Chapter 90
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She thought she had heard something, so she chuckled, but then came to her senses. It was because she was looking forward to getting on a carriage.
Then someone got out of the carriage and rushed up to her.
"Teacher, no, Countess...! What are you doing in this dark, dangerous place........!"
Tears welled up in her eyes at the familiar sight. The welcoming voice belonged to Pietro, Viscount Engel’s son.
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"..................master."
Louise quickly dropped her happy gaze.
Relieved to be alive, she didn't even look at herself all day. Then, when she met an acquaintance, she realized her disheveled appearance.
She had always tried to look neat and presentable, even though she had been a bit of a slacker when she was working for herself.
But she never expected to meet Pietro with a man's coat over her undergarments.
Pietro looked at Louise's tattered appearance.
Her hair disheveled, his face scarred. He couldn't even look down at her bare legs.
"What the hell is this..............., are you hurt?"
She couldn't say no with her obviously scarred face. Louise nodded grimly and begged.
"Please help me, master. Forget that I'm a Countess......, and please hide me, for I will repay this favor.........."
Pietro snapped back with reddened eyes.
"How can you talk about grace in this situation? I didn’t say anything when you bought those drugs right in front of me...............! How could this happen.................."
Suddenly, she remembered meeting Pietro in the marketplace.
"I assume you married him because you are in love.................. with your husband?"
She couldn't even answer his question, and then she met him again like this.
Luckily, Pietro soon regained his composure and pulled Louise to her feet.
"No, this is not the time, let's get moving. Ah, the carriage.......... I've just followed the coachman out to pull the luggage wagon.................."
He glanced at the coachman's seat, which had only two seats, and Louise said.
"If there's room, I'll sit in the baggage compartment; it's better not to show my face, since I'm forced to hide."
"I've come to make my first trade in wine here in Noche. All the wine has been delivered and the wagon is empty."
Louise climbed into the empty wagon that Pietro opened for her. He moved the cushion from the coachman's seat to the wagon, helping Louise to get a little more comfortable.
"Thank you, master..................."
Pietro corrected his title.
"Pietro. Just Pietro."
Louise repeated weakly.
"..................Thank you, Pietro."
But instead of returning to the coachman's seat himself, Pietro plopped down across from Louise. Louise panicked.
"Please don't do this, I'm so sorry....................."
"Don't say that. You look like you're going to collapse at any moment, and I can't leave you by yourself.”
He signaled to the coachman, and the carriage was soon off. Pietro said, finally relieved.
"I feel like bowing down to the brewery manager, because he took a sudden leave of absence for his wife's birth, and here I am."
He continued to watch over Louise with great concern after that.
Is the seat hard, is your back hurting, is the carriage shaking too much?
Even though he knew what Louise's plight had been half a year ago, he looked at her carefully, as if she were a noble lady of noble birth, and asked her again and again if she was uncomfortable.
Only then did he speak.
"I read in the newspaper .................. that the margrave of Burg has been raising the son of the late King Wilhelm I in secret."
The indirect question was whether the man had thus become emperor.
Pietro had seen Caius himself at the Melk police station, so he had reason to wonder.
When Louise nodded, he immediately asked with bloodshot eyes.
"So he has abandoned you.................., no, left his wife behind, and is not taking you with him?"
The tone was blasphemous for a small lord speaking of the Emperor.
No one would ever speak of the man in this way again. Louise found some amusement in Pietro's tone.
Still, she had to correct him.
"He's............... I'm guessing, but he probably doesn't know my situation right now."
"What? With all due respect, you two are married?"
Louise smiled faintly.
"We were, but.................. he had an important business, as you see, and he left me for it, and in the meantime an accident happened to me."
Pietro still looked indignant.
"No matter how grave the imperial business, how could he leave his wife in harm's way? And what do you mean when you ask me to hide you? Are you trying to hide from His Majesty?"
Louise nodded slowly.
"I'm not exactly trying to hide from him, but it's close, but only for the time being, and I'll do my best not to let your involvement get you in trouble. I have a very important matter to discuss with His Majesty."
She glanced up at Pietro, and saw a mixture of curiosity and concern in his olive eyes. His innocent eyes were untouched by the world.
He was surprisingly pure and gentle for a man who had been in the army.
In that moment, Louise realized.
A nobleman who might not be on Caius's side, but who could request an audience with him if necessary.
The man before her was just such a person. Or, more accurately, the son of that nobleman.
"When I arrive at your home, I will see the Viscount and tell him the whole story. I will repay you for your help in this matter to the best of my ability, including the favor you have bestowed upon me."
“Please stop saying such heavy things… I told you to stop.”
Pietro replied gruffly and turned away from Louise. There was nothing to look at in the windowless luggage carriage, and he soon found himself awkwardly turning back to Louise.
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But even when she arrived at the Viscount's estate, she did not see Lord Melk. She had passed out in the carriage after her conversation with Pietro.
After being drugged with some sort of potion, she passed out, woke up, and spent the night trying to break free from her captors.
Afterward, she spent another day on the road to Noche, unable to sleep or swallow a single sip of water, which had weakened her further.
After two days of unconsciousness and fever, Louise woke up on the third day, looking like a corpse.
When she opened her eyes, a familiar face, a maid, called out in surprise.
"Miss Louise, are you all right?"
Louise managed to remember the maid's name in her vague mind.
"......Hannah?"
"You're awake! You don't know how worried the master was, and of course I am too!"
"I, how many days have..................."
There was a lump in her throat.
Louise's pale face grew more and more gaunt with each word she spat out.
Perhaps time had passed so quickly that Ferdinand was already on her trail.
Hannah spoke up quickly.
"You've been here three days, my lady, and I've kept your presence here a secret, even from the ladies. Only I, the doctor, and the master and young master know."
Louise nodded, relieved to finally be able to speak. She didn't know the details of the situation, but she was glad Pietro seemed to have handled it well.
Hannah gave her a glass of lukewarm water and left, saying she was going to call the doctor.
She couldn't move a finger to refuse medical attention, and her neck was bandaged.
Her eyelids were too heavy. Louise ended up falling asleep again before the doctor arrived in the room, and she had to spend another day sleeping.
The next morning, she awoke to a chill. Hannah, the same woman from the day before, was wiping a towel across her forehead.
"Teacher..................!"
When she met her gaze with squinty eyes, she sat up gingerly and asked in a small voice, as if she was afraid to startle Louise.
"Are you really awake now..................? Do you want me to call the doctor?"
Louise wanted to reassure her, but her voice didn't come out right. Only the faintest of smiles appeared, and only after a long moment did she ask.
"Hannah, has it been a long time.................. again?"
Her throat hurt like it was going to rip open, and it took her a moment to complete the short sentence.
"It's morning now. You woke up briefly last night, but then you went back to sleep."
"Can you get me a newspaper...............?"
Louise asked with difficulty. A voice came from the doorway.
"No newspapers until you're fully recovered."
It was Pietro.
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