Chapter 12
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Chapter 12
"Your Highness?"
After returning from Count Oslo's ball, I sat upon my bed and whispered softly into the empty air. My entire family, bustling since morning with preparations for the evening's festivities, appeared to have already surrendered to sleep.
"Prince Leopold?"
Despite my calls, neither Leopold's dark hair nor his profoundly gleaming gray-green eyes flickered between the candlelight. Listening to my own voice echo through the darkened chamber, I exhaled a small sigh and rose from my seat.
'I had hoped to discuss what transpired at the ball tonight, but where could he possibly be?'
In my restless state, I found myself blaming the invisible Leopold. Unable to find sleep, I decided a nocturnal stroll would help settle my thoughts, and I made my way downstairs.
As I opened the kitchen door and stepped into the backyard, the crisp late-summer air caressed my face. Thanks to the luminous moonlight spilling from above, the white delphiniums blooming throughout the backyard where I walked were tinted a cool ashen blue in the moon's shadow.
(*delphinium: A flower bearing multiple buds along an elongated stem, flourishing well in Northern Europe. Often symbolizes a recklessness bordering on audacity, or memories of those who have departed.)
I buried my face briefly among the delphinium clusters. A fragrance both sweet and melancholic tickled the tip of my nose. It was then that Leopold's voice mingled with the night breeze.
"Did you enjoy the ball?"
Startled, I turned my head, and Leopold came into view—sprawled languidly across a garden chair. He wore gentlemen's breeches encasing his long, muscular legs, a deep emerald formal waistcoat, a white shirt, and an exquisitely tailored charcoal coat.
(*Breeches: Fitted gentlemen's trousers worn in Europe since the sixteenth century, typically designed for convenient horseback riding and thus also called riding breeches.)
His languorous posture starkly contrasted with the formality of his attire.
"Prince Leopold!"
I cried out before I could stop myself, my face breaking into a radiant smile, but I quickly brought my hand to my lips, worried someone might have heard. Then I whispered urgently.
"Where on earth have you been? I was beginning to fear you might have vanished from my sight entirely."
"What, then? Would you have me spend every night awake in a lady's chamber?"
Leopold spoke in a light, teasing tone, as if to calm my breathless words.
"Well, not exactly that, but...."
With his lighthearted remark, Charlotte felt the anxiety that had gripped her all evening—ever since hearing of his disappearance—begin to dissolve. She opened her mouth slowly.
"Your Highness Leopold, I heard quite a lot about you at the welcoming ball. So there's much I wish to tell you, and many things I'd like to ask...."
Leopold turned his head toward her, yet he could not see Charlotte. A darkness that suited him far too well enveloped the garden chair where he sat.
Charlotte spoke toward Leopold in the shadows.
"Before the ball at Count Oslo's Mansion truly began in earnest, news reached me that Your Highness had vanished. I actually wondered if perhaps I was seeing things because I was so desperate to find a suitable match. That's why I believed you would appear at the welcoming ball with a flourish...."
Charlotte trailed off, her expression growing somewhat dejected. Then Leopold finished her sentence with a witty and unhurried tone.
"Yet unfortunately, all you've confirmed is that you see the ghost of a dead man."
"Whether it's a ghost or whether Your Highness is afflicted by some dreadfully strange curse visible only to me—we haven't determined that yet! So please don't say such things."
A ghost of a dead man, indeed. Charlotte grumbled at Leopold for his ominous words. She could not discern whether he was jesting or speaking in earnest. His expression, seated on the garden bench in the dead of night, remained invisible to her.
Charlotte tilted her head and spoke.
"Really now, won't you stop sitting so far away and walk through the backyard with me instead? It's far too dark—I can scarcely see Your Highness's face."
At her exaggerated gesture, a low laugh escaped Leopold. He rose to his full height and replied.
"Very well, my lady."
Just then, the moon emerged from behind the clouds that had concealed it, and Leopold walked toward her from the darkness. With each stride that matched his long legs, the large dark silhouette gradually revealed its beautiful form.
Oh...
