Meg clucked her tongue openly.
“You couldn’t just yield to the young lady and had to keep up your pride?”
“I always yield…”
“Yield more! That’s how you maintain peace in the household.”
Aiden wanted to protest, but he held back when he saw Meg clenching her fist.
“…Fine. I’ll apologize first.”
He didn’t want to continue living in an uncomfortable atmosphere with Anje either.
Now they crossed paths every day in the hallway, at every meal at the table, and even in the fields.
On top of that, listening to Meg’s words pointing out his flaws one by one, he even felt that he was more at fault than Anje.
He was also lonely being stuck in his room alone, unable to join the two people who were happily making jam downstairs.
“But as for Pa-Pi… the pigs will be dealt with soon. I bought them at a high price last year, and it would be a huge loss to keep all three.”
“Well, that’s something I can’t decide.”
Meg’s eyes sparkled.
“But if I were the master, I wouldn’t make such a definitive statement.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Aunty, I’ve filled all the jars!”
Anje’s voice called from downstairs, interrupting their conversation.
“You’ll see.”
Leaving a confused Aiden behind, Meg headed toward the stairs with a lighter step. Just before descending, she turned to give him one last piece of advice.
“Oh, and Young Master, your shirt buttons are misaligned. Make sure to fix them before coming down.”
“Oh.”
Aiden looked down to check. In his distracted state, he had indeed buttoned his shirt unevenly.
“And your socks are mismatched too, so you might want to change those.”
He stared down at his red and white socks.
Somehow, these critiques stung more than the punch she had given him earlier.
* * *
Returning to Dilton Farm after a week, Meg greeted Anje warmly.
“Good morning, miss. The weather is wonderful again today, isn’t it?”
Once Anje left for the chicken coop, Meg hurriedly summoned Aiden into the laundry room, firmly holding a bat that had been on the shelf like a weapon.
“Young Master, what on earth have you been doing? The young lady hasn’t cracked a smile. Have you even tried making up with her?”
Aiden, raising his hands in surrender before the bat, had something to say.
“But what can I do if my efforts are in vain?”
“What efforts exactly?”
He genuinely had tried to approach Anje and reconcile several times.
He initiated conversations with small talk about the weather or the flower garden and asked if there was anything she wanted to eat.
But Anje’s responses were consistently cold.
‘Right.’
‘No, thanks.’
‘I’m fine.’
There might have been a chance if they had seen each other at meals or talked while preparing food.
However, Anje would wake up earlier, eat breakfast, and leave before Aiden got up. She also took her lunch and dinner to eat outside or in her room.
Despite this, she still did all her household and farm chores, leaving Aiden without much to criticize.
“I’ve tried this hard, What more can I do, Ah—”
Meg pinched Aiden’s side hard.
“That’s all you’ve got? You should give her a gift to cheer her up.”
Aiden, his face contorted in pain, retorted.
“Do I have to go that far? I didn’t even say anything wrong… Stop pinching me, Aunty.”
“Do you know how important early marriage memories are? Why are you being so stubborn? Don’t you know about Mrs. Bread from the orchard house, who saved a pound cake for later, only for Mr. Bread to eat it all up like a glutton? It happened three months into their marriage, and she’s still scolding him for it 30 years later.”
“I’ve… never heard that story…”
“What’s the point of winning against that little lady, huh? You’re old enough to know better—”
Finally freed from Meg’s endless nagging, Aiden left the laundry room with slumped shoulders.
Half of it was from being worn out by the scolding, and the other half from thinking maybe he was being too stubborn, just as Meg had said.
‘Should I have tried harder to talk to her?’
But no matter how much he regretted it, he didn’t know how to start a conversation with the angry Anje.
He had little experience in opening up someone’s heart, especially not someone of the same age and gender like Anje. In fact, he had never really been involved with a woman before.
Gripping his head in frustration, he eventually decided what to do and stepped outside.
