Anje’s eyes filled with tears, and she trembled as if she would burst into tears at any moment.
Aiden flinched, wondering if he had been too harsh. He could almost hear his grandfather’s tsk tsk sound.
“…Tea?”
He lifted the steaming teapot. The voice that had been boiling up a moment ago had subsided like a dormant volcano.
“Fine! You can drink that cheap tea all you want!”
If it were the Duke’s mansion, she would have had the finest imported tea with a three-tiered tray full of scones, sandwiches, and cakes.
Not a black iron teapot, but a luxurious porcelain teapot. Not a simple earthenware cup, but a high-class teacup with flowers and butterflies.
Instead of the sound of chickens clucking, the music of musicians invited to the drawing room would have filled the air.
As she began to compare one by one, Anje felt even more miserable about her current situation.
Bang-
She closed the door with a bang, turned back to the room, and buried her face in the pillow.
‘How are they all doing without me? What if they forget me completely?’
Her mother had passed away early, and her father was always busy with government affairs. Although she was materially rich, her life was somehow empty.
It was the social world that filled the void in Anje’s life, and her heart felt empty without it. She was angry and resentful at Aiden, who yelled at her for no reason, even though it was a simple request.
After crying sadly for a while, she finally raised her head, wiped her tears with the end of her sleeve, and declared firmly.
“I can’t live like this anymore.”
She would run away from this disgusting Leslie, and from the Dilton farm.
Tonight.
***
Anje, who was quick to make decisions, immediately began to prepare to leave.
‘Let’s ask my father for help.’
Since the marriage certificate had already been issued by the church, it would be difficult to invalidate the marriage itself when she thought about it calmly.
However, if she continued to live separately, wouldn’t it be possible to file for divorce? If her father hid her in one of his villas, even the emperor would not know.
‘Anyway, Sir Aiden hates me, so if I insist on a divorce, he’ll pretend to lose and agree.’
The problem was the emperor. Emperor William, who hated her and the Duke of Gloucester to the extreme.
‘If my father tells him that I will never try to be the empress again and that I will be satisfied with another marriage, wouldn’t that be enough? I think a local aristocrat would be fine.’
She looked at her fingers, which had deep grooves.
Perhaps the emperor had a personal grudge against Anje and the duke for bothering him, but he also wanted to weaken the support base of the former crown prince, Philip.
If he punished the Duke of Gloucester, the representative figure of the Philip faction, as an example, the other nobles would not be able to say anything.
‘I think I’ve been punished enough.’
In fact, shouldn’t her father, who had ordered her to seduce William, be punished? Anje had a moment of resentment, but she shook her head.
‘My father did it because he wanted me to be happy.’
She should not have a grudge against her only family, guardian, and head. She had been educated that way since she was a child.
Anje took out the strongest and largest suitcase from under the bed and packed her favorite belongings and valuables.
Then she took off her light muslin dress, tightened the loose corset strings, and took out her silk dress for going out.
She couldn’t show herself in a shabby state to the people she would meet when she returned to the capital after a long time. She would have liked to wear a crinoline, but she wouldn’t be able to ride a horse well in that.
‘I wish I had brought the new riding clothes I had them made if I had known this would happen.’
Anje, with her bag and parasol in hand, put her ear to the door leading to the hallway.
‘He must be asleep by now?’
Anje had to leave quietly without being caught by Aiden in the next room.
She was planning to ‘borrow’ his horse.
‘I can return it when I get to the duchy. I’ll pay a little for the rent.’
Creak-
She took a step at a time, carefully lifting her heels.
The sound of the old floorboards was particularly jarring today. The high heels she was wearing for the first time in a while also made it difficult to walk quietly outside the house.
“Phew, I finally made it.”
After many twists and turns, Anje finally managed to get out without waking Aiden. She passed the chicken coop, the pigsty, and the stable where the animals were grunting, and headed straight for the stable.
“Whoa, whoa, be quiet. Your master will be awake.”
The two dark bay horses, awakened from their sleep in the middle of the night, pawed the ground fiercely, not happy with the stranger.
“Shush, I told you to be quiet! You’re just like your master.”
Anje, fidgeting and trying to appease the horses that kept snorting and showing signs of discomfort, brought some hay from the corner.
But it was no use.
“Hee-ing!”
The horses ridden by noble ladies were mostly gentle and well-trained. This was to prevent the rider from falling and getting injured.
However, these two horses were wild and had been bought and trained by Aiden.
