Chapter 38
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 38
“My bag is gone…”
“Your bag?”
Vanessa nodded. She was trying her best to remain calm, but her hands twisted the fabric of her skirt, betraying her efforts and leaving it hopelessly crumpled.
“The kitten was so small, and I was worried I might hurt it, so I set my things down for just a moment…”
Her faltering explanation made the situation painfully clear. Now that he thought about it, the paper bag she had been clutching as if it were her lifeline was, indeed, gone.
Someone had thrust a kitten into her arms, and she’d hastily set her bag down. By the time she came to her senses, the bag had vanished. Naturally, the merchant and the kitten were gone, too. He summed it up bluntly.
“You’ve been pickpocketed.”
“What should I do? The gifts I bought for my friends were in there.”
Vanessa bit her lip, looking as if she were about to cry.
“What do I do…? Is there really no way to get it back?”
It was impossible. It would be faster to just buy the same items again. Disappointment clouded her pretty eyes, as if she had read the answer in his silence.
“If we report it to the police…”
“It’s useless. They don’t work alone.”
“Still, you never know. Someone might have found it and turned it in.”
Spotting a police officer nearby, Vanessa waved and ran toward him. Even in her haste, she dutifully stopped for every traffic signal, her almost painfully proper nature on full display.
Theodore watched her retreating figure, rolling the dry end of an unlit cigarette against his lips.
Her tendency to assume the best in everything was both her greatest strength and her most fatal weakness. In this world, innocence could be a sin. Worse, she had set the bag down herself out of concern for a tiny, insignificant creature, so she couldn’t even blame anyone else.
Not that she was the type to blame others anyway.
By now, he could confidently say he knew Vanessa, at least to an extent. This cramped little countryside was her entire world. A boutique that middle-class city dwellers wouldn’t think twice about entering was a whole new universe to her. She was a woman who would choose a hundred books over a hundred dresses without a second thought.
She had no inheritance to speak of, had never once truly rebelled in her life, and was a foolish yet fascinating woman who still clung to her faith in humanity, even as her own family tried to sell her off for money.
It was these small, trivial bits of goodness that defined her.
“…”
The evening darkness was beginning to swallow Vanessa’s form. Light spilling from a nearby shop softly illuminated her profile as she earnestly explained the situation to the officer. Theodore stared for a moment before striding toward her.
“It was ten… no, about five minutes ago… At the stall right in front of that alley.”
The officer kept glancing at Vanessa’s lovely face, jotting down her description in his notebook with the utmost sincerity. He must have taken countless similar reports; his notebook was crammed with them.
“You’ve fallen victim to a recent trend. They’re a nasty bunch… Ah, may I have your name?”
Vanessa blinked, caught off guard by the question. If she gave her real name, word would reach her uncle immediately. Even those who didn’t know her face knew her name—especially here in Somerset.
Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to lie and send the officer on a wild goose chase.
“Theo.”
Just as her panic began to set in, a hand reached over her shoulder, taking the notebook and pen from the officer.
“Ah. Are you with her?”
Vanessa looked up to see River Ross standing beside her, a slight slouch to his posture. He carelessly scribbled a name in the notebook and handed it back. The officer seemed thoroughly intimidated; the shadow cast by a man of his size was oppressive.
“If you find anything, you can contact us at that shop.”
“Shelbron Robe… Understood.”
A flicker of admiration crossed the officer’s eyes as he glanced toward the boutique they had just left. It seemed Shelbron Robe had quite the reputation in Bath. Then again, it was also the most respectable-looking establishment on the street.
Saluting with noticeably more respect, the officer hurried away. As she watched him go, Vanessa turned her head to look up at him.
“Theo… as in Theodore?”
The moment she whispered the name, his breath hitched. His relaxed shoulders went rigid, and the very air around them seemed to tighten.
He looked down at her, his gaze hardening to a degree that startled even himself.
“…What?”
“The name you gave. It’s short for Theodore.”
He’d thought she was pondering something profound with that solemn expression, but this was her conclusion—utterly oblivious to the ripples it sent through him.
“So, Theo.”
It was just a nickname, but every nerve ending prickled. No one had called him that since he was ten years old. Even his grandmother hadn’t dared use it lightly; even in her fury, he was always ‘Theodore.’
She had told him that since it was time for him to stand tall as the head of the family, she could no longer treat him like a mere grandson. Theodore slowly swallowed, his breath trembling. Watching his Adam’s apple bob, Vanessa smiled as if she understood everything, when in truth, she knew nothing at all.
“When did you decide on a name like that?”
Only then did he admit it to himself. He could have given any name. He could have said ‘River Ross.’ But to deliberately leave a trace of his real name… that was nothing but greed.
It was simply because he wanted to hear his name on her lips, whispered from that face. Because there was no one left in the world who called him that.
“A very long time ago.”
It was such a trivial reason.
“Just when did you start planning this? You must have been looking forward to it to have an alias ready.”
Even as she walked with her hand in his, Vanessa’s face was completely innocent. She still firmly believed he was River Ross. She had no idea that he wasn’t her childhood friend, but the most terrible deceiver in her short life.
And that was why she followed him so trustingly into the deserted area.
At the mouth of the darkened alley, Theodore seized both of Vanessa’s wrists and spun her against the wall. A startled gasp escaped her. A primal satisfaction shot through him at how easily she was overpowered by his strength.
“Why…”
His own reflection stared back at him from her wide, grey eyes: a clumsy, unrefined face, feverish and blind with desire. He tightened his grip on her wrists.
He wanted to touch her. He wanted to press their bodies together until he could feel her heartbeat against his. He wanted to entwine her life with his, right now, if only for a fleeting moment.
Under his quiet, intense gaze, he felt Vanessa’s pulse quicken. She was cute. Perhaps even lovely. She was so much smaller than him in every way that he had to bend down quite a bit for his lips to reach her ear.
“Siren.”
He called her by the name only her family was permitted to use—a deliberate echo of what she had just done to him. Her delicate face crumpled slightly, as if she were about to cry. It was clear even in the dark: the tremble of her eyelashes, her breath growing shallow and rapid, the flush staining her cheeks. Every emotion she felt was so vivid it was almost tangible.
He leaned down, gently biting her trembling lower lip. It was a shallow kiss this time, their lips merely tracing and caressing, no tongues involved. Still, the heat began to spread.
“Wait, just…”
“Why?”
“People… will see…”
“They won’t.”
“Liar.”
“I’m blocking the view.”
Her small frame, already warm from the summer heat, jolted. Her face, flushed crimson once more, looked utterly delectable.
“My Siren.”
With her makeup completely smudged, her face was incredibly erotic. In that moment, he felt he would willingly commit any foolish act for her.
He pressed his thumb lightly against her red lips. One phone call to the butler in Linden, and the culprit and the lost bag would be in his hands in under two hours. If he got it back for her, would she smile? As brightly as she had back then? Or…
“Everything about you is so much bigger than me. Sometimes… it’s overwhelming.”
Her innocent complaint sliced through his tangled thoughts. The moment he hungrily devoured her lips again, a loud crack echoed from above, and the sky exploded with fireworks.
It was the signal announcing the opening of the circus.