* * *
Hours later, on the back porch of the Dilton house.
Anje, covered with a lap blanket, was dozing off in her chair. Recently, waking up earlier than Aiden had left her exhausted.
‘Why does he get up so early? Because of him, I have to wake up even earlier.’
Although waking up early wasn’t wrong, the sulking Anje was irritated by everything about him.
His attempts to casually start conversations as if nothing had happened, only to back off when she snapped at him, watching her from a distance, hesitant.
She wanted to load Pa-Pi-Pu onto a cart and run far away from him.
‘I even tried to put them on a diet.’
But the moment she saw the pigs blinking their innocent eyes, oinking about the lack of food, her resolve weakened.
“Ugh.”
Thinking about Pa-Pi-Pu suddenly woke her up. She folded the blanket and set it aside, getting up from her seat.
She felt more at ease working. She picked up the farming tools she had grown so accustomed to and walked down the path between the fields.
“Oh no.”
Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Aiden was approaching from a distance.
Pulling her hat down low, she tried to change direction to run away from him.
“Princess.”
Before, he would have given up and gone about his business. But now, determined to talk to her, he persistently chased after her.
Anje threw down her farming tools and dashed away from the fields into the trees.
“Princess, just a moment.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Please, just a moment…”
Her pace quickened almost to a run, and Aiden matched her speed.
“Why are you so persistent?”
“We need to talk.”
“I told you, I don’t want to talk!”
Anje broke into a full sprint to shake him off. As her feet pounded the ground, the world around her sped past.
“Huff, huff.”
She hadn’t run like this since she was a child. Her breath came in gasps, her heart pounded, sweat broke out, and her legs grew weak.
But at the same time, a part of her felt a sense of relief. She was running freely in the wild, with no one to stop her.
No governess, no maid, no father, no nobles, no fiancé clicking their tongues or frowning at her.
Tap, tap, tap—
Her leather shoes lightly tapped over stones, dirt, and grass as she ran. The farther she went, the more exhausted her body became, but her mind grew clearer.
‘What is this feeling?’
It was a different kind of exhilaration from dancing at balls or watching horse races. If her stamina allowed, she would keep running like this forever.
Tap, tap, tap—
Weaving through the spruce trees, she finally stopped in a familiar clearing.
Birch trees. A clear spring. The place where they often had lunch together.
‘How did I end up here?’
In her haste to escape from Aiden, she hadn’t realized that he had cleverly guided her running direction back towards the house.
Running in circles in a forest that seemed all the same could easily disorient someone unfamiliar with it.
“Princess.”
Annoyingly, Aiden was standing right behind her, not a drop of sweat on him. Unlike her, panting and breathless, his voice was steady.
Without turning her head, she coldly responded.
“What?”
“This, to wipe your sweat.”
She had expected him to mock her for being slow despite running at full speed, but he calmly offered a handkerchief instead.
She stared at his hand for a moment before snatching the handkerchief. She needed something to wipe her sweat-covered face.
“What do you want to talk about?”
If she were stronger and faster, she could have outrun him. But since he had chased her so persistently, she felt she ought to listen.
‘If he starts talking about common sense and being emotional again…’
Contrary to her expectations, Aiden spoke earnestly and concisely.
“I’m sorry.”
She intended to ignore him, but she was so surprised she turned to look at him.
“What, what for?”
“For everything…”
This wasn’t quite right. It was better to be more specific.
“For not telling you from the start that the pigs were being raised for food…”
“And?”
“For criticizing your reaction…”
“And?”
“For letting my pride delay this apology…”
He wasn’t sure if he was saying the right things, but the frown lines on her forehead were gradually disappearing.
He listed his faults with all his might and then, thinking it was enough, pulled out his right hand from behind his back.
“Please accept this.”
His voice came out even more stiffly than he intended, and he found himself sweating now, something that hadn’t happened while he was running earlier.
* * * *
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