It was a late spring this year. The garden had not bloomed for a long time, and Kaya was beginning to worry, as if she wondered if it would ever bloom.

- The apple tree has blossomed,'- she said, lying in her bed and turning her head to the open window, - 'I was afraid I'd never see it again.

- Don't say that, Miss Kaya,' - her faithful butler placed a tray of tea and medicine on the bedside table, - 'the doctor promised that you should feel better after the new potion. You'll be better soon, you'll see.

- Thank you, Klahador,' - she smiled weakly with blue lips.

The butler smiled back at his little mistress, making a respectful half bow and flashing his spectacles. And then he corrected them with a queer gesture, not with his fingertips, as he usually did, but with the inside of his wrist. These glasses had long been a favourite with him. They not only gave Klahador an imposing and noble appearance, but also served as a kind of screen for his eyes. If Miss Kaya had looked into his eyes without the glasses, she would have seen that it was not the glass in the frames that sparkled, but the lights in the narrow pupils. Unkind lights.

For three years now, Klahador, the butler, had pretended to be a devoted servant and caring guardian, coddling this capricious girl. She annoyed him with her pathetic sickly appearance, a spoilt little brat... But the butler knew how to be patient when it came to business. A case worth a huge, round sum of money. And he'd wait his time, if he wasn't Captain Kuro, damn it! A man with a thousand plans in his sophisticated mind.

Captain Kuro was always driven by cold calculation, which is why all his plans always came true. He went patiently towards his goal, cutting away all unnecessary branches, like a gardener cuts off the branches of an apple tree. He knew that he would reap the fruits of his cunning game - he would take possession of the inheritance of this sick girl whom he was forced to serve. He had not long to wait. All she had to do was to sign her will, according to which all her obscenely large estate would go to her humble servant, the faithful butler. The hypnotist swore on his grave that he could pull it off. Well, the next step is simple.

The butler can't hold back a satisfied, bloodthirsty smile as he watches Miss Kaya slowly sit down on the bed and take the cup with trembling hands. Killing such a lowlife is like swatting a bug. Klahador keeps his face to her, as he always does, while he burns inside with injustice. It had cost him a great deal of labour and endurance to get into this mansion, to stay alive, and this despicable creature had been given such wealth for nothing. And she doesn't even need that kind of money, because she can barely walk. She was accustomed to luxury from the time she was a baby, and he had to chew his way up to the pedestal, to fight, to walk over heads and corpses all his conscious life as a pirate. He knew the value of peace and prosperity. Captain Kuro had been impatient before, but Butler Klahador had learnt to wait. Learned to hide his claws and use them in good time.

Kaya unsteadily stood on weak legs and staggered to the latticed window, the butler, as always, obligingly giving her an elbow. Nestled on the cushions on the wide windowsill, the girl enjoys inhaling the fresh spring fragrance and admiring the spreading apple tree, which looks like a large pink and white ice cream. The tree is simply drowning in flowers, almost completely hiding the leaves and branches.

- Sit with me, please,' she looks at the butler pleadingly with her puppyish, ever-wet eyes, her head tilted slightly so that flaxen strands fall over her stubby shoulders.

Klahador nods understandingly and sits down beside her on the windowsill, as staid and unruffled as ever. He knows how to behave like a gentleman. The girl looks up at the stupid apple tree and leans dangerously out of the window. The old Captain Kuro is tempted to push her out right here and now, so sick of messing with her. But the butler knows his hour has not yet struck...

At that moment a knock sounds on the door of the room of the little mistress of the big mansion. After allowing her to enter, a curly-headed man's head appears in the doorway.

- I apologise for the disturbance, Miss Kaya,' - a nasty bleating voice hits his ears, but Klahador doesn't raise an eyebrow, - 'you have a letter.

- Oh, really? Thank you, Merry!

Without bothering the little missus, the butler himself takes the envelope from the lamb-brained footman's hands, and with a majestic gesture tells him to leave. All the servants in the house are afraid of Klahador and obey him without even having to raise their voices. He gives the message to Kaya with a letter opener. The young lady plunges into reading, and in a moment her face is transformed, glowing with genuine joy.

