Chapter 34
#5. Pregnancy
In a nearby patch of grass, Elisha emptied her stomach. Because of the suffering she was going through, she even had a few tears in her eyes.
“Elisha, are you okay?”
Richard, who had followed her, patted Elisha’s back.
“Haa…… .”
Elisha, who had just emptied out the contents of her stomach, lost all her strength and weakly sat down. She couldn’t properly keep her balance.
When Richard saw what state she was in, he quickly hugged her and made her lean on him.
The big hand that was stroking Elisha’s back was warm, and the man who was embracing her made her feel full on the inside.
It was only in Richard’s embrace that she was finally able to calm down.
Richard watched the sick Elisha with a hardened face.
“I’m going to go into the village tomorrow to bring a doctor.”
“No don’t…… It’s just that my motion sickness was especially bad today. There’s no need to do that.”
“According to Anne, not only did you have motion sickness, but you’ve lost your appetite too. You also have a slight fever that isn’t going away.”
“Then I’ll get a checkup once we reach Acaroa. I would like to reach the mansion as soon as possible.”
Richard still seemed nervous and glanced at her with disapproving eyes, but he didn’t continue the argument.
It was because, as Elisha said, it might be better to just quickly finish the journey.
“I’m really fine. You should go and eat now.”
“Let’s eat together.”
At Richard’s words, Elisha looked as if she was taken aback.
“N- No. I’d rather eat with Anne. I just want to eat something light and then go to sleep. Don’t mind me and go eat.”
Elisha tried to put Richard’s mind at ease and pushed him away.
In the end, Richard was only able to drop her off at her tent and reluctantly leave.
At the same time that Richard left, Anne approached Elisha with worried eyes.
“Ma’am, are you okay……?”
“Anne, I’m really sorry but will you move this potage outside?”
Elisha was feeling nauseous from the smell of the potage and asked Anne to clear it away.
“Ah, yes!”
Anne hurriedly took the potage outside.
Elisha, who was left alone inside the tent, blankly stared at the interior of the tent and then put a hand on her stomach.
When she looked down at the hand on her stomach, it was slightly trembling.
‘No, I can’t be…… .’
Although she had told Richard that it was only motion sickness, Elisha knew her own symptoms.
She was yet to have her monthly period.
“Bring the family doctor.”
Richard ordered the doctor to be brought over as soon as the duchy was reached.
At his words, Elisha’s heart sank to the ground.
‘If I’m actually pregnant…… will Richard like this child?’
Richard had been chastised by Albert for half his life because he always worked too hard.
‘I came here to cut off this family life by my own hands.’
For someone like him, a ‘child’ would forever ruin his lifelong dream of revenge.
In addition, in the novel, when he discovered that he was going to have an unwanted child, he was disgusted and sought to kill the unborn child.
‘That can’t happen.’
Although the child didn’t exist yet, she instinctively wanted to protect her child.
So Elisha tried to dissuade Richard from bringing a doctor.
“I’m pretty tired today, so can’t I get an examination tomorrow?”
“It’ll only be for a short while. Get an examination before you sleep.”
Normally, Richard would go along with whatever Elisha said, but today, he had firmly denied her.
Inwardly, Elisha was thankful that Richard was worried for her, but she was also extremely frustrated.
“Did you call, Your Excellency?”
Eventually, the family doctor, Morris, came to examine Elisha.
As if he had waited for a long time, Richard gave his orders to Morris.
“It seems that my wife’s health has not been the best recently. After you check her condition, give her the treatment needed.”
“Then, Madam, may I have your hand please?”
Elisha sank into contemplation.
If things kept going like this, then Richard would find out before she could even do anything.
‘W-what should I do……?’
When Elisha hesitated and did not give her hand to the doctor, Richard glanced at her with questioning eyes.
“Elisha?”
Just then. Perhaps the gods had helped her, but a knocking sound resounded at the door.
“Your Excellency, I have an urgent report to give to you.”
It was Thomson’s voice.
Richard wrinkled his forehead in frustration and spoke to Morris as he reluctantly got up from his seat.
“After you examine her, report back to me.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Richard left the room and Morris returned back to examining Elisha.
“Can you tell me the symptoms that are ailing you?”
‘If Sir Morris was to find out about my condition, he would definitely report it to Richard.’
Elisha finished her quick analysis of the situation and tried to dissuade Morris from conducting the examination.
“I don’t think we have to proceed with the examination, Sir Morris.”
“Huh?”
“It was just that I had severe motion sickness, so I think His Excellency is just unnecessarily really worried. If I rest for a few days, I’ll be fine.”
“Hmm…… .”
It seemed like Morris was hesitant because of Richard’s order, so Elisha coaxed him with a smile.
“If I don’t get better in a few days, then I’ll get an examination, so for now, please tell His Excellency that there’s nothing wrong.”
“Understood. But please, if there is something even slightly wrong, you have to tell me.”
“I will.”
“Then please rest well, Madam.”
Thankfully, Morris went away without a fuss.
Elisha let out a breath of relief as she saw Morris leave the room. But it was still too early to rest.
First, she had to find out if she really was pregnant, and if she was, she had to take protective measures for the sake of her and her baby.
“But for now, let’s rest and think about this tomorrow.”
Elisha was unable to think anymore as she laid her body down heavily and fell asleep right away.
