PDCOO Chapter 35

Bertram said it with such flat certainty that Anna found herself nodding almost before she'd decided to.

He said peculiar things sometimes. But everything he'd said he could do, he'd done. The onion-peeling. The meat-trimming.

So maybe requesting a delay from a noble was, in fact, possible.

If this was the Bertram she knew.

The feeling was sudden—like finding a gem in a field she'd been walking for years. Anna smiled softly.

"……Funny."

"What is?"

"I've always seen things through to the end with everyone I've taken in. Usually they settle here, or recover and go home. The only exception is the man I had to send to the city prison. But with Mr. Bertram—from the very first time I saw you, somehow I had this feeling: I'm going to have to let him go someday."

"So the first impression wasn't favorable."

"You were as unrealistic as a figure cut out of a history book illustration. Like you might vanish at any moment. And the prediction held—Mama wanted to send Mr. Bertram away, even though she'd always welcomed everyone else I brought home without complaint. That was the first obstacle."

Index finger up.

"That obstacle seemed to be clearing—Mama was starting to soften toward Mr. Bertram somehow—and then out of nowhere, a self-proclaimed knight and assorted others appear looking for you. Second obstacle."

Middle finger. Two fingers raised. Anna made a brief gesture as if she might poke someone's eyes out and kept going.

"And goodness, it turns out the knight is the third son of a ducal house! What a distinguished gentleman to descend upon our humble land! ……So the situation keeps worsening, you see. At this rate, His Majesty the King himself might come down here personally."

"Absolutely not. That will absolutely never happen."

"Hm? Obviously it's a joke. Look at that face—all stiff. Though that's nothing new!"

Anna used the two fingers she'd just had raised to prod Bertram's cheek. Poke, poke.

It was nothing much, from Anna's side. But Bertram found himself uncertain how to respond to the sudden friendly teasing. Etiquette manuals contained no entries for this particular situation.

He also had no memory of seeing anyone behave this way with him before. Not in any context he could recall.

……No. One person came to mind.

Franz.

In society, when a woman teased Franz this way, Franz would bring her fingers lightly to his lips.

Fortunately, Bertram was well aware that most of what Franz did served as the wrong example. And a moment later, in the awkward silence that had settled, Anna's hand lowered on its own.

"Sorry. I got a little carried away knowing you'd be staying longer……. T-too forward of me, wasn't it!"

"There's nothing to apologize for. I look forward to the time we'll earn together. I intend to keep working hard."

"Oh, don't be so formal about it. I'd like Mr. Bertram to find what you're looking for too……and I also……"

Also, and then what was she supposed to say.

A sweetness flooded her mouth so suddenly she couldn't finish the sentence.

There was too much to say. How many things they could eat together. How many ingredients they could sit and prep side by side. Walking the piglet in the woods was good too. And at the farm……

Bertram spoke first.

"Last night I asked what I meant to you. You said you didn't know yet."

"You—that's right."

"Something has occurred to me now, in that regard, however……"

Bertram had no social awareness whatsoever.

"Do you perhaps like me?"

And Anna had no appropriate ability to say what she meant.

"I d-do NOT! It's peeling onions with Mr. Bertram that I like!"

Anna's not-quite-denial kept expanding.

"Peeling onions with Mr. Bertram, going to feed the pig together, having the flour sacks lifted for me, and also……when I eat my own meals, there's never any idle chatter about how the food isn't good enough or how I'm fit for marriage and all that……. That's right. Yes. Those things are what I like!"

"Those are basic courtesy, I believe."

"Asking someone out of nowhere whether they like you isn't courtesy either!"

"I apologize."

Bertram bowed his head.

This brought his face sweeping down from its considerable height and arriving directly in front of her in an instant. Anna ducked her own head deeper to hide the color rising in her cheeks.

The feeling that had been about to bloom clamped tightly shut again. The sweetness spreading through her mouth disappeared with it.

Her heart was going thump-thump. She forced herself to ignore it and sorted through her thoughts quickly.

'He's a good person, but liking him that way isn't allowed! Falling for a stranger is something only children do. He's going to leave someday!'

He's going to leave.

The moment the thought finished, the warmth that had been filling one side of her chest went cold all at once. As if someone had opened a hole where her heart was.

Anna immediately tipped the rest of the apple cider into her mouth. Her chest warmed back up.

"Anna. You haven't got anything to eat with the cider. Are you sure you're all right?"

"Fine! I—I'll be heading back down now. I just need to send the knight up tomorrow, right? So if you'll excuse me!"

"I'll walk with you."

Bertram rose and followed. Anna quickened her steps to keep her tangled expression out of sight, but she had no chance of outpacing someone who could clear a wide ditch in a single stride.

"Stop following me! What if the pursuers see you?"

"I'll find a different path back. Go comfortably."

