Golden Arrow - Chapter 10

10. Two Wishes

It was well past breakfast when Psyche and Eurus finally faced each other. Sitting across from each other at the tea table, their expressions were unusually serious. Late morning sunlight streamed into the quiet drawing room, casting a shadow over Eurus’s face as he sat with his back to the light.

“Young Lord, about what happened last night…”

Psyche couldn’t summon the courage to look directly into his eyes. Fixating on the shadow cast alongside his sharp nose seemed to be the best she could manage.

After hesitating for a long time, she spoke, her voice wavering slightly as her fingers trembled lifting the teacup.

“Are we not to become family soon?”

“…Pardon?”

“So, you may call me by my name. ‘Young Lord’ is hardly a title that suits me.”

Eurus looked utterly unaffected, as if nothing had happened. Psyche let out a quiet sigh. How absurd that, in this situation, he was making light comments about calling her by name. He was truly an unreadable man.

She pushed his response aside and returned to what needed to be said.

“That man from last night…”

“……”

“He is no one of consequence. If there’s any misunderstanding…”

Eurus smiled at her words, and Psyche fell silent, unsure of what his smile meant. He always seemed to hide his true feelings behind it.

“It was quite a situation worth misunderstanding.”

Psyche clenched her fists in shame. Meeting a man in the middle of the night without an escort—and being caught in an embrace—was mortifying. Just thinking about Malcolm’s face as he had tried to kiss her made her feel nauseous.

“I won’t deny that I was quite surprised, Lady Stuart.”

Eurus paused for effect. Psyche unconsciously straightened her back, tense as she watched him. After a moment, Eurus continued calmly.

“But I didn’t misunderstand. I knew it wasn’t what you wanted.”

At his words, the stiffness left Psyche’s posture. As the tension eased, she finally turned her gaze away from the shadows on his face to meet his eyes directly.

Seeing the neutral expression in his blue eyes—free of malice or even sympathy—she felt reassured. At least he bore no particular ill feelings about last night. The absence of judgment in his gaze gave her a surprising sense of relief.

Psyche glanced down at the handkerchief she was holding. Eurus had handed it to her last night in the garden, when she had collapsed in tears.

She had taken it to hide her sobs and wipe away her tears. Pressing the handkerchief to her face, she had noticed its faint rose scent—soft and calming, like the feel of rose petals. For some strange reason, the scent and texture had only made her cry harder.

She should have stopped crying, should have ended her tears, but she couldn’t. Last night, she had been like a child. Seeing Eurus rush over and hand her a handkerchief overwhelmed her even more than when she was alone.

Thinking about how she hadn’t cried so much since her father’s passing left Psyche feeling a little bewildered. So, she quickly held out the handkerchief to Eurus. She had no desire to show her tears again.

“Here, your handkerchief…”

“There’s no need to return it.”

Eurus didn’t take the handkerchief back. For now, it was better if she kept it. She might need it again if she found herself alone, struggling to hold back her tears. To Eurus, it was obvious that Psyche was forcing herself to stay composed.

A mere handkerchief was a small thing to offer. Deep down, Eurus hoped the woman before him would not cry again as she had last night. Seeing those tears—tears that reminded him of dew formed in the pitch darkness of night—left him feeling uncharacteristically unsettled.

“Did you hear everything Lord Wallace and I said last night?” Psyche hesitated, clutching the handkerchief tightly in her hands before summoning the courage to speak carefully. Eurus raised a single eyebrow in response.

“Thank you for not reporting him.”

Psyche was sincere. Although Malcolm had behaved foolishly the previous night, she did not want him branded a traitor and dragged to Lydon to face a gruesome death. Moreover, she herself might have been accused of treason for knowing about Malcolm’s ties to the independence forces and not reporting it. In some ways, she was just as guilty.

Scotlin’s independence—she had never seriously considered whether she truly wanted it. Her life had been so consumed by personal struggles that ideals and causes had always seemed distant, even irrelevant. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to view those who fought for independence with contempt. At the very least, she had no desire to stand in their way. She couldn’t help it; she was a Scotlin native, after all.

“And thank you for stopping what he was trying to do.”

As she spoke, Psyche’s face turned red. She worried that Eurus might question her conduct.

“Truly, nothing happened. You said you wouldn’t misunderstand, but I wanted to say it again, just in case.”

She was resolute in her innocence. But innocence did not always equal purity. Innocence was a claim made by the victim; purity was the judgment of others. No matter how much Psyche insisted she was innocent, if Eurus doubted her, it would be meaningless.

“…You’re worrying over nothing.”

After a long silence, Eurus finally spoke. Psyche’s face brightened slightly as she watched him.

“By the way, when do you plan to leave for Lydon?”

She quickly changed the subject. Now that Eurus had agreed to cover for her, she wanted to move on from the uncomfortable topic.

“Well…”

“I don’t have much to pack. It won’t take long for me to prepare.”

“I see.”

Eurus responded indifferently. The reason he had brought Samuel along to Galloway had little to do with Psyche and more to do with other plans. He had no intention of leaving immediately.

“Having just arrived, we’re quite tired from the journey. I trust you won’t mind if we stay in the castle for a few days?”

“Oh, of course. I wasn’t thinking.”

Psyche nodded in agreement.

Whatever urgency had pushed her, it was all because of Malcolm Wallace’s visit the night before. The anxiety of facing a similar situation had driven her to want to leave as quickly as possible.

“I turned a blind eye to your whiskey-making operation,”

Eurus finally brought up the point he’d been holding back.

“I didn’t report your midnight suitor, even though he’s part of the Scotlin rebels,”

He smiled slightly, lifting the teacup of cooled tea in his hand.

“And I even saved you from being labeled as immoral.”

At those words, Psyche almost dropped her teacup.

“Now, it’s your turn to repay me.”

Eurus leaned back, speaking slowly with a bright smile that was at odds with the absurdity of his words. His relaxed posture gave him an oddly captivating air, as if he were offering her a helping hand rather than demanding repayment.

Psyche, growing more nervous, asked cautiously, “Repayment? What exactly do you want?”

At the same time, she began mentally calculating all the funds she could immediately access. The son of one of the wealthiest families in both Ingrint and Scotlin was unpredictable. She could only hope his request would be something she could afford.

“I have two wishes.”

Eurus lightly tapped his index finger on his crossed leg. Psyche’s gaze instinctively dropped to where his trousers stretched taut over his well-toned thighs. Startled, she quickly averted her eyes.

Eurus had to suppress a quiet laugh. Not just last night, but throughout all those years, nothing untoward had ever happened to her. The innocence Psyche claimed and the purity Eurus judged were perfectly aligned.

Psyche truly was the ghost of Galloway Castle. Realizing this left him oddly satisfied—an unreasonable emotion he chose not to analyze too deeply.

“The first wish is for you to accompany me on a picnic. I will choose the location.”

“A picnic?”

“Yes. It’s a little chilly, but there’s somewhere I’d like to go. It would make me very happy if you joined me.”

“Alright. I’ll make the preparations.”

A picnic? It was an odd request, but not unreasonable. Psyche accepted the proposal without hesitation.

“And the second wish?”

“That one…”

Eurus paused, and Psyche unconsciously held her breath.

“I’ll tell you after the picnic.”