The Lady and the Stableman

The discovery of her pregnancy

Posted by Susybunbun, Released on October 12, 2023

“… Alright.”

When she replied that she was leaving, Merlin was overjoyed and acted as if Walter was now his for life.

“You’ve made the right decision, Miss Edith.”

“…”

If he was going to tell her she had made the right decision, he could at least provide her with a coat. But Merlin gestured for her to leave immediately.

『 You’re a heartless bastard without blood or tears.』

Even though she knew she had deceived Merlin, she couldn’t believe he could chase away a pregnant woman in this cold without even a coat.

Then Edith placed her slipper-clad feet on the frozen ground.

Even before the snow had started to pile up, the warmth in her entire body cooled down in an instant.

“Please keep this a secret from Walter. I’m asking you once again.”

After deceiving Merlin once more by earnestly pleading, Edith walked away through the falling snow, leaving the Militia building.

Normally, there would be guards stationed around the building, but today, due to the recent armed conflict and the successful completion of Helen’s mission, the guards at the gate were lax.

『 Merlin must have known about the situation and that’s why he called me today.』

She clenched her trembling teeth and walked away with determination.

Merlin stood by the door for a long time, monitoring to see if Edith would turn back.

However, she seemed genuinely resolved to leave and quickly disappeared beyond the horizon.

It was clear to her that in a few hours, the snow would begin to pile up over her footprints, and she wouldn’t even be able to guess which door she had walked out of and in which direction she had disappeared.

“Great job. Go now before the snow piles up more.”

Merlin gave the doctor he had hired a gold coin and instructed her to keep a close eye on Edith.

After she disappeared, he indulged in fanciful thoughts as he checked the ground to see if any of Edith’s hair had fallen.

『 If Walter has a suitable job and a woman, he’ll settle down in Fortrion soon. Why bother going to the capital when he probably won’t even find his memories?』

Merlin had never seen someone with abilities as outstanding as Walter’s.

If he could place Walter under his wing, it would practically guarantee success for his family’s business, wouldn’t it?

『 I think my youngest brother’s daughter was around the same age as Walter.』

Merlin thought he should quickly send a message to his unmarried niece.

After about half a day, people will start to notice that Edith has disappeared, so it would be the perfect time to let Walter think about her while he reveals the truth to him.

『 If Walter finds out that Edith has another man’s child, he’ll be heartbroken. So I’ll invite him to have a drink together, and then…』

However, Merlin’s plan was disrupted before it could even be completed.

Walter, who should have been quietly asleep, was wandering the corridor, and that’s when Merlin noticed him.

“Wal-Walter?”

“Hey, how long have you been here?”

Walter was looking for Edith, who had disappeared somewhere after saying she would return soon.

Whenever Walter met her deep lake-like eyes, his heart swelled to the point of aching, but when she suddenly disappeared from his sight, his heart reacted sensitively to his anxiety.

Every time Edith left his side, it seemed as if she disappeared with one of his veins in her hands.

It was as if she was trying to test how far she could pull before he died, or how far she had to pull for the heart connected to the other end of his vein to stop beating.

Walter couldn’t bear this emptiness any longer.

He had to bring Edith back to his side.

So, this time, he was determined to keep her in his embrace and find out why she kept trying to leave, and what she was so worried about.

However, when he went to look for Edith, she was not in her room, and there were no traces of anyone entering or leaving the building’s entrance; only clean snow had piled up.

So when Walter saw Merlin, whose name he couldn’t quite remember, he impatiently asked.

His eyes had a completely different ferocity than when he looked at Edith, so Merlin stumbled like a herbivore captured by a beast.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

Merlin’s reaction was definitely that of someone who had something on his mind.

When Walter realized that and confronted him with a face devoid of warmth, Merlin, feeling pressured, opened his mouth much earlier than expected.

“I just had some suspicions, so I asked Edith, but it seems like she left for no reason.”

“Left? What did you ask her to make her have to leave?”

He growled in an even lower voice. In an instant, his tone became fierce, almost as if he was going to strangle him, and Merlin tensed up, squeezing out his words.

“I asked if she’s pregnant.”

“What?”

For a moment, Walter felt like his head stopped working.

Pregnant? Edith?

“She’s been acting strangely, right? She couldn’t eat anything with a strong flavor or drink alcohol for several days.”

“…”

Walter didn’t know much about how a woman reacts when they’re pregnant.

However, after listening to Merlin’s words, he realized that when the maids at Fortrion Manor became pregnant, they seemed to have had a similar reaction to what Merlin had described.

In that case…

『 Edith is pregnant…』

Why hadn’t he thought about such a possibility earlier, especially after spending a night with her?

As he was beginning to blame himself for realizing it a step too late, Merlin suddenly cut him off.

