Ch.11: Deep Water

The cabin had large windows on all sides, affording a magnificent view of the river and the forest. Opening these windows provided cross-ventilation that usually kept the interior feeling cool even in the summer.

However, today was an especially hot day. It was not a day when one would expect to feel chills, and yet Leyla felt a chill run down her spine, causing her shoulders to shudder. She was determined to eat the food in front of her as fast as possible so she could leave, but so far she had not taken a single bite.

She didn't feel like eating anything. She had already eaten a large lunch and a snack after that. Moreover, laboring in the hot sun had made her lose whatever slight appetite she might have had left. Matthias had already shifted his focus from her back onto his work, but she was still having trouble breathing properly.

Is he punishing me for doing a poor job at the errand and the flower arrangement? Leyla wondered as she bit off a small piece of the sandwich. If that was his goal, he has succeeded. I certainly feel like I'm being punished,

As she slowly chewed the piece of sandwich, she felt like spitting it out. To combat this urge, she took a sip of lemonade. She then wiped the moisture from her hands onto her apron and picked up the sandwich again. She lowered the brim of her hat to hide what she was sure was an agonized look on her face.

Just then, a long finger touched her chin. "Leyla, if you're a lady," Matthias said, untying the ribbon under her chin as he spoke, "then you should remove your hat when you're indoors." Before she could respond, he took her straw hat off her head.

Leyla reflexively bolted out of her seat, knocking a piece of the sandwich to the floor. Matthias narrowed his eyes, but Leyla didn't notice. Her attention was fixed solely on her hat. "P-please give it back." Her voice was trembling, not with fear but with anger. "Will you please give it back to me, Your Grace? I'm going to leave now. I want to go home. Give me back my hat, please.”

Matthias gripped the hat more tightly to indicate that he had no intention of returning it to her. All I did was take her hat, he thought. Why is she reacting like she's been stripped naked? He noticed with amusement that she was blushing. It seemed that her skin was quick to react to minor things. "Eat," he said, pointing to the two remaining pieces of sandwich on her plate. "Eat, and you'll get your hat back and you can go home. It's simple."

"No, I don't want to," she said, shaking her head as she approached him. "I don't feel like eating. I can't stomach anything right now. I hate it." Her frightened eyes were quivering. She was amazed to hear the hold words coming out of her mouth.

Matthias tightened his grip on the hat and stood up from his seat. Looming over her ominously, he asked, "You hate it?"

"I'm sorry for everything. Please give me back my hat. Okay?" Standing on her tiptoes, she reached for the hat. She was on the verge of tears.

Keeping his eyes fixed on her face, Matthias slowly extended his arms and held the hat tantalizingly above her head. Leyla watched closely as he did so, then shifted her gaze to look him in the eye.

After a brief, tense moment, Matthias proceeded to toss the hat out the window. The hat was swept up by the breeze and flew onto the surface of the river. Leyla gave him an icy-cold scowl, then frantically ran out of the room.

Matthias walked to the window looking out onto the dock and river. Leyla soon appeared on the dock. At first trying to reach the floating hat with her foot, she soon removed her apron and glasses and set them down on the dock.

Is she really going to jump into the river just to get that stupid hat? Matthias wondered, looking down at her with delight.

Despite her bold actions, Leyla was visibly shaking, as if she were afraid of the water.

She wouldn't dare... Matthias scoffed.

Just then, Leyla jumped into the river. After a moment of hesitation, she started wading towards the spot where the hat was floating. As she got closer, the water came up to her knees, then her waist, then to her chest, but she didn't stop. Matthias kept watching the ridiculous sight with his arms loosely folded.

As Leyla reached for the hat, it floated out of her reach again. Rather than give up, she confidently took another step towards the hat, then another.

The water's going to be above your head soon, Matthias thought.

With her arm fully extended, Leyla continued to reach in vain for the hat, until finally she caught the tip of its ribbon. At the same instant, she disappeared under the surface of the water.

"Sure enough," Matthias muttered, frowning.

Leyla had become submerged at the precise spot he had predicted. Shocked by the sudden increase in depth of the water, she flailed about desperately, but this only caused her to drift into even deeper water. All the while, she kept holding onto the hat's ribbon, as if it were her lifeline.

Matthias headed down to the dock with large strides. Another prediction of his had turned out to be true, Leyla had unflinchingly jumped into the river without knowing how to swim. He stopped at the end of the dock and looked down at the floundering Leyla. Her screams grew fainter as her head bobbed above and below the water's surface.

All she needed to do was eat, get her hat back, and go home. Rather than doing such a simple task, she chose to raise this commotion. Matthias let out a sigh, then dived into the river.

The sun-warmed wooden slats of the dock felt hot against Leyla's cheek. This sensation was the first thing she noticed before realizing that she had made it safely out of the water. The relief she felt was soon followed by a rush of pain and fear.

Her body convulsed as she started coughing uncontrollably. Even so, she maintained her grip on the hat she had retrieved from the river. Matthias chuckled at the sight, still catching his breath.

Leyla's soaked body had left a dark impression on the dock. "What the... What happened...?" she stammered, panting for air. She was looking at him with a piercing glare that was made more striking by the tears in her eyes.

