and over.
To keep from sniffling unsightly, Bill Remmer had to count more numbers than before.