Chapter 67: Chapter 67 I want to live next door to her house (5)
Wendy wasn’t the type of woman who was generous enough to care about Lard’s soft spot.
As he showed he was backing off, she went more on the offensive as if she wanted to stop him from visiting her place, be it her house or shop. While trying to be tough to him as best she could, she had a victorious expression on her face when he finally gave in.
“… Okay, let me refrain from visiting your shop and house.”
Wendy nodded in satisfaction, picking up the words that he reluctantly spat out. But there was some sort of mysterious bitterness in her nodding and something somber in his expression. Neither of them noticed it.
“Now, can I come inside?”
She opened the door with a feeble sigh instead of answering. Of course, she could tell him that she could take care of herself without any problem, but she didn’t. She didn’t resist him stepping into her house not because she was satisfied with his vow to refrain from visiting her, but because she noticed the fatigue on his face.
As soon as she entered the house, she picked up the flint lying on the fireplace.
But he stopped her, saying, “Let me make the fire at the fireplace, so just take care of your work.”
She handed him the flint in her hand. She didn’t realize that while receiving the flint, he was looking down at her wounded index finger.
He quickly made a fire, using the flint. As if he tried to repay his debt to her when he warmed up at the fireplace on his first visit to her house, he seemed to be very active.
She stared at his back with an awkward expression. It was the first time someone else built a fire in her house, and she never thought that person would be Lard Schroder, the chief imperial knight.
She felt uncomfortable around the man in front of the fireplace.
There was the sound of fire moving on the wood. She felt that the warmth of the fire was spreading into the living room.
She shrugged once and pretended to be busy making a bed for him. All she did was put a thick blanket on the parlor sofa.
When she was done, she talked to him as if she were doing him a kindness, “Would you like to wash up first?”
He looked back at her with a little embarrassment when she said that. She noticed his unusual expression belatedly, and felt embarrassed because of the romantic implications..
“Oh, I live in this house alone, so the first floor bathroom is not good for washing. It doesn’t flush well. You had better use the bathroom on the second floor. ”
Having said that, she turned her head. He nodded once as if he understood.
She stayed put in the kitchen while he was washing. She prepared a pot of warm water for him and placed it on the living room table. She also put hot water in a leather pouch to keep him warm and placed it on a blanket.
After she heard him coming down to the first floor after showering, she climbed up to the second floor not to bump into him.
The bathroom was still warm when she opened its sliding door. Given his rank and position, he might have been served by someone else in his daily life, but the inside of the bathroom was neatly organized and clean. At first, she felt strange inside the bathroom because she was using the bathroom right after a man used it. So, she sprinkled water all over the place and hummed a strange song fifteen times. She was done taking a bath only after she sprinkled water all over the bathroom.
Then she returned to her room next to the bathroom and locked the door securely.
The Poison Teeth plant that was dozing in the flower pot hanging on the door frame opened its petals, startled by her leaving the latch outside.
Sitting on the bed and drying her hair, she strained her ears to listen to his movement downstairs. It was a really long time ago that she spent the night at her house with someone else, so she felt very nervous.
‘What is he doing now? He looked so tired. Is he already asleep? His voice was hoarse…’
Complicated thoughts continued in her mind like ants continuously flocking towards a picnic in the grass. The procession of ants eventually stopped at the jars of marinated herbal roots. Like the ants who were busy moving to save food for winter, she stopped thinking and put on a nightgown. She cautiously opened the tightly locked door, looked at the Poison Teeth dozing off in the door frame at the moment, and muffled her steps while descending the stairs.
When she came down to the first floor, he was looking into the fire in the fireplace without sleeping.
‘He must be very tired. Why can’t he go to sleep yet? Is he going to repay his debt for the fireflies in the forest the other day?’
She shook her head, watching him busy watching the fireplace.
When she entered the kitchen and opened the cupboard where the stone jar was placed, she noticed the light-red glass bottle among lots of bottles.
Her heart suddenly began to beat hard when she noticed it. Was it because she wouldn’t have done it usually?
‘What the heck am I doing now?’ She sighed alone.
Wasn’t it awkward for her to be here in the kitchen to make tea for him at this late hour?
She barely hid her awkwardness and reached over the cupboard. She took pains to stand on her tiptoes to pull down each of the jars. When she tried to pull down a wide bowl, she accidentally touched a bowl underneath perhaps because of her awkward movement. The plates stacked neatly on top seemed to be collapsing and she lost her balance.
Astonished, she tried to extend both hands to grab them, but it was too late.
She closed her eyes and turned her head sideways to avoid the plates crumbling over her head.
“…What’s going on at this late hour?”
What followed was not the clanking of the plates but Lard’s tired voice.
Cold liquid flowed down her cheeks. She smelled a sweet lemon scent.
“Sir Schroder…”
When she opened her eyes again, she saw him holding the plates. One of the glass bottles that he couldn’t catch was leaking liquid from it’s loose lid, dripping lemon tea onto her cheeks.
He hurriedly put the plates back on the cupboard and turned his eyes to her as she stood stiffly next to him. As if she was stunned, she was looking into his dark blue eyes silently. He saw some liquid on one of her cheeks. The familiar and pleasing lemon scent filled the kitchen. It looked like her hair was touching the spilled liquid on her cheek. He put his hand on her cheek unconsciously, to her surprise.
He lightly wiped the lemon liquid on her cheek with his index finger, but he couldn’t easily take his finger off. He came closer to her as if the sticky lemon fixed his hand on her cheek. He smelled her skin, which seemed to bury the lemon scent in the kitchen. She felt dizzy.
Suddenly, she stiffened like a starched cotton cloth. She felt strange about the atmosphere in the kitchen, but she did not know how to cope with the situation. She felt as if the sticky lemon tea bound her body.
She saw his wet hair. His gray eyes were trembling like a starlight on an autumn river. As the the reeds in the field were shaken by the wind, or a flock of birds gathered in the field soared to the sky and headed south, she closed her eyes without knowing what else to do.
She voiced no resistance now. Looking at her face with her eyes closed, as if he had been meant to do it for a long time, he kissed her.
She felt the touch of his soft lips but didn’t resist. It was a gentle and cautious kiss, as if he touched a flower to his lips. Maybe it was the opposite. It may have been a desperate kiss like a man who got lost on a remote mountain trail touched his lips to water out of thirst.
Feeling dizzy, she felt the reality surrounding her was eerie.
He gently held her trembling shoulders. She naturally put her hands around his waist and held the thin hem of her nightgown’s sleeves.
At that moment, she thought of a tree before she knew it.
Why did she think of it? A tree that appeared faintly in her distant consciousness came to her mind. At least, she believed so. It was a tree that came to mind as if it wiped out her complicated thoughts.
Although she recalled it instantly, the stream of consciousness reached her fingertips.
At that moment, she heard a slight noise around her index finger on his back.
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