How long has Anna been here?
“I was just…”
“I know. You just want to know how Anna got employed by my family, right?”
“Exactly. You can see through anything and everything, Yuri. What kind of woman was she?”
“Anna would have been an excellent maid if she didn’t do that.”
“Since when has she been working at your family’s? I have no recollection of her.”
“She was hired shortly after your disappearance.”
Fii tilted his head. In fact, Fii often visited to play at our house when we were young. His nanny Hannah often came to pick him up with a wry smile on her face.
“Do you remember the gardener named Hanks?”
“Yeah. Hanks Grandpa, the one with a long white beard, right?”
How is he related to Hannah? Fii looked at me with a questioning gaze.
“Right. That Hanks. Then, how about his grandson Carl?”
“I remember him well. The sociable fellow with pimpled face, right? If I remember correctly, he lived with his grandfather, Hanks, because both of his parents passed away, no?”
We often played together with Carl. Carl was a little older than us, so Fii was often making displeased faces at him.
“Anna was that very Carl’s wife.”
“Heh. That Carl’s? How surprising.”
“Right? I also couldn’t believe it when Carl brought Anna to introduce her to me. I mean, Anna was such a beauty Carl didn’t stand a chance…”
“Aren’t you looking down on him too much?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m not someone who looks for outward appearances myself. However, I just got the impression they were mismatched a little…”
I can’t put it well, but I was sure Carl would marry a fluffy and gentle-looking woman and not someone like Anna who gave off the impression of a noble lady, so the entire family, including me, were dumbfounded.
Carl looked happy so nobody mentioned it, but that was what our entire family thought.
“But you see, he passed a few days later and she broke down crying next to the discouraged Hanks.”
“How did Carl die?”
“They were planning on seeing Anna’s parents, but Carl protected her from a runaway carriage on their way…”
“That’s very like him.”
Carl has been very caring since young, Fii recalled.
“After that, my Mother who saw the haggard and depressed Hanks decided to employ Anna.”
“I see.”
“If that was an act then I can’t trust in people anymore. It seemed to be that Anna was saddened by Carl’s death from the bottom of her heart.”
She, who was sharing the grief with Grandpa Hanks seemed like someone who lost someone very dear to her.