Ch.4: After All That Time

As the western sky started to turn a deep, rosy hue, Leyla stepped out of the mansion. Walking out of the backdoor that connected to the rose garden, she was greeted by a refreshing breeze.

Clutching the gold coin in her right hand, she walked with confident steps. However, her high spirits didn't last long. Claudine was there. She was sitting under the pergola, which was covered with climbing roses in full bloom, having a playful conversation with her cousins. As soon as she saw Leyla, the same subtle smile from earlier returned to her face, and she said, "Bye, Leyla."

A few of the young men around her also looked over at Leyla. Fortunately, Duke Herhardt was nowhere in sight. Leyla bowed rather than saying anything in response. Claudine didn't criticize her for this, which suggested that it wasn't against proper etiquette.

Leyla walked with short, quick steps until she was out of their sight, at which point she started running. She couldn't wait to leave this strange, unfamiliar world and return to Uncle Bill's cottage. However, just at the last moment, she suffered her worst misfortune of that day.

As she was crossing the stone-paved boundary between the garden and the forest path, she tripped and fell. The gold coin fell out of her hand and rolled on the pavement, then bumped against the tip of a man's shoe a few paces ahead. She gaped at the coin as it spun in place. The man casually lifted the front of his shoe and stepped on the coin, bringing it to rest.

Leyla's eyes moved up from the man's well-polished shoes, to his long legs, finally reaching his face, which was looking down at her. It was Duke Herhardt.

Startled, Leyla instinctively sprang to her feet. Her white dress was now stained with dirt and blood from her scraped knee. The duke looked at her calmly. A smile seemed to be breaking through on the edge of his lips. Keeping her own lips firmly shut, Leyla brushed the dirt from her dress.

As she did this, Duke Herhardt took a leisurely step back. The coin that had been under his shoe gleamed, reflecting the light of the sunset. Leyla had the urge to run away, but first she wanted to pick up the coin, so she approached the duke. As she was bending over to grab the coin, she suddenly remembered what Claudine had said as she was leaving.

"She's no better than a puppy."

Those words had hurt her deeply. She took the coin and, holding it tightly in her hand, bowed politely to Duke Herhardt. Once she had started to bow, she didn't dare lift her head again. Holding her breath, she kept her head down as low as she could manage. Suddenly she realized that she no longer felt the pain she had felt all over her body from the fall. It was very strange.

She started running again, leaving Duke Herhardt behind. Because her knee hurt, she couldn't run as fast as before, but she didn't stop. She could feel something welling up inside her. She only realized what it was once she had traversed the forest path and saw the light leaking out of the cottage.

It was sadness.

"You can have this, Uncle," Leyla said, suppressing her sadness as she held out the gold coin.

Bill's thick brows slowly wrinkled. "What's that?"

"A gold coin."

"I know that. Where'd you get it?"

"Miss Claudine gave it to me."

"Claudine?" Ah yes, that young noble girl," he replied, nodding.

For the two days since Leyla had gone inside the mansion, she had been in low spirits. She hadn't felt like chatting, or even wandering the forest or the garden. Those two days had led Bill to realize how much he had grown accustomed to daily life with the little girl. Now that she had grown quiet, his life had grown quiet. And he didn't much like this quiet life.
Leaning towards the table where she was sitting, he asked, "But why are you giving that money to me?"

Straightening her posture, she looked straight in his face and replied, "Because I think it's worth a lot."

"You're right about that."

"Yeah, so I didn't think I should throw it away, even though receiving it made me feel bad. But I thought if I gave it to you, it could be a small way of repaying you for all you've done for me."

"Damn it," he muttered impulsively. Leyla flinched, but didn't mind.

The moment he had seen Leyla running back from the mansion looking like a mess, he had guessed that something had happened to her that had hurt her deep down inside. He knew what nobles were like. He hadn't asked her about it, because he had worried she would cry if he did. But now it was getting hard to hold back. "Leyla?"

When she heard him say her name, the mature expression she had been maintaining gave way to a childlike look again.

"You carned that money, so you should keep it."

"I earned it?"

"That's right. You earned it by working. You faced a noble girl who was bored to death. It's a lousy job, but you did great at it, so you should proudly accept your payment. It's only right."

