Theodore didn't hesitate for long before telling Sophia that she could help with the current situation. “Then tell your father to stay quiet for a few weeks. I have enough problems without his constant nagging, so I would greatly appreciate it if he left me alone. Only today, two letters arrived, and I can imagine what he complained about. I didn't read them yet, and I feel like I would be better off burning them before they sour my mood even more.”

The three women all noticed how disrespectful the emperor's tone had been. Sophia was fiddling with her hands and averted her eyes while Seraphina frowned at Theodore.

The empress waited for a few seconds, and when her husband didn't say anything to neutralize his statement, she responded. “With all due respect, Your Majesty. While I do agree that our father could hold back at this current moment and that his words might not always be the most polite ones, his concerns are justified. You should be aware of what this execution indicated. There are eyes and ears everywhere, and no matter how long you try to hide the circumstances, most already know the truth.”

Blanche wasn't sure what this was referring to. She turned to her lover with a worried gaze. “Are there any problems because you...got rid of that maid?”

Theodore shook his head. “There aren't any. Duke Duremont sees one even though there wouldn't be a single issue without his meddling. But don't concern yourself with that. I will deal with him. Later. When I have the energy to control my annoyance again.” That did sound like there was something that he needed to take care of urgently. He just didn't want to tell her because he was worried about her overthinking this matter.

The concubine turned to the empress. “Please overlook it if my question shows how little I know about this topic, but why does His Grace care about a servant of the palace being punished?”

Seraphina glanced at the emperor, who gave her a warning glare, before slowly directing her eyes onto the other woman again. “The issue is not that there was a punishment in itself. Father does not care about that maid. She committed a serious crime, within the royal palace nonetheless, so her execution was inevitable, and he does not mind that. There is something else that has caused some...discussion. However, as His Majesty said, you are still confined to the bed and extremely weak. You should not concern yourself with this matter until you are fully recovered. It is not connected to anything dangerous nor would you be able to do anything about it, so feel free to ignore it entirely for now.”

This was even more ominous than before. Now Blanche could barely keep her stomach from churning upon thinking that something awful might have happened. But apparently, it was only a problem because Duke Duremont was dissatisfied with it, so it couldn't be too much of an issue. Still, she felt like it was unfair to keep information from her just because she was sick. If she learned about everything that had happened while she had been asleep in one dialogue in a few days, she would be overwhelmed by all the information.

Just when she opened her mouth to protest against this, Sophia spoke up. “This issue is truly not much of a threat, so please just forget about it, Lady Blanche.” She turned to the emperor and resumed with a serious expression that seemed strangely odd on her face, which normally showed a gentle smile. “We will speak to our father and ask him to postpone any discussion he might wish to have with you. We cannot control him, but we might be able to calm him down a little. I do not mind addressing this matter.”

Blanche immediately refuted when the other woman finished. “But you don't do this just because I am sick. After His Grace might be upset with you if you get involved. It would be better for you to stay out of this.”

It had become obvious that Henry was a very emotional person often enough. If his daughter was suddenly on the side of a person he despised, he would definitely get angry and possibly even push Sophia away in a fit of rage. Of course, he loved his children dearly, but if he didn't understand why they were acting in a way that he deemed to be a threat to the family, he could get unfriendly. Blanche didn't want the countess to find that out personally. It would be unfortunate if Sophia fought with her father just to help the concubine.

But Sophia just replied with a soft smile. “Father isn't unreasonable. I will be able to convince him with logical arguments. And even if that doesn't help, I'm still his daughter. I can look at him with round eyes, and he'll give in.” It was hard to imagine that the man with such a cold facade would pamper his children, but it was the truth. If one looked closely it was obvious, but it was still strange to Blanche, who was always greeted with a murderous glare by that person.

The concubine observed Sophia's confident smile and gave up arguing at that. The other woman surely knew her father better than the concubine did, so it was fine to let her deal with this.

Theodore replied instead of Blanche. “That would be very helpful. You could also ask him to mark his letters in two different colors so that I know which ones are urgent and which ones are full of frustrating complaints. Right now, I won't read any of them, so if something important happens, he will have to send a servant or come here himself.”

