94: Losing their child (Kaiser’s POV)

Losing their child (Kaiser’s POV)

The Archduchess was the esteemed wife of an Archduke, her responsibilities were to govern and lead with wisdom, compassion, and dedication. Her power was just below that of the Emorian Queen, for she worked alongside military commanders to ensure the security and defense of her lands.1

"Frieda, have you tried this tea?" The exotic redheaded beauty asked with an innocent tone.

Baroness Frieda avoided Grace's eyes and focused on the freckles over her fair skin.

She had just made an acquaintance with the Archduke's alleged lover, and she could not have fathomed Kaiser's choice as she locked eyes with him where he sat on his spouse's left side for the Baroness knew the Archduke almost as well as her husband did.

Kaiser watched the Baroness's forcefully smiling eyes sliding down to the teacup in the Archduchess's hand, her hold on it betraying the fact that she had not gone through even the basics of a noblewoman's upbringing. In fact, the only thing in common between the two ladies were their third trimester lower pregnant abdominal parts.

He placed his right hand on Grace's knee beneath the table. They had agreed on every single detail with Gustav the night before.

It was hard on the loyal knight to get the news about his deceased child, but he could not waste a golden chance like this one, not with the King's assassins infesting the Archduchy with one order only: Murder the baby as soon as the Archduchess delivers.

Grace placed down the teacup and then placed her shaking hand atop Kaiser's hand on her knee beneath the table. It was up to Grace now to convince the Baroness to drink the tea that would induce labor.

Frieda's baby happened to be struggling in her womb the night before, and Grace — who could sense a life in danger— hurried to try to make contact with the fragile being only to sense it slipping away. The Archduchess, who was also waiting for her precious child to be born, could not help but gag right then and there.

Kaiser cleared his throat to warn the Baroness. Her eyes snapped up and smiled politely at Lanark's newly appointed Archduchess.

"I was told to avoid tea while I am with child, Your Excellency," she tried to subtly underline the need to use the titles between them, for it was only the second time the two of them were meeting, and the frightening first time where the woman hurried to touch Frieda's abdominal part then gagged profusely was too strange to the degree of being embedded in Frieda's mind.

Something was seriously strange about Grace de Lanark.

The Baroness — alongside every other person who was loyal to Kaiser — were on pins and needles waiting to meet the princess of the desert who captured the almighty Kaiser's heart, the seductress who he, the epitome of nobility and the son of a King, could not keep his hands off, as righteous of a person he is, against his solid reputation that rose to the level of being compared to a paladin.

"I know what you are thinking, Baroness," Grace's voice was solemn, "I know that none of you think I am worthy of being on the arm of Kaiser de Lanark."

The Baroness straightened up. "O-Oh, whatever gave you that idea? Who are we to have a saying... Your Excellency, a slander against yourselves is no laughing matter at all."

Baroness or not, she could lose her head with one snap of Grace's fingers.

Grace's face lit as she looked up at the maid next to her, "Do pour the Baroness some of this tea then."

Kaiser watched the reluctance in Hanna's eyes as she poured down the smelly tea to the Baroness. It was a part of their plan to have her present today of all days, the midwife who happened to be Atticus's wife — Someone Kaiser hid in the last place his father or Emanuel could dream of — had to be present once the labor of the two women starts.

He watched as the Baroness's brows twitched at the sight of the tea. And it was clear that her motherly instincts told her to steer clear from it.

"This tea is my wife's favorite, Baroness," he pressed with a threatening undercurrent.

All that Frieda could do was smile and take a sip. It tasted as bad as it smelled, and she was terrified of the idea of sipping on it for the remaining part of the awkward meeting.

"Very interesting," she said then gulped the rest of it down and placed it hurriedly on the table, then pressed the handkerchief with too much force on her mouth, trying as hard as she could to keep it down.

The air around Kaiser and the Archduchess changed immediately.

"You there," Kaiser called for Hanna's attention.

"Y-Yes, Your Excellency."

"...Call for the Baron immediately, his wife does not look so well."

"R-Right away!"

The Baroness, who felt perfectly fine apart from the queasiness caused by the tea, was about to object when an excruciating pain hit her. It felt like menstruating multiplied by a hundred folds. She clutched the edge of the table and folded herself forward with a scream.

Kaiser held Grace's hand tightly as he saw his Commander, who had been standing by the door the entire time, enter with a grave face, with a bewildered Hanna walking behind him.

Gustav hurried to hold his wife who was biting her own hand to suppress the pain while lying on the floor. He looked up at Hanna, "What are you waiting for? My wife is obviously in labor!"

Amongst the chaos that erupted in the room with the maids following Hanna's instructions, Kaiser heard his wife's quiet sobs.

He held her tightly to his chest.

The Healer— whose identity was almost exposed to the Emorian King if not for Kaiser's intervention— turned out to be a mere child, pregnant and frightened. And as if pulling her away from everything she knew and loved was not enough, she was about to go through the same pain the Baroness was just experiencing, only to have to give up on the child that she had carried for nine long months.

"I swear by the name of God, Grace, I was going to raise your child as my own," he whispered in her ear.

Grace could not blame her husband; if anything, she pitied him. Unlike his father who was corrupted by power and his brother who loathed the kingdom, Kaiser de Lanark was good to the core.

"My baby will want for nothing, just as you promised. I will get to watch them from afar, and your friends will get to raise a child instead of the one they lost."

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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