Chapter 861

Chapter 861: The Baroness’ Memories

The Barony she had married into wasn’t too wealthy but it wasn’t too poor either.

It had a moderate amount of riches and most of its money arrived from trading southern specialties which weren’t available in the northern fiefs.

Having a much warmer climate than the north, these fiefs could grow a variety of fruits and vegetables which would otherwise be impossible to cultivate in the chilly or even frigid weather of certain northern fiefs.

Thanks to their fief’s favorable weather conditions, they had been able to sustain themselves and even supply the excess to other territories.

However, after she had married into this household, she had often asked her husband to hike up the prices of the items that they sold.

Since the northern fiefs had no other way of obtaining these items if not from them, they would not mind paying a greater sum than usual.

In fact, they would not have any other choice but to purchase it from them, at the price that they demanded.

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Sadly, her husband had refused to go along with her plan and continued as per usual.

He did not like the idea of forcing people into buying their items at a higher price as that might cause their fief’s citizens to suffer as well.

She had already given up her lavish life in the north and now based on her husband’s unrelenting attitude, she would have to adopt a frugal lifestyle if this continued.

This was not something she was too pleased about but there was not much she could do to change his mind.

Thus she had found a different way to ensure that she would not suffer much.

To accommodate the continuation of the lifestyle she had been used to all her life, she would often ask her maiden family to send over money at regular intervals.

However, knowing the kind of honest man her husband was, he would not be too happy to hear that she was asking for money from her maiden family.

Therefore, she had to come up with a way to gain the monetary funds she needed while also keeping it a secret from her husband and his family.

To achieve this task successfully, she asked her father to send over the money along with some other items which she had left behind in her house.

These items were what she often used before she had gotten married.

In this way, once every few months, her father would send carriages filled with her old possessions, and hidden in the luggage would be the money that he had secretly prepared for her.

She would not be able to spend all of the money he had sent when there would be a new carriage arriving with more money for her.

Due to his timely assistance, she had accumulated quite a large sum of money over the years as her father never let her down.

The Baroness had used this excess money to invest in some profitable businesses which helped her earn more as well.

She wouldn’t be able to hide the money she made through these investments from her husband since those businesses belonged to his fief

Therefore she simply lied that it was the profit she gained by using the money he allotted to her monthly budget.

Since the Baron never truly interfered with the way she spent the money given to her, she had been able to get away with it all along.

One among the numerous carriages that brought her possessions from her maiden fief had a special item that she had kept safe for many years.

This item had arrived around the time when she had gotten pregnant with her first child.

The Baroness had been pampered all her life and her possessions from her childhood had been preserved by her father until now.

When he first found out about her pregnancy, he had sent many of the items she had used when she was younger.

Among the clothes and toys which had been well-preserved until now, there were also other things that brought up fond memories for the Baroness who received them along with the money he had sent.

Each year, her father would summon a skilled painter to draw a portrait of her and in this carriage, just a few of her paintings had been sent to her.

From the one drawn when she was a baby to the last drawn when she was a teenager.

Her father had kept the rest with him and sent three to her side.

She had also shown these three portraits to her husband and declared that she would do the same to her child after she was born.

Sadly, fate did not agree with her plans and when her baby was born, someone’s evil schemes had won over and the child was taken away from her.

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The Baroness had been recuperating in a separate mansion in a remote location of their fief for a steady birthing but this also became the cause of her biggest tragedy.

Her husband was away on a business trip and the rest of his family had not accompanied her to this mansion.

She wished for some peaceful time away from the busy place they usually stayed so they had respected her decisions.

Who would have thought that she would give birth two weeks before the date that the physician had predicted?

She was stuck in a place she wasn’t too familiar with and the servants here weren’t equipped with the right knowledge needed to help her give birth.

Thankfully, she had an old nanny by her side who supported her during this tough period and encouraged her to give her best.

When the baby was born after much difficulty, the nanny stayed behind to take care of the woman who had fainted due to extreme fatigue while another maid was asked to look after the newborn child.

The Baroness had lost consciousness after the immense pain she had experienced so the servants were rushing around to look after her.

It was only when their Madame had awakened from her short slumber did they realize that the maid who had gone out with the child had not yet returned.

A mother’s instincts told her that something had gone wrong and she instructed everyone to look for her child right away.

Those who knew the maid who had taken the baby, rushed to her room in the servants’ lodging only to find that no trace of the woman or the child was found.

Even her personal belongings had disappeared, indicating that she had run away.

The maids who informed the Madame of this news fell to their knees when they saw how frightening she looked at that moment.

They begged for forgiveness that they had been unable to find the maid and the child but the Madame did not care one bit.

She had already expected such an outcome so she had sent a few guards to scour the surrounding area and find that wretched maid right away.

However, when she saw these women cowering before her, she felt her rage shoot up.

If she hadn’t been weak after giving birth, she would have vented all of her anger on them without fail.

However, the nanny next to her had asked her to exercise patience and not burden her body any further.

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Only then did she regain her composure but the pain of being separated from her baby and the fear of how to explain things to her husband and his family was beginning to fill her heart.