“Oh my, you were afraid of the forest too, Sir Aiden?”
“…That was when I was five years old.”
Anje now didn’t even try to hide her smile and enjoyed seeing Sir Aiden flustered.
“―Ah well, anyway, you came to me with a dignified posture, just like a prince. Even a king wouldn’t be able to ride a horse as straightly as you do.”
“Prince, You say.”
“Shh, please be quiet.”
Wearing a dirt-stained shirt and comfortable cotton trousers, and holding a shovel in his hand, he looked like a prince from an agricultural country no matter how much he looked.
“Ma’am, you just need to wash and hang the laundry in the basket here. We’ll take care of the rest in the evening―.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? I have to work as much as you get paid.”
Meg answered firmly. Aiden had given her an exorbitant amount of compensation, but she couldn’t just laze around the house because of old feelings and loyalty.
“I can wait while the laundry dries while knitting. Or, I can do some cleaning while I’m at it.”
“I’m sorry for giving you too much work, Aunt Meg―.”
“This isn’t even work, really. Leave the house to me and the two newlyweds can go out and have fun.”
She waved her arms wide and shooed Anje and Aiden out of the kitchen.
“Pfft, calling us newlyweds.”
Anje found Meg’s expression so funny that she was on the verge of tears. It wasn’t technically wrong, but it was funny to think of it as a way to refer to herself and Aiden.
“What the heck did you talk to Aunt Meg about us?”
“We didn’t really talk about anything. She just… asked me who I was and I said we were living together for the time being, and I think she misunderstood.”
He thought this explanation would ease his nervousness, but the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened.
“Just living together…?”
“Yeah, What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
He didn’t know why he felt a pang in his heart even though it wasn’t wrong.
“I packed lunch for me today.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s just bread with jam and peanut butter, so it’s not that great, but…I have something for Sir Aiden to eat too.”
For some reason, his mood improved considerably.
“What about Mrs Meg’s lunch?―.”
“I brought my own lunch, young lady!”
“Eek!”
Anje jumped in surprise as Meg suddenly popped out of the kitchen window.
“So don’t worry about this Aunty and have a cozy time together as a couple―.”
“Feel free to have bread or tea, Aunty.”
“You’re being noisy.”
“Wait, no! I can’t walk like this.”
Her stubborn hat went through several trials and tribulations until it returned to its rightful place. Until the blush that had risen to his face had completely disappeared.
TL/N: He pushed her hat to her face lol.
* * *
By the time they returned, leaving the slanting sun behind, Meg, the master of housekeeping, had already finished the laundry and was cleaning the entire house.
“You really don’t have to do this, Mrs. Meg.”
“Don’t be polite. I’m lonely being alone in the house, so it’s nice to have something to do.”
Meg was holding a handful of newspapers to clean the windows.
“Do you still read the newspaper often these days, Young Master?”
“I don’t subscribe to it, but I sometimes buy a back issue when I go to town.”
“I can’t believe how awkward I was when I first started working here. There were no newspapers!”
“You never read the newspaper at all?”
Anje, without realizing it, joined their conversation. It was strange that he didn’t read the newspaper at all, even though it was understandable that no newspaper delivery would come to a house in a remote area.
Even the maids and servants in her house read the newspaper regularly. It was a source of amusement for both commoners and nobles, as it was difficult to know what was happening at home and abroad without reading the newspaper.
“Yes, my grandfather was very closed-minded…”
When he was a child, there was no sign of a newspaper or a letter from outside in the house.
Not only that, but he and his mother almost always stayed near the house, and if he ever had to go to town, his grandfather would go alone.
He had tried to persuade him to go with him a few times, but his grandfather would not allow it, saying that there were many dangerous people.
“Maybe he didn’t want to let the imperial family know about my existence.”
It was only after he went to the capital himself with an unidentified seal left behind by his grandfather, who died suddenly of a heart attack, that he belatedly realized the reason for such actions.
“I told the master many times that he should send the Young Master who knew nothing of the world to school or church? But he’s quite stubborn.”
“There was a lot to learn in this house too.”
Aiden muttered and glanced at his grandfather’s portrait, which was also visible from the dining room. Although he was a man with many quirks, he was a man who had tried hard to educate his grandson in all aspects.
Moreover, his mother, for a commoner, had a high level of education and taught him foreign language conversation and other things.
Thanks to this, he never felt any lack of education throughout his childhood.
The loneliness of not having friends of his age was filled by his loving and caring family and the nature that became his huge playground.
“Well, not everyone grows up as well as the Young Master just because they go to school or church. Look at Billy, the rascal of Willow House.”
“Can I help you clean the windows, Aunt Meg?”
