Chapter 40
#6. Caught
A few days later, Richard had to leave the mansion for a bit.
He had been trying to catch Viscount Richard, but it seemed that the Viscount had heard what had happened to his son, Phillip, and had run away.
Thankfully, Richard found where the Viscount was, but there was a problem.
Viscount Rohas was hiding in one of the territories of the top Alitas.
If the Rubelin knights were to just barge in, the outcome wouldn’t be very good. So Richard was going to go there himself to take care of the Viscount.
By the time Elisha woke up, Richard was already finished with his preparations to go out and was putting on his jacket.
In the darkness of dawn, Elisha peered over at Richard.
Richard still didn’t know that Elisha had woken up and he started to put on his leather gloves.
Perhaps it was because the sun hadn’t risen yet, but Richard seemed a lot chillier than usual. No, his face almost looked scary as she looked at him.
At that moment, Richard, who had casually looked over at Elisha, made eye contact with her. As soon as he met her eyes, the chilliness in his eyes disappeared.
He walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed.
“I brought a doctor that will be staying here at the dukedom, and he will be taking turns taking care of you with Sir Morris. If you ever feel sick, don’t hesitate to call for help. And even if you have no appetite make sure to not skip your meals.”
At Richard’s worried nagging, Elisha started to laugh lightly with a sleepy face. When he saw Elisha laughing, he only looked at her with puzzled eyes.
“Even my parents didn’t nag me like this, and here you are.”
The parents that Elisha was referring to were not Viscount and Viscountess Roengreen, but her parents from her previous life.
The parents from that life were busy fighting each other, so they had no time to give attention to their daughter. To them, she was just something that shackled them into their horrifying nightmare of a marriage.
So because she grew up under such parents, it was quite new to her to hear such nagging words.
At Elisha’s laughter, Richard’s expression softened. It even seemed that there was a soft smile growing on his lips.
“It’s still rather early, so go back to sleep.”
“No. I’m fully awake now. Since I’m awake, I’m going to go see my husband off.”
Elisha finally got out of bed to see Richard go.
Outside the mansion, Richard’s knights and horse were waiting for him.
Before he got on his horse, Richard turned around to talk to Elisha.
“I’ll be back.”
Instead of saying anything back, Elisha only stared at Richard.
When Richard looked at Elisha with puzzled eyes, she walked over to him and pulled him into her embrace. Then she started to lightly pat his back.
At the unexpected embrace, Richard, as well as the surrounding knights, were all surprised.
“You must not want to leave the Madam, Your Excellency.”
“Ah, a little.”
Thomson, who was next to Richard, teased him in a small voice, and Agail bumped Richard with his elbow with knowing eyes.
The other knights seemed very awkward and looked away while coughing.
“Come back safely, Richard. Don’t overexert yourself, and don’t get hurt.”
Even though Elisha’s behavior was different than usual, Richard felt happy.
No, he actually felt rather sad.
The way she was hugging him made him feel like she was telling him to not go, and he really wanted to stay here with her.
He really didn’t want to leave her behind, but there was nothing he could do. He had to finish his job quickly to come back to her and stay by her side.
Richard turned around and got onto his horse. And then he peered down and looked at Elisha for a brief second.
Elisha looked back at him and started to wave goodbye at him first.
It was only then that Richard turned back and left. The knights soon followed him. The clopping of the horses’ hooves soon grew softer and softer.
As Elisha looked at them leaving, she murmured something in a small voice.
“This time, it’s good that I got to say a real goodbye.”
It was only when Richard totally disappeared from her line of sight that she turned around to return back to her room.
And then she spoke to Anne who had followed her back.
“Let’s get ready to leave.”
Anne hesitated for a moment as if she didn’t really want to, and then went into the dressing room to start packing.
To be honest, there wasn’t much to pack. The money that they were going to use for settling down was with Ansel.
Since her clothes weren’t bought with her money in the first place, she was planning to leave them all here, except for a few changes of clothes for the next few days.
While Anne was packing, Elisha sat down at the table to write Richard a letter for when he returned.
However, she found herself unable to think of what to write now that she sat down to write.
‘If I leave so suddenly without any reason, Richard will probably be taken aback.’
If she didn’t write any reason, he might look for her to find out the reason why she left.
Furthermore, with his power, it would only be a matter of time before he would find her, so she had to make up a legitimate excuse as to why she left.
‘Should I just lie and say that I found someone that I love?’
When she had asked Richard for a divorce, that was the first thing he had asked her in response to her proposal.
‘That excuse is the most fool-proof one. If I say that I have someone else that I love, what can he do?’
Elisha decided to write a letter using this reason. However…… .
‘Why don’t I want to write that excuse in particular?’
