The Serpent of Paradise - Chapter 43

“A Comprehensive Dictionary for Children?”

The book in Mikhail’s hand was quite heavy.

“Ah, it must have been swept in with everything else when I cleared out the whole section… I’ll be going now!”

Having admitted with his own mouth that he indiscriminately grabbed everything, Yuri saw Mikhail’s eyes narrow and hurriedly fled.

Mikhail clicked his tongue and flipped through the book in his hand. Although it was a dictionary, it was made for children, so its explanations used much simpler language than the dictionary in the library, and illustrations appeared throughout it.

A satisfied expression appeared on Mikhail’s face as he turned the dictionary’s thin pages.

“This should do.”

Thinking he would give it to Anastasia when she arrived, he placed the dictionary on the desk. Quite a few books were piled there. They were the books Anastasia begged him yesterday to let her take away and read.

In truth, Mikhail hadn’t really been teaching Anastasia lately. She could already read fluently and was ceaselessly acquiring knowledge of the world from books. While in the library, Anastasia mostly asked about passages she read the night before but couldn’t understand.

Anastasia was curious about knowledge she couldn’t obtain from books.

For example, if she encountered a sentence in a travelogue that read, “As everyone knows, traveling across the sea by ship is far from comfortable,” Anastasia couldn’t understand why traveling by ship was difficult. Mikhail would then explain the size of ships and the roughness of the sea, even describing what the cabins where passengers stayed looked like.

Anastasia would understand what he told her and move on to another book. Looking at an illustration of sailing-ship construction that she found from who knew where, she would work out on her own why ships were built that way.

Through his explanations, Anastasia assembled the fragments of information she obtained and completed them within herself. Every time Mikhail saw it, he was dumbfounded.

‘A fool?’

He remembered what the Lauderdales and their servants said about Anastasia when he first came to Edenhurst. Deficient. Stupid. Shameful. Every last word was wrong.

Anastasia possessed such extraordinary intelligence and memory that even Mikhail occasionally felt a chill. That only made him more absorbed in giving her knowledge. He wanted to know where Anastasia’s limits lay.

He was also furious. If she had been given the opportunity to receive a proper education, she never would have lived this way.

After cursing the already dead count, Mikhail rubbed a hand down his face.

‘What am I doing?’

This wasn’t what he intended.

He only planned to build up enough stamina for her to withstand him, sleep with her a few times, and then let her go. Since neither Elizabeth nor Catherine seemed pleased with her, he even considered sending her somewhere she could live comfortably if she wanted.

When Mikhail recalled everything he did over the past three weeks, he suddenly found it absurd.

‘I’ve become a nanny when it was never in my fate.’

Since kissing her forehead, Mikhail hadn’t touched Anastasia at all. When they met again at breakfast the next day, Anastasia’s face was red, and she couldn’t even look at him properly. He hadn’t expected a single kiss on the forehead to startle her this much. If she knew what he wanted to do with her, she would probably faint on the spot.

Mikhail remembered what he placed inside his desk drawer. On the first day, when he left the library, he was holding the paper on which Anastasia practiced writing his name. Mikhail didn’t realize it until he reached his room.

It was a sheet of paper with no possible use. A page filled with terrible handwriting would normally end its life in the wastebasket or be thrown into the fireplace. But Mikhail didn’t discard it. He placed it in the drawer.

Anastasia’s handwriting was now developing its own distinct style. It was small, round, and beautiful, something unimaginable when she first held a pen. He thought she might write carelessly because she had only recently begun, but instead, Anastasia wrote every letter painstakingly, as though determined to make it identical to printed text.

‘It will be amusing to show her later.’

What would she say if he showed her this awful handwriting once her penmanship had fully developed? She would surely look ready to cry and cling to him, begging him to give it back. If he held it high above her, she wouldn’t be able to reach it and would cling to him with tears in her eyes.

“….”

Mikhail wiped the smile from his face. He was confused. He couldn’t tell whether he wanted to sleep with Anastasia or not.

No traces of her past abuse remained on Anastasia’s face now. Her long limbs had filled out until they were pleasing to look at, and her once-blotchy skin had become clear.

Her hair had become a deep, lustrous red, and the small lips that once couldn’t even properly accept the bread he fed her were now beautifully colored a dark red similar to her hair. Moreover, she had grown comfortable wearing clothes that exposed not only her arms but a little of her neck and breasts as well.

