Eanna really did pay the late fees. As soon as Gene sent word that he had recovered the books, a purse of gold arrived by messenger. Amusingly, the calculation was exact down to the last pion. His offer to send the thief around to thank her in person was politely declined.
After counting the money, Gene glanced at Luke and spoke.
“She’s like a goddess, protecting a hopeless fellow like you.”
“Oh, perhaps she’s truly an incarnation of Anir?”
“Why that madwoman Anir of all goddesses? Couldn’t you settle for Kaira?”
“But Kaira is the goddess of beauty, isn’t she? The guardian of dressmakers’ regular customers would never protect a penniless fellow like me. Anir, who loves artists, is my true guardian.”
“So you mean to call the lady who helped you mad?”
“Why is Anir mad? She merely has the eye to recognize true artists regardless of status. But comparing her to Kaira, does that mean the lady is very beautiful? Have you fallen for her? No, sending gold by a whole purse like this, perhaps she’s fallen for you. Our captain is rather handsome, after all.”
“…”
Luke adapted to the House of the Hawk no less well than Rosa. Unlike Rosa, whom everyone had hoped would stay while weeping tears of emotion over her roast chicken, there was no spare room for Luke. He had to squeeze into a patrolman’s room to sleep. Yet by the next day, they found he had taken up an entire bed by himself, displaying a most terrifying knack for getting ahead.
With a young lady, a little girl, and a poet now coming and going, the House of the Hawk had lost its old, dreadful air. These days, it felt like an ordinary social club.
The next day, when they went to return the books to the library, Luke realized that Gene had meant to read them himself. For a back-alley patrol captain to cultivate such learning was impossible. Luke began observing Gene with ever greater interest.
Gene, on the other hand, lost his curiosity about the borrower after seeing Luke. It seemed nearly certain that Luke, who often wrote scripts about legends, had borrowed the books in search of material. The reason he had kept them so long was plainly that the script Leonis had commissioned would not be written. Gene therefore did not speak of the dream that had brought him to Delphinad.
When Gene and Luke returned to the House of the Hawk, Rosa sat on the entrance steps, answering the noisy jokes of the sentries with a few words here and there. It was unlike her. Spotting Gene, she sprang up, approached, and said without preamble, “I was waiting. Lend me some money.”
“What do you need money for?”
“Do you mind?”
Without another word, Gene took two gold coins from his purse and handed them over. Considering the reward Rosa had originally offered, or the benefits his men had enjoyed since her arrival, he could have given more. Those happened to be all he had on him. Rosa nodded and went down the stairs. Following her for a few steps, Gene spoke.
“For safety’s sake, I’d like you to tell me at least where you’re going.”
“A clothes shop.”
It was an unexpected answer, but Gene smiled.
“To buy clothes?”
“You told me to buy something feminine.”
He had certainly said that. But once her forged residence permit passed, there was no particular reason for her to do so. Rosa had continued wearing men’s clothes too. He could not guess why her feelings had suddenly changed.
“Suit yourself.”
Nana, who had been playing with Huka in the yard, quickly joined Rosa. Taking her along, Rosa disappeared down Mast Street toward the market. As Gene tilted his head, Luke spoke.
“Do you have anything particular to do right now?”
“Anything to do?”
“If not, why don’t we go after her and choose some clothes? She doesn’t look as though she knows how to pick them.”
“And you do?”
“Ah, but I do have an artist’s eye.”
“I haven’t got that kind of eye. Forget it.”
“Oh, the captain doesn’t want to go into a women’s clothes shop.”
“What about you? What if you go out and the Calx Cross men find you?”
“Oh, isn’t this the ShadowHawk’s territory? If that happened in your own district, wouldn’t you go and cut their wrists off? Besides, look at you worrying about the man you said you’d throw out the day after tomorrow getting taken away. Ah, so you do think throwing me out would be a little awkward. Am I right?”
They had returned from handing in the books today, so Gene had none in his hands. Luke did not miss the opportunity. He quickly ran out into the yard. For all his bold talk, the idea of being discovered by the Calx Cross while out alone apparently still concerned him a little.
Holding Nana’s hand, Rosa walked slowly around Julia I Square, where dress shops were plentiful. There were stores of every kind, from those displaying lavish gowns fit for a party hosted by the governor to those selling tough work clothes alongside freshly beaten leather. Sewing had long since developed into a professional skill. People in Delphinad did not make their own clothes. They might sew a baby’s first garments, but generally they bought ready-made clothing and had it altered to fit.
Rosa had passed dozens of shops already, yet could not readily enter any. She sewed well enough to make most clothes herself, so she had never developed experience in choosing them. If she meant to buy just anything, as before, that was one thing. This time she had decided to buy proper clothes, which made it harder still to choose. As Luke had guessed, Rosa had no eye for them.
She considered buying cloth to make something, but she lacked the confidence to create clothes in Delphinad’s latest fashion. Irritated by her own hesitation, she muttered, “The bastard. Always drawn to pretty things. What are clothes worth? I put up with all that smell.”
Then Nana tugged her hand and pointed at a shop.
“There?”
“Yes. There.”
“All right.”
The shop Nana chose looked somewhere between a place piled with silk and lace and one reeking of leather. Rosa made up her mind and went in, only to be bewildered from the start. An attendant approached and asked, “Welcome, miss. May I take your coat?”
Rosa was wearing no coat. The casual question was absurd. In her tension, she could not respond as she usually would. She answered in a small voice.
