Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Was she getting greedy when she can’t even speak properly? But she wanted to be by Hert’s side. Without hesitation, she wanted to look forward to a happy future with him again.

Yes, she had to admit. Tessa still needed Hert. She knew it was a futile wish, but she wanted to go back to the way they were before.

‘However…’

Was it really okay to do this?

Tessa pushed the unspoken question into her throat. She can feel the warmth of the strong man’s arms. Tessa let herself be buried in his embrace quietly. She just wanted time to stop like this.

All she wished for was for her to be with him like this.

At night, the sound of an owl’s hoots could be heard. Elena stood near the window and looked down at her bare legs. It was much better than before, but compared to other normal people’s legs, the condition of hers was not very good. She gave up on walking and floundered back to her wheelchair. It certainly put more strain on her body the longer she used her legs.

Then the door opened and the maid came in. The maid who brought the tea table poured tea into the teacup and handed it to Elena. Elena looked at the hem of the maid’s sleeves, which was a little disheveled, and spoke to her.

“Did you get it right?”

“Yes, to some extent.”

Elena looked at the moon as she looked out the window. The round moon seemed to shine brightly to celebrate. She smiled contentedly.

“Isn’t it strange that rats like a lot of things?”

“Strange things happen at any time in life.”

“Yes, it is. Well, anyway, things seem to work out, so I’m glad.”

Elena nodded her head, savoring the moderately bitter tea.

“But I feel sorry for him.”

“…Just think of your goals. It’s just around the corner.”

“I know. So I try to think that there is nothing I can do.”

Elena looked down at her legs again. Just as her own became like this, other things are unavoidable. The world was cruel and biased. If she did not act first, then the opportunity would be stolen from her and she would be trampled on. She had to have the strength to prepare for it. Even if a powerless person shouts for a hundred days, the only thing that comes back is their own echoes.

She was lucky this time too. She didn’t know that the Lord’s noncommissioned officer would be absent, but it was thanks to this that now was the perfect time for her to build trust with the Lord. Of course, someone will suffer a small loss in the process, though.

Elena enjoyed the bright moonlight. It was a beautiful night.

Tessa, who caused a little commotion that evening, had to be seen by Kennis, who had rushed on an urgent call. Tessa wanted to tell him she wasn’t ill and she was fine, but Hert was stubborn. In the end, it was diagnosed that there was nothing wrong with her body, and the corners of Hert’s wildly raised eyebrows went down a little.

But Hert’s concern for Tessa continued until this morning. He treated Tessa like a child, scolding and nagging her incessantly.

If you’re sick, call a doctor right away. Do things that won’t overwhelm you. Never miss a meal. Drink tea often, your throat might still be strained. If anything strange happens, tell the escort immediately.

Finally, he went to work after emphasizing that he could call or visit her whenever he wanted to see her. If anyone saw it, it would have been misunderstood as a husband who was unusually good to his weak wife.

Having barely been let go by Hert, Tessa was getting ready to go to the Marchioness, when she heard something unexpected from Mani.

“The Marchioness…?”

“Yeah, she said it’s best not to come today because she caught a cold.”

Hearing Mani’s words, Tessa put down the paper and quill she had been carrying. The strength she had on her shoulders waned a little. It must be because the time to learn writing from the Marchioness was one of the most awaited hours of the day. What’s more, she was quite desperate to meet with the Marchioness now that Janet is preparing to leave the castle and she can’t be seen easily.

‘It’s too early to go for a walk…’

Then Tessa sat down at the desk and took the quill in her hand. Now that this happened, she decided to write a letter for Janet, as Elena had said before.

However, it didn’t take long for it to stop right from the start.

Dear Janet…

Dear Mrs. Bellodem…

My dear friend, Janet Jutert…

How should she start? It was a practice letter, but it was not easy to write the first sentence because it was her first time composing a letter. Tessa grunted for a while, struggling with the paper.

Most of all, the Marchioness was not there to look after her, so she was even more skeptical about whether she was writing it properly. She looked it up in the dictionary and wrote, but it was full of things to pay attention to: whether there were any spelling mistakes and whether the grammar was correct.

In the end, Tessa decided to put off finishing the first sentence for a while and start over, following the Marchioness’ advice. She pulled out a new piece of paper and held the pen.

