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The quiet whisper of his voice was delightful.
It penetrated deep inside, to the very core, causing a pleasant tickle.
Eileen didn't understand what connection there could be between a song and a kiss, but, flushing, she honestly answered his question:
"I don't know how to sing at all..."
Cesare laughed quietly and lightly touched her forehead with his lips.
"Shall we take a walk in the garden?
I rarely have an opportunity to visit this part of the palace."
He didn't look into the main palace where the Emperor lived often.
And in those rare visits, there was hardly time to leisurely admire the garden.
Eileen agreed to follow Cesare.
Her face still remained open.
Cesare himself had asked her to take off her glasses for at least a short while—at this time of day there were almost no people here, so one needn't worry.
He’d said he wanted to see her eyes when they talked.
*‘Unpleasant eyes...
Why does he want to look at them?’* she thought.
But Cesare was always so kind to her that Eileen decided to endure.
*‘If even the slightest shadow of displeasure flickers on his face, I'll put the glasses back on immediately.’*
Holding the glasses at the ready, she walked beside him along the gallery.
On the way to the garden, Eileen opened her mouth several times to say something, but each time she faltered.
Finally she gathered her courage:
"You see... to be honest..."
If the door to the abandoned laboratory wasn't opened, she had nowhere to get money.
She didn't want to sell the brick house—it was her mother's inheritance, and besides, the orange tree in the garden had become almost like family.
With a heavy heart, Eileen decided to honestly tell about her predicament.
She felt as if she’d sink through the floor, but she laid everything out as it was.
"If you allow me to open the laboratory, I can gather a dowry..."
Cesare suddenly stopped.
Eileen, who hadn't noticed this, made a couple more steps before turning back to him.
Cesare covered his face with a hand.
His palm was so big, and his face so refined, that one hand sufficed to hide it completely.
After a short silence, he took a deep breath, exhaled, and lowered his hand.
Eileen, watching him, froze in bewilderment.
On his face a smile still played, which he hadn't managed to hide.
"Who whispered this nonsense to you?" Cesare asked, smiling.
"Ornella?"
Denying was pointless.
Eileen answered hesitantly: "I had completely forgotten about it, but she reminded me.
So...
I thought I needed to start preparing."
He asked again as if he had heard something amusing: "And how much are you going to bring?"
In her head she already had a specific sum, but to say it aloud in Cesare's presence was too humiliating.
Eileen hesitated: "Well... as much as possible..."
"Planning to trade in opium or something?"
"No!
Of course not!" she protested in fright.
"Just among the laboratory equipment there is something valuable.
I thought of selling it..."
Fussily making excuses, she stole glances at Cesare.
From the very start of the conversation, he hadn't stopped smiling, and she couldn't understand why for the life of her.
Finally he laughed and said something completely unexpected:
"The dowry has already been received."
Eileen didn't understand what he was talking about.
For a moment it seemed to her that perhaps her father had already paid the dowry, but that was impossible.
More likely a shape-shifting cat, running past, would have left a bag of gold—that was easier to believe.
"Forgive me, Your Grace...
May I ask who paid the dowry?"
Cesare unexpectedly held out a hand.
She winced when his fingers approached her breast, but he only took her silver pocket watch from the inner pocket of her jacket.
Winking, he showed it to Eileen.
"Lady Elrod."
"Your Grace..." Eileen could only squeeze out.
A single platinum item as a dowry from the Grand Duke Erzet!
Apparently he had pitied her and decided to close his eyes to formalities.
But even so, it was too much.
"But, Your Grace, this is..."
"Must I remind you how to call me?"
"C-Cesare..." she murmured embarrassedly.
For some reason, pronouncing his name by the light of day was unbearably shameful.
She shook her head, trying to banish strange thoughts, and continued: "It's too pittance a sum for a dowry."
Cesare didn't answer.
The sun vanished behind clouds, and the garden plunged into semi-darkness.
In the thickening twilight, a strange smile lit up his face.
Seeing it, Eileen suddenly remembered that day from childhood when she had first sensed his danger.
"Eileen," he began slowly.
"Once...
I had just such a watch.
It was a thing left by an executed criminal."
Already the fact that Cesare had had a simple platinum watch seemed incredible.
But belonging to an executed man?
Many hunted for the things of the executed, believing they brought luck.
But Cesare was never superstitious.
He despised everything unscientific—superstitions, astrology, ancient legends.
"It was broken, even the hands didn't move...
But I cherished it like the most precious treasure." He spoke easily, as if of a trifle, but in his voice an unliftable weight was felt.
"It turned out it was needed to return."
His smile became even wider.
"Therefore, I broke it with my own hands, Eileen."
With these words, more like a confession of self-destruction, Cesare sharply yanked her by the wrist.
He pulled her to him so strongly that the jacket slid from her shoulders to the ground, but no one paid any attention to it.
Cesare leaned in and whispered in her ear:
"And now you have given me exactly the same.
Are they not priceless?"
Eileen, frozen in his arms, forced her lips apart with difficulty: "Cesare..."
"A dowry is no longer needed." He squeezed her even harder.
Her breath caught from pain, but she didn't utter a word.
Despite the brute force, his voice sounded tender: "I have already received more than I deserve."
***
Ornella flopped onto the sofa and nervously fidgeted with her feet.
A maid immediately approached, picked up the hem of her dress, and carefully removed her shoes.
Neatly placing them nearby, she began to massage the stiff feet clad in silk stockings.
Ornella reached out a hand—a second maid removed a glove and handed her a pre-prepared lit cigar.
Ornella took a drag so deep her cheeks hollowed.
Leaning back on the sofa and throwing her head back, she exhaled—clouds of smoke dispersed around the room.
In fact, she preferred thick cigars.
But smoking thick cigars was considered indecent for a woman, so in public she smoked only thin cigarettes.
When the refined Ornella, having lit a thin cigarette, lazily blew smoke, men lost their heads, admiring her unusual charm.
And she herself found this sight quite sexy.
However, the fame of a young aristocrat who abused smoking could damage her reputation, so she seduced only those she wanted to entice with smoke.
Hearing that Cesare had arrived at the palace, she’d immediately rushed there, deciding an opportune moment had come.
"Ha!" Remembering the humiliation, Ornella snorted.
It just wouldn't fit in her head!
She’d known about Eileen Elrod for a long time.
The daughter of the wet nurse who’d raised Cesare.
A girl who’d visited the Imperial Palace since childhood and enjoyed his favor.
Cesare's biological mother was a palace servant.
Having spent a night with the Emperor, she hadn't merited his attention again.
But that single night sufficed: she gave birth to twins—princes.
Leone, who’d inherited the traits of the former Emperor and his blue eyes, she’d loved madly, and Cesare she’d fiercely hated.
His raven hair and blood-red eyes had seemed sinister to her.
Mother hadn't breastfed Cesare even once, so the wet nurse had raised him, one could say, alone.
Therefore, the special attention Cesare paid to the wet nurse's daughter had seemed explicable.
One good turn deserves another, as they say.
But taking as a wife a pet he’d kept out of pity?
Ornella couldn't understand his motives.
Or rather, didn't want to understand.