At dawn after a sleepless night, Scarlett finished her usual routine with breakfast and reading the newspaper.
“Because of that guy, I didn't sleep at all.”
She muttered as she got up, complaining.
He came in the middle of the night bleeding, frightened her, and then disappeared as he pleased.
Scarlett continued cursing Victor, then looked at the clock and found that it was still early.
She tried to focus on work, but Victor's antics yesterday worried her.
She wanted to warn him not to come to her shop without permission again, but she remembered the scratch on his white neck and the blood flowing, and his bitter expression.
Scarlett went to Liv's Bakery to buy bread for lunch, and unconsciously chose dry bread that seemed suitable for soaking up the booze.
Liv ran over and asked, "What's wrong, Scarlett?
Have you been drinking?"
“No, not me...”
“Count Isaac?”
Scarlett shook her head: “My ex-husband came in drunk.”
“What?”
“I'm not going to give it to him.
I just suddenly wanted to eat it...”
Liv's eyes widened, and Scarlett frowned and asked, "Why that expression?"
"You're attached!
You're attached!"
"What?"
“You!
Aren’t you related to your ex-husband?”
"No, no.
How can you say something so scary?
I can't relate.
Do you know what he did to me?"
“Then why do you buy bread you've never eaten before?”
“I'll really eat it.”
Scarlett quickly paid for the bread and left the bakery as if she had committed a crime.
She opened the bag and inhaled the scent of freshly baked potato bread: “It looks delicious.
I’ll eat it.”
She muttered resolutely and headed home, but stopped when she saw Victor standing in front of the building.
After the chaos he caused yesterday, it was in his nature to come back and apologize.
Scarlett unconsciously hid the bag of bread behind her back.
Victor came a little closer and asked: “What are you hiding?”
“…bread”
“Bread?”
“I was afraid you would take him.”
She bit her lip in embarrassment after saying that.
Even if he was starving, he would not touch other people's plate, he was Victor Domfelt.
Maybe he didn't understand the idea of taking bread.
Or perhaps, after seeing pirates, he became accustomed to plundering...
“Shall I take your bread?”
As I expected, Victor asked in surprise.
Scarlett replied in confusion: “You came suddenly yesterday, you might suddenly want to take the bread… right?”
It felt convincing.
But when I looked at him, he was laughing sarcastically.
"Why are you laughing?
What's so funny?"
“I apologize for my behavior yesterday.
It seems you were very surprised.”
As I expected, he apologized, and Scarlett nodded.
She patted her neck and asked, “What about the wound?”
Victor removed his scarf, revealing the wound treated with a clean cloth.
I asked again: “Why did that happen?”
“My mother stabbed me”
“What?”
Scarlett froze.
Victor pointed to the bag of bread: “Why don’t you join me?”
“I don't have a silver tray or a pre-meal drink.
All I have is coffee.”
She led the way to the store.
“It smells good,” Victor said.
“It's fresh.
Try the potato bread, it's very chewy.”
Victor took bread out of the bag, looked at it, and then began to eat.
Scarlett took one, tore it off, chewed it and said, “Warm and delicious.”
Victor didn't answer, he just ate the bread slowly as if he was eating the bark of a tree.
Scarlett had never seen him say “yummy.”
“Not delicious?”
"no."
“Delicious?”
"I don't know."
"normal?"
"Yes."
He seems to find most food ordinary.
An ideal environment, servants who attend to everything with the movement of a hand, and an appearance that everyone aspires to.
Maybe because he is so idealistic, he finds everything ordinary.
Scarlett looked at him, then brought a chessboard and placed it on the table.
The two started playing without talking.
Scarlett got used to it quickly and won two rounds in a row.
In the third round, she spoke: “How about you lose with more creativity?”
“I didn't try hard enough”
“Don't intend to lose at all.”
Scarlett scolded him, then asked: “Why did you come?”
“After my actions yesterday, it would be strange if I didn’t show up.”
“Why did you even come yesterday?”
Victor replied calmly: “Because I was drunk and I missed you.”
Scarlett's expression froze.
After a long silence, she said: “You said you didn’t ask why we divorced because you were drunk.”
“I too am evolving”
“Why did you miss me when you were drunk?
Did you have anything to say?”
“Isn’t it normal for me to miss the one I loved?”
Scarlett responded sarcastically: “Victor, I am the one who loved you.
Your love was not love.”
“What a pity, we talk about love so easily.”