Sophia was visibly taken aback by that rude tone toward her father, but she didn't point it out. “I see. I will do that, Your Majesty. But I might change a few words first.”

The emperor nodded before responding. “Thank you. That is the only thing you could help with that I can think of. Aside from not mentioning the poisoning to anyone, of course. Any part of the investigation will be taken care of by my servants, and I will be secretive with the information, so you won't be able to get involved often. I will have to increase the security again, and all meals and drinks will be checked at least twice before consumption. It's unpleasant but better than being poisoned. I believe that no one will argue against that.”

Seraphina had returned to her normal aloof expression by now, and even her voice sounded reserved again when she replied. “I understand. Naturally, I accept those measures. Will there be any additional investigation regarding the loyalty of the servants?”

Theodore shook his head. “No. We're already doing the most we can. There are many measures to control the staff in effect already. Unfortunately, we never wondered whether the personal attendants would be inclined to change their stance suddenly. We might need to examine that more closely at a later date. Right now, we are focusing on finding out whether anyone else was involved in the poisoning.” He glanced toward the empress with an expression that almost made him seem bored, but his eyes held an accusatory glint. Blanche wasn't sure whether she had interpreted this correctly though.

Seraphina just nodded after all and didn't show that she was upset about her other maids being investigated.

Then all the people inside the room were silent. It was uncomfortable, and the tension between the royal couple was more than obvious.

So, Blanche cleared her throat after a moment and spoke up. “So, uhm... I assume that everything else went well while I was asleep? How is Grace?”

Sophia couldn't contain her excitement about her daughter, even though she gave her best at the beginning. She started calmly but quickly moved on to gushing about how adorable her baby was. “She adores all the toys that she got and smiles whenever we present her any of the sparkly ones. Seeing her tiny face light up with a beam is the most wonderful sight in the world. She especially loves the rattle you gifted her and the stuffed animals. She cuddles with them every night. I feel like she will keep them until she is an adult.” She laughed quietly and grinned from one ear to the other. But then realization swept over her features, and she pressed her lips into a line.

Sophia averted her eyes and stayed silent for a moment before opening her mouth and closing it again. She did this multiple times as she searched for the right words until she eventually spoke up. “There is no way for me to properly convey my emotions to you, but I wanted, no, needed to thank you again for warning me about the gifts back at Grace's party. I might have committed an irreversible mistake because of my carelessness otherwise. I will be more cautious from now on and keep in mind what you told me after the tea party a long time ago. You seem to have a good eye for people, so I won't forget it even if it's hard to believe for me...”

Blanche felt relief crashing over her at that. Sophia finally came around to understanding that her aunt might have had bad intentions from the very beginning. Maybe Evelyn's crude words during the party had helped with this. In that case, it was good that that woman had lost all self-restraint. The concubine didn't mind listening to a few insulting words if it would help secure that Grace would live a long and happy life at her mother's side. She gave Sophia a wide smile. “Thank you. I know that this must be uncomfortable for you, but I'm relieved that you trust me. I am not asking you to do anything special. Just keep an eye on her when your daughter is around. That can't do any harm.”

Sophia nodded with a downcast expression.

The empress chimed in after seeing that her sister would respond. “I would like to express my gratitude for that as well. Checking whether others' gifts were appropriate for a child slipped from my mind. And I also need to thank you for speaking to Sophia openly. We share the opinion on that person, so I am glad that my sister finally believes that we might not be accusing someone innocent for no reason. Since we are already talking about that matter, I would also like to apologize for every single word that left Lady Lemares' mouth that day. She was overly disrespectful, and I made sure that she understood that she went too far. She apologized to me and will also express her regret about her actions to you soon.”

Blanche could only hope that Seraphina had used all of her intimidating aura to scold Evelyn so that that woman would keep her mouth shut the next time. “Thank you, Your Majesty. However, you do not need to apologize for her when she made the mistake. I will wait for her own apology, and even then, I-” She cut herself off when her throat began itching and coughed quietly. “I doubt that I will be-” Once again, she had to stop to cough, but this time, it was worse than before. Before she could attempt to speak again, Theodore already held the glass of water to her, and she gladly accepted his help. The cool liquid soothed her sore throat a bit, so she tried to resume. “I won't be...” She didn't come far again and gestured to the glass to beg her lover to give her some more water. After taking another sip, she wanted to continue, only to be shushed by the emperor.

