“Can we sit for a moment?” Roy asked, gesturing at the white wooden bench that stood in the middle of the park. “Over there?”
“Yes, sure.”
Scarlett stayed behind, sitting at a bench near the bridge where she would wait for her mistress. She tagged along as Lucy’s chaperone but would grant her milady and the lieutenant some privacy to talk. She kept her eyes on them all the time, though, as a good chaperone was supposed to do.
After they sat down, Lucy tried to ignore the man’s scar as best as she could, but it was as if she was pulled to it.
Roy shook his head, smiling. “Do you maybe want to touch it too?” he asked, amusingly.
“I’m so sorry.” Lucy felt her cheeks getting warmer. She probably had the color of a tomato right now. Why was she staring at the man so shamelessly?
“Don’t be, Lucy. I know it’s strange to suddenly see me like this.
Roy had even longer hair than before, which fell around his face, partially hiding the scar. However, the fringed mark was too large to be concealed completely. It ran from his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth.
“Did it hurt?” Lucy asked.
“I can’t remember much when it happened. But later, after I’d woken up? Yeah, it hurt.”
“What happened?”
Roy scrunched his eyebrows, looking serious.
“During one evening, I heard screams coming from out of the woods. Turned out three of our own men were trying to rape a woman. Despicable creatures,” Roy said and he spat at the ground, cursing them.
“Oh my God,” Lucy gasped. “What devils!”
“I got into a huge fight where they left me more dead than alive. I only got off the hook and survived because the woman fetched a few other commanders who came to my rescue. If she wouldn’t have done that… if she wouldn’t have gone to get help, I would surely be dead.”
“Thank heaven. You helped her, and she helped you. You are a hero, Roy.”
“Pfff, please.” Roy scoffed. “It was simply my duty as a man to help a woman in need.”
“Not every man would have done the same.”
Roy ignored the younger’s praise. “How have you been?” he asked, looking at her with admiration. “You look... happy.”
“I’m okay. I’m happy, I guess. Yeah. It’s quiet without my sisters, though.”
Lucy looked at Scarlett, who was so beautiful, sitting there on the bridge bench while blossom petals fell down on her like pink snow.
Yes. Scarlett made her happy.
“Your family must be blind not to see the adoration you hold for that woman,” Roy said.
“...!”
Lucy looked at Roy and saw him watching Scarlett as well.
“She is your lover, isn’t she? Has been that for quite a while too, hm?” Roy asked as he looked at the redhead again.
“I-I—”
“There’s no need to deny anything. I’ve seen you two in our garden, in the labyrinth, the night before I left. That encounter was actually the reason I left, Lucy.”
“You—you saw us?”
“I did.”
“W-what have you—” Lucy swallowed before she looked at Scarlett in pure panic.
Scarlett must have seen her flushed face and panicky eyes already because the maid was hasting in their direction.
Roy waited for Scarlett before he spoke again. “Sit down, Scarlett.”
“What is going on here? Did something happen, Lucy? What did he say?” Scarlett asked, ignoring Roy’s command.
The man held his arms in the air. “Calm down, will you? I only told Lucy I saw you two getting… uh… quite intimate in our garden, that one night before I left. It was actually the reason I left in the first place.”
Now, two pairs of panicking eyes were looking at the lieutenant.
“I couldn’t stand it.” Roy looked at Lucy. “Seeing you with someone else. But I also couldn’t keep you away from the one you loved. I was angry, believe me, I was. But I’m not anymore.”
“You will not tell anyone, will you?” Lucy asked. “Please?”
She already knew how mama and papa would react. They would take Scarlett away from her, throw her out on the streets.
Lucy would die without her woman.
“I will not tell a soul.”
“Thank you,” Scarlett said. “But there is something else, isn’t there? This wasn’t what you wanted to talk about.”
“Will you first sit down, woman? You’re making me nervous,” Roy asked when Scarlett was still standing right in front of his nose and his only view was the black cotton of her dress.
When she sat beside Lucy, Roy started talking.
“Hear me out, okay?” he whispered, so other people wouldn’t be able to hear it.
Lucy nodded.
“Marry me, Lucy.” When the redhead opened her mouth to talk, Roy raised his finger. “Hear me out, first.” He said again. “I met someone. The lady that took care of me, actually. She and I fell in love. The love I once felt for you was very real, but I know now that it wasn’t true love. But Angela and I, we are destined to be together. She loves me for me, you know? Not for my money or for my status. She fell for me when I laid weak and half dead and knew I was going to be monstrously deformed for life.”
Roy’s twinkling eyes looked serious again.
“But we can never be together, just like you two can never be together. She has a child while she was never married and she is a woman of color as well. I don’t care about that at all, but you know how society is. If I marry her, I would disgrace my family, horrible as that may sound. Celina can never marry and start a family of her own and Jack, Minnie and my parents will be outcasts of the aristocratic society. I can’t be that selfish. But I want her, Lucy. I want her so badly. So, marry me. You can bring Scarlett to our home as your servant, and I can bring Angela and her son, as well. Nobody needs to know. We could only tell the ones we truly trust.”
“...?”
Roy took a deep breath. “Now you can talk.”
“I-uh… Oh my God, I don’t know what to say. You really think this can work?”
If it could work, this would be a way for her and Scarlett to be together. The only way. Until forever. Roy was right, nobody needed to know.
Of course, the marriage wouldn’t be ideal, she and Roy would still need to keep up with a facade and Scarlett would never be openly hers, but this was a way to have it all. As close to having it all as it could be!
“Lucy, please think—” Scarlett started.
“No, Scarlett, don’t you get it? This is the solution!” Lucy looked at Roy. “Do you really think we can make this work?”
“I wouldn’t see why not. We shouldn’t live in the city where lots of people will pay attention to us, and we can’t have a large household with many servants, because we can only bring people we truly trust, but we could buy a small house in the countryside. Your life will not be luxurious, but I know you and I know that’s not what you desire. People will also talk about your hideous husband, but I know you don’t care about that either. We will make the perfect pair. Living together, yet apart, together with the ones we love.”
Roy stood up. “Think about it. Talk about it. Please give me an answer before next week. If you accept, we’ll talk about further terms.”
“Further terms?”
“Yes. Further terms.”
The man hopped on the saddle of his horse and took off.
Lucy’s heart was beating hard against her ribs, full of excitement. This was the way!
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