“Then it turned out that she was pregnant, but she asked me to keep it a secret from you.”

“Why?”

“You might not even know if Edith had encounters with the father of the child. She said she couldn’t refuse the man who had been helping her… Did you really not know that Edith had another man, Walter?”

Another man.

As soon as he heard those words, all warmth drained from Walter’s face.

Merlin decided that this was the right time to drive the wedge in.

“Walter. That woman was trying to leech off you. She probably wanted to keep it a secret that she’s carrying another man’s child so that she wouldn’t lose her grip on you.”

“…”

“But since she got caught in her pregnancy lie with me, she left.”

Merlin noticed that Walter’s face had noticeably hardened.

It was exactly the reaction Merlin expected.

“…”

Walter glanced briefly out of the window.

As he saw the year’s first snowfall, which seemed endless, blanketing the world, he clearly understood what he should do.

──────────✿◦•

『 You bastard. You ordered that woman to watch me until I disappeared from sight.』

Edith, feeling like she couldn’t turn back in case of retaliation, managed to muster a surprisingly positive mindset despite her misery.

She had gone out to get some wine and ended up being kicked out. While Walter might come to rescue her, on a day like today, it seemed hopeless if their paths crossed.

Since she was pregnant, it seemed safer to enter a building and wait for daylight to come.

The Militia building was in a remote location, but if she ventured a little deeper into the woods, she would reach a neighborhood she was familiar with. She did have somewhere to go.

『 To the Homan Clinic… but it might be a bit late.』

It was close to midnight, and if she went to the clinic right now, she might wake up both the sleeping patients and the staff.

However, she thought that if she waited until tomorrow, the clinic’s staff would welcome her warmly. For now, she just needed to find a place to shelter for the night.

Fortunately, today, although it was snowing, the wind wasn’t too harsh, and a healthy adult could survive a night in the cold.

She walked along the familiar path as her body remembered it.

As she touched the necklace she was wearing, a bitter laugh escaped her.

『 I just got kicked out with the same stuff I had when I was kidnapped by Nicholas Fortrion.』

Once she found a place to shelter from the snow and wind for the night, she would be able to send a letter to Walter or Vivian.

That was one of the reasons she left willingly.

If it was confirmed that Merlin had kicked her out, he would definitely be expelled from the Militia Force.

There was no way that Merlin, a mere clerk, could have prevented the mail from reaching the Viscounty.

Also, given that Merlin knew she was pregnant with another man’s child, he wouldn’t have guessed that she would dare to send a letter to Walter.

Then, since Merlin is suspicious, she will ask him to find out if there is anyone behind him, and as soon as the matter is resolved, she will retrieve her luggage that she left behind at the Militia Force…

『 Since Merlin is still in the Militia, would Walter find out about my pregnancy sooner?』

How would Walter react when a woman who claimed to be carrying another man’s child raised suspicions about the very person who informed him of this fact?

How will Walter take it?

Edith forced a bitter smile as she swallowed her doubts.

Before she knew it, her frozen feet had carried her near the small cabin she had lived in before being kidnapped by Nicholas Fortrion.

Though small, it was a house she had bought and completely owned.

It might be dirty from neglect, but it was her own space, sufficient to seek refuge from the snow and wind.

However, for some reason, the light from a lamp shone through the windows of the house that should have been empty.

Smoke rose from the chimney, indicating that someone was using the fireplace.

『 Who on earth could it be?』

As Edith knocked with her frozen hand, a man who made her blood run cold just by facing him appeared, reeking of alcohol.

“Oh… Edith?”

“… Uncle Philip.”

Why was that crazy man who had sold her to Nicholas Fortrion to pay off his gambling debts here?

“It’s been a while. Come in.”

Philip, in a drunken and unsteady state, opened the door for her.

Edith quickly moved to the fireplace and looked inside.

When she saw Philip inside the house, which still contained all the household items she had bought over the years, it made Edith feel like her entire life was being torn apart.

Philip had sold her to the Viscount and was living a comfortable life in the house she had worked so hard to build.

“This is my home.”

“I know, I know… I lost my house this winter. Although the Viscount gave me some compensation for my trouble, I ended up using it all.”

The words that came out of his mouth were not something a person could say.

At the very least, if he were a human being, he should have been aware of what he was saying and should have told a lie.

You sold me through gambling and then continued to gamble?

“Well, I thought your house would be empty at this time. I went through so much trouble to clean it up.”

Philip, stumbling through his thoughts under the influence of alcohol, suddenly noticed something odd.

“But Edith, shouldn’t you be living a luxurious life in Fortrion Manor by now?”

“…”

“Oh, right… Our dear Viscount passed away. That means…”

Philip’s partially unfocused eyes started to sharpen with desire.