Theodore put his index finger on her lips and watched her with concern. “You are still hoarse. Don't overdo it. It seems that you talked too much already. You need to rest your vocal cords a bit.”

Blanche nodded weakly as her face scrunched up. She was already confined to the bed, so she couldn't do anything but chat with others. What was she supposed to do when she couldn't even talk? This would be extremely frustrating.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Theodore had an easy time reading her face and patted her head. “Don't worry. I'll keep you busy. But you can't do anything exhausting, so it would be better to restrict other people from coming in. How many others were here already to see you? At least five, and that is way too much for you at the moment.”

Seraphina nodded at that. “In that case, it would be better for us to leave now. We do not wish to make Lady Blanche worse again.” The concubine opened her mouth to respond, but the empress was faster. “Don't speak unnecessarily. It would be best for you to recover quickly, and then you can return to your normal schedule again. However, you will have to restrict yourself for a few days. I will try to focus on finding out whether I can read anything about the poison you described in the royal library.” Her gaze showed her determination while she talked. “If there is something helpful there, I will find it. His Majesty will take care of the investigation, and Sophia will speak with Father so that he will give you some time to rest. Naturally, the servants are at your disposal and will deal with anything that needs to be prepared. In summary, there is no need for you to do anything on your own, and it would be best to stay in bed. May you recover quickly.”

Blanche almost wanted to reply again, but she forced herself to close her mouth and just nodded.

Sophia curtsied before speaking up. “Then we will take our leave. I can only agree with my sister's words. Don't do anything exhausting and rest properly. I'm looking forward to seeing you when you have fully recovered and are healthy again.”

Blanche showed her a smile and nodded again.

Theodore waited for a short moment before bidding farewell to the women. “You have permission to leave. Thank you for your visit. Lady Ravillot, return home safely and greet your daughter and husband.”

Sophia gave him a little smile. “Thank you for your regards, Your Majesty. I will certainly tell them. Goodbye. May we meet later on a more pleasant occasion.”

Seraphina said goodbye more curtly. “May you have an uneventful and relaxing evening, Your Majesty.” Then she turned around and left, with her sister following her.

The door closed, and Blanche was left behind with a content feeling. This interaction had gone well, apart from her throat suddenly giving in, of course. It seems like the empress wasn't upset with her because of the things that Evelyn had said, which was very relieving.

The concubine turned to her lover with a smile and leaned her head onto his shoulder. Only now, she realized that her upper body had been resting against his the whole time. She felt a bit satisfied with showing the others that she was with her lover, even if she worried about being impolite. But right now, she couldn't really help it. After all, her body was so weak that she couldn't even lift something light. And now she wouldn't be able to speak either. Great. “Theo...” She whined quietly and frowned upon hearing that her voice had indeed returned to being hoarse.

Theodore reacted quickly. He moved her closer to him and carefully laid her down so that she could rest her head on his lap without needing to strain herself to look up at him. “I know. Your neck must feel weird. Of course, we both hate that. But we can't give you any new medicine yet. You can only take the next dose this evening. Do you want me to tell you something interesting? Maybe I still have a few stories I never told to anyone.”

She nodded and relaxed under his gentle fingers that were stroking over her hair.

Theodore hummed for a while before speaking up again. “Let's see. I think I didn't tell you about my music box yet. Althea gifted it to me when I was young. I adored it. Then Cedar stole it at some point after we had a fight, but well. I am still fond of the memory. Did you know that-” A knock sounded from the door, and his face fell. “Are you serious? They really can't leave us alone, can they?” He raised the volume of his voice a bit. “Owen, who's there?”

The head knight came inside seconds later. He closed the door behind him and held a white envelope toward the emperor. “This letter just arrived. It's from His Royal Highness to Lady Blanche.”

