< — The Beginning and the End — >(5)
It was her first ti eting Anna since Anna stopped working for her. Lucia had received the headache dicine from Anna, but in the anti, she had asked her maid to only give her that drug.
Anna was visibly pleased to see the Duchess whom she had not t in a long ti. Lucia had a wry smile, knowing fully well that she had not called Anna here with good intentions. And she imdiately went straight to business.
“We are suspicious that a special dication, targeted at , was mixed into the drug for headache that you gave to , Anna, and we are looking into it. Personally, I do not think you are involved, Anna. So I want you to honestly tell everything, without hiding a single thing.”
Anna’s face went deathly pale with horror. She stumbled over her reply in complete disbelief.
“The-The prescription for the headache dicine...I got it from the Duke’s doctor at Roam, Sir. Philip. But Milady, he’s not soone like that.”
Philip. Lucia felt strange hearing that na.
‘We keep getting oddly involved with one another.’
In her dream, he was soone she was grateful to because he gave her the prescription for her treatnt and in reality, he was the person whom her husband’s late twin brother owed his life to.
However, because her husband appeared uneasy with Philip, Lucia couldn’t feel any goodwill that Philip might be a good person.
“Anna. I am pregnant right now.”
“My word! Congratulations.”
“Thank you. As you know, I was infertile. But unbeknownst to , I was treated, and I believe the source is the headache dicine.”
Anna’s expression gradually stiffened gravely.
“The fact that it resulted in my pregnancy does not matter. I have been taking a dication without being aware of it. If it was a poison that was killing slowly, what would beco of it? Do you understand why I am taking this seriously?”
Anna heaved a sigh as if she had rembered sothing.
“I...I was used.”
“Is there sothing you can think of?”
“Sir Philip was...obsessed with Milady’s pregnancy. I didn’t think much of it at the ti but when I think about it now, it was excessive.”
“I see. If I rember correctly, Sir. Philip tried to et through you. Now, I am curious why Sir. Philip tried to do that. Tell everything, from beginning to end. Don’t leave out what you talked about with him too.”
Anna looked back, recalling her mories from her first eting with Philip. And as she spoke, going into the details one by one, she realized Philip’s intentions. Anna ca to the end of her story with her eyes heavily reddened as she reeled from the imnse shock.
“This is my fault. I...I was so foolish.”
The headache drug was not only taken by the Duchess. A countless number of patients had taken Anna’s headache dicine. All this while, she had sold a drug despite not knowing how it would affect a patient’s body. She was so absorbed in the profit from selling that she had forgotten her duty as a doctor and she was completely disillusioned with herself.
Anna apologized several tis before leaving with a haggard expression. After Anna left, Lucia began to solve the mystery based on the information she had gained.
The cure that Lucia knew had a unique scent. However, she couldn’t detect such a scent on the headache dicine. Philip was soone who had the treatnt thod within his family’s vision. He would have been able to change the drug’s formulation as much as he wanted.
‘He heard from Anna that I knew about the drug’s unique scent and took the precaution to get rid of it. Why did he go to that extent? Plus, even if he treated my infertility, it’s not like we could have a child just because my infertility got cured. My husband cannot have a child normally. He said that the woman has to prepare her body with a special herb.’
There was no way Philip wouldn’t have known that.
‘Mugwort!’
An idea suddenly flashed into her mind.
The Philip, whom she t in the dream, was very knowledge about mugwort’s effects whereas other people had no idea, and he had a cure which he called his family’s vision. The question was, why did Philip’s family discovered the cure for such an uncommon illness and leave it as their family’s vision?
‘Since I took mugwort when I was a child, I made my body into sothing that is infertile but not infertile. It is an unreal coincidence, but if this condition was really the condition for having his child...’
[Sir. Philip said that for the treatnt to be effective, Milady must have been pure before your bridal night. It is strange when I think about it now. Why did I believe such words back then?]
‘So Philip checked if I t the conditions.’
Lucia felt a chill run down her spine. Philip’s thoroughness made her very uncomfortable.
‘I have to tell him.’
And there was sothing she wanted to ask him because she just couldn’t figure out the answer.
* * *
Hugo, who went to the north, returned after three weeks. Hugo went straight to his office, followed by Jero who had co out to greet him.
“Is my wife sleeping?”
“The Madam went to her bedroom early in the evening. I did not inform her that Your Grace would be returning.”
“You did well. What happened to the prescription I gave you?”
Before Hugo left for Roam, he handed over the prescription that Philip gave him to Jero. He told him that if Duchess began to suffer from sudden abdominal pain and the doctor couldn’t find the cause but the pain persisted to an intolerable degree, she should be given dicine as the prescription states.
