58: Pushing him away

Pushing him away

As they hastened out of the ball, they attracted an excessive amount of attention. However, Adela was not concerned with the gossip or the aristocrats' opinions right now.1

As the sound of the live music faded away in the long empty hall, she cast a sidelong glance at her sister and finally mustered the courage to inquire. 

"What is wrong with him?"

Larissa looked up at Arkin who was walking two steps ahead of the sisters. He turned around and looked down at Adela with a pallid expression, "Please wait here for a few moments while I fetch the carriage,"

The sisters halted, and tears streamed down Larissa's cheeks, agony twisting her beautiful face.

"Arkin was summoned by the commander while we were on our way...The physicians believe it is his heart!"

Adela felt an immediate stab in her heart in response to the news, "What physicians? When did this happen! How can we be here when father is..." Her final exclamation faded.

Overcome with urgency, she promptly turned on her heel and made her way toward the door. However, just as she was about to leave, Egon and Andreas blocked her path.

"What do you think you are doing? I must go!"

Egon crossed his arms over his broad chest and questioned, "Aren't you forgetting someone?"

Adela was about to object when she comprehended his point.

"Claude," she whispered and then gazed at her sister, "Larissa! Please find His Highness and follow me in a separate carriage, I cannot wait a second longer,"

With her knowledge of herbs, Adela might be exactly what the Archduke of Lanark needs at this crucial moment.

Andreas shook his head grimly, "Lady Larissa shouldn't waste time on that, the Crown Prince has already departed,"

Adela placed the back of her hand against her forehead and murmured to herself, "Did he receive this news while we were dancing?" She shook her head and refused to believe it. "He would never do this to me..."

"Why?" Egon's angry question reverberated throughout the hall like thunder. "Because he is a de Lanark? Because he can wear the same mask as you?"

"You..." Adela glared at him as she gritted her teeth. Then, with all the frustration she felt inside of her, she tried to push him with her hands out of her way. Her arms ached from palms to shoulder, but Egon didn't move.

"Don't do this," he said with a subdued tone.

"Why should I not when everything is all your fault! You came here with your malicious intentions and schemes; you wanted this to happen! You wanted to hurt Kaiser de Lanark!"

"Adela," Larissa pleaded, but Adela was deaf to her words.

Egon stared back at her with a steady gaze. "This fury in your eyes is one I know all too well. I came here carrying much more of it in me. If you came to know loss after I arrived in these lands, then yes, that makes us even."

Adela was speechless, unable to fathom how someone with a beating heart could speak of justice at a time like this.

"Believe me when I tell you that now is not the right time to be angry. You need to take the next steps with the utmost care. Open your eyes and see who is next to you. See who wants to show you the truth and who wants to keep your eyes shut."

She closed her ears and eyes like a petulant child unable to bear listening anymore. "Enough!"

The sound of a carriage from outside silenced everybody.

Adela removed her hands from over her ears and held Larissa's hand.

"My sister is next to me... You... Egon von Conradie... You stay away from us," she said, moving away from him, half-expecting him to stop her but relieved that he finally let her be on her way.

"Adelaide!"

The roar she heard as she was about to climb up to her father's carriage had the blood freezing in her veins. When she turned around, the ruby and black eyes of a predator glared down at her from the stairs. She steeled herself enough to glare back at the man keeping her from her father still.

"You are going the wrong way. They have long since taken your father out of Lanark," he said.

Her vision blurred for a second as she held on to Larissa. She swallowed. "I do not believe you."

"You are free to believe whatever the hell you want. You will soon see for yourself that I was not the one who lied all along to you. And when that moment finally comes, you have to learn to accept my help."

The lady's pride nagged at the back of her mind. The arrogant words of the powerful man looking down on her were too much.

"You, and any kind of help that comes from you... I do not want them."

His face seemed to shatter before he stormed off. With a sigh, Andreas went down the stairs and looked at Larissa, who stood next to Arkin.

"I will learn what he knows and follow you to the manor after that," he said, looking at Adela. "You do not know him well. But Egon would not lie to you, My Lady."

Her chin went up. "Egon would not lie to me, but my father and my cousin would?"

Andreas's kind expression did not waver, making Adela feel worse about her incriminating question.

"What will you learn anyway? What does Egon know about the situation my father is in right now? When did he come to acquire that knowledge?"

It dawned on her then and there. She looked around her, feeling like a lost child all of a sudden.

"Kaiser de Lanark's downfall is a part of Egon's revenge... If he planned all of this..."

Adela began to doubt everything she thought she knew about Egon. Each word and touch they had shared seemed premeditated in her mind, and she was now unsure of how to separate the truth from his schemes. 

"Lady Adelaide," Arkin urged.

"Let's go, Larissa,"

The two of them climbed up then behind while Arkin rode up front. And the carriage went on its way, leaving behind the uncertain truths and complicated emotions encountered.

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