Chapter 40
***
Verena waved her hand in dismissal, flushed with embarrassment.
"You don't need to ask for a favor, my lady. I'm going to make sure they get a comeuppance, so you can rest assured."
Louise glanced at Verena, who replied with exaggeration.
The guilty maid's gaze wandered from side to side, unable to meet her master's.
You get the picture.
She was not the only one the rumors point to, after all, their young master, Caius, whom they admired and cherished, was at the center of it all.
Louise swallowed a sigh and changed the subject.
"How did it go at the almshouse today? The priest seemed a little flustered."
"To be honest, ......."
Verena's eyes widened, and her mouth quirked up in an odd way.
"I'm all cool with it, I didn't realize the priest could be so sneaky."
Louise realized she was laughing, though she was trying hard to hide it.
"Was he? Verena must have had a rough time there."
She'd actually been listening to Pauline's entire story. Verena shrugged it off.
"He didn’t even say thank you, perhaps because I’m an employee.”
Then she added a cautious word.
"I guess that's the difference between a hostess and an employee."
In other words, she was acknowledging the difference between herself and her master.
"Actually, Mistress............."
Sure enough, Verena sat up and bowed her head.
"I suppose I didn't let go of my own petulance when I handed over the keys to the manor. I've been acting hostess for so long that I've gotten a bit presumptuous."
She was in a position to resent Louise, even for her own gain, since she had benefited most from the vacancy in the hostess's position. It was a good thing she didn't hold out much longer and bowed to Louise at this point.
Verena's stance lowered further while Louise remained silent.
"If you will forgive me for daring to test you and judge you, I will serve you as if the old Countess were alive again."
Louise hesitated for a moment, but then smiled.
She was a stranger in Burg.
If she was to make a decent living here, she would need people on her side, and Verena would be the center of that.
She would just have to trust Verena's belatedly remorseful attitude.
"Thank you, Verena, you help me a lot."
The sound of hoofbeats filled the carriage without awkwardness.
Louise lowered her shoulders and leaned back in her seat, finally comfortable.
If being the Margrave’s Wife wasn't just a shell of a name, she would do better.
For her own sake, for Miriam's sake, for the sake of her dead parents and Ermoli's name.
And for Caius, whose wounds were still festering and unhealed.
***
The hired help's commotion seemed to die down after that, until the unexpected startled Louise.
"Hehe. Look at this, sister."
“What is it, Miriam?"
Louise casually accepted the small box she held out, then her mouth dropped open in surprise.
"This is....................."
"What do you think? I thought it was the cutest pattern I know.........."
Inside the box was a tiny little shoe with a cat embroidered on the front nose.
It was adorable, and the fact that Miriam, who was afraid of needles, had embroidered it herself made it a priceless gift.
But she didn't realize that the rumors among the servants had already reached Miriam.
The gossip in the mansion would have been neatly tidied up in the maid's line a week ago. But perhaps Miriam didn’t know.
While Louise was making these calculations, Miriam shook her head.
"Baby, isn't there a baby?"
"The baby is....................."
Louise started to answer, but paused when she saw Miriam's expectant eyes. She took Miriam's hand and held it still.
"Miriam, we don't have a baby yet."
The girl's sea-blue eyes fluttered open like a gust of wind, clearly excited at the prospect of an early niece.
Louise added cautiously.
"Because your brother and I were married less than a month ago."
Miriam replied hesitantly.
"But the maids said you had a baby................... and they said my sister can't eat well..................."
"The maids must have misunderstood, and maybe I was just tired."
Louise explained, keeping a smile on her face so as not to embarrass Miriam.
"Everyone seems to be expecting me to have a baby. Is that true for you, Miriam? Well, what can I do about this disappointment?"
"Well, the shoes are..................."
Louise quickly tucked the box with the shoes into her waistband, her hands shaking as if she was afraid they would be taken away.
"Are you going to take them back? Not yet, but the baby might come soon?"
"..................might come, is there?"
It was a hopeless expectation, but Louise found it hard to disappoint Miriam.
"Of course."
The pointed lie stabbed her in the chest much harder than it had Miriam, who knew nothing.
It would never happen between Caius and herself.
Lately, Caius had been away from the manor for days at a time, and Louise only knew of his whereabouts through the butler. With the hired help out of the way, the real problem had come to the surface.
Even if she did decide to become a real Countess, it was unlikely that Caius would want her to succeed him.
He was a man who looked at her like she was an inanimate object, so his suggestion that she be more dutiful in bed was just to scare her off.
But it's only natural for a noble family of this stature to want an heir. As a childless countess, her position was always going to be precarious.
Miriam blinked her blue eyes and smiled wryly, unaware of Louise's plight.
"So, Miriam has prepared well in advance?"
"That's right, Miriam. Thank you so much."
Louise felt bad for lying to the girl's genuine expectations, so she patted Miriam on the back, hiding her own aching heart.
She pretended to be okay, trying to ignore the sting in her eyes that no one had ever hugged her before.
***
Same time, Zagreb, off the island.
In a factory district where the smoke from the chimneys had stopped, a workers' strike was in full swing.
“I am enriched with Galicia’s black money!”
“Parliament, dissolve! Dissolve, dissolve!"
"Our workers' union is loyal only to the imperial!"
"Parliament, fall back, fall back, fall back!"
Caius sat in his carriage and drove through the center of the rioting city.
"Hyreth belongs to Heidenberg! Prove the lineage of Emperor Leopold!"
"Prove the lineage of the Emperor!"
"Prove it, prove it!"
Caius's lips curled up in satisfaction as the mob shouted over and over again.
The tragedy had begun when Emperor Karl had enlisted the help of the Duchy of Galicia to overthrow his brother-in-law.
Karl was forced to give much to the Duchy of Galicia in return, and as a result, the capital of the Duchy became a large part of Hyreth's industry.
The Galician industrialists undercut the workers of Jerez to the marrow, and the impoverished workers quickly turned into a mob.
The laborers hated Galician capital, and cursed the Council for bringing them into the empire with countless deregulations.
It was Michael who first had the idea to mobilize the businessmen, having heard about the conditions in the industrial districts from a friend from the workhouse.
Caius was the first to invest in the Zagreb industrial district.
The businessmen and workers welcomed the new owners with open arms. With a modest shareholding, they began to come to him for help here and there.
Caius moved aggressively.
But he didn't forget to use Ferdinand, Miriam, and Michael's names to keep a low profile.
It took only a few years for him to own Zagreb and several other industrial zones on the island. Ferdinand, who put up the initial capital, also made a fortune.
The life of a laborer was hungry and hard.
Once he became a powerful investor, it was not difficult for him to incite the people to drive out foreign capital.
It was only natural that the spark would grow into a great fire and reach the emperor, but he didn't have to do anything about it.
****
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