“What?”
“Are you all right? Then will you come inside?”
There was no distinction between inside and out. Clothes hung all around the large room, and customers wandered about examining them. Rosa pressed her lips together and took a few steps into their midst. The attendant promptly returned and held out a tray bearing a cup of tea.
“We’ve brewed some of Epherium’s finest black tea. Would you care to taste it? With just a little freshly picked lemongrass.”
Had Gene been there, he would have laughed that no good black tea came from Epherium. Rosa, however, knew little about the south. In any case, there was only one thing to say at a time like this.
“Thank you.”
As Rosa picked up the cup, the attendant gave a broad smile and continued.
“They say Epherium’s tea harvest was excellent this year. But what shall we do if it isn’t to your taste?”
It was embarrassing to have the attendant flirt with her when she was not even a man. Swallowing the urge to ask whether she could pour it over her head if she disliked it, Rosa sipped a little tea. If this was the usual way of doing things in Delphinad’s clothes shops, making a scene here and going elsewhere would change nothing. In any case, she had to buy clothes.
But with a steaming cup in her hand, it was hardly easy to touch the garments. While she merely looked them over, the attendant hurried up again.
“Shall I take out that tunic with the blue cornflower pattern? I think it would suit you beautifully. Such a good eye you have.”
A cornflower was a cornflower. Why a blue cornflower? It wasn’t as though cornflowers only bloomed blue. Rosa kept that thought to herself. Besides, she did not like the garment. She had never worn floral clothes in her life.
When she shook her head, the attendant hung it back with a slightly sulky look. A few repetitions of this would make someone fainthearted buy anything just to escape the place. Rosa, however, was not in a position to buy anything at all. She wanted to drink her tea quickly, but it was too hot even for that.
While the attendant stepped away, Rosa bent and whispered, “Didn’t you have some reason for choosing this place?”
But looking beside her, she found Nana gone. Startled, she turned and saw Nana’s golden hair appearing and disappearing among the customers farther inside. Putting the teacup down anywhere, Rosa went straight over and took her hand. Then she realized someone else was holding Nana’s other hand.
“Oh, are you her guardian? I thought she was lost, all by herself. Forgive me.”
Rosa had never seen the young lady before, but she spoke with easy familiarity. With dozens of customers in the shop, it was understandable that Nana, wandering as she pleased, had seemed alone.
Rosa had been about to thank her. Instead, without meaning to, she glanced over the woman’s clothes. Her green dress had a simple shape, but the satin fabric made it elegant. Embroidery decorated the ends of sleeves reaching to her elbows. Ivory lace hung in a fringe, and a band woven with pearls circled her hair.
Even Rosa, indifferent to clothes, thought her refined and pretty. While she was considering whether she might dress something like that, the young lady smiled.
“You’ve come to buy clothes, haven’t you? May I play with the little miss while you choose? She’s so adorable.”
Adorable? No misunderstanding could have been greater. Yet for some reason, Nana really seemed ready to play with this stranger. It was extremely rare for her to take to anyone else, and she had a sound eye for people. Rosa decided to let it continue for a little while as a trial.
A little later, while Rosa was holding an outfit up to herself and wondering whether to buy it, Nana suddenly poked her head out. Looking down, Rosa found the girl had somehow put on a white tunic embroidered with violets over her old one-piece dress. It was a sweet outfit even to Rosa’s eyes. Nana seemed pleased with it herself, strutting about, and Rosa could not help laughing.
The young lady came over and watched Rosa’s expression.
“It suited Nana so well that I went and bought it. Please don’t be angry. I meant nothing else by it.”
She already knew her name. With an instinctive surge of wariness, Rosa stared at her. Just then, a servant approached and called the young lady.
“Miss, they say the thirty outfits are ready.”
“Oh, just a moment.”
A woman buying thirty outfits at once. Rather than having some scheme, it was merely the generosity of someone with so much money that she could not contain herself. A second attendant came carrying a large parcel and asked her, “Shall we load it into the carriage?”
“Yes, please.”
As he went out, the attendant grumbled a little.
“You must be the only person who buys new clothes for those in the relief house. Keep doing this, and you’ll spoil them. It’s easier for them to live if they know their place.”
“But it’s getting colder. They should have warm clothes.”
Getting colder? To Rosa, the words sounded utterly out of place. The weather felt as hot as midsummer back home. The young lady soon returned.
“I’m sorry our conversation was interrupted because of me.”
Rosa had said nothing throughout, so it could hardly be called an interruption. But the young lady looked at the clothes in Rosa’s hands and widened her eyes a little. Drawing a breath, she seemed uncertain whether to speak. Quick to notice such things, Rosa already understood.
“Thank you for Nana’s clothes.”
As she spoke, she hung the outfit back on its rack. She had thought it looked safe enough to manage, but apparently it did not. The young lady hesitated for some time, then finally approached.
“I’d like to apologize. I did something thoughtless without even realizing it. You were offended, weren’t you?”
“It’s all right. It’s true I have no eye for it.”
“No. I was terribly rude.”
“It’s all right, I said.”
“But…”
Unused to such circular conversations between women, Rosa wanted to get away quickly. Yet the moment the young lady spoke next, she realized she had misread the situation. The woman had not been trying to prolong a social exchange. There was something she wanted to say.
“Would you let me choose an outfit for you?”
Rosa thought: Had Nana chosen this shop knowing it would turn out like this?
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