- I'm glad to see a smile on your lips,' the butler pulls his white gloves around his wrists, 'I trust the news is good.

- Oh, you'll never guess who this letter is from!

- I won't even try, miss,' he throws his hands up jokingly, 'if it's no secret, tell me who it's from.

- From Martha! - Kai's pale sunken cheeks even flushed, -you remember her, don't you?

- Yes, of course, Miss...

His stern, straight face remains impenetrable, but his hands clutch the gutted envelope nervously as if by themselves. Does he remember Martha? Oh, yes.

- It's incredible, it's been two years since she left the estate!

Two years. Two bloody years. Not a word. Not a single word. So why now?

- You're going to freak out,' Kaya continued excitedly, placing the letter on her lap, 'Marta got married! And she's already had a son!

Klahador squeezes out a condescending smile, a well-practised and utterly fake smile that hides the storm in his soul. Or rather, where normal people usually have a soul, but pirates have a seething cauldron of original sin.

- Imagine, her husband is a Marine officer, a captain! He even has his own ship. With scarlet sails, you can imagine! Just like she dreamed of. And they're on their way here. Judging by the date, they should arrive as early as tomorrow.

Kaya jumps up sharply from the windowsill, as if oblivious to her weakness, and starts spinning around the room, holding onto the hem of her blue homemade dress, spreading out like flashes of fire.

- Oh, Klahador, how glad I am! How I've missed sweet Martha, I can't believe so much has happened to her.

He can't believe it either. The letter I read remains on the windowsill.

- Miss, I understand your joy and share your elation, but don't overdo it. Remember, you must conserve your strength,' the butler sits motionless at the window, his eyes fixed on the tiresome apple tree.

- You must meet them properly,' she said, and stopped pacing around the bedroom and began to pace the Persian carpet.

Really, we should... If it were not for the need to hide under the guise of a servant in a rich house, Captain Kuro would have given Martha's dearest husband a warm welcome. With ten cold blades in his gloves.

- Don't worry, Miss Kaya, I'll take care of everything,' he rose from the window sill, casually picking up the letter and tucking it inside his black jacket, 'I'll have a guest room prepared for the family, and tomorrow I'll have a carriage ready so they won't have to walk from the harbour.

- You are so thoughtful,' Kaja looked at him with naive childish admiration, 'you always have everything in mind...

Of course he's thought of everything, it can't be otherwise. Klahador bows and leaves, reminding his mistress of the medicines. But all the potions have already been forgotten - Kaya is whirling around the room, anticipating the arrival of the guests and already choosing a proper gown. Outside the window, an apple tree is blossoming. Captain Kuro had thought of everything... Except for her. Except his apple tree. Except Martha.

As soon as the door closes behind the butler and he is left in the salutary silence of the corridor, his true feelings show through on his face like bloodstains on a shirt. Klahador suddenly realises that he accidentally carried the letter opener with him. And he's burning with the urge to slash the lines about Martha's husband, the captain. And slit his belly when they meet, right in front of her eyes!

With a trembling hand, the pirate pulls the crumpled crisp sheet from his pocket and holds it up to his face, studying the neat, beaded handwriting. Then he closes his eyes, inhaling deeply the scent of the paper. It smells of ripe fruit and apple blossom. Immediately her image wove itself into his mind. Martha... Captain Kuro pictured her so vividly that he would have no trouble describing her appearance down to the smallest detail.

To the slender wrists. The green eyes she hid behind thick round frames. The cuts on her face that left scars... But Martha wasn't ugly in the least.

Klahador understood Miss Kaya in a way. He couldn't believe Martha had decided to come back here. After everything that had happened to her. After what he'd done. The captain hadn't thought of her for two years. locked all thoughts away in the deepest dungeon of his sophisticated mind. But he couldn't forget her.

- My Martha. - his lips barely moved, my little white apple tree.