‘From the easier things like this…’

Tessa decided to write a thank you to Janet first. She wanted to say thank you so much for helping her over the past two years.

She smeared the ink on her pen and wrote ‘thank you’ clearly, word by word. Although it was only one word, she felt as if she had written more than half the letter.

“I am grateful… For you… Next time um…”

Tessa pondered for a moment what she should write. She then decided to write her goodbyes.

“We will be… separated… Oh, this sounds so strange…”

After drawing a long line over the sentence, Tessa began writing again below it.

“We will say goodbye, but… I will… miss you…”

As she was writing her farewell sentence, Tessa paused her writing for a moment. She suddenly wondered if the grammar was correct. She remembered the marchioness had taught her a more natural expression before, but she couldn’t remember.

She drew a line over the sentences again and started writing over them. She was so focused on writing a few lines of letters that it was already lunchtime. Even with this, she almost didn’t know that Hert was coming if Mani had not nudged her, and she would have devoted herself to writing the letter.

Tessa hurriedly cleared the desk, Tessa, because she had decided to have lunch with Hert. She had to change her clothes, which she didn’t even know had ink on, because she was writing the letter. She had a lot of work to do before Hert arrived.

As Tessa scrambled to her feet, Mani gently calmed her and instructed the other maids to help her change her clothes.

“Madam, what to do with the leftover papers?”

As Tessa practiced writing her letter, there was a bunch of wasted papers, so Mani asked. Tessa said quietly as she turned over from the screen.

“…Please burn them if possible.”

“Do you really want to do that? If you burn it, nothing will be left.”

“Because I practiced anyway… it’s okay.”

“Then I’ll burn them right away.”

Mani took the wads of paper to the fireplace, whisked them in, and lit them. Then the papers began to burn in an instant.

Tessa felt a sense of relief when she saw it. She didn’t want to leave behind her messy handwriting and words. It was embarrassing.

“It was all burned. So, please rest assured and change your clothes.”

Mani smiled softly as she turned to Tessa, who kept glancing in her direction. Because of that, Tessa, whose face was red, hid herself behind the screen.

“Madam, would you like to keep your accessories as they are?”

As she was about to change into her new clothes, one of the maids asked, examining Tessa’s accessories as before.

“Ah…”

Tessa glanced at herself in the mirror held out by the other maid. Should she change her jewelry? The yellow amber earrings she currently wears were jewelry that Hert hand-picked along with her dress. Now that she changed into new clothes, the colors seemed a little out of place.

“Then can I pick one that suits you?”

At that moment, when Mani interrupted and asked, Tessa nodded her head willingly. Mani was next to Hert every morning, helping Tessa choose clothes. She also had good eyes.

Marnie carefully removed the amber earring from Tessa’s ear and pulled a pea-sized pearl earring from the jewelry box.

“I think this pearl would look better with the clothes you’re wearing now.”

As Mani said, the pearl earrings fit better than the amber earrings with Tessa’s freshly changed clothes. After changing the earrings, Tessa couldn’t see any traces of ink anymore on her attire.

“What, you changed your clothes?”

Then the door opened and Hert entered the room. He frowned when Tessa was wearing a different dress than the one he had picked for her this morning.

“Oh, well… I got something on me. Sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about. This dress suits you, too.”

The corners of Hert’s lips curled up as he scanned Tessa. In fact, in his eyes, Tessa looked good and pretty no matter what she wore. He found it more difficult to find a dress that didn’t fit her.

He gestured with his chin and Mani and the maids withdrew from the room.

“Is your throat okay? Did you drink a lot of tea?”

“…Yes I’m fine.”

“I heard you didn’t even go to the Marchioness today. What were you doing in the room?”

“Oh, just… this and that…”

Hert looked around the room for a moment, but there didn’t seem to be anything she had done. At that moment, an inkwell and a quill on the desk caught his eye.

Oh, come to think of it, wasn’t she learning the basic skills she should know from the Marchioness? There seemed to be a writing class between them.

Looking at the inkwell and quill he never gave Tessa, it was very likely that the Marchioness had given them to Tessa. Hert nodded and turned his head away.

“Would you like to go for a stroll before eating?”

Hert naturally clasped Tessa’s hands and shook them lightly. Tessa nodded slowly.

“…Yes.”

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