DTLD 5

Chapter 5

Sometimes He Did Write

“Sacha! Good heavens, Sacha!”

Mr. Vinoc’h came running frantically and lifted Sacha high up in one motion.

“What on earth happened. I heard gunshots. Do you have any idea how alarmed I was when I heard you were over there?”

“A hunting dog came out of the forest. It ran at me to bite me.”

“Those damned bastards!”

Mr. Vinoc’h, indignant, cursed the illegal hunters. Held in Mr. Vinoc’h’s arms, Sacha buried her head. Had her ears gone deaf the moment she heard the gunshot? Even now, all sounds seemed to come from far away.

“Mr. Vinoc’h, look at the child’s hands! Wasn’t she bitten by the dog?”

Startled, Mr. Vinoc’h hurriedly opened Sacha’s tightly clenched palm. The chocolate that had been inside the gold wrapper had long since melted in Sacha’s hand.

“No. I’m fine. I’m not hurt at all.”

Sacha knew. The one who had bled wasn’t her—it was the boy. The dog had lunged to bite Sacha, who was hiding behind the boy, but he had blocked the dog.

“Who fired the gun? He saved you, so we should at least thank him.”

But when Sacha turned and pointed to the boy, he had already vanished. He seemed not to want to be noticed by people.

Sacha returned home on Mr. Vinoc’h’s back. She drew the worry of Mrs. Vinoc’h and the grandmothers, and received a scolding from Enzo. The villagers went into the forest to recover the dog’s carcass, collected the scattered shell casings, and drove the hunters out of Manoli. Even by the time all of that had been settled, no word came of an outsider visiting the doctor.

“He’s a guest of the Lafayette family, isn’t he. He must have gone back to the castle and gotten proper treatment. It’s not something for you to worry about.”

At Enzo’s words, Sacha nodded as if relieved. A few days later, Enzo entered Sacha’s room and found something drying in the sunlight on the windowsill. The cleanly washed gold wrapper gave off a sweet scent. The scent of the chocolate she had clutched tightly the whole way as she walked out of the forest that summer afternoon, holding back tears.

After the hunters fled the village as if running away, Sacha went to the Forest of Manoli every day again. Mr. and Mrs. Vinoc’h worried that Sacha might have met some strange person in the forest, but Grandmother Lolo said to let her do as she liked.

On the tenth day, the spot where he always was sat completely empty. Sacha stood there alone, holding a box of candied chestnuts. It was a gift she’d bought at the Delni shop as thanks for saving her last time. She’d had to empty out all her remaining pocket money, but it didn’t feel like a waste.

‘Where did he go? Did he go back to wherever he lived already?’

Even searching every corner of the forest, she couldn’t see even a shadow of the person she sought. Just as he had appeared, he had vanished like magic when he left. Sacha sat on a tree stump by the stream and untied the pretty pink ribbon on the blue box. The chestnuts she ate alone were so sweet her tongue tingled.

“I hear graduates get their call-up orders sooner. They have to go to their posts before summer ends.”

When Sacha returned home, she heard from Enzo that Count Lafayette’s son had returned to school.

“He must have known in advance, right?”

“Of course. Why, are you sulking because he left without a word?”

He could have at least said goodbye. Sacha felt the sulkiness Enzo mentioned. But she also knew this was only natural. From the beginning, that person had had no interest in her at all. To him, she must have been nothing but an annoying, troublesome little girl. At that thought, Sacha shut herself in her room and moped for about two days.

Fortunately, Sacha’s spirits recovered quickly. The mail coach had arrived carrying Enzo’s academy acceptance letter. Because Manoli was such a remote countryside, sending Enzo’s luggage all the way to the academy in Ulois meant they had to escort Enzo to Illemand, the midpoint.

“It’s vacation, so why don’t you come along too, Sacha?”

Mr. Vinoc’h suggested that Sacha join the journey to Illemand as well. Sacha, far too excited, forgot all about the Hawthorn Manor and the boy she’d met in the Forest of Manoli, and threw herself into packing her travel bag.

The sky on the long-awaited departure day was as blue as she’d hoped. Setting out with Mrs. Vinoc’h and the grandmothers seeing her off, Sacha arrived at the station and took a deep breath. Holding Mr. Vinoc’h’s hand tightly in one hand and a train ticket in the other, she headed for the platform.

