Chapter 65…………………………………….
– I Thought It Was Only a Dream
A chill breeze blew between the two of them. On the wind that stirred and swayed, the fragrance of roses drifted and tickled at the tip of the nose.
Dmitri called out a beloved name to Leah, his face filled with disbelief.
“My daughter, now returned to the earth. My Ariel.”
Leah’s red hair rippled in the wind, as though someone had placed an armful of roses from the garden upon her head. And that wasn’t all.
Eyes the color of shining green leaves—eyes that looked as if they might run to him any moment, calling out “Father!” and embrace him—were staring straight at him.
Dmitri stretched out a trembling hand toward Leah.
“Is this a dream?”
Yes, surely this must be a dream. How else could his dead daughter be standing here before him?
“Ha…”
A heavy sigh leaked past his lips.
Convinced it was only a dream, Dmitri slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again. His eyelids trembled like reeds swaying in the wind.
“It must be my time to die. If you appear to me in dreams like this… Yes, do you resent your father so deeply?”
“……”
“I resent myself. If only I had given you my blessing back then, perhaps I would not have lost you in such a vain, pitiful way.”
The Duke of Belarus muttered in a voice heavy with regret. But Leah, who had quietly listened, felt utterly bewildered.
All she had done was strike up a word with an old man she thought had hurt himself while she was walking in the garden.
Now she didn’t know what to do.
“He must be mistaking me for his dead daughter…”
She wanted to say, You’ve mistaken me.
But looking at the old man, whose entire being overflowed with longing, the words stuck in her throat.
“What should I do?”
As she hesitated, watching the old man who looked as though he might come closer at any moment,
“Leah.”
A familiar voice called from behind her. Leah turned.
It was Akia.
Only when Akia came closer did Dmitri seem to come back to himself. Hostility flickered across the Duke of Belarus’s face as he looked at him.
“Why are you here…”
When Dmitri first saw his dead Ariel, he thought it must be a dream. He thought his daughter had come to see him because he longed for her too much.
But with Akia’s voice—so vivid, so real—it became harder to believe it was a dream.
“Could this not be a dream after all?”
At last, Dmitri looked again at the woman standing beside Akia.
“Duke of Belarus.”
“What?”
At Akia’s words, Leah’s eyes widened.
Leah had wandered here, drawn unconsciously by the heavy rose fragrance. She had been admiring the garden, full of mesmerizing roses, when she discovered an old man, shoulders bowed, pricked by thorns yet not noticing, his face steeped in grief.
“So that old man was the Duke of Belarus.”
Leah’s gaze fell on him. She had heard he was a fearsome man, one who commanded the empire.
But in her eyes, he was nothing more than a sorrowful old man grieving his dead daughter.
Feeling she had been rude, Leah quickly bowed deeply.
“My apologies, Your Grace the Duke of Belarus. I am Leah, apothecary to Duke Hydern.”
At last, Dmitri realized this was no dream but reality. He felt a blow to the back of his head, leaving him numb.
“Hydern’s apothecary?”
Looking at Leah again, he saw it: something in her was different from Ariel. She looked younger than his daughter had.
“So, not Ariel.”
The Duke of Belarus realized at last that he had mistaken another woman for Ariel. And yet—it was strange.
How could someone resemble Ariel so much that even her own father would be confused? And that vivid red hair… it was practically a birthmark of the Belarus family.
“Too strange. She looks far too much like her.”
His reason began to return. Dmitri’s voice shook as he asked,
“…You say you are Hydern’s apothecary?”
“Yes. I was terribly rude… Please forgive me.”
A commoner was never to speak first to a noble. And yet she had asked if he was hurt.
Leah bit her lip, fearing she might incur his wrath. But the Duke did not seem inclined to scold her. His gaze merely roved over her.
“Those clothes…”
His eyes fell on the green dress she wore. It was Ariel’s dress—the one his daughter had loved so dearly.
Leah hurried to explain.
“Oh, this was lent to me by the butler…”
“Barton?”
