Bastian
Chapter 172 - Finally the Correct Answer

✧Finally the Correct Answer✧

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

Count Xanders did not leave until after ten. He gingerly placed his daughter onto the back seat of the car. Odette had come out to see them off, even though he insisted that she didn’t need to. He couldn’t help notice that she seemed to have put more effort into her dress than yesterday.

   Bastian sat close by, in the darkness, under a willow tree and watched. He carried on watching when the counts car drove off down the road and Odette walked out to the gate, looking both ways.

   He chuckled and brushed the hair from his face. How pathetic would it be if she spotted him, caught him spying on her love life. It would have been better for the pair of them if he had just gone straight off to battle.

   Odette returned to the house. The lights in the downstairs windows went out and the lights in the upstairs came on. Now and then, Bastian could see her silhouette passing by the window. An incredible passion came over him.

The naval higher-ups approved his request, allowing him additional time to prepare in light of the empire’s special recognition of a hero. The underlying implications were not difficult to discern. The military, generally unmerciful, exhibiting leniency did not suggest a favorable situation. Unless circumstances went awry, war was likely to erupt, and the North Sea would transform into a battleground.

Intent on revenge, the enemy’s commander advanced to the battlefield. Meanwhile, Berg sought to bolster his troops’ morale by sending him, a hero who had previously defeated the same enemy commander.

Bastian fully grasped the weight of the responsibility entrusted to him; he would serve as the vanguard in this war. The additional days granted to him could be likened to the final meal served to a condemned prisoner.

He knew that if he cared for her, he should turn away now and go off to war. Even if he stood at a new starting line in the hopes of being with her, he would only end up hurting her again. Apology, forgiveness all mixed up in a vicious cycle that had no room for love. He no longer had the reasoning or time necessary to fulfill his desire.

He knew his misfortune and he accepted it. He didn’t know how to make her smile, no matter how hard he tried. In the end, he will only end up hurting her.

   But still…

   Bastian crossed the little bridge and rang the doorbell without a seconds hesitation.

   An eternity passed.

   Even if this was selfish, he was a dog and a dog couldn’t help behaving as such, he should just accept that. If he had to play the villain once again, just for her to hate him and wash away the love, then all the better for her.

   “Bastian? What on earth…” Odette looked at him, blinking.

   “Put up with me for just a couple more days,” he pleaded, holding on tightly to the open door.  “Maybe because of guilt or sympathy, as you said, just give me a couple days, to confirm.”

   “What are you talking about?”

   “A proper end, I want us to come to a proper end.”

   Odette considered him, not sure what to make of the man before her. The man that failed to turn up when she expected him, only now came when she was not. He was unbelievable. Then she saw the glimmer of a glass bottle in his hands and things suddenly made sense.

Odette looked at him, puzzled. His clothes and hair were a mess, it was startlingly dissimilar to his typically exceptionally tidy appearance. “Bastian, is something…”

   “Just stay with me until Wednesday. Then I will do whatever you want.”

   “I thought you were supposed to already know what I wanted.”

   Odette could not take this affront. He broke all rules of etiquette, coming at an inappropriate hour, half drunk and all messed up. Just as she was about to lose her temper with him, right as she was about to let the anger burst from her…

   “Let’s get divorced,” Bastian said. A soft, summer breeze fluttered playfully around the garden, tugging at Odette’s nightgown. “If things turn out to be exactly the same as they always were, then I will put an end to it, as you want, but I want to try right up until the very last. I believe you have nothing to lose from the deal, yes?” He said as he took a step back, like a polite stranger.

   Odette gazed at the man who had finally come up with the answer.

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

 

As the dawn began to break the night, Odette decided to get up. She had not slept at all through the night and even when she splashed cold water on her face, her minds remained in a daze.

   The man who had disrupted her evening left almost like a dream. If it hadn’t been for the champagne bottle left on her doorstep, she would have thought she dreamt Bastian’s arrival last night. Perhaps her memory had been distorted. She went through the series of strange events in her mind as she got ready for the day.

   As she made her way to the kitchen to fix herself some breakfast, the doorbell rang. She glanced up at the clock, it was so early in the morning she doubted even the milkman had gotten up yet. She rushed to the door with a sense of trepidation and when she opened it, Bastian was stood there with a travel trunk, an elderly lady just behind him.

   “Ah, here we are, this is your cousin, is it not?” the elderly lady said to Bastian.

   “Yes, good morning ma’am.” Bastian greeted her.

   “That is good, staying for awhile are you?” the old woman continued to pry.

   “Yes, for a little while. I was staying at the hotel in the neighbouring town, but I like this village so much, I decided to stay here instead.”

   “Ah, you have good taste, does he not Marie?”

   “Oh, yes ma’am,” Odette said, not sure what to make of the scene.

   With her nosey curiosity satisfied, the old lady continued about her day with a smug look of content on her face.

   “I don’t think you should be leaving guests out on the doorstep, where they can draw even more unwanted attention,” Bastian said with a cocked smile. His appearance this morning was very neat in contrast to his disheveled state last night.

   “Only if you promise that you will leave when you are asked,” Odette said sternly.

   “No more, no less,” Bastian said, stepping into the cottage and dragging the trunk behind him.

   “Follow me, then, though I have not properly prepared the guest bedroom,” Odette said and led the way up the stairs, with Bastian keeping a respectful distance.

   She took him to the spare bedroom. It had a bed, which was more than the third bedroom, which was only slightly bigger. There was also a wardrobe with a missing door.

   “I will bring you blankets once I am done with the mornings lessons,” Odette said.

   “I’m not sure how to properly thank you  for my niece’s warm welcome,” Bastian mischievously said as he entered the bedroom. “Will you be seeing Count Xanders again today?”

   “No, today I am teaching a farmers daughter in the next village, I should be done around noon.”

   “The girl from the vineyard?”

   “Yes, that’s right. It’ll probably be done around noon.”  

Bastian hoisted his trunk onto the bed and flipped the lid open to start hanging clothes in the rickety old wardrobe. A faint smile appeared on Odette’s face as she watched him, he had no intention of hiding the fact that he had been following her around.

   “So, I will meet you under the clock tower at midday.”

   “No, I have the things I need here…”

   “Keep your promise, Odette,” Bastian said. He slowly approached her and stopped right in front of her. “We agreed to give each other time.”

   “Then you need to keep your promise too.”

   “Yes, of course I will.”

   His eyes were like the deep blue sea and for some reason, Odette stared into those eerie blue eyes, wondering what manner of beasts floated just below the surface.

 

*.·:·.✧.·:·.*

 

Odette declined the vintner’s wife’s offer to stay for lunch, she was late enough as it was because her daughter couldn’t follow instructions properly. The older brother followed Odette out the door, pretending to be going out.

   “Miss Byller, do you have another appointment today?”

   “Yes, I’m meeting my cousin,” Odette said, relieved that she didn’t need to make up an excuse. Bastian was sitting on the bench below the clock tower reading a newspaper.

   “Are you making things up to reject me…”

   “Ah, Marie, there you are, I was getting worried,” Bastian shouted before the brother could finish his line. He folded the newspaper in his hands, and rose from his seat then strode across the square. The older brother huffed and turned back for the vineyard.

“Hi sister, shall we go, now?” Bastian extended his hand while looking towards a man who shot cautious glances over his shoulder. Following the script, Odette folded her umbrella and grasped Bastian’s offered hand.

They began to saunter side by side, their path lit by the brilliantly blazing sun above them.