Leyla furrowed her brow, feeling perplexed. Bill gulped down his beer as he watched her sink into thought. After a few moments, she tilted her head and, tapping on the coin, asked, "Really?"

"You bet," he replied, wiping the foam from his beard with his sleeve.

I earned it. I earned it. As the thought echoed in her head repeatedly, her face brightened noticeably.

"Welcome to the adult world, Leyla," Bill said, placing a large cut of meat on her plate.

"Adult? Me?"

"If someone can earn a living by their own labor, they're an adult. That's exactly what you did."

"But all I earned was one single gold coin..."

"There are people in this world several times your age who can barely manage that. You're off to a great start. I'm sure you'll do just fine as an adult." He filled the remaining space on her plate with bread and roasted vegetables.

Her eyes widened. "Uncle, that's too much."

"You've been eating like a bird the last couple of days. You need to eat a lot tonight.”

"But..."

"Don't you remember? I like kids who can eat like a cow.

She burst into laughter. "Uncle, if I eat well, I'll grow a lot, right?"

"Sure. Why do you ask? Did someone call you short?"

"No, I just think I look too young. It bugs me."

That's because you are young, Bill almost replied, before stopping himself. Leyla started slicing her meat confidently.

Looking at her, Bill realized that she had grown quite a lot in the few months she had been there. She was no longer as thin as a rail. She looked nice. Her natural frame was small and slender like that of a bird, so she wasn't likely to ever grow to be big and tall. Still, he had no doubt that she would become a beautiful woman one day. This thought suddenly made him uneasy.

For poverty-stricken women, good looks were a dangerous thing, and could easily get them into trouble. He knew he had to send her somewhere he could trust, but could he trust an orphanage? Orphanages seemed like the perfect place to send a child if you wanted to ruin their life.

Damn this world and all the awful people in it, he thought. He then finished his beer while internally cursing all the people who had abandoned the girl and left her to him.
He thought back on his earlier life, in which all he had cared about was making sure that the flowers bloomed beautifully and the fruits ripened deliciously. How had his life come to be full of such worry and anxiety?

"Uncle, if it's my money, I can spend it, right?" Leyla asked in between bites of food.

"Of course. Is there something you want?"

"Yeah. I filled up my notebook. I want to buy a new one."

"Then go ahead."

"Do you think I could buy some colored pencils too?"

"Absolutely."

"Is there anything you need, Uncle?"

"Why? Do you want to buy me something?"

"Yes."

"What if I asked you to get me something really expensive?"

"Then I'd save up a bunch of money and buy it for you," she replied with a serious look on her face. When she got serious, her eyes seemed to shine with a darker shade of green, which made her look cutely intelligent.

Bill laughed loudly, then poured himself another drink. He then set down a glass of apple juice in front of Leyla. She lifted the glass and gestured for him to clink his glass against hers. He happily obliged. Smiling brightly, she then downed her juice in one gulp. Suddenly, he grew worried that doing this could lead to her becoming a drunkard. Soon, though, he shook his head, thinking, She's only here temporarily. He then emptied his glass.

**

Over the course of many days, Bill thought about a lot of things. He thought about the reasons why he couldn't keep taking care of Leyla. He thought about where would be the best place to send her, that cute but taxing girl who had suddenly appeared in his life one day.

While he was thinking these thoughts, Leyla grew a lot. She outgrew her new dresses quickly, her slender legs starting to show. The storage space that he had offered her as a temporary residence gradually transformed into a cozy room fit for a lady. The sight of her as a young girl jumping about as she frolicked down the forest path was still fresh in his memory, but the person he saw coming back on the same path now was a fully-grown young lady who walked with soft steps as though she were gliding on water.

Sitting on a chair on the porch, Bill stared bemusedly at Leyla as she approached. The young lady, who was carrying a wicker basket filled with raspberries, was waving at him. "Uncle! You're home early." She nimbly ran towards him with dancelike steps.
Her pretty blonde hair was in a French braid that swung under the wide brim of her straw hat. Her slightly flushed cheeks looked as fresh as the high-quality roses he planted.

"You went to the woods again, I see," he said.

"Yep. Look at the size of this harvest!" she replied, holding up the basket. "I'm going to pick even more tomorrow. I'm going to make so much raspberry jam!"

"You thinking of starting a jam business or something?"

