Cry, Even Better if you Beg

Chapter 12. The Crow Gentleman (1)

When he moved the stylus needle, music began to flow out.

The aria of an opera carried by the phonograph placed on top of the mahogany cabinet instantly defeated the silence that was filling the reception room of the annex.

Matthias changed the frequency a few times to let a different music genre, the waltz, to flow out and then sat back on the sofa. The melody was bright and cheerful. His long fingertips, lightly touching the armrest, slowly tapped along to the beat. The desk clock on the opposite console table indicated it was currently five o’clock.

Matthias’s gaze briefly focused on the lousy arranged rose vase next to the clock and soon turned his head towards the window. The wind got cooler as evening approached. The wind from the river shook his gown before it headed out into the forest.

Matthias reached out and opened a small silver box placed at the end of the drawing table. While he picked up a cigarette from the box and lit it up, the waltz song was over. Matthias slowly smoked, listening to the raucous string music that followed. The late afternoon of the summer was boring and still.

When the song stopped, Matthias picked up Leyla’s glasses, which he had carelessly thrown in the tray next to him. Matthias held up the glasses to his face. Her eyes seemed to be pretty bad because the world he saw over the lenses was dizzy.

Is that why she always frowned?

He suddenly thought of the little child staring at him with a sulky frown. The scrawny, unpretentious girl whose eyes were glistening despite her appearance.

The child who was supposed to stay for a brief time had grown in Matthias’s world and matured into a woman.

The woman’s slender face with the thin gold-rimmed glasses overlapped the scrawny girl’s face. The woman with the glistening eyes still had that fresh, sweet smell. It was the fragrance of a rose, the flower that filled up Arvis’s summer garden.

Having let out a long stream of cigarette smoke, Matthias went out to the balcony that stretched towards the river while loosely holding Leyla’s glasses. His shadow lengthened as he playfully threw up and caught the glasses several times.

“Leyla.”

He whispered in the hot summer.

“Leyla Lewellin.”

The fact that he had to tickle the tip of his tongue in order to fluidly pronounce her name annoyed him.

After returning to the reception room, Matthias put her glasses in the drawer of the console table. When he closed the drawer, the memory of the green eyes that he saw over her glasses disappeared.

Matthias went to the bathroom and took a long shower. He changed his clothes and waxed his hair. By the time he left the annex to attend dinner, he was again the perfect, Duke of Arvis.

~~~~

“What if the crow took it again?”

Bill asked with some jest. Leyla, who was sitting at the table with a serious look on her face, shrugged.

“Well…… I hope not.”

“Just saying. They’re the type of birds who go crazy if they see something sparkling. Remember? Your hairpin.”

Bill burst out laughing. Leyla’s face hardened by the memory that Bill reminded her of but soon laughed with him.

Uncle Bill had bought Leyla a shiny hairpin on her thirteenth birthday. It was chosen by Mrs. Mona, who had researched the type of hairpins girls her age liked.

Leyla tried to carefully preserve the pin. If Bill hadn’t said he’d throw it out if she didn’t wear it right away, it might’ve been asleep in her drawer forever.

But on the first day she wore the gift, the pin met its harsh fate. The crow carried away the pin Leyla had briefly placed on the fence in order to take care of the garden. It was an incident that caused Leyla, who used to love all birds, to have a disdain for crows.

“If you can’t find it, tell me Leyla.”

Bill strained his voice as if he was requesting.

“You don’t have to look like that because I can buy you a new one. Okay?”

“Okay, uncle.”

Leyla gladly nodded.

“I will.”

She was able to answer back because she was completely sure her glasses were at the dock, where she had taken them off before diving into the river.

However, the next morning when Leyla came out to the riverside, she was devastated. She tried to thoroughly search the dock as well as the surrounding area of the annex, but her glasses were nowhere to be found.

The undone apron was still in its place, but only the glasses were gone. She thought the wind must have it blown away, but because of the apron on the dock; she dismissed her thought. She was sure she took off her glasses first and then her apron. There was no way her glasses alone could disappear.

No way… Maybe?

Leyla snooped around in front of the annex and then shook her head as if it was nonsense.

There’s no reason for the duke to take it.

Leyla turned around with her drooped shoulders. She regretted not coming back earlier to pick up her glasses. She was just afraid of running into the duke.

“Is it really you?”

Leyla muttered, staring at the crow sitting on the branch. The crow tilted its head several times and soon flew away into the far woods.

With a determined face, Leyla clenched her first. She began to walk with wide steps.

She was first going to go back to her cabin, have breakfast, and think again with a clearer mind.

The suspect seemed to be one of the two.

The crow, or the duke.

~~~~

The snow-white dove sat by the window. Kyle, who casually turned his head, smiled and opened the window.

“Hey, Phoebe.”

The dove didn’t run away even though he had reached his hand out. Kyle naturally pulled the letter from the bird’s leg.

