Chapter 15 – Caught in a Spider’s Web (1)

Stephan looked out the window and abruptly answered. “Brown,” he said as he turned to face Gris.

Stephan furrowed his brows finding something amiss. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to stand in front of the window, directly under the sunlight. He moved her head from left to right until the light caught the corner of her iris and stared into them. There was an unmistakeable golden-red hue surrounding the iris.

Stephan’s face turned pale.

“Darn it….”

“….”

“They were brown in the dark,” he said.

He thought for a moment and straightened his shirt. “It will be alright. It has to be.”

Gris wasn’t sure to whom he was speaking but he definitely had someone in mind.

“Vianut was sent to the Archbishop’s when he was three,” he explained.

Gris still remained silent, opting to listen to the other party’s speech.

“He wasn’t close to Yuliana and, after all this time, wouldn’t really remember the color of her eyes. I was the one who grew up with her, we were always together,” he said as he stood up, arms crossed in front of him. He continued talking, more to himself than to Gris, trying to justify his actions.

“As long as I assure everyone that you are Yuliana, no one will question you. All you have to do is stay away from Vianut.”

So, despite the eye color, he still wanted her to pretend she was Yuliana. But for how long could she avoid Vianut, the master of the estate where she was staying? Gris began to tremble in helplessness. She was aware that within the Byrenhag territory, Vianut was no less than a King in his own Kingdom.

“I won’t be able to avoid him for long.”

Stephan eyed Gris warily as if he wanted to say something more. She wondered why he didn’t outright tell it, as he usually did. As her frustration grew, he blurted out, “You won’t be able to avoid me either.”

At that moment, Gris understood that he absolutely wanted her to continue this charade as an imposter. But more so, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to change his mind. If she continued to be stubborn, it was easy to take her life.

Perhaps she should be grateful that so far that Stephan hadn’t touched her in anger or in lust.

Acknowledging she had no other choice than to accept his wishes, Gris fell to another moment of defeated silence. Stephan nervously twirled his pocket watch on its chain.  Taking her stillness as an agreement, he said accusingly,

“I’ve already introduced you to mother, so it’s too late anyway. From now on, you are Yuliana, who disappeared ten years ago, and ended up spending her childhood with an old couple at a cabin in the forest.”

Gris couldn’t help but wonder if Stephan was really doing this for his grandmother’s health. But before her thoughts could stray further, someone knocked on the door. It was Bellin, bringing even drearier news.

“Lady Yuliana, Madam Paola, wishes to speak with you.”

Seized by terror, Gris turned to Stephan. “Do I have to go alone?”

Stephan lazily raised an eyebrow and pretended not to hear her request. Realizing she was on her own, Gris uneasily replied to Bellin.

“I’ll be out soon,” she said and took a deep breath.

Before she could make it pass the door, she heard Stephan whisper into her ear. “Be careful what you say.”

It was nothing short of a threat.

Gris watched Stephan cross the room in quick steps before she stepped out to follow Bellin to Paola’s room.

After turning at the end of the long corridor on the first floor, Gris and Bellin arrived at a maroon door carved with elegant patterns representing the family crest. Observing the elaborate gold-plated candlesticks on each side of the door, Gris quietly asked Bellin a question.

“How is she feeling today? Do you know why she wants to see me?”

Bellin cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “Her health is getting better by the day. I think she misses you. She was also very anxious after she heard you fell into the lake.”

Gris nodded her head. At the unforeseeable future of her dire circumstance, her hands shook again. But she knew that she had to meet Paola.

Gris remembered the last time she had met Paola. She remembered the strange look in her eyes when the older woman had studied her so intently. Gris knew she wasn’t convinced her granddaughter had returned, but if she didn’t believe that Gris was Yuliana, why didn’t she just denounce her as an imposter?

As the confusion of the last week whirled in her brain, Bellin knocked on the wide maroon door.

“Madam Paola, I have lady Yuliana for you,” she softly said.

The next moment, a voice came from the other side of the door. “Come in.”

Bellin opened the door and stepped aside as Gris walked over to Paola. The room was warm, and the sun shone brightly through the window. A black silhouette sat motionless in front of the window.

Realizing that the silhouette was Paola herself, Gris held up the hem of her skirt and bent her knees to curtsy. It was how she had been drilled to curtsy as a princess in Grandia. Paola’s eyes were warm upon her greeting and her face crinkled up with genuine pleasure.