Ch.13: Moonlit Night

Unlike the day when she had left the cabin in a huff, Leyla showed up today looking like a gentle, elegant lady. Reclining on the sofa, Matthias gazed at her.

"My sincere apologies for bursting in on you like this, Your Grace," she hesitantly said with her head lowered to avoid his gaze. Her long, full eyelashes made the appearance of her lowered eyes particularly striking. After nervously licking her lips for a moment, she continued. "I'm sorry, but I'd like to ask you something."

Just then, the phone started ringing.

Matthias slowly rose from his seat, then passed by the startled Leyla to pick up the phone. It seemed to be a business call about some complicated contract issue.

Still looking startled, Leyla watched Matthias as he skillfully directed the conversation with the person on the other end of the line. From his quiet yet commanding tone of voice and the brief, polite interjections he periodically made, it was clear that his power and dignity were allowing him to effortlessly dominate the other person. Leyla felt like she was pereceiving the perfect Duke Herhardt whom the residents of Karlsbar were always praising. This made her suspicion that he was the one who had stolen her glasses sound ridiculous.

I don't know why I even came here. It can't be him... Then was it a raven after all? While mentally counting how many raven's nests there were in the forest, she silently excused herself from the duke, who was still on the phone.

Unexpectedly, he turned towards her and, putting his hand over the receiver, said, "Wail." That short command sounded like it had come from someone else wholly different from the perfect Duke Herhardt of a moment earlier.

Leyla froze awkwardly. Matthias then resumed his phone conversation as if nothing had happened. Watching him, Leyla had another realization. She realized that even when he was engaged in the most sociable of conversation, his eyes remained calm. They remained largely the same even when he smiled. His posture, however, was always graceful and upright. Even though the person on the other end of the phone couldn't see him, he never slouched. It seemed that this was a deeply-ingrained habit for him.

The phone call went on for several more minutes. Once it was over, he walked over to the table and jotted something down. Leyla put her nervously wriggling hands behind her back. Just as she was starting to wonder if he had forgotten that she was there, Matthias finally looked over at her, and said, "Go ahead."

"Pardon?"

"Ask me what you came here to ask."

The feeling of his gaze on her was overwhelming, so she lowered her eyes slightly. "Oh... well, it's about my eyeglasses. I was just wondering if you saw them at the dock... on the day I jumped into the river."

"Hmm... I don't think I've seen them..." He slowly rose from his seat and walked towards her. "But I do think I hid them."

"I... huh? Pardon?" She looked up at him in shock. "Did you really hide my glasses, Your Grace?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't think you would do such a thing." she replied, frowning slightly.

"Why not?" he asked. He cocked his head with amusement, gently swaying his bangs, which were as black as a raven's feathers.

"Because... that would be a very mean thing to do, Your Grace," she replied. digging her feet into the ground rather than stepping back. She had searched through countless raven's nests with Kyle before finally building up the courage to come here today.

Even though she disliked the duke, she could at least communicate with him, unlike with ravens. She had felt like it would be worth speaking with him so that she could rule out one of the two suspects, between the duke and the ravens. But now she wasn't so sure. If Duke Herhardt was going to make enigmatic statements that only added to her confusion, perhaps it was no more possible to communicate with him than with a raven.

They stared into each other's eyes for an extended moment. If the butler hadn't returned with an urgent telegram and piece of mail, the moment might have lasted quite a bit longer.

Blushing slightly, Leyla stepped out of the way and walked towards the window.

After a lengthy, quiet exchange with the butler, Matthias cast a sidelong glance in Leyla's direction. She couldn't be sure because she wasn't wearing her glasses, but it seemed like his red lips were smiling. Gathering all her courage, she started to speak. "I..."

However, Matthias instantly cut her off by pointing towards the door with his chin. It was a simple yet cold way of letting her know that her time in the cabin had come to an end.

"A bird? Why have you suddenly picked up such a random hobby?" Riette asked, looking at the birdcage with a bemused expression.

Inside the beautiful gold cage was sitting an equally beautiful golden-yellow bird.

"Are you raising it so that you can shoot it?"

Everyone gathered in the master suite's drawing room laughed at Riette's joke. Matthias chuckled quietly as well. As usual, he made no response. As Riette made a few more witty remarks, some maids came in with champagne.

A banquet had been served to commemorate the reunion of all the relatives who were spending the summer together. After the meal concluded, the attendees had naturally split up into groups by age to mingle. The group that included Matthias, Riette, and Claudine was using the master suite's drawing room. Claudine had specially requested this from Matthias, even resorting to baby talk to persuade him. The fact that he had granted permission for them to use a space that he normally kept strictly to himself showed just how generous he was to his fiancée.

Among close friends and family, Matthias and Claudine's engagement had already been as good as confirmed for a long time. They were all aware that Countess Brandt came with her only daughter to Arvis every year, and that the Herhardt family always gave them a warm reception.

Everyone had already put the pieces together, so the engagement announcement came as a shock to no one. It would have come as a shock if Matthias had chosen someone else as his future duchess.

When the bird flew out of the open door of its cage and landed on Matthias's shoulder, Riette burst into laughter. "I don't think that bird knows what sort of person Duke Herhardt is," he remarked. "A bird in love with an expert bird hunter? I don't know whether to call it stupid or pitiful."

Matthias extended his hand, and the bird immediately hopped to perch on his finger.

"Claudine, what do you think?" asked Riette. Everyone's eyes turned to Claudine.

"Well, I don't know," she replied, looking at the bird singing on Matthias's finger. "Why not call it a stupid and pitiful bird?"

The group burst into another round of laughter at the compromise Claudine had suggested.