"That's not a bad idea." Smiling sweetly, she sat down in the chair next to his.

It struck him that he had two chairs on his porch now. And it wasn't just those chairs. Even though he still hadn't made up his mind about what to do with Leyla, everything in his cottage was now set up for two people's use.

Leyla set the basket on the floor of the porch and began digging through it. Eventually, she pulled out a peach and handed it to Bill. He immediately cut the peach in two and gave half to her. They sat next to each other, gazing into the woods as they shared the peach. The sound of the leaves rustling in the breeze tickled their ears. The sound of birds warbling in the distance was as smooth as Leyla's voice.

"It's summer once again," Bill muttered.

Smiling peacefully, Leyla took off her hat and languidly stretched her arms. Bill let out a deep belly laugh when he noticed the old tool bag that was hanging below her knees. He had given it to her the year she had first arrived. "You're planning to use that piece of junk until it wears away to nothing, aren't you?" he asked.

"I like it because it's comfortable on my shoulder. It's still perfectly usable." She laughed along with him. Without even trying, Bill knew all of the objects in the bag, just by the rattling sounds they made as she laughed. A tin pencil case. A pocket knife. An old notebook. Some beautiful feathers and flower petals. In some respects, she hadn't changed a bit.

It was an ordinary evening. Bill split firewood while Leyla folded and sorted the laundry. Bill fed the chickens and goats while Leyla skillfully prepared dinner. By the time they had sat down across the table from each other, the sun had already set.

"Kyle is coming tomorrow. We're going to study together, and then he'll stay for dinner. Is that all right with you?" Leyla asked as she placed a delicious-smelling dish on the table.

"Why is that guy always coming to my house to eat all my food when he's got a rich doctor for a father?"

"I know you like him, even though you talk about him like that."

He snorted. "Maybe a bit." With a relaxed smile, she set down a half-filled glass of beer in front of him. "What's this? Why is it only half full?"

"For the sake of your health, you should drink less."

"Did that loafer from the Ettman family tell you that?"

"Uncle!"

"He's a good-for-nothing," Bill muttered, before resigning himself to his half-filled glass.

The night grew deeper as they finished their cozy dinner. Leyla did the dishes, took a leisurely bath, and returned to her room. Even though she was feeling sleepy, she switched on the lamp and sat at her desk. She had an exam coming up, and she knew she would only be happy that summer if she did well on it.

The nighttime breeze carried the sound of songbirds into her room, where it was mixed with the sound of her pencil scratching on the page. After spending quite a while in deep concentration, she was overcome by eye strain and a slight headache and had to put down the pencil. Her eyesight, which had never been that good, had gotten much worse recently. Ever since she was young, she had sometimes needed to squint to see clearly. Now she was squinting all the time.

She switched off the lamp and lay down on her bed. If I just save a little more money, I'll be able to buy eyeglasses. Just twenty jars of raspberry jam. Or maybe thirty? Anyway, I'm almost there.

She knew that if she were to tell Bill about her eyesight, he would buy eyeglasses for her immediately. But somehow, knowing that made it even harder to say anything to him. She had already received so much from him and didn't have any real way to repay him.

When he had said he was going to send Leyla to school, most people had scoffed. They said that there was no point in trying to teach an orphan girl since once she grew up, she could simply become a maid for the Herhardt family. But Bill was determined. He told her every single day that she was going to become an outstanding adult.

When she closed her eyes, her headache subsided slightly. The harder she tried to fall asleep, the more awake she felt. On nights like this, random thoughts would always begin to fill her head: The birds returning. Her summer plans. The culprit in the serial mystery novel that was being published in the daily newspaper. And Duke Herhardt.

When his name came to her mind, her eyes opened. Now that her eyes were adjusted to the dark, she could make out the nighttime scenery outside her window: Tree branches swaying gently in the breeze, and beyond them, the night sky, full of stars and the moon. As she gazed at their pale light, she found herself holding her breath.

After graduating from college, the duke had gone to the Royal Military Academy, and then been commissioned as an army officer, in keeping with the family tradition. He had been immediately assigned to a post at an overseas war front, so he hadn't visited the estate at all in the previous year. Thus it had been a peaceful time for the birds in the woods, and for Leyla. However, he was going to be returning this summer...

The lord of Arvis, Duke Herhardt.

Chapter end