After waiting a long while on a yellow-painted bench, the train came in from afar. A terrifyingly huge, pitch-black mass of iron was moving on its own, belching smoke overhead. At the deafening whistle that seemed to tear her ears apart, Sacha hurriedly covered her ears. Only then did Enzo recall that their father had brought Sacha from Laurant by ship, and that this was Sacha’s first train journey.

“It’s all right. It’ll be safe.”

Enzo reassured the frightened Sacha. The waiting passengers began boarding one by one, but Sacha couldn’t bring herself to step into the car.

“But what if it stops halfway?”

“Never. The Bricenne Ministry of Transportation has never once caused a derailment or overturning accident. Sacha. You’re riding the fastest and safest means of transport in the world right now.”

At those words, her stiffly frozen shoulders relaxed a little. Curious, Sacha asked Mr. Vinoc’h.

“Why can’t we go by carriage?”

“With a carriage, you have to rest the horses along the way. But a train can run without resting even at night.”

Mr. Vinoc’h likewise didn’t know much in detail about this gigantic, groundbreaking invention that science and technology had produced relatively recently. Still, he explained as much as he knew, as patiently as he could. Fortunately, Sacha accepted it easily, and they were able to board the train’s third-class car without delay.

The train to Illemand screeched loudly and came to a stop. It seemed that while derailments and overturnings never happened, stopping midway did occasionally occur. Sacha, who had been pressed flat against the third-class window, jumped up and helped Mr. Vinoc’h unload the luggage.

“There’s a problem with the boiler room. It looks like we’ll have to stay here for a few days until the next train comes.”

Enzo, who had gone to find out the situation, came running back breathlessly with the awkward news. Mr. Vinoc’h, who had been guarding the luggage, wore a look of dismay. Beside him, Sacha sat quietly holding her own travel bag, clutching the handle tied with a pink scarf inherited from Grandmother Elodie in a ribbon shape.

“We’ll have to find somewhere to stay here until the next train comes, somehow. I’ll go send a telegram to Manoli first, so you two wait here.”

After Mr. Vinoc’h left with a troubled face, Sacha had to sit side by side with Enzo on the bench where their luggage was piled and wait. Her first train journey had hit an unexpected problem right at the start, but this wasn’t so bad either. Sacha had a habit of always trying to think positively, and she possessed the ability to do it splendidly.

‘This place is enormous and there are so many more people. So the Manoli station really did have hardly any customers.’

The platform where the train had stopped was incomparably larger and more developed than what she’d seen in Manoli. The passersby were dressed far more stylishly too, making it fun to watch. Sacha was about to answer Enzo, who was trying to comfort her, that she was actually quite enjoying herself right now.

Just then, an elegant four-wheeled carriage drawn by two fine black horses stopped before them.

“Sacha. Don’t tell me you have nowhere to stay?”

A young noblewoman draped in a silk cape asked kindly. When Sacha didn’t recognize her, she lifted her large feathered hat slightly in greeting. It was the Marchioness Bell, who had been a first-class passenger.

“If you have nowhere to go, come with me. I have a cousin who lives nearby.”

She glanced to the side, but Enzo was frozen in surprise at the unexpected situation. Sacha promptly nodded, adding the condition that it was only if her father permitted it. The marchioness readily agreed and had the coachman load their luggage.

By the time Mr. Vinoc’h returned from sending the telegram, the marchioness’s coachman had already loaded all their luggage onto the carriage. Startled, Mr. Vinoc’h asked Sacha.

“Sacha. How on earth does the marchioness know you, and why is she offering to take us with her?”

“Last time, I went to the first-class car to run an errand for Mr. Martin. But I didn’t know she was the marchioness.”

At Sacha’s words, Mr. Vinoc’h and Enzo both dropped their jaws. Sacha, who quickly grew close to anyone, had soon become friendly with the train attendants as well. She often moved between the cars, helping with simple errands in exchange for coins or snacks.

But they had only heard that there was a noblewoman in the first-class car who doted on Sacha—they had never dreamed of trying to find out who she was. Mr. Vinoc’h was a Manoli man and ignorant of Laurant’s social circles, but even he knew that the marchioness was a noblewoman of very high standing, and a distant relative of Prince Eugène, the queen’s husband.

“Aren’t you coming along? I sent a telegram the moment the train stopped, so by now the duchess will be waiting anxiously.”

The coachman holding the reins urged impatiently. There was also an implicit question: surely you wouldn’t refuse this precious opportunity? Sacha and her companions hurriedly climbed into the carriage without time to deliberate further. The marchioness’s pale yellow open carriage, carrying the three family members, set off from the crowded station and began to run.