IWJACM Chapter 31

"Right now?"

"Yes. It will only take a moment."

"This instant?"

"Yes."

Elise had arrived at Lothier barely two hours ago. Rezet had shown her in and gone straight to his study. Had he sent word ahead to the castle physician about her condition?

No—a man that careful wouldn't have gone adding names to the list of who knew. Not without cause.

To begin with—Rezet's order hadn't meant this. Hauled in for examination before she'd so much as shed her cloak. She hadn't so much as sat down once since arriving at Lothier Castle.

'So. The old woman's own overreach.'

Lady Phaetyson wanted to confirm the pregnancy with her own eyes, behind her master's back. She suspected Elise.

Elise forced her smile to stay composed.

"Right now I'd like to unpack and have a moment alone. The examination can wait until evening, once my own physician is ready. There's no use in this one looking me over now regardless."

"It won't take long, my lady."

Lady Phaetyson drew her long neck up straight. In the green eyes behind her monocle—which lent an already ostrich-like severity to her appearance—there was no warmth at all. Her downturned mouth radiated obstinacy.

Elise tried once more, just in case.

"I said I wanted to unpack first, and then wash. My lady."

"Truly, it will only take a moment. Please, consider the concern of one seeing to her new mistress's welfare."

Elise looked at the old woman with an unfamiliar sort of attention. This was the first time in her life anyone serving her had ever caught at her words like that.

In the Argan imperial court, Elise had never needed to open her mouth to command those beneath her. A single glance was enough to bring her whatever she wanted; a mere gesture could bring someone in or send them away. She had never once met anyone who refused a command.

Having lived her entire life as the noblest woman in Argan—and, by extension, in all of Grendel—this present situation produced in her a strikingly novel impression.

'Right. No one left now to humor my moods.'

Her situation being what it was—there was nothing for it but to go around. Elise nodded slowly.

"Very well, if you insist."

Yvessa, who had been watching the exchange nervously, guided her to the sofa. Elise sat down for the first time since entering the castle. The physician, who had been waiting as if for exactly this, immediately lifted her wrist.

While the physician tilted his head this way and that several times, Elise kept her gaze fixed calmly on the green outside the window. The physician, whose name was Macklan, gave Lady Phaetyson a quiet shake of the head.

Just as expected. A cursory pulse-check like this obviously wasn't going to turn up anything.

Impatience flickered across the old woman's face.

"Then we'll need to draw blood. For an accurate diagnosis."

"That is truly too much, Lady Phaetyson!"

Yvessa, who had been silently watching, burst in with sudden fury.

"The lady's come a long way and hasn't even straightened her clothes yet, and you mean to jam a needle in her regardless? How can you have so little sense of what's fitting…! Get out of the way! It's not as if the results come back right away even if you draw the blood now—a few hours' delay won't kill anyone!"

Yvessa, snapping fiercely, hurried to straighten Elise's sleeve back into place. Only then did Elise's gaze return to the old woman and the physician.

"It isn't strange that you know nothing of my condition. Most physicians don't. Excepting the one your master assigned to me."

"……."

"So I've said twice now that a hasty pulse-check like this would be of no use."

Her tone stayed unchanged, still calm. But the warmth had gone out of it, leaving it cold.

"So. This is how Lothier waits on its mistress, is it."

The princess scolded them both with a look scoured of feeling—flat, barren.

Not just in Argan but anywhere else, a subordinate's concern could not be allowed to take precedence over a superior's command.

At last, Lady Phaetyson took a step back.

"…My apologies. I let my anxiety get ahead of me and committed a discourtesy. Then we'll postpone the examination until evening, and begin with the bath—"

"I think it would be best to keep only one maid and dismiss the rest."

Elise let out a short laugh. This was the second time she'd had to say this too. Her tone grew even more gentle and even more cold.

"I've never cared for keeping more than three or four hands about me. A long tail is more often a nuisance and a drag than any use."

"……."

"But if the number of servants in attendance determines a master's standing here in Lothier, I'm willing to go along with it. The Grand Duke doesn't seem to keep many attendants around himself, but perhaps it's different for the Grand Duchess. Isn't that so? You there—answer for me."

A maid standing in the corner, diagonally across from Lady Phaetyson, flinched. The young-faced servant Elise had singled out looked around as if seeking help.

"Your Highness, that is—"

Lady Phaetyson stepped forward to intervene, but Elise raised a hand and cut her off.

