Chapter 8
“We’ll bring your medicine after mealtimes. Rest until then.”
“Oh, okay.”
Tina hid her anxiety as she watched the servants file out of the room.
“Sorry, this might be bitter.”
In the end, that night Tina had no choice but to resort to the only solution she could think of.
‘It needs to eat somehow.’
Tina thought, trickling medicine into the small creature’s mouth. Thankfully, while the little one whimpered the first few times, it soon settled quietly in her arms and accepted the medicine.
“You’ll be healthy again soon.”
That night, having been on edge the entire time, Tina collapsed into sleep the moment she finished administering the medicine. Perhaps that was why in her dreams, she thought she saw the creature lying beside her slowly open its eyes and study her for a long, long time.
***
Time passed quickly. One week since Tina had brought the small creature to the estate. The little one, which once could barely open its eyes, now breathed easily and held Tina’s gaze for long stretches.
Naturally, the hours they spent alone together without the maids grew longer with each passing day. As Tina gradually recovered, the maids who had been visiting her room out of obligation stopped coming to the annex altogether.
When they were alone in the room, Tina would pass the time touching the soft pads of the creature’s paws as it sat quietly on the blanket, or gently stroking its tufts of fur.
“You know, you might not feel the same, but I’m really glad I met you.”
Tina would say such things while gazing into the creature’s bright yellow eyes. The sense of being needed by another living being brought Tina more comfort than she could have imagined.
More time passed, until the ninth night.
“I’m cold.”
Tina opened her eyes to a chill that cut through to the bone. The moment she woke, the sharp cold brought a wave of bewilderment.
Her room was always a cold place as the fireplace was never lit. But recently, her illness had warranted an exception, and the fire had been kept burning. Now that it had gone out, the cold was seeping in deeper than usual.
Tina, trembling violently, considered calling for the maids to relight the fireplace, but seeing nothing but darkness outside the window, the annex was likely empty. Even if someone had stayed behind, the chances of them granting her request were slim.
“Oh! It must be cold too—”
Tina, who had been staring blankly out at the falling snow, let out a small cry. She looked down at the small creature sleeping beside her. Seeing it beneath the thin blanket, she forgot her own cold entirely, worried for the chill the creature must be feeling, and the anxiety that came with it, consumed her every thought.
“F-for now, at least this.”
Without a second thought, Tina stripped off her clothes and draped them over the creature. It didn’t take long to remove everything except her innermost negligee.
She was big, and this child was so very small. So she had to protect it.
“You’ll warm up soon. It’s okay.”
Tina said, pulling the sleeping creature into her arms. The cold made her voice come out in halting fragments, but she thought it was a hundred times better for her to be cold than for this little one to suffer.
“It’ll be all right.”
Holding the creature tight, Tina closed her eyes and stayed still, waiting for sleep to chase the cold away.
Long after Tina had fallen into a deep sleep, the sound of rustling bedsheets broke the silence that had filled the room.
“Hah.”
When the moonlight, reflected off the banked snow outside, happened to fall upon the source of the sound, a naked man stood there.
Following the line upward from the garments pooled at his feet, one would see a man with a lean, solidly muscled frame, every contour sharply defined, broad, well-set shoulders and deeply sun-kissed skin.
Above his neck, a strong jawline and a sharp, straight nose. And his two eyes, set in perfect proportion, shone a vivid red that arrested the gaze even in darkness.
“……”
The man brushed back his disheveled black hair and moved toward the window. The moment he stood there, the clouds parted and unobstructed moonlight flooded into the room.
After standing in the moonlight for some time, he gauged the distance between the second-story window and the ground below, then moved to step off. Or rather, he tried to. Had a piece of clothing not caught on his foot, he surely would have.
A white nightgown, crumpled on the floor. Drawn by the memory the garment stirred, his gaze drifted naturally toward the bed.
On the bed was a woman. A woman who had fallen asleep wearing something so thin it could hardly be called clothing at all.
She was curled into a ball, trembling faintly, because she had given every piece of clothing worth the name to the creature that had lain beside her.
“Hmm.”
A deep sigh escaped the man’s lips.
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