Chapter 9 (1/2)
Very Much 9: Matthew is a harem master. He tripped
and fell and landed with his thing in her thing
W
hen the strength of the two men
eventually flagged, Lionel spoke up,
‘With this situation, we don’t have
to pay compensation for the cancelling of the engagement,’ (Zuben: I knew this
sly person had something up his sleeve)
‘That is true. And from now on the
Folk Shop will not be trading with you!’ Colette’s father said still angry.
‘And the same goes for us. We will
not trade with you either!’
The animosity of both men could not
be helped. Colette sighed,
‘Are you alright, Colette?’ Lionel
asked gently. Lionel seemed anxious.
She was all right but she realised
she really couldn’t marry Matthew after this. He hadn’t been this sort of
person when she left home two years ago. But she had to know what happened,
So Colette spoke up for the first
time since she greeted her parents,
‘Let me talk with Matthew for a
bit, just the two of us.’
Everyone protested, but Colette was
insistent so they were eventually left alone with the door agar,
Colette turned to Matthew for the
first time in a long while,
‘So you got girlfriends. Two years
ago you weren’t like that; if anything you were shy and were not good at
talking to girls.’ She said softly. They had been friends for a long time, so
she could talk freely with him,
‘So tell me,’ she asked, ‘what
happened?’
Matthew’s gentle face clouded over
as he sighed, ‘Really, how this happened I don’t understand myself. One thing
just lead to another,’
‘Please tell me,’
Matthew nodded and began his story.
There was an invitation from Guilietta Flouqette, a daughter of a good customer
of theirs. He took some fabric that she had been interested in along. She
served some tea, he somehow got drunk, and his body got hot and found himself
riding Guilietta. (Zuben: Poor fellow, he got drugged)
Matthew told her he could not marry
her, and he was engaged to Colette. She seemingly accepted, but said it was
still fine to have an affair,
‘Anyway, I refused her after the
second time. But then she began to cry and cling, and looked pitiful. And then
she threatened, and somehow I could not completely refuse her.’
‘…’
To Colette, this story seemed very
familiar.
‘I used contraception, oral and
devices, because I didn’t want to get her pregnant and she had given me
defective ones before.’ (Zuben: This dude…)
‘If feels like a planned crime,’
Colette said. (Zuben: It is)
‘It was,’ he replied with a
sorrowful sigh.
‘And the other women?’
He told her truthfully, ‘I got
called out for a home consultation and then when I get there they push me down
and coerce me...’
‘You didn’t dislike them, though
you tried to refuse - they try to persuade. You thought they were kind of cute
and weakened.’ Colette surmised,
‘How did you guess…?’
Because she understood. Colette and
Matthew were the same kind of people; it was easy enough to know that they
would both cave under pressure. Matthew had a gentle personality and didn’t
voice his opinions very easily, so a pushy person could easily win him over.
And he could be rather indecisive.(Zuben: Is that rignt...?)
‘But Mattie, is such a situation
okay for business?’
‘That’s another thing. I will make
sure nothing I do affects the business,’
‘Really? Are you really sure about
that?’ Colette asked, sceptical but Matthew’s gaze became a little mean, as he
turned to Colette,
‘And what about you, marrying this
Knight Commander, it most likely isn’t fully your intention.’
‘Well that’s…’
‘As for me, it was not clear; I may
have been approached as a punishment game or something. After that I refused
firmly as I kept having misunderstandings. I did not try to do anything wrong,’
‘I get it,’
They were childhood friends and he
knew about Colette’s easy to influence personality. He understood how she was
in this position.
‘I am careful about business, but
for Colette marrying this person in such a high position, it would be hard for
you if you remain as you are.’
‘Why do you think that?’
‘In such a position, you can be
betrayed and threatened by political enemies, even killed.’
‘Don’t say such scary things,’