"Comfortably, he says……"

However hard she tried to pull away, his footsteps shortened the distance in moments. Anna chose a different route—a children's shortcut where thornbushes scraped the top of your head and the path was barely wide enough to be called one.

She ducked slightly and went through. One step, and the mud arrived. Naturally. There was always a reason for paths that nobody used.

Bertram snapped through several thornbushes and was proceeding straight ahead when mud slid under his feet. He stopped.

"Anna. I won't follow any further—please come out of that path. It looks dangerous."

"……"

If anyone else had said that, she'd have told them to mind their own business and kept running.

Somehow, with Bertram, she wanted to listen.

Anna stopped too.

"About earlier……. That question coming out of nowhere—I was so caught off guard."

"The fault was mine, for not considering how delicate the subject was. I won't raise such a rude question again."

"That's obvious! What I want to ask you is something different."

"What is it?"

"……Please wait until I tell you my feelings myself. For a good long while."

She wanted to be able to bring this feeling out in words. And when that time came, she wanted Bertram to be somewhere within reach of her gaze.

It was a selfish thing to ask of someone being hunted, even as she said it—but Bertram nodded. He didn't seem likely to follow. Anna finally turned and hopped clear of the mud onto the drier side of the path. Dry ground was only a little further down.

But then.

Bertram said what he should not have said.

"I find that I hope Anna likes me."

Her foot came down in the wrong place.

The mud slid smoothly away. Her balance went with it. She reached on instinct for solid ground—

And what her hands met was not solid ground but a pile of slowly rotting leaves.

"Ah——!"

"Anna!"

The leaves scatter. No ground beneath them. The water channel that has carved itself deeper every summer yawns open below, nothing but air.

She tried to drag a scream out—

It was buried almost immediately.

Bertram had thrown himself forward and gathered her into his arms.

"……Damn."

Karlah suppressed the urge to go find a cigarette.

The middle of the night. Somehow her daughter had vanished.

'No wonder my dreams were rotten tonight.'

She'd dreamed of Anna crawling into a bear's den. An ill feeling in her gut brought her to her daughter's door. Empty bed.

On the chance she was wrong, she checked the restaurant kitchen. A fair amount of food had disappeared as well.

That settled it.

'She's gone to feed Bertram.'

Yesterday, this would have been the kind of thing Karlah would have dismissed with a small laugh.

Tonight was different. They had agreed to send Bertram out of the village. The tie between them should have ended today.

But Anna had gone to find him—which meant she knew where he was. Which meant they had built a secret between just the two of them, hidden from her mother.

'I'm an idiot. I actually believed our girl was sensible.'

The savings jar was still in the room, at least. She wanted to believe Anna hadn't done something foolish like run off together. Unless, of course, Bertram had said something like money doesn't matter, all I need is you—though that level of nonsense was probably beyond even him.

Karlah was still weighing whether to alert the night watch when a bell rang outside.

Not wolves.

Three times each, twice over.

What this pattern of bells meant was——

"What is it?"

"Squeal!"

The voice was Franz's. He couldn't have been awake a moment before, but it came out clear.

"I thought my heart had stopped! Were you even awake?"

"I'm trained to rise immediately at unusual sounds." A pause. "What is this bell?"

"Ah. It rings when thieves break into the communal farm."

"Thieves. At the farm."

"There's a rumor—completely baseless—that treasure is buried there. The idiots who believe it occasionally turn up with tools, and——" Karlah stopped. "Sir Knight. What are you doing?"

Franz had begun kicking his soldiers awake. They rose with sleep-creased faces and stood before him, rumpled but present.

His voice came out low.

"Thieves intruding near the village. We eliminate them. Swiftly."

"Sir!"

Two soldiers ran for the stable. Karlah, bewildered, asked again.

"Sir Knight. What are you doing?"

"Protecting the residents."

"It isn't even your village——"

"A knight's sword is given by His Majesty to protect the people. Wherever we stand, we are your shield." A brief pause. "Even when unpleasant things have passed between us."

He shook his bandaged arm in front of her and gave her a small pfft of a smile.

Then he drew his sword and swung it—demonstratively, clearly for her benefit. Karlah had no education in swordsmanship. She could tell, regardless, that there was not a single wasted motion.

"Your arm really is injured, then."

"Movement presents no problem."

"So you've been perfectly well this entire time, and yesterday you talked all that nonsense."

"Really, to the very end——"

Franz's lips twitched.

Now what will he say, Karlah thought. Something about a commoner who keeps pushing back to the very end?

She was watching him with frank curiosity when——

"Ready!" The soldiers emerged leading horses.

"Understood. We move."

Five men rode hard toward the communal farm.

Karlah let out what she'd been holding.

"Damn it all to hell."

Just as well Anna wasn't here to see it. A knight with a face like that putting on a show of heroism—what girl in the world wouldn't feel her heart move?

But worrying about imaginary Anna could wait.

If the militia's gone to catch thieves, she thought, I'll have to find the real Anna myself.