Early Summer's Shadow

The shadow of early summer, still reluctant to let spring go, cooled the nape of his neck. The unfamiliar gloves snagged at his fingers, irking him enough that he clenched and unclenched his fist again and again. At the noisy roar of the automobile, the birds gathered on the branches took flight.

"Was there any need to arrive with such a racket?"

At Cesare's rebuke, Lucio, who was driving, glanced sideways and laughed heartily.

"You're the only one who would call this automobile noisy."

"Not everyone looks kindly on new inventions the way you do."

"True enough. It isn't as though a man richer than I am refuses to buy one for lack of coin."

"……."

Sensing the feeling buried beneath Cesare's stiff words, Lucio rounded his eyes in mock surprise.

"My, my. Could it be that the great Cesare Appiano is actually nervous?"

"…Not nervous. Unpleasant, more like."

Cesare muttered the correction in a sour tone, shaken free of his thoughts. Lucio merely shrugged at him, as if to say there was no help for it.

"That young lady has so much to inherit that selling us this one mansion wouldn't put the slightest dent in her fortune."

Having heard the argument so often it rang in his ears, Cesare finished Lucio's sentence for him without thinking.

"Yes. But that mansion is essential to our plans."

"So the idea is to trick her into selling it."

"Trick? When a perfectly fine word like 'persuade' is sitting right there!"

"…………"

"And isn't she a little at fault herself for letting strangers into the house?"

Among the nobility, marriage was ordinarily arranged by the head of the house, who chose a match that would either profit the family or cement power and status among the great houses. But the war had ended, and the industrial age had begun. Power and capital were no longer the exclusive province of the aristocracy. An era had arrived in which a wealthy commoner was more sought after as a marriage partner than a ruined noble. Still, a rich noble remained the most desirable match of all.

Such was the case with the mistress of the Pignatelli Mansion toward which the automobile was headed—Lady Delfina Pignatelli. Of marriageable age and possessed of a fortune everyone coveted, she was the prize every suitor desired. Yet after she announced the terms by which she would select a husband, the label of eccentric had stuck to her as well.

And thus far, not a single suitor had ever become a fiancé.

"Do you honestly think anyone is proposing out of true love for her?"

They were only the sort who clung to a wealthy young lady in poor health because they wanted her fortune. Lucio launched into a passionate speech, declaring that the two of them, who merely wanted the mansion, were gentlemen by comparison, talking until his mouth ran dry.

"Nothing but the excuses of cowards."

"Ha! Cowards? That's a bit much."

When his serious remark was met with playacting, Cesare's smooth brow tightened.

"Just because most people do it doesn't mean what we're doing stops being wrong."

At the cutting tone, Lucio pouted his lips in mock offense and answered with perfect nonchalance.

"Yes, yes. That's why I spent three days and nights traveling here to play the suitor in place of my refined friend, isn't it?"

That was how the two of them, who had no connection whatsoever to the Pignatelli family, could approach the mansion. Their final goal was to pose as a suitor and "purchase" the estate from her at a reasonable price.

Cesare wanted to snap that the deceiver was the one at fault, yet he closed his mouth neatly. There was nothing more contradictory than colluding in a scheme and then lecturing one's accomplice along the way.

Each time the mansion at the crest of the hill drew nearer, a light breeze that had been hanging close to the sky brushed pleasantly against his cheek. He had always said that a man of low birth could never truly like the nobility—yet simply disliking them and actively swindling one of them were two very different things.

"So, have you found the lady from that night?"

At Lucio's question, Cesare's face hardened in an instant.

The lady from that night. He did not even know her name, so that was what she was called. The woman who had shared the only blemish on Cesare's record—and who had vanished like mist the next morning.

Changing the subject before their moods soured further would have been wise, yet it was not a pleasant topic for Cesare either.

"…I shouldn't have brought it up."

As if Lucio would ever behave decently when a story like this was involved.

Cesare's jet-black hair drifted softly in the wind. That the famously upright Cesare had not only spent his first night with a woman of a single evening, but was still searching for the one who had fled—anyone who knew him would have found it impossible not to take an interest.

"To spend a night with you and then vanish without a trace… I can't help wondering just how extraordinary she must be."

"I simply have something I want to confirm."

"Of course. I'm sure you do."

"Keep teasing and I'll turn this car around."

"My apologies. I'm confident in my way with women, but leaving a fine first impression with nothing but a face the way you do is beyond me."

"………………"

Fortunately, before the conversation could stretch any further, the car came to a stop before the mansion. Seen up close, it felt entirely different from the distant view.

The house stood in the heart of the forest like something out of a fairy tale.

Before they arrived, sunlight had fallen across a small lakeshore nearby, making the ripples glitter beautifully.

From the moment they reached the entrance, the fragrance of unknown flowers filled the air.

The soft sunlight peculiar to spring gilded the roof and walls in gold, lending the ancient structure less a sense of grandeur than of warmth.

Whenever the wind blew, the ivy beneath the window frames stirred.

The world might cry that the meaning of nobility was in decline, yet a noble house was still a noble house. A servant in neat attire befitting the family's dignity escorted the two visitors to the drawing room.

"If you would wait here, I shall show you in shortly."

Once the door closed and they were alone, Lucio clicked his tongue at the stuffiness of it all.

"They could have brought us straight through. There don't seem to be any other guests."

"If one comes to this mansion, one follows the mansion's rules."

At Cesare's rigid reply, Lucio chided that even the old gentlemen of the neighborhood were not so formal.

"Sometimes I think you're more hidebound than any young nobleman."

"…Isn't it more that the young gentlemen who are supposed to match me are simply too frivolous?"

"Heavens. Now you sound like my father scolding me."

Fortunately, the woman who appeared in the drawing room was a little past the age one would call marriageable.

"Oh my. I was wondering who had driven such a splendid car, and I find gentlemen every bit as fine as the vehicle itself."

Her eyes lit up as she looked at the automobile parked outside. Lucio shrugged and shot Cesare a look that said, See? Coming by car was the right choice after all.

"You recognize it! But as for the lady who has come to greet us…"

Her dress was far too luxurious for a servant. When Lucio let the sentence trail off, she clapped her hands and belatedly introduced herself.

"Lady? What flattering flattery. Just call me Mrs. Pignatelli, if you would."

"Mrs. Pignatelli. It is an honor to make your acquaintance."

"A pleasure. You are the gentlemen who made an appointment with my daughter today…"

Her gaze settled first on Cesare. As if long accustomed to the situation, Lucio smoothly stepped between them.

"Lucio Perez."

Hearing the name, Mrs. Pignatelli nodded as though confirming it matched the one she had been told to expect.

"You've arrived exactly on time."

Even as she spoke, her eyes lingered on Cesare for a fleeting moment. When he offered a light bow, a faint flush rose to her cheeks. Melancholy eyes, soft hair, a firm jaw that looked almost ascetic—and beneath the restraint of that beauty, a wild, powerful body that stood out even under a formal coat. It was more than enough to set any woman's heart fluttering.

"I'll show you the way."

She looked far too young to have a child of marriageable age.

Come to think of it, wasn't she said to be Count Pignatelli's second wife?

The second wife was of common birth, yet unlike the first, a noblewoman who had rarely appeared in society, she was known to be active in social circles. That such a woman would stay home and personally escort her stepdaughter's suitor…

What, exactly, was the subtle atmosphere floating through the house?

"To be guided by you personally is an honor," Lucio said politely, carefully concealing any probing undertone.