A Safe World
The doorman looked thoroughly flustered.
Leila nodded as if to say she understood. No guest had ever dragged a beat-up bicycle into the finest hotel in the city before.
Only after glancing several times between the Duke of Herhardt’s party, who had gone in first, and Leila did he finally accept the bicycle. Leila expressed her thanks with a brief greeting and stepped into the hotel. The tea room was situated to the right of the central lobby.
The manager hurried over and guided them to a terrace overlooking the river. Leila took her seat last at the table. Of all places, it was the seat facing the Duke of Herhardt.
His staring gaze stirred up a memory, and Leila hastily lowered her eyes. The thin gold-rimmed glasses glinted in the summer sunlight that slanted in under the awning.
But wasn’t it usually the one who had been seen, rather than the one who had shown, who felt more embarrassed?
Leila found it strange that the Duke of Herhardt could look at her so nonchalantly even after what had happened.
Well. Considering that to nobles, servants were no more significant than furniture or paintings, it made a certain sense. No one felt ashamed of being naked in front of furniture. And furniture wouldn’t feel ashamed of seeing a naked person, either.
While Leila reached her own conclusion, the tea table was set. Though no one had ordered, a strong coffee was placed before the Duke of Herhardt. The fingers holding the cup were remarkably long and smooth.
As if they had completely forgotten Leila’s existence, the two continued their private conversation. The exhibition they had seen that day. News of relatives. The party to be held at the mansion over the weekend. Matthias’s soft low voice and Claudine’s clear high tones alternated at regular intervals.
She couldn’t understand why they had bothered to bring her along if this was how it would be, but Leila decided not to wonder. Miss Brandt’s actions were generally beyond Leila’s comprehension. They had been ever since that summer when they first met at age twelve.
“So, Leila. How is school? Is it fun?”
With a clink of the teacup on the saucer came Claudine’s voice, raised a notch. Though she was only a year older than Leila, Claudine always used the tone of an adult addressing a child.
“Yes, Miss.”
For Uncle Bill’s sake. Leila answered while reciting the familiar mantra to herself.
Satisfied, Claudine nodded and posed a few more perfunctory questions about school life, and Leila answered repeatedly with the same unchanging smile.
Yes, Miss.
That was generally the only answer Claudine wanted from Leila. And Leila was used to it by now.
“You’ll be graduating next year.”
Though her expression was somewhat bored, Claudine’s tone remained as kind as ever.
“Yes, Miss.”
Leila, too, gave the dutiful answer expected of her.
“What do you plan to do after graduation?”
“I’m in a class preparing for a teaching certificate.”
“A teacher…”
Claudine drew out the end of the word as she took her teacup. The ribbon and corsage decorating her small hat swayed with the slow nod of her head.
“How good of you, Leila. A wonderful goal. It seems like a job that would suit you very well.”
Claudine smiled again, as if praising a good child.
“Don’t you think so, Duke Herhardt?”
Following Claudine’s gaze to the Duke of Herhardt, Leila also looked over without thinking. Through the glasses, his eyes took on an even clearer blue. Realizing belatedly that those eyes were directed at her, Leila hastily dropped her gaze.
“Indeed.”
He agreed casually. With that, Leila Lewellin’s presence faded once more. In the relief that fact brought, Leila waited for this uncomfortable teatime to end soon.
She was supposed to meet Kyle in the city after his tennis. What if she was late at this rate?
Anxious, Leila lifted her head. At the same moment, Matthias turned his gaze. Instead of avoiding his eyes as before, Leila looked straight at him.
In childhood, she had thought that meeting those eyes that resembled blue glass would produce a clear, ringing sound. As that childish fancy she had long forgotten resurfaced, the duke felt a little more unfamiliar and uncomfortable to Leila. As if when her vision grew clearer, her emotions did too.
“Um, if you’ll forgive me, Your Grace. And Miss.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Leila parted her trembling lips.
“Would it be all right if I committed the discourtesy of leaving first?”
Her gaze, which had left Matthias, stopped on Claudine’s face. Only then could she breathe properly.
“The time I arranged to meet a friend is drawing near.”
An irrepressible urgency colored the added words.
Claudine laughed softly and gave her permission with a nod. Only then did Leila’s expression ease with relief.
After a polite farewell, Leila hurried out of the hotel. She pedaled madly through the bustling streets. But the farther she got from that world that had nothing to do with her, the clearer the face of the man who had nothing to do with her became.
It was because of the glasses, Leila thought as she gasped for breath. She had seen him clearly, so he remained clearly. Then a sense of relief came as well. What if that shameful incident had happened after she got the glasses?
Just as her head swam and dizziness threatened, Leila arrived at the meeting place. Kyle, who had arrived first, waved with a broad smile.
It was a safe world where her heart could rest.
