Ch#28
Where... is this...?
In her hazy vision, the image of an unfamiliar room came into focus. A large window with heavy curtains, a big good bed and nightstand, sofa and table, and such.
The moment she opened her mouth to call someone, her throat felt scratchy and she let out a dry cough. Then there was a rustle beside her.
“Edel sister! Are you coming to your senses?”
“Dai... sy...?”
“Yes, it’s me, Daisy. Sister, does anything hurt or feel strange?”
Daisy being by her side was bewildering, but Edel moved her limbs and fingertips to answer her question.
“Well... I seem fine. Except for my toes that feel numb.”
“Do you remember past events too?”
*Spoils of war
“Past events? ...Yes. I think I remember everything.”
Since even memories she’d rather forget remained vividly clear, there seemed to be no issue with her recollection.
Duchess
Daisy let out a sigh as if relieved.
Truly written by Lemon Frog
“Sister, you’ve woken up after just two days. The doctor said you were really on the brink of death.”
“R-really?”
“He said there was a chance you might wake up with something wrong. Your fever was extremely high. He mentioned frostbite on your feet too.”
Daisy grasped Edel’s hand tightly with a moved expression. At the mention of frostbite on her feet, Edel recalled her last memory.
“Come to think of it, what happened? I was definitely in the laundry room.
With my feet submerged in water so cold it felt like it would freeze me to the bone, stomping on the curtains.
No, wait. Marsha slapped me. What happened after that...?
As she rummaged through her memories a bit more, Daisy, whose lips were tightly pursed, gripped her hand harder and whispered.
- 2 -
.
“They say Mrs. Bohen did it to torment you, sister? She’s truly awful! She’s a really bad person, that woman.”
“Thank you, Daisy. Thanks to you, I survived.”
“My nursing was really nothing special! Rather, the doctor the count called was truly skilled.”
She looked so indignant that tears seemed ready to well up in her large eyes at any moment.
Daisy took a deep breath to calm her excitement and explained what had happened in the meantime.
“Ah, so the count called the doctor?”
Marsha slandering Edel to Laslo, Celia and Laila blocking Laslo’s path to plead that Edel was ill, Laslo discovering her collapsed and immediately ordering a doctor while assembling the servants and issuing stern warnings, and so on.
Daisy nodded vigorously.
“He was a rather unique man. I was really scared thinking something had happened to you, sister, but that doctor didn’t change expression at all.”
“So Mrs. Bohen was completely exposed as a liar. Not just for framing you, but claiming to know imperial etiquette, and that we shouldn’t speak to the count directly……”
“Wait. So, until now, Mrs. Bohen was the only servant who could talk to the count?”
“Pretty much. We’d been told we must never speak first to the count or lady unless answering a question from them. That we had to go through Mrs. Bohen no matter what.”
Daisy recalled the man who looked gaunt and emaciated, almost like a patient himself. Even while examining the feverish Edel, he seemed utterly emotionless, making her doubt his skills.
After a cursory examination, the man opened his large bag, mixed various things from numerous medicine bottles, tossed her a fever reducer and tonic as ‘recovery medicine,’ and left.
His demeanor, unflinching even before Count Laslo, had left quite an impression on Daisy.
Her words were right in some ways, wrong in others.
Regular servants shouldn’t speak casually to the master’s family, but with valid reason, they could certainly speak directly without going through the head maid or butler.
“I should thank both the count and that doctor.”
“I’m not sure if I’ll see the doctor again, but it’d be good to greet the count. He stayed by your side the whole time the doctor was here.”
*Mrs. Bohen used that as a means to strengthen her power.*
“What?”
She had been the sole channel to convey the master’s opinions here, and the only means for servants’ voices to reach them—the head maid, in other words.
Edel was quite taken aback.
Probably because most servants lacked experience, her lie had worked.
Calling a doctor for a sick maid was merciful enough, but staying by her side too.
Daisy waved her clenched fists excitedly, suggesting she too had pent-up resentment toward Marsha.
Unexpected... nothing else came to mind.
“Maybe Daisy got bullied for treating me well.
But recalling how little in the world ever went her way, Edel felt a bit ashamed for judging Laslo so arbitrarily.
Edel’s insides ached.
She smiled occasionally while listening to Daisy chatter excitedly, inwardly resolving to greet Laslo first once her body recovered.
Seeing that Celia and Laila had faced discrimination for taking her side, her guess was practically a certainty.
Edel forced a smile and grasped Daisy’s hand tightly.
“So Daisy nursed me after that?”
And two more days passed.
“Yes. The count permitted it. Celia sister and Laila sister worried a lot too, but the laundry room couldn’t spare anyone.”
“Ah, Celia and Laila must have suffered because of me.”
“Because of you, sister? It’s Mrs. Bohen’s fault.”
As Daisy said, whether due to that doctor’s medicine or not, by evening Edel had recovered enough to get out of bed.
She sat on the edge of the bed and moved her frostbitten feet a little.
Her toes hurt, but the severe dizziness seemed gone.
Daisy, pouting and grumbling, looked adorable.
.
