Interlude: The Cold, the Key, and He
YUURI awoke to a knock on the shop’s door.
She couldn’t be sure what time it was in her drowsy state. But she assumed the sun must be high in the sky by the way its light broke through her thick curtains. Under normal circumstances, Yuuri would have been up long before now.
“Lady Yuuri? Are you home?”
There was only one oddball count who visited her shop on a regular basis. Cradling her throbbing head, chills wracked Yuuri’s body as she dragged herself out of bed. She peered out her bedroom window, but a tarpaulin awning obscured her view of the shop door.
Yuuri never got sick, and yet the one time she did lined up exactly with Ernest’s latest visit.
I’m so thirsty…but why so soon after my last drink?
Another knock sounded at the door, but in her current state, she needed to pretend she wasn’t home. It hadn’t even been a full month since Ernest had offered her his blood. But being sick had reawakened her thirst.
She was afraid if she saw him now, she would crave his blood, though she wasn’t working on any cases from him to justify the reward.
After watching for some time, she finally saw Ernest walking away. The relief she felt was accompanied by pangs of loneliness as she slid back into bed.
Merely seeing Ernest filled her with an unquenchable thirst. She had a pitcher of water and a cup nearby, but she was so weak, she couldn’t even manage to reach for them.
It was pointless anyway; water would not quench this thirst.
Yuuri closed her eyes, letting all sense of reality and the passage of time slip away.
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IN her dreams, she saw Ernest gazing at her with a gentle look in his eyes.
“Are you all right? You have such a high fever.”
His large hand caressed Yuuri’s brow. It was cool and soothing. She didn’t want him to stop.
“I think I’ve caught a cold. My head hurts, and I’m so thirsty.”
“You need some water,” Ernest said, glancing around the room before finally noticing the pitcher and cup.
Yuuri reached out from under her quilt and tugged on the hem of his pants. “No, wait…”
If Ernest hadn’t been there, she could have lived with her thirst. But here he was. And since this was a dream, she felt she could ask whatever she wanted without fearing the consequences.
“You want blood? Is that it?”
“I do, yes… I’m so thirsty. I’m sure it’s because I’m sick.”
In her dreams, Yuuri could be open about what she wanted.
“I’ll give you blood, but I’m putting it on your tab, okay? You’ll have to do something for me in return.”
Ernest loved to tease and provoke Yuuri, and yet, all she wanted right now was for him to be gentle and kind.
“Something for you…?”
Still dazed, Yuuri struggled to think of what Ernest would consider ample compensation. As a noble, no amount of money or goods she could prepare would satisfy him. He certainly wasn’t hurting for money. Still, she racked her brain, trying to come up with something he would want that she actually had. Finally, the answer came to her.
“Would you like jasmine tea, Lord Ernest?” she ventured.
“Tea? No, that’s not what I meant.”
“But I thought…I mean, you never pay for it…”
He was always stopping by the shop and indulging in Yuuri’s tea and snacks. Surely she was in the right to ask him to quench her thirst in return.
“Heh heh, I suppose I walked right into that one! Fair enough, if that’s what it takes to get you better, I’ll give you my blood.”
An apple and cutting knife just happened to be lying on the table. Her dreams were being rather accommodating today, it seemed.
Ernest grabbed the knife and cut his left ring finger. It seemed as if anything Yuuri wanted in this dream would be granted to her. But she didn’t want her desires to be the only ones satisfied. She wondered what she could do for Ernest.
If it was within my power, I’d give him anything he wanted. Anytime, anywhere, all he’d need to do is ask.
He pushed his finger into her mouth. Yuuri was happy she could taste blood, even in her dream, before her mind was swept away in blissful intoxication.
“What a wicked witch you are for testing my self-control like this. I might as well cast aside any claims of being a gentleman, right here and now.”
Drunk on the sweet taste of his blood, Yuuri could no longer comprehend what Ernest was saying. All she could tell was that she had flummoxed him somehow. For some reason, his frustration amused her. Delighting at another’s frustration was a wicked habit. Maybe Ernest was right: maybe Yuuri was a wicked witch.
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THE room was dark when Yuuri awoke from her peaceful slumber. Her fever had subsided and with it, her ravenous thirst.
However, there was an oil lamp there, one she hadn’t set out. Its gentle light illuminated the tall frame of a certain young man, casting his vast shadow against the wall.
“You’re finally awake. How do you feel?”
What was he doing there? He frightened Yuuri so much that her heart skipped a beat and her mouth flapped open and shut.
Yuuri sat motionless on the bed as Ernest leaned in, gently touching his forehead to hers. They were so close.
“Your fever’s still quite high. Have you eaten today?”
Yuuri kept quiet. She was feeling hot, her heart racing, but neither affliction was due to her cold. If she got sicker, it would all be Ernest’s fault.
She glared at him once he finally pulled away.
“Why—how did you get into my house?”
“Oh, my Lady Yuuri, the lock on your door was so crude that it was easily undone by a simple wire,” Ernest told her about his break in with a flourish. The illegality of his actions didn’t seem to faze him.
He then recounted the events of his day to Yuuri. He had visited her shop that morning. He was about to leave since Yuuri hadn’t answered, but then he sensed her spying on him from the second floor window.
“My keen Yuuri senses detected that you were ill, so I went to buy some fruit for you and came back.”
He knocked again, letting her know he had come to check on her, but there was still no response. Out of genuine concern for her well-being, he was left with no choice but to break the lock.
“Rest assured, m’lady. While you slept, I enlisted the help of a locksmith to replace that shoddy old lock with a more secure one.”
“Wh-Wh-Why would you just go and do something like that?”
Ernest twirled a key attached to a chain as he spoke. The key was a size bigger than the old one, and Yuuri rightly assumed it was her new key. “Why, because you’re so reckless. I can’t spend all my time worrying about you, can I?” he said as he set the key on her bedside table. He then grabbed the apple and knife, sat down in the chair next to her bed, and began peeling.
“So even nobles break the law?”
Yuuri found herself impressed at the skill with which he peeled the apple skin.
“‘Tis just one of the many things one learns at boarding school,” Ernest said drolly, setting the crescent-moon slices of apple on the plate as he finished with them. He popped one into Yuuri’s mouth. “You need to eat something nutritious to help you get well.”
A juicy burst of tart sweetness exploded in her mouth. She’d had no appetite the whole day, but readily devoured the apple slice that Ernest fed her.
An apple…? And Lord Ernest’s finger…?
There had been an apple in her dream as well. And in that same dream, Ernest had slit his left ring finger. Here, in the real world, Ernest wore a bandage over that finger…
What…?
Yuuri suddenly became dizzy again and collapsed back onto the bed. The thought that her thirst had been sated only through Ernest hurting himself threatened her very sense of self. She closed her eyes, desperate for sleep to absolve her from this reality.
“Lady Yuuri? What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Ernest asked, pressing his hand to her forehead. She slid beneath her duvet, desperate to hide from him.
“I am fine. I simply need a good night’s sleep now…”
“Are you sure? I can come check on you tomorrow morning before I start work.”
“Thank you. …Well, good night,” Yuuri dismissed him, still concealed beneath the duvet.
Even though his visit brought with it a great deal of anxiety, she was still happy that Ernest came and cared about her.
For all the agitation Ernest’s breaking in and changing her lock caused her, she had completely forgotten about it by the time she woke up.