“She’s grown quite a bit, hasn’t she? It wouldn’t be a stretch to call her a young lady now.”
Claudine chattered as she watched the direction Leila had gone. Her tone treated Leila, who was her own age, as if she were a daughter.
“She’s reached that age.”
Matthias offered a suitably indifferent reply with an appropriate smile.
“Yes. She’s reached that age.”
After a moment’s thought, Claudine smiled brightly as the summer sun.
“Oh, have you heard that Brother Riet has bought a splendid new car?”
Claudine skillfully changed the subject.
The two resumed the conversation of the world they shared. As if Leila Lewellin, who had briefly occupied the seat opposite before leaving, had never been there at all. But that woman revealed her presence again in an unexpected place.
It was on the way back to Arvis after a leisurely teatime. The road was congested, and the car stopped briefly. Matthias absently looked out the window. There was Leila. Pulling her bicycle, walking the street with a boy. It seemed he was the friend she was to meet.
Studying the somehow familiar face, Matthias soon remembered the boy. The family doctor’s son. Kyle Etman, was it?
Leila Lewellin called out something to the boy who kept tapping at her glasses. But the boy’s teasing only grew more mischievous, and Leila sighed then laughed.
The two of them, who had been laughing for some time as if something were so amusing, stopped before the steps of the library. Leila set down her bicycle and sat on the edge of the steps, and the boy followed with a paper bag from the basket. From the bag came two bottles of soda and sandwiches.
Leila Lewellin sat side by side with the boy and shared them. Whenever the boy said something, Leila laughed, and because Leila laughed, the boy laughed too. Meanwhile, the carriage blocking the road moved aside.
As the car began to move again, Matthias withdrew his gaze from the street. Claudine, who had been looking out the opposite window, turned her eyes to him.
The two smiled at each other and resumed appropriate conversation. At some point, Matthias unconsciously recalled the teatime. Leila Lewellin had not even touched the teacup set before her. She had simply remained in a proper posture with both hands on her knees before quietly leaving.
She left me and went to the boy.
As he mulled over that fact, the face of Leila staring at him came to mind. An expression thick with impatience and discomfort.
Because she wanted to go to that boy.
When the thought reached that point, the image of Leila’s back as she left the terrace revived. Leila had hurried her steps as if fleeing.
To leave me and go to that boy.
The car carrying them soon entered the plane tree avenue leading to the Arvis estate.
Around the middle of that road where the bicycle had fallen, Matthias quietly admitted it. Leila Lewellin could never dare be anything to him, and yet this feeling was not entirely welcome.
“Since I got a free meal, I’ll buy dessert.”
Leila rose lightly from the library steps with a laugh. She carefully packed the empty paper bag and drink bottles into the bicycle basket.
“Nah. No need to keep score like that.”
Kyle showed a slightly sheepish smile as he mounted Leila’s bicycle. The warmth of Leila, who naturally took the rear seat, came through more clearly than the midday heat.
Kyle began to pedal, trying to calm a heat quite different from the weather. She could hold on more firmly, but Leila only lightly gripped his shirt, enough to be tantalizing. But even that was enough to spread a soft smile across Kyle’s lips.
He had deliberately left his own bicycle behind. Because he wanted to meet Leila and ride back together like this on her bicycle. Though Leila wouldn’t know.
“Hey, Kyle.”
Leila’s soft voice seeped through the sound of the chain winding.
“Yeah.”
The joints on the back of Kyle’s hand gripping the handlebars stood out white.
“Still, I’ll buy you ice cream.”
And here he thought she was going to say something important.
The anticlimactic remark made Kyle laugh.
“Be honest. You just want some yourself, right?”
“…It’s not like that.”
Which meant it was.
Kyle turned toward the cafeteria they often stopped at on the way home from school. While he parked the bicycle, Leila dashed into the shop.
Changing his mind about following, Kyle leaned in the shade of the awning and cooled off. Leila soon returned holding two vanilla ice cream cones.
The two stood side by side eating their ice cream. It was nothing more than a routine repeated countless times, yet Kyle kept glancing at Leila as if everything were new. Perhaps because Leila in glasses looked unfamiliar.
“Leila.”
Kyle quietly whispered the name he could no longer hold back. Leila’s cheeks, as she turned to look at him, were flushed. Though he knew it was from the heat, Kyle’s heart couldn’t help but race.
Swallowing dryly, Kyle took a big bite of the half-melted ice cream.
“This ice cream’s good.”
At the words Kyle finally produced after a long pause, Leila gave a hollow laugh.
“Right? Vanilla’s still my favorite.”
Leila looked up at the clear summer sky. Thinking how long and slender her neck was, Kyle hastily averted his gaze and took another large bite of ice cream.
It was cold and sweet.