---
Eileen slowly opened and closed her eyes, as if not expecting an answer.
Leone again moved his gaze to Cesare and continued:
"In childhood I even envied.
But later understood that it was meaningless.
For a person cannot compare with a god, right?"
Leone softly smiled.
His face shone with pride for his only twin brother.
"I am proud that Cesare is my brother."
His whisper quickly dissolved in the sounds of the piano.
Eileen with difficulty tore her gaze from Leone and again looked at Cesare.
But now she couldn't fully concentrate on the music.
Because in Leone she saw features of someone very familiar.
Her late mother had those same eyes as Leone.
Mother idolized Cesare, considering him her deity.
The inhabitants of the empire too called him the god of war and honored him like a god.
Eileen too considered Cesare great, similar to a deity.
But in the final count, Cesare was only a person.
Not a god.
Suddenly an incomprehensible tremor ran over her body.
In that moment as Eileen squeezed her dress in her hands, the music stopped.
Even before the end of the piece Cesare lowered his hands.
He looked at Eileen with his red eyes.
Having asked him to play, Eileen herself couldn't concentrate on him, and now she startle, as if a pupil caught in a prank.
Cesare silently closed the piano lid and rose from his place.
Leone clapped, but looked disappointed at that.
"Why not finish playing?"
Cesare, who already had approached Leone and Eileen, calmly answered: "I have urgent matters."
The only thing that remained in the schedule was returning home.
Eileen, who understood what Cesare had in mind, with all her might tried not to show a strange reaction.
For example, to redden or to startle.
Cesare, having watched her efforts, for a moment smiled, then looked at Leone.
That one smirked, having met his gaze.
Cesare also smiled, but for some reason said nothing.
The brothers silently looked at each other.
The pause was drawn out.
Just before it became awkward, Cesare's lips curved in a deep arc.
"Brother," he said, looking into Leone's blue eyes.
"Next time you will play."
***
Eileen firmly squeezed in hand the envelope with documents when she sat in the car.
They left the Imperial Palace without a single word.
Cesare didn't say a word to her until they had driven outside the limits of the Imperial Palace.
He only held her by the hand, slightly playing with her fingers.
Eileen sat still, giving him her hand.
Then unexpectedly spoke first: "His majesty..." She began impulsively, but couldn't immediately continue, then cautiously chose words: "Cesare is proud of me."
For Cesare this should have been completely obvious.
An innumerable multitude of people considered him the embodiment of glory.
Eileen didn't decide to say that Leone reminded her of her late mother.
For Cesare, must be, knew this better than she.
They were after all twin brothers.
"Leone was always such," Cesare briefly answered, for some time intently looking at Eileen, then moved his gaze to the window.
"I see the orange tree."
Indeed, in the distance the brick house and the orange tree in the garden were seen.
Eileen quickly pressed her face to the glass to discern it.
Fortunately, the unripe oranges still hung in clusters.
Eileen, who’d been worried if someone had stolen them or if they’d damaged the tree, finally took a breath with relief.
If one thought, who would dare invade the house of the parents of Duchess Erzet?
For Cesare once executed a thief of oranges before all the honest people.
The inhabitants of the empire knew that the Grand Duke Erzet was not merciful.
They sang of him as a hero, but feared his cruelty.
Cesare was not one who left alive those who raised a hand against him.
Even if these were his blood relatives...
Driving away gloomy thoughts, Eileen switched to more pressing concerns.
*‘What about dinner?’* In the brick house surely nothing remained.
If she missed a meal, it wouldn't be scary, but one couldn't leave Cesare hungry.
Seriously concerned by this, Eileen entered the house and gasped from surprise.
On the table already stood a hot dinner.
Apparently, it was prepared exactly for their return, because steam was rising from the food.
"Today you won't manage to feed me with sandwiches," Cesare teased Eileen, taking off the uniform and tossing it over the chair back.
He felt himself here as at home, although he’d visited the brick house only a few times.
It was already their second dinner here.
As in the last time, Eileen experienced an inexpressibly warm feeling, spending with him such simple moments.
She liked how he fit into the atmosphere of the brick house.
It was similar to a dream of family life, to an unattainable fantasy.
Trying to return to herself the feeling of reality, Eileen sat opposite him and murmured in response:
"If you want, I can buy ingredients and make them now..."
Fortunately, Cesare only laughed, not asking her to cook.
After dinner the cleanup, to Eileen's embarrassment, the Grand Duke himself took up.
Because Eileen in the dress moved inconveniently.
Cesare deftly transferred the plates to the kitchen and accurately cleaned everything.
Eileen helplessly turned around behind his back.
She wanted to help, but he didn't let her move.
Besides, in the inconvenient dress she would all the same have helped little.
Having finished the cleanup, Cesare approached Eileen.
Having rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, he threw back slightly disheveled hair and asked: "Should I help you?"
Eileen slightly tilted her head in a questioning gesture, and Cesare, instead of an answer, stretched out a hand and pulled the ribbon of the dress.
One of the ribbons tightening the sleeve easily untied under his fingers.
Eileen bit her lip.
She’d been thinking of the fact that it was necessary to change, and, as he’d said, the dress was difficult to take off alone.
But she didn't dare to undress before Cesare.
Even after the nights spent together she was ashamed.
Eileen hesitated, then asked of the most difficult: "Can you only untie the ribbons on the back..." she whispered.
In that same moment he turned her with her back to himself and immediately began to unravel the complexly tied ribbons.
The fingers having played on the piano keys deftly untied the knots.
When the ribbon tightening her loosened, Eileen involuntarily took a breath.
Then she realized that her breast having risen above the loosened corset could look vulgarly.
She hunched her shoulders, and hot breath touched her bared neck.
A light tremor ran over the skin from his warm exhale.
In the moment when it seemed to her the hair on her body stood on end, Cesare hugged her.
"Ah..." Eileen exhaled.
His hands gripped her waist, and lips pressed to the neck.
She squeezed eyes, feeling how his lips slid over the delicate skin.
Her body which had been heating and cooling the last few days, and in the morning again had been overflowed with heat, immediately flared when Cesare several times touched her neck with lips.
A familiar excitement gripped her.
Having grabbed onto his hand gripping her waist, Eileen hunched her shoulders.
When she emitted a quiet groan, he lead with tongue over her straight neck and whispered: "Eileen."
His low voice forced the tailbone to tremble.
Eileen turned her head to look at him.
Cesare, firmly holding her in embraces, again called by name: "Eileen, Eileen..."
From the way he repeated her name, it became somehow strange to her.
Maybe because of the way his low voice penetrated deep into her eardrums.
He slowly lead with a large hand over her body.
Fingers penetrated under the loosened corset.
Squeezing the soft flesh, he quietly said:
"I saw a dream."
A dream?
An unusual word for Cesare who usually didn't speak of trifles.
"There too we were with you in this place.
I thought it was a beautiful dream, but..." Cesare fell silent and bit Eileen's neck.
Having left a clear trace from teeth, he continued: "But nothing compares with reality."