The next day, Elisha and Anne went down to the suburbs to find a doctor. It took a lot of effort to get there because they wanted to go without being noticed by the people in the territory, but whatever the case, they eventually got there safely.
The doctor held Elisha’s arm to feel her vein for a little bit and then gave his diagnosis.
“You’re pregnant.”
When she heard his diagnosis, Elisha’s eyes shook.
She was already expecting it before she visited the doctor, but when she heard that she was pregnant in real life, she was greatly shocked.
Anne, who didn’t know what had happened between Richard and Elisha, was also very shocked and stared at her with an open mouth.
Elisha forced her thumping heart to calm down and reconfirmed her diagnosis with a shaky voice.
“…… Are you sure?”
“Yes. It’s still faint, but there is definitely a heartbeat.”
To drive the final nail into the coffin, the doctor started to explain what to be careful of in the early stages of pregnancy.
‘But it was only one time!’
And even in that one time, Richard had used contraception……
She was upset, but this was something that she couldn’t blame anyone else for.
Elisha recollected her emotions and raised from her seat.
“Anne.”
“Ah, yes! Here.”
Anne, who had been frozen in place from the unprecedented news of Elisha’s pregnancy, responded a beat late to Elisha’s order and gave the doctor a golden pouch.
“Then, goodbye and please take care of yourself.”
Anne and Elisha left the doctor’s house and got onto the carriage that had been waiting for them.
Not long after, the carriage started moving.
It was only then that Elisha took off her robe’s hood. She had put it on to conceal her identity from the doctor.
Anne, who still had a dazed expression on her face, took off her hood as well and asked Elisha a question.
“Ma- Madam. Just when did you share a room togeth-”
Anne, who was stuttering, was about to ask her a question when she suddenly seemed to realize something and let out a short shriek of surprise.
“No way, was it perhaps the day you fell off the cliff……?”
At Anne’s words, Elisha was once again reminded of ‘that night,’ and her face flushed red.
Elisha slowly avoided Anne’s excited eyes and answered her in a small voice.
“Y-yeah, it just happened somehow……”
Elisha expected Anne to mention that hot night.
Initially, Elisha thought that she would soon divorce. She even made plans to live with Anne after the divorce. However, it was all ruined in an instant.
But Anne was far from being disappointed like Elisha; in fact, she had tears in her eyes as she grabbed Elisha’s hands.
“It’s really hard, right?”
“Huh?”
“I thought that the reason why you didn’t have your monthly period was that the journey had been too rough on your body. I didn’t even know that there had been a child growing inside of Madam……”
Tears started to freely drip from Anne’s eyes.
“I should have taken better care of you…… I apologize, Madam. I was too ignorant.”
Elisha was dumbfounded and held onto Anne’s hands.
“N-no. What could you have done better in that situation? You did more than enough for me, Anne.”
Elisha stroked Anne’s hands to console her, and as if it had never happened, Anne stopped crying and asked Elisha a question.
“Then what about the divorce?”
Anticipation twinkled in Anne’s eyes.
‘Madam told me that she was going to divorce and that she wanted to live by the sea…… but it would still be nice if the couple lived together. Maybe the child inside of Madam’s stomach will help change her mind.’
Elisha had told Anne that the reason why she wanted to divorce Richard was for Richard’s sake, but she hadn’t told Anne the specifics.
She couldn’t just tell Anne that this whole world was inside a book and that she would die a miserable death obsessing over Richard as an extra.
So Anne, who didn’t know the real reason as to why Elisha wanted to divorce Richard, hoped that Elisha would choose to stay in the dukedom.
But Elisha answered her with a bitter expression.
“Richard doesn’t want this child. He…… hates this child with every inch of his body.”
Anne’s face grew serious when she heard Elisha’s words.
‘If he hates the idea of a child, why would he even spend a night with Madam? To think that he did all that and is now making her worry about this matter all by herself……’
For the first time, Anne disliked Richard.
To Anne, who had lost her family at a young age, Elisha was her benefactor, a friend, and someone who was like a precious older sister. And to think that he was making Elisha worry like this!
But Anne had no power to scold Richard. Of course, she wasn’t brave enough either.
Anne put on a gloomy expression.
“T-then what should we do?”
“I’m going to divorce him, as planned. Before he finds out.”
When Anne saw that Elisha had already firmly made up her mind, she grasped Elisha’s hands firmly in hers and spoke to Elisha with eyes filled with determination.
“I’ll protect Madam. The baby, too.”
“Thank you, Anne.”
“And congratulations on becoming a mother, Madam.”
After that, Anne whispered to the baby inside Elisha’s stomach.
“It’s so nice that I get to meet you like this, little baby. Please grow big and strong so that I can see you in ten months.”
In the Arensia Empire, it was a custom for family, close relatives, or the closest of friends to give their blessings to a child inside the mother’s stomach.
The people believed that the blessing would protect the baby and the mother for the duration of the pregnancy.
Elisha blankly stared at Anne in surprise.
This was a child that even Elisha was more worried than happy about.
When she realized that there was someone to give such a blessing to her child, Elisha was moved.
“It’s a relief that I have someone like you next to me.”
At Elisha’s sincere words, Anne smiled sheepishly.
When she saw Anne’s reaction, Elisha couldn’t help but smile brightly. But when she looked back outside the window, Elisha’s heart was in turmoil once again.