Whenever Mikhail saw Anastasia’s face and body like that, he wanted to seize her wrist at once and drag her into his bed. If he violently thrust his cock into that beautiful body he had worked so hard to create, she wouldn’t be able to endure it at first and would cry. That would be beautiful in its own way.

If he remained buried deep inside her until she stopped crying and then began moving, what sounds would she make? She would surely use a voice he had never heard before, repeatedly calling the name she could now say fairly naturally.

Yet even as he entertained those thoughts, other images suddenly returned to him.

The way she rejoiced because she no longer made mistakes when writing. The way she urged him to hurry and taste a new dish at breakfast because it was delicious. The way her eyes shone like a child hearing the most thrilling story in the world whenever he told her about things that happened during his work.

And the way she squeezed her eyes shut without fleeing, behaving as though she were waiting for something whenever he mischievously lowered his head close to her face.

Mikhail grew even more confused about whether he wanted to sleep with her or protect her. The only thing he knew for certain was that a time would come when he had to choose one.

Resting his chin on his hand, Mikhail looked outside. Clouds were gathering in the distance across the sky, which had remained clear for the past several weeks.

***

Carrying the books she finished reading, Anastasia hurried toward the library. She no longer went everywhere with Natasha. All the servants from Sokolov were kind to her, and Anastasia, who traveled only between the library and the annex, rarely encountered the Lauderdale mother and daughters or the attendants who followed them.

Anastasia hurried through a corridor she once wouldn’t have dared even consider walking down. Beyond the spotless windows, she could see the well-maintained garden. And beyond it, the forest.

“….”

Anastasia stopped for a moment and gazed at the distant forest.

“I haven’t gone there even once.”

She used to go there every day. Aside from winter, it was where she spent her time from spring through autumn. In the past, she believed that forest was the only place permitted to her.

“I need to bring them back.”

After staring at the forest for quite some time, Anastasia remembered what she left there. The first shoes Mikhail gave her were still inside the chapel in the forest. She left them there because she feared someone might discover them or take them away, but now she could bring them back without any trouble. Her room here was safer.

“…!”

Anastasia was startled by her own thought. She considered a room inside the Edenhurst mansion her own space. She had never once thought that way in ten years.

Lately, Anastasia’s heart had been restless. Three weeks ago, Mikhail kissed her forehead, but he hadn’t come close to her again since. Why did something she should have considered fortunate leave her feeling so disappointed?

Anastasia tore her gaze from the forest and hurried toward the library. She had plenty of things to ask him again today.

After passing the annex, Anastasia turned the corner of the corridor.

Thud!

She collided with someone and dropped all the books she was carrying.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going….”

As Anastasia hurriedly gathered the fallen books, she saw feet wearing beautiful, flawless shoes. Anastasia slowly raised her head. Someone was looking down at her with an impassive expression.

“Miss Elizabeth….”

No matter how much had changed in the meantime, Elizabeth was still a young lady of the house to Anastasia. That fact would never change, no matter how different Anastasia looked, how much she learned, or whether she now had a room of her own in Edenhurst.

“You seem to be going to the library.”

“Yes, I am…. Did you know?”

Anastasia was about to answer affirmatively, but then she looked at Elizabeth in surprise when she realized Elizabeth knew where she was going.

Elizabeth smiled faintly. “Who in Edenhurst doesn’t know?”

Elizabeth’s voice was quiet and composed. Then Anastasia suddenly realized that this was the first time Elizabeth had spoken to her.

Since Anastasia came to Edenhurst, Elizabeth had never once conversed with her. She treated Anastasia as though she were invisible. Perhaps that was why goosebumps rose across Anastasia’s skin during their first conversation.

“What do you do in the library?”

“Mikhail teaches me….”

A faint crack appeared in Elizabeth’s composed expression at Anastasia’s words. Seeing the change, Anastasia realized her mistake and hurriedly corrected herself.

“No, Lord Mikhail is teaching me to read.”

“What else?”

“Pardon?”

“What else is he teaching you?”

“He also teaches me… how to calculate… and the proper etiquette for different situations….”

Elizabeth let out a small, derisive laugh at Anastasia’s answer.

“Etiquette? The etiquette a mistress ought to know?”