She found that her hand wouldn’t move to write the letter. While her hand was frozen in place, the ink had dropped onto the paper and spread.
It was only after she had ruined several pieces of letter paper in this way that she was able to squeeze out a short letter.
[Dear Richard,
Wherever you are, whatever you do, I always hope that you will be happy.
Sincerely,
Elisha.]
The moment she had finished writing the letter and folded it, tears formed in her eyes and flowed freely down her cheeks.
‘Why are tears suddenly coming out of my eyes……?’
Elisha quickly wiped away the tears from her eyes and face.
She reasoned with herself that she was sad that she had to leave the place that she loved, and that sadness was only amplified because of the mood swings that came along with pregnancy.
Elisha had just finished wiping away her tears when Anne, who had finished packing, came towards Elisha.
“Madam, I’ve finished packing.”
“Then please wait for one moment. I’m just going to leave this letter in Richard’s room.”
Elisha took the letter and arrived at Richard’s bedroom. The bedroom was noticeably empty.
She stuck the envelope in between the books on his desk so that he would be able to see the envelope sticking out. Then she briefly looked around his room.
‘It’s the same as when he was young.’
Richard’s room, which Elisha and Richard had shared when they were young, was the same as his room now. The room that was filled with Richard’s scent was also the same.
‘Once I leave this mansion, I think I’ll think about this room the most.’
After she looked around his room, she went into Richard’s dressing room.
When Richard had left for the war, this was the room she always used when she came to this place, so she was pretty familiar with it.
The dressing room was no longer filled with her clothes, but with Richard’s clothes.
‘I should have seen him wearing the clothes in here at least once. That’s a pity.’
Elisha roamed around the dressing room while regretting not being able to keep more memories of Richard’s handsome face and body wearing these clothes.
While looking around, she found a brooch in a jewelry box she had found in the room.
It was sculpted out of white gold and made to look like the symbol of the Rubelin Dukedom. Richard had worn this when he went to the imperial hunting grounds when they were young.
She still clearly remembered how handsome he looked as he came down the stairs with this brooch on.
‘It should be okay to take just this one brooch, right?’
Elisha fiddled with the brooch a bit longer and quietly exited the dressing room with the brooch.
He had a lot of brooches, anyway, so it wasn’t like it would matter to take this one.
Elisha looked around Richard’s room one last time and made her way back to her room. Then she called for Grayson.
“I have some things that I have to think about, so I’m going to be staying at the northern annex. I’ll be bringing Anne with me, so there’s no need to send any other servants there.”
Until now, Elisha had never used the annex.
Because of this, Grayson worried that it might be something serious and decided to not inquire any further.
It was the virtue of a person of lower status to not want to inquire about something one’s master didn’t say and to not make any presumptuous assumptions.
“I’ll have it ready in a moment.”
One hour later, the northern annex was ready for Elisha to stay in.
Elisha moved into the annex with Anne.
Although it hadn’t been used very often, it had been very well-maintained.
“This way, Anne.”
Elisha walked through the annex while remembering all the pleasant memories she had with Richard in the annex, and she walked up the stairs to the second floor.
On the second floor, there was a room that only the Rubelin family used.
The room was decorated luxuriously for the Rubelin family. The room was decorated as well as the rooms in the main building.
Elisha walked towards a wardrobe that was on one side of the room.
Behind this wardrobe, there was a secret tunnel that would lead to an area near a small forest that was far away from the duchy.
This was the reason why Elisha had wanted to come to this annex.
Elisha searched through her memories and remembered that the key to the secret tunnel was the picture frame that hung next to the wardrobe.
In her memories, she remembered what Richard had told her when they were younger.
“Open the tunnel while turning the frame counterclockwise.”
When Anne saw Elisha trying to turn the frame, she quickly went over to Elisha and blocked her from doing it.
“I’ll do it, Madam!”
Anne seemed to struggle with turning the frame for a bit but soon successfully turned the picture frame.
As if by magic, the wardrobe moved sideways and revealed the secret passageway. The passageway opened up to reveal a stairway that went downwards.
Richard had taught Elisha about this passageway before he had left for the war.
If she ever found herself in danger, she was to escape using this passageway.
‘Wherever you are hiding, just stay alive. I’ll always find you.’
Elisha stared at the stairs absentmindedly.
‘I’m using the passageway that you told me about to escape from you.’
Elisha was still lost in thought when Anne called out to her.
“Madam?”
“Let’s go.”
Anne was cautious of dangers that might appear along the way, so she walked ahead of Elisha.
Elisha turned her head towards the direction of the main building one last time.
‘Goodbye, Richard.’
Then she turned around and went down the stairs.
When the two people made their way down the stairs, the picture frame returned back to its original place, and the door to the secret tunnel closed.