The dress she wore was one of the late Lady Belarus’s belongings.
Though Ariel had been dead for some time, her room remained unchanged, as if she still lived there. Each day, maids cleaned it, tended her clothes. He had seen her body with his own eyes, and yet he could not believe it.
So of course Barton, his butler, would know how dearly he clung to her belongings.
“Barton must think the same as I do.”
This girl Leah resembled his daughter far too much. It was as though Ariel had returned from the dead.
“Could it be… this child…”
Dmitri’s mouth closed as if weighed down by some thought.
At that moment, as Akia began to lead Leah away,
“Wait.”
His subdued voice stopped them.
Both turned back toward Dmitri.
“Tomorrow’s breakfast. Miss Leah will join us as well.”
“…Pardon?”
Leah’s eyes widened. The Duke of Belarus was inviting her—a commoner—to share a nobleman’s table with him and Akia.
Unsure if it was proper, she looked anxiously to Akia. He too looked doubtful, eyeing Dmitri warily.
“It’s nothing. Just a light meal together. She is my guest as well, is she not?”
The Duke lifted his lips faintly at Akia’s guarded gaze.
…
…
“Barton, what do you think?”
Late at night, upon returning to the mansion, Dmitri summoned his butler Barton at once.
Barton, standing before the desk, nodded gravely.
“I think the same as you, my lord. It is far too much of a resemblance to be coincidence.”
“So you think so as well…”
The Duke closed his eyes. Even with his eyes shut, the image of Leah rose vividly before him—overlapped perfectly with Ariel.
“Yes.”
He was beginning to believe Leah might be his granddaughter.
Ariel Belarus.
His only daughter, the sole heir to the house of Belarus.
Who would have thought? His precious daughter had fallen in love with a mere knight and eloped in the night.
And then… she had returned as a cold corpse. Dmitri shook his head fiercely at the memory.
“Wasn’t it said the child between them died?”
“Yes. That is what I was told.”
When he finally tracked down Ariel’s whereabouts, it was already too late. She had died in childbirth, felled by a fever.
If she was to throw everything away and run, at least she should have lived happily. But the knight died soon after, and Ariel followed in childbirth.
In the end, he held her lifeless body in his arms and wept for days.
The injustice, the futility—he had not raised her so carefully just to lose her so meaninglessly.
And then, a thought struck him like lightning.
“But what if Ariel’s child did not die?”
At that thought, Dmitri could not sit still. For the first time since Ariel’s death, his eyes gleamed sharply.
“Make certain that tomorrow’s breakfast is prepared without the slightest fault.”
“Yes, my lord.”
❀ ❀ ❀
The next morning dawned. Leah, almost against her will, found herself seated at breakfast with the Duke of Belarus and Akia.
“I mustn’t make any mistakes.”
She had never been raised among nobles. She did not know their dining etiquette and feared Dmitri would seize upon some error.
“And they even gave me another dress…”
Looking into the mirror, she saw herself clad in a gown once more. She had refused again and again, but Barton had insisted she wear it.
A lavish dress adorned with lace—surely another belonging of the late Lady Ariel.
“Is it really right for me to wear this?”
For them to preserve Ariel’s dresses even now showed how dearly they cherished her.
“Why are they being so kind to me?”
Puzzled, Leah tilted her head and made her way to the dining room.
Inside, the table was laden with dishes she had never seen before.
“If there’s anything you’d like, say the word.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
Leah smiled awkwardly and began to eat. A well-cooked steak was served with peas as garnish.
Naturally, Leah pushed the peas to the side of her plate. Dmitri, who noticed, asked at once:
“Do you dislike peas?”
“I have an allergy to legumes.”
“Allergy?”
She thought he would scold her for being picky, but instead Dmitri’s eyes grew moist. His reaction was far too excessive, leaving Leah utterly bewildered.
“What on earth is wrong with him?”
As the meal went on, the Duke of Belarus’s attentiveness toward her only grew more overwhelming.