The mountain dove, Phoebe, was Leyla Lewellin’s messenger. Having been obsessed with birds since childhood, she read a book about doves being able to deliver letters so one day, she had a grand ambition to have a dove of her down.

‘Sure. Go ahead.’

When Kyle snickered at her ambition, he never dreamed that day would actually come until  the ancient, legend-like precursor suddenly flew through his room window. The persistent girl, Leyla Lewellin, had done it. Leyla, who did not give up despite her many failures, managed to train the bird.

It was late spring two years ago when Phoebe first flew into Kyle’s window. He had opened the window and a dove that brought Leyla’s letter stared at him. It was a pretty dove with shiny white feathers and black eyes.

[Hello, Mr. Etman]

Leyla’s letter brought by the dove that day contained only one short line. But Kyle was able to read many other things. Leyla’s excitement in her success. Leyla’s eyes sparkling with joy.

Leyla. My dear friend, Leyla.

Doves delivering letters in a world like today.

Kyle laughed at the absurdity but he understood. For Leyla, Phoebe was, so to speak, a telephone. In a cabin with no telephones around, letter-carrying pigeons were quite efficient.

But today’s letter from Leyla’s messenger contained tragic news. The letter read that she had lost her glasses. She had to go find her glasses. She couldn’t keep their promise to go to the library. And that she was very sorry.

After finishing its work, Phoebe left the window while Kyle read the letter with a serious face. Kyle put the folded letter between the thick book that was spread out on the desk and hurried out of his room.

“Kyle Etman! Are you going to Leyla’s again?”

Mrs. Etman frowned at the sight of her son coming down the stairs but Kyle silently smiled.

“You need to study, Kyle!”

“I’ll do it at Leyla’s!”

Kyle left the front door, leaving only a lively answer behind.

The shiny silver bicycle glided past Etman’s house. When he entered the Arvis territory, Kyle frantically peddled as he grew more and more impatient. He wasn’t interested in going to the library. He had made the promise just to be with Leyla. He was worried about her.

Those were the glasses she bought with her hard work.

His heart ached when he thought of Leyla, the fool who saved and earned money by making jam and selling it just because she was worried of being burdensome to Uncle Bill.

“Uh, Kyle?”

When the bicycle squealed to a halt, Leyla, who was hanging the laundry, looked at Kyle with a surprised face.

“Did you find your glasses?”

“No. Not yet.”

Leyla’s face grew sullen.

“I’ll buy you a new one!”

Kyle blurted out because he was upset to see the depressed Leyla.

“…… Kyle. You? Why?”

Leyla replied back with confusion in her eyes. Kyle suddenly realized what he had said. His feelings got the best of him so he had forgotten what kind of person Leyla was.

“Thank you, Kyle, but I can’t.”

Leyla smiled brightly as if to keep him from being embarrassed.

“And I, really want to find my glasses.”

Unlike her smiling lips, her eyes were firm. Kyle knew those eyes well. It was the eyes of Leyla Lewellin, the stubborn woman who wouldn’t back down no matter what.

“I’ll find it for sure.”

~~~~

Leyla had been stirring the forest for days. The doctor’s son was with her.

Their vain efforts were so admirable, Matthias pretended not to know. It was quite entertaining to see them search around the innocent bird nests.2

Do you really don’t know or are you pretending not to know?

Matthias paused his legs that were climbing the annex stairs and then looked at the vast expanse of the forest along the river. He was about to get bored with their foolishness. He was also getting bored of visiting this place for the past few days, smirking at their search attempts despite his busy schedule.

Matthias continued climbing the stairs while slowly sweeping his hair that had been disheveled by the strong wind. Hessen, who followed, took a step back after quietly opening the door.

Matthias headed straight to the reception room. Instead of usually sitting on the sofa, he leaned against the window, facing the forest.

“Marquis Lindman will arrive around noon today.”

“Riette? His arrival is earlier than scheduled.”

“Madam has instructed me to pay special attention to the luncheon. She asked the master to join if you didn’t have any previous appointments scheduled.”

“Sure. I will.”

The chiffon curtain that was covering half of the window slowly swelled up with the gust of wind. When the curtain deflated, Matthias’s eyes narrowed when he saw the path covered with the tranquil sunlight. Leyla stood under the tree at the end of the road. She was circling around the tree with her hands held together.

Maybe she isn’t a complete fool.

Matthias silently grinned and he focused his attention to Hessen’s reports while the middle-aged maid served him cold lemon water. The clatter of ice in the glass was quite pleasant to hear.

When the maid and the butler left after finishing their job, Matthias watched the scenery beyond the window with the long-necked glass cup in his hand. Leyla began to approach the river when the maid and the butler were completely out of sight.

Not long after, the doorbell rang out the tranquil annex.

Matthias slowly rose from his seat.