The concubine's face scrunched up at the exact moment that her lover's face did too. She stared at the envelope, and unwanted memories about the dream boiled up inside her. She hurried to push those away and focused on the present. “Why?” That was the only thing she said, but it was enough to make the men understand.

Owen replied in a calm voice. “Naturally, we can not know without opening it. It came just a minute ago. The messenger seems to work for His Royal Highness and had the order of handing it over personally. When he couldn't do that, he was already upset, but fortunately, I did not have to become much clearer. A few deliberate words were enough to make him give up.”

Everything in Blanche was against reading this letter, but she didn't truly have a choice. Even though she didn't really believe that there might be hints about what their enemies planned inside. They needed every bit of information they could get, so relying on this wasn't a bad idea. She glanced at Theodore, who scanned the envelope with a frown. “We should read it.”

He nodded and reluctantly grabbed the letter. He held it in his hands for a few more seconds before looking down at her. “Is it alright if I read it before showing it to you?” It seemed like her lover was even more worried about the contents of this letter than she was. This was good for her though. After all, she would rather have him sort out what she definitely didn't need to hear from Cedar.

Blanche nodded at him.

Theodore visibly relaxed at that and tore open the envelope to pull out the piece of paper. But when he began reading, he became tense quickly. The longer his eyes moved across the letter, the deeper his frown became. When he eventually finished, his expression was grim, and the concubine would certainly have been scared of him if she hadn't known him.

“What is it about?”

The emperor didn't reply immediately. Instead, he pressed the paper into a small ball and threw it away. It fell down onto the floor at the other end of the room, and he stared at that spot with murderous intent.

Blanche used her last bit of strength to reach up and cup his cheek, which made him look down. “Is it bad?” Her arm was already shaking, but she didn't want to pull back now.

Thankfully, Theodore was observant enough to see that she was struggling to keep her hand up and caught her with his and interlocked their fingers. “It's just... I hate him. I hate him so much. He knew that I would read it first, so he was overly provoking. He accused me of...” He stopped to breathe in and out. His expression lost most of his anger as he gazed down at his lover. “I'm sorry. I'm a bit emotional right now. Normally, I would have held myself back, but if it's him...” He stroked over her face with his free hand before looking up at Owen. “Can you please pick up that paper and call for Leon? He will need to put this to the evidence we kept gathering. I don't want to have this here any longer.”

Blanche became excited at that. “Did he mess up? Did he write something that you can use against him?”

Theodore quickly shushed her again. “Don't speak so loudly. You will hurt yourself.” He looked at her for a moment until she began pouting and then finally spoke up. “He wished you a fast recovery. That is alright for someone that heard about the rumors. But the only people that know that you have been poisoned are me, Leon, Owen, your maid, the empress and her sister as well as the servants that wanted to help bring you to the doctor's office. Naturally, the doctor and his assistants are aware of that too. But I only revealed the following to the public. There has been an assassination attempt on you by a maid, who was already punished appropriately.” His eyes narrowed as his anger slowly came seeping back. “Unfortunately, Cedar mentioned that poison is a scary method to hurt someone. He claimed to have been surprised by this and offers his help during the search for the perpetrators, but he openly said that he knows that it happened. Of course-” His voice was full of contempt while he said this. “This will not be seen as foolproof evidence. A judge couldn't be sure whether some rumors simply left the palace so that that man could have heard about it. So, this will end up on the stack of all the evidence that doesn't help us. Maybe we could use it if we have enough of these small indicators.”

Blanche squeezed his hand gently and looked up at him. “But that isn't all, right?”

“Of course not.” Theodore's face was full of disgust when he remembered what he had read. “He was acting so awfully friendly the whole time. It makes me want to throw up. If anyone saw this letter, they would believe that you've known each other for longer. He complained about me not allowing him to visit and even pointed up that me reading this letter before you would be a sign of distrust. This person is just-” He cut himself off and pressed his lips into a thin line. It was obvious that he was filled with rage right now.

This only made Blanche happy that she hadn't been forced to read that letter herself. She would probably have been as disgusted as her lover. She held Theodore's hand tighter and brought it to her face and leaned against him. “Did he really want to come?” Cedar didn't really care about her, so why would he? Though, he might still have announced that he would just to upset his brother.