“Because my love is cold, and you don't even know what love feels like.
So it's easy.”
While she was speaking, the first floor bell rang, signaling the arrival of a customer.
Scarlett grabbed a scarf and said, “Stay here.
Leave after the customer leaves.
Understood?”
Victor replied: “Don’t worry, I am a soldier, I obey orders well.”
The man who was far from joking was only joking today.
Scarlett felt strange and disturbed by his sudden ease.
I stared at him and went down the stairs.
Jane DeLuis, owner of several buildings on the street, was standing with her daughter, Ida DeLuis, who also owned the building.
“Mrs.
DeLouis?”
“Miss Scarlett”
Jane introduced her daughter: “You know my daughter, right?
She is seventeen years old this year.”
“Yes, I've seen her a few times.”
“The Crimson family is noble, so I would like you to take my daughter to the ball tomorrow.”
“As an escort?”
Jane continued: “I know you are too young to be an attendant, but the noble lady I found is sick.
I will pay you well.”
In Salantir, female companions were usually women who were not planning to marry, often ladies who had been married for at least twenty years.
But the story of Scarlet Crimson being expelled from the Doomfelt family because of Victor's anger was famous.
People thought that no one would risk his anger to marry her.
Love may be possible, but marrying her is not appropriate.
Jane looked at Scarlett's worn dress and said anxiously: "I don't know if you have a dress.
Were you expelled without alimony?"
“Why not?
I opened a store.”
“But you have to work.”
“Watchmaking is a Crimson family tradition”
Jane looked skeptical.
Scarlett continued: “But I lived in the west of the capital during my marriage, so I may not know anyone in the eastern community.
Maybe look for someone else?”
Being the owner of the building made it difficult to refuse her outright.
For Jane's part, she didn't want to lose the opportunity to send her daughter to the ball with a noble woman like Scarlett.
“How much is the difference between parts of the capital?” Jane said.
“I will think more”
“You better think better.”
Her last words sounded threatening because of their urgency.
Scarlett thought it might be a good fit.
After calming Jane and her daughter down and sending them away, Scarlett closed the door and sighed.
She walked up the stairs and stopped in front of the door.
Victor was leaning back in the chair, looking at her workbench like a statue.
The side of his face was as stunning as a work of art.
Scarlett still feels suffocated whenever she sees him, even a year after the divorce.
“You can leave now”
Victor changed the subject: “We will share the villa as an expense.”
He seemed to have heard everything that happened downstairs.
He continued: “There is a vineyard and a villa on the way to Lucy Falls.
Let’s make it joint ownership.”
“You owned a vineyard?”
“I bought it for my mother, but now it is under legal quarantine, and I am its guardian, so it is mine.”
Victor got up from the chair: “I will send a cart, choose a date.”
Scarlett responded belatedly: “We wrote a prenuptial contract.
Your property is yours, and mine is mine.
Opening the store was already too much.”
“It was not an alimony, but a hidden deal with my father without my knowledge.”
It wasn't a mistake, but describing it as a deal made her feel like she had committed a crime.
“It's okay”
“Think of it as a dignity expense.
I can’t believe my ex-wife is being asked for things like this.”
“Things like this?”
“Introducing a woman from an obscure family to society.
You were a Domfelt woman.
A request like this is not enough for all my wealth.”
Scarlett expected that one day he would object to her lifestyle.
Rather, she secretly praised his understanding for his delay in speaking.
She wasn't sure about breaking his stubbornness, and owning a vineyard and a villa would mean avoiding offers like Jane's.
At the end of the capital's social season, everyone was hoping for an invitation to a party at a country villa.
Whoever hosts such parties has power.
Scarlett asked reluctantly: “So, joint ownership?”
“It will not generate much, but we will divide the profits from the vineyard in half, and the villa will be given to whoever wants to use it on the day he wants.”
“What if the days overlap?”
Victor laughed: “Worried about interference before even visiting her?
Are you going to go often?”
"I want clarity.
I don't want to meet you there.
What if I go and we overlap?"
“Then I will step down, of course, for the sake of a lady.”
...indeed.
Victor would not claim to have arrived first in such a situation.
Moreover, after two years of marriage, she did not know of the existence of a vineyard, so he did not seem to visit it often.
After hesitating, Scarlett said: “Next Wednesday...no, just Wednesday.”
“Okay, Wednesday.”
Victor got up and headed for the door.
“Be careful,” Scarlett said.
Victor responded with a smile instead of a greeting.