The Classic Tale of You and Me

Chapter X: The Blond Visitor

The Classic Tale of You and Me:
The Blond Visitor

Struck with horror, Miku shed tears after Clara read the letter Rin Michaelson sent her. Of all news, why the bad ones should be told to her?

'Len was dead. '

'He fell from a cliff after chasing your train.'

'His body was not yet found.'

Unable to say a thing, the young lady snuggled to her attendant, and Clara wrapped her arms around the young aristocrat's petite frame. The blind niece of the scholar was hurt to hear this news, as much as it hurt her uncle. Clara watched the young miss to cry against her apron, sobbing like a child -- but she is still a child -- and lamenting after losing a precious friend.

Clara was affected too. She spent a lot of time with the young lad of Green Fields and witnessed how clever he was. He was a good student to Sir Leon, no wonder why the scholar was so intimate with the young fella. Even before Miku arrived, Len was a cheerful bright mind who enjoyed small things and little discoveries.

Clara did not notice how much time had passed while reminiscing, for the young miss cried herself to sleep, her teal hair stuck on her wet cheeks. At least, even in her sleep, Lady Miku could find serenity--a break from the unlikely news sent to her today.

"Gakupo!" She called out their gardener in the new manor. She saw him walking around with his gardening tools, probably on his way to make new flower beds. He was a young fella from the caretakers of Selbst manor before Sir Leon brought it.

The boy, who has a faint purple hair, stirred and peered through the glass-tiled door ajar, narrowing his eyes to Clara. He is a young man around seventeen or eighteen, handsome with his sun-kissed skin. He never said a word, but he waited for the head of household to ask him with her errands.

"Can you give me a hand in bringing Milady to her room?"

Puzzled, he glanced at the sleeping girl on her lap. Her white skin and clean dress should never be touched by his dirty hands, he thought. "Pardon me, but I cannot. I just finished trimming the lawn. I will call the majordomo, right away--" he turned on his heel but was stopped by Clara.

"No!" She called, "no, do not bother, Gakupo. I am certain that Lady Miku would not mind your hands. She has stable lads as friends back in our old place and she has slept on hay. Dirty hands will not bother her for she has run barefooted on fields. Is that fine? Can you help me now?"

Gakupo looked back at the sleeping girl, pondering if what she said was true. She reminded her of his own friend, if that story was to be believed. She was much like his Lady Luka. His tools were placed carefully against the ground and he stepped inside the house. Smiling back at Clara, the two of them carried the sleeping girl upstairs.

This was Gakupo's first time seeing the second storey of the Selbst manor, and it was grandeur and elegant, and it exhibited privacy compared to the first storey. The large windowsills and fair curtains outlining it, the beeswax polished floor, the gigantic vases and huge paintings on the wall, it was a part of the Selbst manor estranged to the general reception area he knew.

"It is indeed beautiful," Clara spoke as she shut the door behind her, Miku was still asleep. "I am gaping that way when I first saw it. You must be prohibited to ascend in here?"

Gakupo nodded. "My father wishes none of us to set foot here, save the first storey. He said that it was a matter of privacy. I do not understand what he meant by that, until today."