46: His stolen happiness - Leopold’s POV (final)

His stolen happiness - Leopold’s POV (final)

Lanark was an Archduchy that condemns commoners to a lifetime of discrimination. But all that Leopold could do was follow Grace back to that pit of misery.1

The first thing he did was to find his older brother, Atticus, he groveled at his feet begging for information about his stolen beloved, for Hanna, his sister-in-law, was a maid and a midwife in the Archduke's manor.

Atticus was not content at all with the deeds of his younger brother, he felt responsible for Leopold's shortcomings for he was the one to have raised him. But he too was a father to a young boy whom he loved and cherished.

Against all of his principles, he placed his loyalty to the kind Archduke aside and told his brother everything he knew. It was quite the story that took place only a month ago.

"Her Excellency was six months pregnant when the Archduke invited his father, the King, to inform him about the pregnant mistress. It was that illness called love that had him bedding her out of wedlock on one of his travels. Unable to get her out of his mind, he searched until he found her locked up in the desert, pregnant with what His Excellency insisted to be his offspring,"

Leopold fumed as he listened to the lies his brother was fed so shamelessly.

"Those close to the Archduke knew that his sudden betrothed was no princess at all. But a commoner of Latora, giving her a title was needless since she would become the Archduchess of Lanark two fortnights after,"

Leopold flinched recalling his Grace, running like a dear in the wilderness, wearing a light Latoran robe. The thought of her wearing a clown-like gown and bending a knee was excruciating. 

"They guard her secret well, that is the only plausible explanation as to why they'd risk a scandal blighting the honor of the royal family," he murmured intelligibly.

Leopold believed that the dishonorable aristocrats would sell their souls to the devil for the right price, and the pride of Kaiser de Lanark was no different, his goal was to exploit innocent Grace, so he took that which belonged to another man and called his own.

If only news traveled faster to Kolhis. He would have put his life on the line if it meant saving her from this cruel fate of hers.

"Give it up, Leopold, Kaiser's supposed mistress was brought to Lanark to save the honor of the royal family and guard their bloodline,"

"A bunch of scandalous lies. That child inside of her is mine!"

Atticus sprang to his feet, took long strides were enough to get him to the door, he locked it and gave Leopold a glare of contempt.

"What good would that sharp tongue of yours be once your decapitated head rolls down the ground!"

Leopold was nowhere near done.

"They stole these lands from the rightful emperor! They taxed the very air we breathe! And now that the crown prince turned out to be impotent in bed, their eyes are on other people's children!"

Atticus huffed, "I am warning you, if you do or say anything to jeopardize Hanna and Egon's safety…"

Leopold winced, he had not shown his face to his brother for over a year, yet here he was, disturbing the pitiful peace that satisfies Atticus. He knew how much his older brother loved his wife, how he wasted his health doing all kinds of odd jobs so he could provide a good living for her.

Hanna was Atticus's Grace.

Leopold ruffled his hair angrily; it was all Kaiser de Lanark's fault. Far worse than any predator Leopold had faced in the desert, the Archduke reminded him of the mythical vampire that was said never to have left Lanark's Forest, he sunk his teeth into Leopold's Grace, and now, Leopold's unborn child too! The one he had declared his resentment toward, the one he said he could never love or raise.

How he wished he could take back his cowardly words.

Multiple knocks on the door had both of the brothers tensing. 

"A-A-Atticus! Open the door!"

He hurried to unlock the cracked wooden door for his wife.

"What is it?" He held her shivering hands the second he saw her, his eyes widening when he felt the sticky liquid there then realized that it was blood.

"Are you bleeding?" He shouted nervously.

She tried to shake her head, but her muscles refused to comply, "H-Her Excellency… She went into early labor! I-I told her not to drink too much of that foul-smelling tea, but she would not listen to me! S-She kept on asking me to prepare and pour more!" She blinked her tears away. "I-I had my hands full with the Baroness's delivery as is, I-I could not give both of them the attention they needed!"

He clutched her by the shoulders and tried to shake some sense into her, fear clouding the correct judgment of his mind, "What have you done, Hanna!"

She burst into tears.

"N-No men should have been allowed in there but nobody could say no to the Archduke and the Baron, they…" She suddenly looked as if she had seen a ghost. "They threw me out b-before I was done...One of the babies...H-He..."

"What of the baby!" Leopold who had been standing behind his brother wobbled by his side.

"I-I don't think he was breathing…"

"Which one of them was not breathing?" Came the heartless question that placed one life above the other before the two even saw the light.

Her bones quivered violently in her husband's arms, "I am not sure anymore!"

"Come here, you have done nothing wrong…Nothing…" Atticus held his wife so tight that she shivered no more. While Leopold leaned on the wooden wall that squeaked as it struggled to carry the weight. All that he could do was think about the last thing she said to him. Do not visit our graves.

Did she perhaps sense that something was wrong with our child back then? He hit the wood next to his head so hard that his knuckles bled. 

Mourning bands accompanied the flags of Emoria for seven days. One newborn was never celebrated, and the other was buried deep in the ground of Lanark.

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