He hoped that what Philip said would not happen.
“Like Your Grace said, the Madam suffered from severe abdominal pain. After she took the prescribed dicine Your Grace gave , it settled down quickly.”
Hugo’s hopes were shattered. He was greatly disappointed.
“In addition, I found out the components of the Madam’s headache dicine that Your Grace spoke of. I also found out how the Madam’s forr doctor obtained that prescription. They are all included in my report.”
Hugo picked up Jero’s report which was on top of his table and flipped through it. He once again realized Philip’s craftiness in approaching Anna and lanted to himself. His mistake of not recognizing soone like this was painful.
“However, the Madam showed interest in the investigation of the headache dicine.”
“What do you an by interest?”
“The Madam called her forr doctor and t her personally.”
Hugo furrowed his brow. This was unexpected.
“And?”
“She had a pretty long conversation with the forr doctor. I was not told what they had talked about.”
Hugo didn’t have any idea what she would have talked to her forr doctor about. He sorted out a few urgent docunts and headed up to the second floor with a heavy heart.
He had turned his family’s secret room upside down for nearly ten days but couldn’t find anything.
In his family’s genealogical record, there were only records of the Dukes from generation to generation and the Duchesses who bore the successors. There was no information about the mothers of the Duchesses or the Duchess’ parental hos. In the part about their lineage, Philip’s family was ntioned many tis, but there was no reference to what thod.
As Hugo opened the door to the bedroom, readying to enter, he paused.
The bedroom was lit up moderately with candles and Lucia, who was lying on the bed, lifted her head and exclaid in delight.
“Hugh! When did you co back?”
“I’ll co to you. Don’t get up.”
Hugo stopped her since she looked like she was going to jump down from the bed. He quickly reached the bed and climbed up on his knees. She had her arms stretched out to him and he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tight.
“You ca back, and no one ca to tell .”
“They probably thought you were sleeping.”
“Hugh, do you know what happened a little while ago?”
Lucia took Hugo’s hand and placed it on her stomach. Hugo was montarily startled. In the span of a few weeks, her stomach had grown significantly.
“The baby sent a signal that it’s doing well in there. It was just a little while ago. I was just lying down, and I heard a sound like water drops. At first, I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was just sothing like my stomach rumbling when I’m hungry. But after a mont, I heard it again, twice and suddenly, I got goosebumps and my heart started to race. And so I just knew. The baby is talking to .”
Lucia poured out a string of words without stopping for breath. Hugo could clearly see that she was overwheld with emotion and he was moved too. Hugo looked at his hand which was still on her stomach.
“...inside here...?”
“Yea. Wait a little.”
The two of them waited with bated breath for a while but there was no movent from inside Lucia’s abdon.
Lucia wanted him to feel the overwhelming emotions she had felt. She inwardly urged the baby to move a few tis, but it was still.
“It definitely moved a few minutes ago.”
Hugo gently kissed his wife, who looked disappointed.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes. What of you? Did your trip go well?”
“Roughly. I heard your stomach hurt a lot?”
“It was fine soon after I took dication. I was more worried that sothing would go wrong with the baby.”
“...I see.”
Even if Philip didn’t tell him that the mother would be endangered if he tried to get rid of the baby, Hugo already didn’t plan on doing anything to the child. He had no intention of watching his wife wallow in despair over the loss of her child.
Philip won. When Hugo ca back to the capital without finding anything in the secret room, he thought that as long as she could be safe, he would do whatever it takes, even if it ant playing into Philip’s hands.
“Hugh. There is sothing I wanted to verify when you ca back. The headache dicine.”
“What about the headache dicine?”
“The reason I was able to get pregnant was because of the headache dicine, right?”
“...”
His wife was an interesting woman. Sotis, she was naïve and innocent but at other tis, she was very sharp.
Lucia told him about her entire conversation with Anna. Hugo listened attentively, not missing even the trivial parts of what she was saying.
This was high quality information that wasn’t present in Jero’s report. He was able to get a clear idea of how Philip cleverly maneuvered through the gaps in Anna’s heart, using her trust in him.
Hugo ground his teeth at Philip, who had hundreds of snakes crawling in his stomach.
‘Mugwort, huh? Is that related?’
Hugo felt like he was grasping onto sothing. It seed like there would be a way to use this information.
“But Hugh. What I can’t understand the most is why Sir. Philip did this.”
It was Lucia’s biggest question and dilemma. She didn’t know why Philip went to the extent of playing so many tricks so that she could get pregnant. It was too much to see it as re loyalty. Not only was the thod less than decent, she could feel an unpleasant obsession.
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