Chapter 36
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Chapter 36
Early in the evening, Charlotte had arranged to slip away to the forest—to that secret place she and Leopold shared, hidden from her family's watchful eyes. She had so much she wished to discuss with him today that she could not bear to waste even a single moment of the night they might spend together.
Charlotte gathered a lamp, a coat suited to the crisp autumn air, and a book to occupy herself while awaiting Leopold's arrival. The volume she had chosen was, of course, the one Jane had pressed into her hands that very afternoon with a mysterious smile.
I was genuinely astonished to discover that Jane possessed the ability to perceive souls as well.
In truth, if I were to be precise, the fault lay largely with me for failing to discern Jane's intentions even as she spoke of love and the eyes of one's beloved. Standing beside my sister as she waxed eloquent on the affections between lovers, I found myself inadvertently recalling Leopold's profound gaze as it caught the moonlight.
"Whatever could this book be, that Jane felt compelled to present it with such secrecy...?"
Upon arriving at their secret place—a streamside deep within the forest—Charlotte settled herself upon a fallen log. There, beneath the faint glow of an oil lamp and the lingering amber of the evening sky, she opened the volume Jane had given her. '...The methods by which lovers may express their affection and tenderness are boundless. One might gently press one's lips to a beloved's soft mouth, or express one's devotion through tender kisses upon their cheek and neck...'
"Oh my!"
Charlotte gasped in shock. Beneath the refined prose, an illustration depicted a woman whose nightgown had slipped away to bare her shoulder, while a man pressed his lips fervently against her neck.
"What on earth is this...?"
Charlotte flipped through the pages rapidly. With each turn, unfamiliar images unfolded before her eyes—depictions of lovers embracing and kissing one another in states of undress.
Flustered, Charlotte turned the book over to examine its cover.
A Proper Lady's Guide to the Secrets of Love
"So that is what Jane was hinting at—she truly believed I was meeting my beloved in secret each night. But then, this 'secret experience' that Jane and even our parents have had...?"
Charlotte fell silent, her face flushed crimson. To think that Jane, who was forever scolding her for impropriety, had read such a book—and perhaps even acted upon its contents. Charlotte had always believed her elder sister to be the perfect lady of the Augusta Family, the first among them to marry. This revelation left her utterly astounded.
Yet her astonishment was short-lived, for soon the sound of Charlotte turning pages resumed, mingling with the gentle murmur of the stream.
Rustle... rustle...
Charlotte, who had found it difficult to tear her hands from the bookshelf, her face flushed crimson, continued reading with occasional murmurs of "Oh my, oh my."
How much time had passed in this manner?
The delicate sunset that had embroidered the forest faded away, dark shadows lengthened across the sky, and then a bluish darkness crept in. Simultaneously, the sweet and elegant fragrance of sandalwood brushed against Charlotte's nose as she sat entranced by her book.
"Charlotte."
A royal's elegant tone with appropriately modulated emphasis—a soft voice like reading romantic poetry in a rich baritone, as if infused with a tender smile.
"What book could you possibly be reading that you didn't hear me calling you several times?"
Leopold's arm extended over Charlotte's shoulder. He gently tapped the top of the book she was reading with his fingers—tap, tap. Still absorbed in her reading, Charlotte murmured without even meeting Leopold's gaze.
"Oh, just a moment, Your Highness. I'm reading a crucial part right now...."
Charlotte's lips froze mid-sentence.
'...Your Highness? Prince Leopold?'
Suddenly, a chill ran down Charlotte's spine. She had just realized that Leopold—when he had arrived, she couldn't say—her prince was standing behind her, looking down at her. And his gaze was directed precisely at the page depicting a couple in the most intimate of embraces.
"No! Your Highness!"
Panicked, Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut with a gasp and hurled the book in her hands forward without thinking. It was a reckless action, but her immediate anxiety that Leopold must not see the contents of the book in her hands took precedence.
Splash—
The book, thrown with such force, plunged into the stream with a loud splash.
"Charlotte...."
Leopold's voice came from above her head, tinged with surprise. Charlotte, her feet burning with embarrassment and her eyes still squeezed shut, began speaking in rapid succession.
"Your Highness, that is, the book I was reading is really nothing special. I have absolutely no interest in such books, and truthfully, I don't even understand what they're about!"
She had been absorbed in that scandalous book without even knowing Leopold had arrived. Charlotte felt utterly lost. When had she been the composed lady befitting him? But ever since she had acknowledged her feelings for him, she had become increasingly conscious of how she appeared in his eyes.
"That book was something Jane gave me thinking... Oh, no! That's not it! Jane mistakenly believed I had a lover and so...."
I had attempted to salvage the situation by speaking at length, yet it seemed my words contained more missteps than explanations.
Splash—
At the sound of water once more, Charlotte's eyes flew open. I feared Leopold's gaze, disappointed in me, yet as always, her curiosity surpassed all else.
"Oh!"
At the end of Charlotte's line of sight stood Leopold in the center of the City Center, his back to her. Before the darkening forest, he waded through the shimmering silver stream that rippled at the height of his muscular thighs. Suddenly, he bent low toward the streambed, and in doing so, his upper body became drenched in the silvery waters.
"A love manual for virtuous ladies..."