Aiden quickly interjected to stop Meg’s chatter. Meg handed him a newspaper with a smile.
“Oh, well then. With your height, it’s perfect for cleaning the top that I can’t reach.”
“I understand.”
“Then I…”
Anje, who had been watching, quietly joined in. Meg patted her cheek and dissuaded her.
“The young lady is resting. She might hurt her beautiful hands doing such hard work. Oh my, how can her hands be so pretty? They are soft like silk.”
“Thank you.”
A blush rose to Anje’s cheeks, the first time in a long while that she had heard someone compliment her. The word “pretty” was a pleasant adjective to hear, no matter who it came from.
At Meg’s words, Aiden looked down at her hands, neatly folded in front of her apron. It was true that they were white and beautiful, like a crescent moon hanging in the sky.
“By the way, Young Master, you manage your house surprisingly well.”
“Ah, it’s an honor to receive your recognition, Aunt Meg.”
Aiden, who had been staring blankly into space, belatedly came to his senses and folded the newspaper in half.
“It’s very clean for an old bachelor living alone. The other old bachelors I know have their houses piled high with incense and liquor bottles.”
“Yes?”
“Pfft, old bachelor.”
Anje lifted her apron and covered her mouth as a fit of laughter threatened to burst out. Aiden, an old bachelor!
“Aunt. Meg, to be called an old bachelor at the age of twenty-five… nowadays in the capital, it’s not uncommon for people in their mid-twenties to get married.”
“Oh, nonsense! When I was your age, Young Master, I already had five children.”
“Five children…”
Anje’s red face sank deeper into the folds of her apron. She couldn’t help but imagine Aiden with a bunch of children hanging off him.
“I suppose you were waiting for your princess because you’re a prince.”
TL/N: HOW COULD THE MANHWA/WEBTOON ARTIST CUT THIS PART FROM THE SCRIPT???!!!
Before Aiden could glare or speak threateningly, Anje couldn’t help but interject. With a strong ally like Meg, she couldn’t miss the opportunity to attack him.
Meg nodded solemnly.
“That’s right. May God’s blessings be upon the lady! You’re very lucky to have a lady like the princess come to you. Otherwise, you might have stayed unmarried until you were gray-haired like Mr. Jack. Just the other day, he asked me to marry him, for goodness sake.”
“Mr. Jack proposed to you, Aunt Meg?”
Aiden’s eyes lit up as he found something to fight back with. Meg sighed and began to roughly clean the windowpane.
“To call that a ‘proposal’ with that romantic word is an insult to proposals. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re both single, how about we scratch each other’s backs?’ Well, if I wasn’t a devout woman, I would have told him to go to a word that starts with ‘H’…”
Aiden and Anje exchanged glances behind Meg, who was crossing herself over her chest. It seemed that they would have to be careful with their words in front of this conservative old lady
After finishing cleaning the windowpane with Aiden, Meg turned down Anje’s offer to eat dinner together and got on the back of her donkey, “Nulbo.”
“I’d love to, but I have to finish this knitting today. I heard that the wife of the new priest who was assigned to our parish has given birth to a son, so I’m going to give him a hand warmer as a gift.”
Meg expressed her affection for this cute child without reservation, but she complained about the fact that he was named “Maverick.”
“What can I say, it’s not very Christian for a priest’s child? You may call me old-fashioned, but I think a name from the Bible would be better.”
“I hope Aunty liked my name.”
Meg replied, forcefully shoving a mint into Anje’s hand.
“Well, I actually do. It means ‘angel’ in a foreign language, doesn’t it? I’m not well-educated, but I know that much. It’s a name that goes well with the young lady. It also goes well with Sir Aiden’s name.”
Clang-clang-
“By the way, young lady, your hands are so cold. I should bring you gloves next time I come over. Take care, both of you.”
The same bell sound echoed and disappeared into the forest path. Anje, who had been waving goodbye to the shrinking figures of the donkey and the old lady, suddenly asked Aiden.
“What does your name mean?”
Aiden’s face, bathed in the sunset, was shining with a crimson hue.
“It’s a name taken from paradise in the Bible.”
“Oh, I see.”
Anje nodded her head. Paradise and angel, it was a fitting combination.
“Yes, it is. It fits well.”
She smiled broadly and inhaled the air of the setting sun.
It wasn’t just their beautiful names. The southern breeze gently caressed their cheeks, and the early evening moon looked down on the farm and its flowers. Their names fit each other perfectly.
“What shall we have for dinner?”
“Whatever you want to eat.”
“Don’t just push it off on me.”
Faintly in the distance, the sound of the bell on the donkey’s neck could be heard jingling.
* * * *
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