The emperor's face scrunched up again, which proved her assumption to be true. “Yes. He showed up yesterday too. He acted like he was so hurt by me not allowing him to enter. Thankfully, I stayed inside with you and had Leon tell me what that man said. Otherwise, I might have hit him.” It was good that he hadn't done that.

But the concubine had to admit that a small part of her would be amused if Cedar got what he deserved after being so provoking. He would need to endure a punch after all that he had done. That would only be fair. Even if it didn't make the situation better and Cedar certainly didn't need even more violence in his life. Blanche ignored her strange thoughts and smiled at her lover to distract him from his anger. “That's good. Seeing him would have knocked me out and made everything worse. I'm thankful that you stayed by my side the whole time. I remember waking up and being in pain, but you were with me and made it better.”

Theodore's features softened, and he leaned down to her to kiss her forehead. “I'm sorry for not being able to make the pain go away. I could only put some cold cloth onto your head, and that was it. But you still cried the entire time and said my name over and over again. No matter how often I told you that I was there, you didn't give up.”

Blanche chuckled quietly. “I don't remember much, but I know that I wanted you to hug me. I was really upset that you didn't do that.”

Regret appeared on her lover's face. “I didn't know that. You were in so much pain in the beginning that every touch made you wince. So, I tried not to hold your hand no matter how much I wanted to.”

“It's alright. I'm pretty sure that I would have been in pain anyway though. Now I can talk again, so I will tell you whenever I want a hug. But it would be easier if I just say something in the rare cases when I don't want one. After all, I could always fall into your arms.”

Theodore smiled down at her and brushed his fingertips over her scalp in a manner that made her close her eyes. “That's good because I can't keep my hands off you either. But you still can't talk that much. You need to rest your voice, or you will be in pain for a while longer. And we don't want that. So, as much as I love to hear you speak, I want you to recover first.”

She opened her eyes just to roll them at him. “Fine. But what about the letter? Is there anything else?”

Her lover paused for a moment before shaking his head. “There is...an unamusing joke about the issue I mentioned earlier. I still think that it's too soon to tell you about this. In fact, I don't think that there is any problem unless Duke Duremont complains, and if his daughter takes care of that, we can drop the subject. But apparently, Cedar finds it funny to remind me of this.”

Blanche nodded to signal that she was alright with him staying silent for now. But only seconds after, she realized that this said that she was fine not knowing about it. In reality, she desperately wanted to learn what this was about so that she could make sure that it truly wasn't anything bad. She stared at her lover while trying to come up with a way to make him tell her. “Theo...” She drew out his name in an attempt to possibly convince him by acting cute.

But her lover immediately noticed what her intention was. “No. I won't burden you with useless rumors just because some old duke has issues with his self-esteem. I want you to recover in peace. That's understandable, right? You know that taking a break would be better for you too, don't you?”

She did. However, being curious made her want to ignore all of that. She had been fighting to change her future for the better ever since gaining the novel's memories. Now she was still trying to reach the best ending for her and Theodore. But to do this, she needed to know something about the threats that they were facing.

Blanche blinked up at him and hugged his arm carefully. “But if it isn't anything bad, you can tell me without a problem. I'm going to find out later anyway, right? It would be better if you are the one to explain it to me before someone asks me and I don't know how to respond. Especially if people like Cedar address this issue. I don't want him to catch me off guard with anything he says.”

Her lover hadn't even said anything yet, and she already knew that she had won with that last argument. Theodore narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at her without moving. He only needed one last push, and then he would give in.

Blanche made eye contact with him and gave her best to sound as convincing as possible when she added her last thought. “We always want to be honest with each other, right? We both dislike secrets between us. You said that you will tell me one thing when this is over, but if we keep hiding something, that will end up being a whole day full of confessing things to each other.”

The emperor let out a sigh, and his shoulders slouched. “Alright.”

Inwardly, the concubine raised a fist in victory. She tightened her hold on his arm, as much as she could with her limp arms, and looked up at him with an expectant gaze.