Brushing the wet hair from his forehead, Matthias looked down at her with amusement. Now that he had caught his breath, his laughter grew louder.

Leyla used her quivering hands to push her torso up off the hot surface of the dock. Water dripped from her long, wet hair like rain. Her eyes were red, but she didn't cry. Instead, she just looked angrily at Matthias, that wicked man who was now laughing cheerfully. She thought about saying something, then changed her mind and clumsily stood up.

Matthias lazily sat down on the wooden dock, as if he were sunbathing. His thin, wet clothes clung to him, revealing the shape of his body underneath.

When his gaze moved to her trembling shoulders, she suddenly started vigorously shaking the hat to dry it.

Without flinching, Matthias allowed the cool water from the hat to splash against his face. Leyla saw this as her revenge, even though he didn't particularly seem to mind. Placing the still-dripping hat on her head, she started to wring out her skirt. Her eyes were fixed defiantly on him.

"Are you having fun?" Matthias asked, wiping his face as though he were washing it. "Personally, I'm getting tired of this." In an instant, the smile left his face and was replaced with a look as cold as the water of the river.

Leyla flinched, but didn't avert her eyes. "How... what... why are you doing this?"

"Leyla, shouldn't you say 'thank you'first?" He slowly rolled up the sleeves of his wet shirt. "You should thank the person who just saved you from drowning." He was speaking in a mockingly relaxed tone.

"If you hadn't thrown my hat into the river in the first place, none of this would have happened."

"No," he said, slowly furrowing his brow, "none of this would have happened if you had simply eaten your sandwich and left like you were supposed to."

Leyla just blinked, too upset to speak. The duke was speaking too calmly to be joking.

"Or if you hadn't made the foolish decision to jump into the water even though you don't know how to swim," he added, shaking the water from his fingers.

Eventually, Leyla suppressed her anger and reluctantly said, "Thank you for saving me, Your Grace." Meanwhile, she was internally repeating her mantra, For Uncle Bill... For Uncle Bill... For Uncle Bill...

"Again," he quietly said, still not smiling, "say it like a lady."

This time, not even her utmost love for Bill could stop her anger from coloring her response. "I'm sorry, Your Grace, but I'm not a lady like the noblewomen you are used to spending time around."

Matthias didn't flinch. "That doesn't matter, Leyla. You must behave like a lady in front of me." Some water dripped from his fingers and landed on her foot. "That's because no matter what you might be, I'm a gentleman." His mouth formed a slight grin, but his eyes remained serious.

Leyla gripped her wet skirt so tightly that her knuckles went white. Then she curtsied gracefully to him, just like he wanted. Water dripped off the brim of her hat and sprinkled onto the dock. "I offer you my sincere gratitude for saving my dear life, Your Grace," she said, enunciating each syllable perfectly despite the fact that her whole body was shaking.

Matthias bobbed his chin to indicate that her gesture had been sufficiently ladylike.

Clenching her fists, she thought to herself, Don't cry, Leyla Llewellyn. Please don't cry because of a guy like him. Once she had regained some of her composure, she straightened her posture again. "I will be going, then.

Goodbye, Your Grace." Without waiting for a response, she confidently turned and left Matthias on the dock. As she walked away, the water dripping from her skirt left a trail on the ground. Her legs felt wobbly, and she almost fell a few times, but managed through sheer effort to maintain her balance.

Gritting her teeth, she made a resolution. I won't fall over today. And I won't let that man treat me like his plaything anymore. No matter what.

Once she was out of his sight, she started running. Her eyes were now so teary that even the shade of the hat wouldn't obscure their redness. This bothered her, so she started to increase her speed..

Once, she had chanced to see him on a walk with Claudine through the forest. The sight of that elegant gentleman escorting that beautiful lady had looked like something out of a fairytale or a courtly romance.

When they had reached the edge of the woods, a sudden gust of wind had blown Claudine's hat off her head. Matthias had slowly walked over to the hat, picked it up, and returned it to Claudine. His unhurried movements had been incredibly grateful. By the time Leyla had noticed that he always moved like that, they had been out of her sight.

Even when scolding and shaming her today, he had done so with equally graceful movements. As she thought about this, she suddenly felt queasy. She stopped running, then staggered over to a thicket where she threw up the food she had been forced to eat. Her eyes were blurry with tears, but she didn't let herself cry.

Once her nausea had passed, she went to a shallow brook that flowed through the forest and rinsed off her mouth. She sat down to rest under the shade of a tree, and soon felt much better.

Rubbing her lips with the back of her hand, she headed back to the path leading to the cottage. She had no more energy to run, so she walked, dragging her feet as she went and causing a cloud of dust to rise from the ground. Soon her wet stockings and skirt were coated with dust, but she didn't care, since she was already a mess.

Once the cottage was in sight, she gathered her last ounce of strength and kicked a hazelnut that had fallen on the path. As she squinted to see the innocent nut rolling along the path, she suddenly realized the fatal mistake she had made.

"My glasses..."

Frantically feeling at her face, she started sobbing. Looking back, the path she had just traveled seemed long, dark, and ominous.

Chapter end