Chapter 34
***
As Louise struggled to cover her suddenly exposed body, the man's arms around her waist loosened.
He brushed her face with his large hands, then slowly began to unbutton his robes, which he had not yet removed. The loose, gaping hem revealed a perfect body that once made her blush under her eyes.
He tugged roughly at his loose robe, tossing it to the floor and collapsing onto the bed. Without so much as a glance at the naked Louise, he closed his troubled eyes.
Louise didn't even breathe, clutching her ragged clothes, until the man fell asleep with repeated gasps. He did so until the night was long and the morning came again.
***
"My God..................."
Pauline panted, the tips of her ears reddening as she returned to the new room in the morning.
This should have had the effect she was hoping for. Louise quickly removed her torn nightgown and dropped it at her feet.
"Oh, I'll get you a bath!"
The scented oil she'd applied the day before hadn't even been washed off, but the maid was ready for another performance.
After a night of sleeplessness, Louise had had enough, so she remained quiet.
As she sat down in the warm bath, Pauline looked at her gently and asked.
"You look so troubled, my lady. It must be hard for you to deal with a man who has been hunted to death every dawn....?"
"......I suppose so."
Louise replied gratuitously.
It was ridiculous that she was the only one who was embarrassed, but the warmth of the tub and the warmth of the maid's affection eased the tension that had been clamping down on her body.
Louise hugged her knees with her arms and murmured.
"Pauline. I need to get some sleep, can you help me?"
"Sure. I'll wake you up, don't worry."
Pauline laid a towel in the tub for Louise to lean on, and kept the hot water running in small streams to keep the water from cooling while she rested. Thanks to her care, Louise got a short but precious sleep.
The longer-than-expected bath time was over.
But as Pauline unfolded a large towel for Louise, she let out a small groan of pain.
"..................Pauline?"
Louise gave her a look, and Pauline smiled awkwardly as she hastily put something away.
"It's nothing............... nothing, just the tip of my nail is sharp, just a moment, ma'am."
And with that, she fluffed her neatly open towel.
But no matter how hard Pauline tried to hide it, Louise saw the glint of a pin on the floor.
She had heard that some of the maids had criticized Pauline for becoming the hostess’s maid, but this was out of line. If Louie had gotten hurt, it would have been Pauline's responsibility.
On the other hand, the very fact that this was happening in plain sight of her proved her pathetic position.
Disrespecting her only maid was not so different from disrespecting the master.
They may have been envious and jealous of Pauline, but if she were a respected master, they would not have dared to play such tricks.
At Louise's grave face, Pauline whimpered a little.
"It was my mistake, my lady. I should have been more careful."
Then she busily began to dry Louise's wet hair with her hands. Seeing Pauline's effort, Louise decided to put the earlier incident down to a mistake for now.
When she was finally finished, Pauline pulled a notebook from her apron.
"Here's the schedule for today, Madame. I've been working hard on it!"
The first girl to be assigned to the maid's duties continued in a bubbly voice.
"After breakfast, you'll have a meeting with the head maid. She'll hand over the ledger and the keys."
She was thrilled, as if she was going to take the keys from the maid herself.
"Then there's an appointment with the butler, something to do with preparations for the almshouse event you'll be visiting next week. After that, there's your winter greatcoat and fleece gabon. In the afternoon, you'll have to.................."
But Louise sighed at the schedule that followed. She didn't know how many batons of all kinds she had already had.
"I'll see Miss Miriam before the bibs. You can postpone the appointment with the tailor."
Pauline knew how much Louise wanted to be a part of Miriam's family. The man and Miriam were not related by blood.
All the hired help knew that, and Pauline's eyes were so sweet as she looked at Louise.
"Yes, ma'am."
Pauline nodded, perhaps because she could see that Louise wanted the best for her sister-in-law, even if they weren't related by blood.
But Pauline didn't know that yet.
Miriam was Louise’s salvation.
The girl who, from the very beginning, had seen her with only true eyes.
Because of Miriam, Louise was able to protect herself in this world of lies.
How precious was that?
***
But before Louise could meet Miriam, she was summoned by Ferdinand, Duke of Burg.
"He called me..................?"
It's no wonder Caius hadn't been knighted before.
If he traveled to the imperial castle for a knighthood ceremony, the emperor might recognize his nephew.
Also, if it worked, Caius wouldn’t be able to keep his position as Margrave, so Ferdinand, pretending to be ill, would naturally return to his original position.
So the knighthood ceremony had been put off for years, with only Ferdinand stepping down to give Caius a free hand.
How many people were the two men fooling with this charade? Ferdinand greeted Louise, still bedridden, using his illness as an excuse.
"I will soon leave to recuperate again. Before I go, ask him if there's anything he wants to hear from me."
Louise swallowed dryly.
He'd claimed to know Louise's parents when they'd first met, and he'd been vocal about his disapproval of the marriage, so perhaps he and Caius had different views.
She opened her mouth impatiently, thinking that maybe she could find out more about her parents' past from him.
"That day.................. the stories I heard, are they all true?"
Ferdinand's blue eyes were too clear to fake his illness.
He stared up at Louise for a long moment, his sea-blue eyes locked on hers, before he spoke.
"It's true. Tough days."
Inwardly, she'd been denying it all along. She thought Caius must have misunderstood, that if her parents had betrayed him, they wouldn't have left her the pearl to guard.
From Ferdinand's lips flowed a past Louise did not know.
"It is true that the late marquis saved Caius’s life on the Night of the Half-Justice. It is true that they kept him in hiding for years afterward."
"After all that, they abandoned him just because my mother was pregnant with me?"
Louise asked again in disbelief, and Ferdinand smiled wanly.
"They would not have dared to do so if it had not been for the consequences, but a long tail is bound to be trodden. The Emperor's pursuit was fierce, and your parents were pushed to the brink."
The painful history passed as Louise listened in amazement.
"Perhaps it was not meant to be, but the Marchioness was pursued by the Emperor's army at full term. The promised reunion never came to pass, and in the meantime, the young Caius nearly died."
"What..................?"
"He was only seven years old. At the age of seven, he spent a full winter alone in a mountain hut, gathering berries. How terrifying it must have been."
Louise was silent.
She had never imagined such pain in such a remarkable man. Once, he had been small and young and inexperienced and in need of a parental touch.
Perhaps he thought Louise had taken all that away from him, and that was why he hated her.
"I remember the day I went to see him after hearing the news, he was so stubborn that he would never listen to me, and I had to force him to leave. Caius waited for the marquis and marchioness long afterward."
"My parents were very poor, and......."
Louise rattled off excuses, but Ferdinand clicked his tongue.
"Well, they took the pearl of life, the owner had to get it back somehow."
Louise swallowed her tears and listened to his story.
"I was able to save his life by the narrowest of margins, but it should have been a secret that no one knew about. We had a hard time finding your parents, and when things got better, I couldn't find them either."
"My father became ill and died early, and my mother was distraught from the shock of it all. She didn't remember much about the pearl or............... the imperial family in general. I never saw the pearl in my life, except for one night, the night she died."
Ferdinand asked.
"That was the first time you saw it?"
****
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