Leopold's voice rang out with an amused lilt. What he had retrieved from the streambed was none other than the book Charlotte had discarded. Though the pages were already waterlogged and illegible, the title embossed upon the leather cover remained perfectly clear for all to read.
At this, Charlotte explained in a trembling voice.
"Because I've been coming out every night to meet Your Highness, I believe Jane has gravely misunderstood. She thinks I venture out each night to meet a lover..."
Now Charlotte's entire body flushed crimson with mortification. Yet this was not merely because Leopold had discovered the book she had sought to hide, or because of her own ungraceful act of suddenly hurling it away. It was because, during those moments when Charlotte had been reading Jane's book, she had imagined the lovers within its pages as herself and Leopold.
'Lovers in the forest.'
It seemed to be the title of the final chapter she had been reading. Beneath the endless canopy of starlight within the dark forest, with darkness as their curtain and celestial light as their lamp, the lovers shared each other's sweet lips. At times, their fingertips would brush and caress each other's delicate skin.
'I became far too absorbed. I didn't even notice His Highness approaching...'
The man's gaze in the illustration seemed to resemble Leopold's grayish-green eyes, the ones he sometimes turned toward me. The angled line of his neck as he leaned in for a kiss also often made me imagine the masculine Adam's apple visible above his cravat.
"You were concentrating quite intently."
Leopold's subtle voice directed itself toward Charlotte's flushed face.
"I, I was...?"
As Charlotte's awkward murmur escaped her and Leopold slowly emerged from the stream, crystalline droplets fell upon the soft grass. With one hand he wrung out his drenched shirt hem, while with the other he leafed through the thoroughly soaked book and whispered.
"There are no longer any books you need hide from me, are there? On the day we first met, when you said you saw a man on the bed, your governess said something similar to you, I believe...that Miss Charlotte reads such scandalous books, which is why you harbor such imaginings."
'How on earth does he remember such things?'
Charlotte inwardly sighed, cursing Leopold's infallible memory.
"That—that's just Sydney's terrible misunderstanding. I'm actually quite the proper lady when you think about it...."
Charlotte protested, cradling her face in her hands. Now that she thought about it, she seemed to have unwittingly revealed countless embarrassing truths to Leopold.
"You needn't be ashamed of anything, Charlotte."
Leopold knelt before her and handed her the water-soaked book as he spoke. Contrary to her expectation that he would tease her, his voice carried none of its usual playful edge.
"I'd prefer you never hide who you truly are. At least not from me."
Startled by Leopold's addition, Charlotte lifted her gaze—only to lower it again just as quickly. The sight of him, drenched and glistening, was far too captivating.
As Charlotte found herself helplessly comparing the scene before her to illustrations from books, Leopold spoke in a leisurely whisper.
"One of the advantages of being a ghost is that I can appreciate the real you—the side no one else will ever see."
Only then did Charlotte compose herself and murmur softly.
"...But if Your Highness hadn't become a spirit, I wouldn't have had to show you such shameful sides of myself. After all, we would never have crossed paths at all."
She hated revealing her flaws to Leopold, yet if he hadn't remained as a spirit, Charlotte would have had no chance to show him anything at all.
"Even if we'd met somewhere by chance, I'm too ordinary—you wouldn't have remembered me...."
"Do you truly believe that?"
At Leopold's low-voiced question, Charlotte lifted her gaze—this time not toward his wet form, but directly to his face.
"Well, I've always caused trouble by wanting to be remembered by someone.... So at best, I might be remembered as the tomboy lady who ruined some Ball."
Charlotte offered an awkward smile and whispered softly.
"The truest thing about me is that I'm easily forgotten by everyone."
As Charlotte finished speaking, a thought crept into her mind—that even Leopold, once he recovered his true form and the disappearance was solved, might forget her. Given her long experience of being forgotten by countless people, it was hardly surprising.
'I thought I'd grown accustomed to being forgotten. It never bothered me before, no matter how many gentlemen forgot me. But the thought of being forgotten by His Highness....'
In that moment, Leopold's hand came to rest upon Charlotte's face, which had grown suddenly melancholy. His voice followed—resolute yet tender—resonating softly against her ear.
"That's not true, Charlotte."
Warmth radiated from Leopold's palm as it cradled her delicate cheek. He spoke slowly, deliberately.
"I thought I'd made it obvious enough to be almost tedious, but perhaps I was mistaken."
Was it her innocence, or had she simply grown accustomed to diminishing herself to something so small? As his fingertips traced gently across her cheekbone, his face descended toward her forehead.
"Oh!"
A soft gasp escaped Charlotte's lips as she felt the gentle, lingering touch against her forehead. Unlike the cold night air that kissed the rest of her skin, this spot alone received sweet warmth transmitted through Leopold's lips.
The mysterious silver droplets that clung to Leopold's shirt briefly caught her attention, but the kiss upon her forehead consumed all her thoughts.
Slowly withdrawing his lips from her forehead, Leopold whispered in a voice that seemed somehow subdued, almost hollow.
"Charlotte, I've become unable to forget you."
Leopold smiled, having realized that Charlotte had not yet noticed the feelings he'd assumed would be obvious. In the faint moonlight, that smile bore no trace of his usual playfulness—instead, it held a melancholy tenderness, a fragile hope.
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org