"I asked her. Answer."

"Ah, that's…"

The young maid answered haltingly, her voice fading as it went. A hairline crack appeared in Lady Phaetyson's face, which had been solid without a single gap until now.

"Usually… His Grace the Duke dislikes bother, so I understand he keeps his own attendants to a minimum, always…"

"Well, that's a relief, then. It seems keeping few people won't tarnish Lothier's name after all."

"That goes without saying, of course. It was never meant to suggest anything of the kind."

Lady Phaetyson, unable to bear it any longer, broke in again. Elise smiled peacefully.

"Then is there any further reason so many people need to be here right now? It's inconvenient for me as well, and it isn't a breach of etiquette."

"……."

"That should be enough. I'd like it understood that saying the same thing over and over is tiresome work, for me as well."

By this point, Lady Phaetyson had no more grounds on which to press her point. Tucking away her displeasure, she bowed with formal correctness.

"Yes. Then we'll withdraw everyone for now. My apologies for troubling you."

The princess nodded and unfastened the brooch holding her traveling cloak closed. She never once raised her voice in anger. Instead, she even added a wish for a pleasant evening as she drove the entire cluster of maids out of the bedroom.

The bedroom door closed, coldly final.

"What incredibly, incredibly rude people!"

Yvessa fumed, her face flushed bright red.

"None of them are the least bit prepared to serve their mistress properly. Not one person in Lothier has any business catching at the Grand Duchess's every word! Tell His Grace this instant, do you hear!"

"Yes. I'll bring it up if the chance comes. Would you take my cloak?"

"Tonight, without fail! Here, give me the cloak. Honestly—I'm at a loss for words. Not giving a Grand Duchess who's expecting even a moment to catch her breath!"

Elise, halfway into settling herself onto the sofa, flinched. Out of the flood of words Yvessa had poured out in her indignation, an unrelated phrase had snagged her ear.

Tonight. Elise glanced briefly at the canopied bed. Yvessa, catching her breath, emphasized it once more.

"You'll be sure to speak to His Grace about it tonight, understood?"

"Well. If he comes."

"Of course he'll come. Surely he doesn't mean to let Her Grace sleep alone—on your very first night in Lothier."

Making something of a "wedding night" now—absurd, at this point. They'd already spent every night of the journey to this place in the same room.

Though in truth, Elise had been the only one to actually close her eyes. Rezet hadn't seemed to sleep much at all.

He'd occasionally joined her on the bed when she was cold, but she had never once seen him actually asleep. And after two weeks of that, he'd gone straight to the military grounds the moment they arrived—surely he couldn't help but be exhausted.

'Even a yon'gyn must want a few days' rest.'

She told herself as much—an excuse. In truth, she hadn't yet steeled her own nerve. She'd braced herself—told herself she had no business wanting more time to compose herself. And yet, now that the moment was actually here, she faltered.

All because of what had happened on the way to Lothier.

With the bed standing right in front of her, forbidden images kept rising up unbidden. Like—that morning, just days ago, before dawn.

The heavy, solid bulk that had pressed down between her legs and up against her belly that day was still vivid to her.

So was the strength of the hand gripping her hip to keep her from pulling away, and the heat pouring off the body pressed against hers.

In that moment, the man had plainly wanted her—wanted her like an animal in rut.

Remembering it, her stomach kept turning over and over. Facts she'd set aside in the desperate rush to save her own life were only now sinking in fully. Of course, to have a child, bodies had to come together first. It wasn't as though she hadn't known that…

'No. Some things—it might have been better not to know at all.'

Ignorance, at least, might have made her braver. Was it even possible, to begin with? Elise rubbed at her stomach again and again, trying to erase the memory of that thick pressure against it.

Was that simply how men were, generally? She had no way of knowing—she'd never so much as glimpsed the outline of another man's groin, not even through cloth.

Yvessa, busy changing Elise into fresh clothes with one hand, suddenly let out a deep sigh.

"But Your Highness, wouldn't it be better to bring in three or four more attendants to wait on you?"

"Hm?"

"You'll need more hands as the baby grows. Of course, I'll do my very best to see to everything myself, but for the time being, with my arm like this…"

"Ah, that's true. You'll be having a hard time of it with your arm not fully healed."

Yvessa's arm was still in a splint. Yvessa suggested carefully.

"At the very least, wouldn't it be best to bring in a few more maids, until my arm has recovered?"