The mood in the room was warm and intimate, since it had been such a long time since they had all been together like this. The names they all knew, the world they all inhabited, and the interests they all shared were all factors that led them to laugh together.

Gazing at Matthias's face as he looked at the bird, Claudine warmly asked, "That bird, what's its name? If it doesn't have one yet, may I name it?”

"It wouldn't be worth your effort, My Lady, Matthias replied, turning his head towards Claudine. The expression on his face was almost the same as before, but a faint smile was detectable and gave off a feeling of warmth. "A bird is just a bird." His cold words stood in stark contrast to the bird's cheerful song, and to the warmth in his smile.

"Yep, it's a stupid and pitiful bird, all right," said Riette, clicking his tongue as he looked at the bird with pity. "It loves a hunter who won't even allow it to be named!"

The group continued sipping champagne and laughing merrily until late at night, when they finally left.

Brushing past the maids who were tidying up the drawing room, Matthias walked outside to go on a night stroll by himself. His no longer smiling face was as still as the night. It was time for him to check the trap he had laid. He knew she wasn't a fool and must have noticed, but probably hadn't given up. Thus she had probably been caught.

As he thought through this logic, he walked through the rose garden and into the forest. The wind grew cooler as he approached the river. He came out of the forest and stopped in front of the riverside cabin. The moon was shining with a clear, white light.

He entered the cabin's drawing room and opened the drawer of the credenza. The eyeglasses lying there shimmered in the moonlight. He lifted the glasses and, holding them as gently as he held his canary, laid his listless body on the sofa.

What am I trying to catch with this bait? he wondered, gazing at the shining glasses. No answer was coming to him, but he didn't mind. I'll know the answer once she is trapped.

As he repeatedly tossed the glasses up in the air and caught them, the moonlit night deepened.

It was a crazy thing to do. Leyla fully realized this. No one in their right mind would dare sneak into the duke's cabin.

"Yeah, I should just sleep."

She stopped pacing around her room and flopped onto her bed. She pulled up her thin blanket and shut her eyes tight.

"But my glasses..."

No matter how many times she tried this, she couldn't fall asleep. The duke had hidden her glasses. She was now sure of it. She had no idea why he had done so, but he definitely had. Thus she had to find them.

With renewed determination, she sprung out of bed again. She highly doubted that he would have brought the glasses all the way back to the mansion, so they had to be somewhere in the cabin.

That was a remote spot, and it was almost midnight. Thus, it seemed like it would be all right as long as she went there quickly and left no trace. The moon was shining brightly, so it wouldn't be so scary outside in the dark.

"Yes, it'll be all right," she muttered to herself to strengthen her courage as she opened the door of her room.

The quiet cottage was completely dark. The only sound that could be heard was Bill snoring in his room. She grabbed a lace shawl that was hanging next to the door and hurried out of the cottage. Whenever she got the urge to turn back, she thought about the countless hours she had spent picking raspberries and stirring jam to raise the money for the glasses.

"They're my glasses, after all," she muttered to herself to lessen the anxiety that she started to feel when the Schulter River appeared in the distance, glimmering in the moonlight.

As she picked up her pace, her soft, blonde hair, which hung down below her waist, shook with each step. The more she thought about the duke, the stranger he seemed to her. As she walked the dock next to the cabin, a sudden thought occurred to her. Could it be that he is attracted to shiny objects, like ravens are?

As such suspicions and worries continued to occupy her thoughts, she reached the cabin where her glasses were hidden. Only then did it occur to her that she had come all this way in her nightgown. She wasn't too worried about this, however, since it was the middle of the night and no one would be around to see her.

After a final moment of hesitation, she took a deep breath and stepped boldly forward.

Sure enough.

Once again, Leyla Llewellyn's behavior had not strayed from Matthias's expectations.

As he heard her footsteps ascending the staircase outside, he slowed his breathing. There was a long pause as she hesitated outside the door. Even though he had left the door unlocked for easy entry, she ultimately opened the hallway window. She never fully strayed from his expectations, but she was always surprising him in small ways like this.

She climbed in through the window. He remained lying on the sofa, keeping his ears pricked to track where she was walking. He heard the hallway's floor creak quietly, then he heard Leyla sigh in relief.

Grinning, he lowered his gaze from the ceiling. Not long after that, Leyla entered the drawing room. Standing absolutely still, she eyed the surroundings for a moment, then took a few cautious steps forward. She first began to inspect the area around one of the windows.

Since Matthias's eyes were already adjusted to the dark, he had no trouble recognizing her figure. The moonlight flowing in through the window faintly illuminated her where she stood in front of the table.

As he squinted to get a better look at her, she moved on to her next location, the cabinet. With each careful step she took on her tiptoes, the skirt of her nightgown swayed around her slender calves. The moonlight shone through the flimsy white garment she had on, which seemed to be a nightgown.

What am I trying to catch with this bait?

Matthias caressed the frames of the glasses he was holding. The cool, smooth feeling gave him a feeling of mental clarity. Meanwhile, Leyla had moved in front of the credenza that sat across from the sofa where he was lying. He turned his gaze again and saw her back illuminated by the moon.

That woman.

He finally understood the reason he had laid this trap. It was so that he could have Leyla, that woman who was no longer a girl.

"Are you looking for these?" he asked, gently shaking the glasses in his hand.

Leyla, who had been in the middle of reaching into the credenza's drawer, turned quickly around in surprise, then stumbled backward with her trembling hand over her mouth. She's going to bump into the wall, Matthias thought. He then slowly rose to a sitting position on the sofa, and the moonlight shone on his face.

They locked eyes in the bright light of the moon.

Chapter end