The Sixth Plan. To Know Thy Enemy. (10)
Gellerhard closed his mouth in displeasure and he did not respond. I set the evidence on the desk and bent down to place my hand on his shoulder. My palms that got burned by the hot fireplace were still sore.
“I just told you that there shouldn’t be any traces of torture left on Charlotte’s body.”
Charlotte’s crimes should not be fully known to all. She was the one who did it and because of her sins, it led to her confinement by the Duchess Dowager. She was destined to turn into a poor young lady who had been put in prison because of a misunderstanding and eventually fell ill. I would open the lid of the coffin and bury her, but no traces of torture should ever remain on her body. It was just that she had been imprisoned and the fact that she was tortured before she died—that was a different story altogether.
“It just doesn’t need to be left on her skin.”
“Ah, if that’s the case…”
With a thump, Gellerhard released Charlotte and she rolled over while his arms were still wrapped around her right shoulder. Her voice was choked by the gag that had covered her mouth. Gellerhard raised his lean body and stood next to me with his hands behind. My husband and I looked down at Charlotte’s face as she continued to struggle with pain. Even though her face, which had been drenched with tears and a runny nose, looked rather pitiful, it was strangely devoid of any emotion.
“Charlotte, as promised, I’ll send you away in good condition. I don’t want to see any more blood being spilled anyway.”
Charlotte nodded her head as if she could hear my voice against her pain. She leaned over to me while sniffing her nose. As though she was asking for help because she was sick, she showed a begging gesture.
My baby’s pain that no one had known about.
“As promised, I’ll put a lot of old money in your coffin.”
Both of her eyes started to widen. Her eyes, which had been filled with such vivid hatred, became blurred in an instant and her eyelids fell halfway downwards.
“Actually, I poisoned you in case I couldn’t find the place where you had hidden the evidence. But I don’t really need to give you the antidote now after all. I was going to give you that poison anyway. Since I want you to be as sick as Theodora back then.”
Tak tak—I tapped Gellerhard on the arm and he lifted Charlotte with a rather disapproving look. Her body was already limp. Gellerhard put Charlotte on the bed before I draped a blanket over her body. Charlotte’s eyes reflected my face, but there was no light in them. In fact, she was just laying on the bed and slowly, I felt her warm body.
“You have a very bad fever.”
How hot and scared my poor babies must have been before. Gellerhard removed the gag from her mouth, but all I could ever hear was the grunt of pain from Charlotte. Contrary to her parched lips, beads of sweat were streaming down her body. She had been wearing a white dress and her hair was all loose, so Charlotte appeared to be very sick.
I wished that she was even sicker than she had looked.
I packed the evidence against Count Petrika and Gellerhard as well as I eventually left the room. The head maid passed by us and the next day, the news that the Young Lady of Count Emile had died of pneumonia spread throughout the Duchy in an instant.
Charlotte had died alone without anyone around her—just like how she did to my child. Her quiet death did not bring me any sort of comfort like I thought, but I have no regrets at all.
* * *
Charlotte’s funeral was held rather quietly. Count Emile and his wife knew what their daughter had done to mine and agreed to have her funeral held at the Duchy of DeMancier. Not many people had attended the funeral of the poor Young Lady who suddenly died due to pneumonia and the Duchess Dowager herself was the one who supervised the funeral itself.
The mourners that surrounded the tomb were those who worked in the castle or frequented the castle. Regardless of whether they had memories with Charlotte or not, since the funeral was presided over by the Duchess Dowager, the attendees mourned Charlotte’s death with sorrowful faces. However, in the case of the Duchess Dowager’s mistake, which had caused her death, to be mentioned, they became extremely afraid to say anything.
Gellerhard and I stood quite far away in the last row of the crowd of mourners. The mourners did not find it strange that the couple was watching over the funeral from a distance. Although they occasionally glanced at us, they still kept their heads fixed on Charlotte’s coffin as well as the Duchess Dowager and from time to time, a few mourners would soon leave while others filled up their seats in return.
Due to the funeral, many people had gone back and forth between the cemetery and the castle. A few people also disappeared along the way. They were the people of Count Petrika whom Charlotte had picked out before.
Every now and then, a knight in plain clothes would come up behind Gellerhard, who was standing next to me, and whisper something in his ear. Then, Gellerhard would give a brief nod and squeeze my hand. Count Petrika had more people than expected and they already infiltrated in various places. Charlotte didn’t know all the spies, but when I figured out who recommended them and when they came in, the picture that Count Petrika had painted entered my eyes.
Most aristocratic families did not really hire ‘new’ people. Usually, only people whom they knew or native people who had lived in the manor for several generations were selected. People from other territories could enter only through the recommendation of territories and nobles with high prestige would make every effort in order to bring new people in. It was for this reason that the castle’s employees were often related to one other.
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