When he stood fully illuminated beneath the bright moonlight, Charlotte could not help but gasp inwardly. Leopold's dark auburn hair, tinged with blue in the light, swayed in the breeze, and his straight brows and piercing gaze reached her. She found herself thinking he looked like a prince from the moon itself, and she could not tear her eyes from him as he shimmered with an otherworldly radiance. Leopold did not stop, but took another step closer to her.
"Wait, stop right there. That's far enough."
When Leopold closed the distance to merely three handspans away, Charlotte, suddenly regaining her senses, spoke in a flustered voice. The cold allure he emanated was far too near, touching her flushed cheeks.
"Are you certain?"
Leopold drew closer to Charlotte, a faint smile playing at his lips as he whispered.
"This should be enough."
His eyes, dark as the night sky, held a mischievous glint, yet something burning beneath as they swept across Charlotte's face.
Charlotte felt her heart suddenly race. Leopold's sharp nose bridge appeared so close it seemed about to merge with her own, and from him emanated a fragrance more delicate than delphiniums. Her mind growing hazy, Charlotte's lips trembled without her consent.
"I... that is to say...."
Charlotte wanted to step back from him, unsettled by her own unfamiliar, frantic heartbeat, yet his burning gaze rendered her entire body immobile. Then Leopold straightened the waist he had slightly bent, withdrawing his face from hers as he spoke.
"You were staring at me with such an entranced expression, I thought you wanted to see me more closely."
At Leopold's words, Charlotte blinked slowly. Only when she caught the playful smile in his expression did she realize he was teasing her. Her face flushed an ugly crimson.
"No, I wasn't—I was only looking because of the moonlight, so... Your Highness is really...."
Charlotte barely relaxed her body before launching into a feeble excuse. Leopold, observing her flustered state, smiled faintly, then walked leisurely toward the path that connected the garden to the forest, asking.
"But Lady, didn't you say you had something to ask me today?"
Charlotte, who had been muttering continuously, suddenly came to her senses and spoke.
"Oh! That's right. I actually wanted to ask you about something I heard at the ball."
Charlotte followed Leopold onto the forest path as she spoke.
"Knights from Holland came and said something had happened to Your Highness. But before that, Count Oslo had already mentioned that Your Highness had disappeared, so people now believe Your Highness must have gone missing."
Pursuing the long-legged Leopold at a brisk pace, Charlotte's rapid words continued.
"But some people said they saw Your Highness arrive in London by ship this morning, didn't they? Yet you've supposedly been secretly staying in London for days. So who exactly was the person people saw arriving at the port today?"
As Charlotte's question ended, Leopold, walking ahead, answered slowly.
"Royalty often keep their routes of travel hidden from the public for security reasons. Especially in my case, with so many rivals... Exactly three 'Princes of Holland' departed from their respective locations toward Kensington Palace today. One from the western port, another from the northern estate, and the last from the heart of London."
Leopold's pace through the forest path slowed slightly as he continued.
"And that Prince of Holland who would depart from the very heart of London? That was me, who had already been staying in London for several days."
At Leopold's answer, Charlotte nodded with an understanding gesture. Beyond the matter of personal protection, he had likely put measures in place to conceal the fact that he had come to London in secret.
Just then, Leopold, who had been several paces ahead of Charlotte, came to an abrupt halt. As a result, Charlotte, who had been pursuing him with quick steps, nearly collided her face with his back, but managed to steady herself and looked up at him.
Still keeping his back to Charlotte, Leopold spoke.
"You said news of my disappearance became known before the Ball began in earnest, didn't you, my lady?"
Charlotte blinked at Leopold's sudden question before responding.
"Yes? Oh, that's right. So the welcoming reception essentially ended as soon as it began."
"Then you had no opportunity to display to the gentlemen the etiquette you practiced so diligently yesterday, nor any chance to dance with the Earl's son."
As Leopold spoke in a hushed tone, Charlotte found his question rather peculiar and answered accordingly.
"Well... that's true. But why would you...?"
As Leopold slowly stepped aside, the forest that lay before him unfurled before Charlotte's eyes.
"Good heavens!"
With Charlotte's exclamation, her dark brown eyes began to sparkle as if they held starlight.
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