Naturally, they were terrified of anyone who was not their master, especially Anje, who looked harmless.
“Are you possessed by a demon?”
Anje muttered angrily after failing several times to put the saddle on the horse. If she had known that the horses would be so disobedient, she would have brought some sugar cubes.
But even then, it probably wouldn’t have made much difference.
“What should I do? What should I do?”
She couldn’t give up now.
“I’d rather ride a pig.”
The pigs she had seen in the pigsty on the way seemed more docile than these guys.
“Or maybe a cow?”
There was a story in mythology about someone riding a bull into the sea.
Anje, who had been lost in thought, slapped herself on the cheek a few times.
“No, I can’t stop here.”
If she couldn’t ride a horse, she would walk. Anje threw open the stable door and stepped out briskly.
It was ridiculous to think of walking all the way to the capital, but she could certainly walk to town.
‘It’s about 10 miles by horse, right? That’s… I guess I can walk it?’
It was a distance that she had no sense of, as she always traveled by carriage, but it was better than being stuck in this damn country house.
As soon as she got to town, she would check if there was a letter for her, and if not, she would look for someone to give her a ride to the capital.
She had a few pounds in her hand. It wasn’t a lot of money by noble standards, but it would be a decent amount for the common people.
“By the way… am I going in the right direction?”
Anje stood at the fork in the road in front of the house for a long time, wondering.
She had been asleep in the carriage the whole way here, so she didn’t remember exactly which way she had come. The landscape at night looked very different from the way it did at sunset.
“The left side looks easier to walk on, so let’s go this way first.”
The side with the lush green grass seemed less tiring to walk on in heels.
“I can always turn back if it’s not the right way.”
It was a common mistake that travelers made.
***
Aiden is aware that he is dreaming. He is surrounded by enemy soldiers who are closing in on him. He can hear screams and the smell of burning flesh.
Even though he knows it is a dream, he still feels goosebumps all over his body when he hears the sound of keys clinking together.
The torturer asks him in a thick voice who he will choose. He clenches his teeth to avoid answering, but this only serves to irritate the torturer further.
Aiden hears faint cries.
‘Captain, please.’
‘Choose!’
The voice of the guard has now changed to that of Phillip. Aiden struggles against the chains that bind his hands and feet, desperately trying to wake up from the dream.
‘Murderer!’
‘Filthy bastard.’
‘Half-breed.’
‘Parasite.’
‘Murderer.’
Murderer, murderer, murderer.
The voices repeating the word “murderer” multiply. Among them are the voices of his former comrades, as well as his grandfather and even Anje.
He manages to open his eyes, his whole body soaked in sweat like a man who has been drenched in rain.
“Ugh, gasp……. Ha, haha…….”
He laughs bitterly at the nightmare that continues to haunt him even after all these years. Perhaps even after all these years, it is still not enough.
His heart, startled by the dream, pounds in his chest. He curls up like a frightened child, afraid that he is about to have another seizure. The blanket in his hands is crumpled mercilessly.
Seizures. Whenever he recalls his time in the internment camp, He calls the symptoms that come over him”seizures” for convenience.
He could not find out the exact cause or name of the disease. He even went to see a doctor in the capital, but the doctor only gave him a vague diagnosis of “neurosis” and recommended electric shock therapy, cocaine, and hot spring baths.
While the other options were not much better, cocaine was a particularly distasteful option for Aiden, who had witnessed the last years of the Emperor, who had been ruined by opium addiction.
So he ignored the doctor’s advice and secluded himself in a lonely countryside where he would not be a problem if he had a seizure. And he took in the earth, the sunlight, and the green as much as he could.
‘It was much more effective than cocaine.’
Aiden took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Fortunately, the trembling subsided this time, as if the seizure would not come.
‘It will get better. Just like it has always been.’
Muttering words of self-assurance to himself, he slowly raised himself up. He thought it would be better to have some water.
‘Of all times.’
The jug that was usually left in the room was empty today. He lit the paraffin lamp and quietly headed out into the hallway.
Since he had been locked in his room after getting angry earlier, he knew that the princess would be angry again if she woke up because of him.
“Hmm?”
The princess, who always kept her door tightly closed, had it wide open today.
He was about to clos
e the open door when he suddenly had a strange feeling and looked inside.
The room was a mess with packing, the bed was empty.
“Oh no.”
He felt his damp back getting cold. She disappeared alone in the middle of the night?
