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When the door closes, Leianna sits back down on the couch where her sister once sat. She gestures for the Medic to take his place in front of her as well.
"What did you want to ask me, my lady?" Dritan asks as he sits down on the golden couch, placing his leather suitcase in the process.
"You said earlier that Ciana had a strong fever a few days ago. Tell me more about it" she crosses her leg and lets her back rest on the couch. The Medic was immediately reminded of the Duke.
Indeed the lady is his firstborn daughter, Dritan thinks.
Lady Ciana, however, was oddly different from the rest of the Evrians, she was more reserved, quiet, and rarely ever spoke her mind. He doubts the second lady was even capable of intimidating someone like how the first lady and the young masters do almost effortlessly.
Although, he supposes there was a reason for it.
Dritan was aware, after all, of what had happened 8 years ago when the lady was merely ten years old. The trauma of what she had suffered when she was a child might've hindered her development. Not to mention the severe PTSD she could be suffering through. If he remembers right, her maid had informed him of her irregular sleeping schedule, and how she tends to avoid physical contact with others.
"The lady had suffered through a fever for only three days. It is not life threatening whatsoever and I had asked her to rest for another three days when she recovered" Dritan explains, looking Lady Leianna in the eye and seeing how concerned she suddenly seemed.
"I see. Medic Dritan..." Leianna seemed reluctant to continue and the Medic decided to help her.
"Please voice your thoughts, my lady"
"Did you inform Father about it?" Leianna sighs.
"The Duke hasn't instructed me to inform him of anything with regards to Lady Ciana, therefore...I did not" he suddenly wonders if he had made a mistake and if she should've informed the Duke about his youngest daughter.
"Then, from now on please inform me of these things. Especially if my little sister gets sick" Dritan blinks but nodded regardless. He didn't think Lady Leianna cared about anything that involved the second daughter. He had always thought the Duke and his biological children stayed distant from their half-sister.
"You may not know this but the previous Medic had always informed me of these things"
"I apologize, my lady, I wasn't aware" Dritan bows his head.
"It is fine, I had forgotten to speak with you about it, as well" apologizing without really apologizing. As expected of a noble, Dritan bows his head once again.
"Ciana…is well now, right? What about that nosebleed she had?"
Dritan straightens his posture. "It was due to stress, my lady…" he stops and thinks if it would be appropriate to ask. "May I ask if you had any idea as to what caused Lady Ciana's stress?" he figures it would be alright.
"It is not appropriate to speak about it with you, I hope you can understand" Dritan nodded and closed his eyes. Lady Leianna is stricter than I thought.
"Of course, my lady"
"You are dismissed"
.
.
.
Aina was confined to her room for another long, unbearably boring day. She had been thinking of visiting the library for a while now. She wanted to go looking for a book to confirm something that she had been speculating these days. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem like her maid will be letting her out anytime soon. Allie had been oddly protective of her ever since she had that fever a week ago.
"My lady" the door opens and Allie comes in, delivering the tray of biscuits and tea for her.
"What is it?" Aina lets out a breath as she lounges on her couch in an unladylike manner, with her feet on top of the armrest and the sides of her face on the backrest.
"Lady Leianna has invited you for tea"
"What?" Aina sits straight instantly, her eyes wide as she watches how calmly her servant places the tea utensils on the table in front of her.
"Her Lady has invited you for tea" Allie repeats, as if unaware of how shocked Aina currently is.
"Did she say why?" Aina doesn't think she would ever hear such words from her maid. Leianna has invited her for tea?
"I don't believe her lady told me why, only that you may join her during her tea time tomorrow"
Aina pursed her lips. It was the first time her so-called family invited her for tea. In fact, it was the first time someone ever invited her for tea. But why would Leianna invite her? Aina held her hands together, her gaze focused on the hot water being poured into the teapot.
"Are you going to accept, my lady?" Allie asks as she skillfully makes tea.
Well, I suppose there would be no harm in accepting, Aina thinks.
"Sure" was all she could say.
"My lady, please have some cookies" Allie pushes a small plate containing at least 5 cookies. Where she even got them from, Aina doesn't know. Now that she thinks about it, the food that had been served to her had significantly improved these past few days, especially after she had gotten sick.
I wonder if James knew what Allie is doing, Aina thought.
"Does the head butler know what you are doing?" Aina finally decided to ask.
Allie froze just as she was pouring her lady another cup of tea. She glances at Aina after a few moments and straightens herself, her head bent down. "No, my lady," she answers.
"How have you been able to get these foods?" Aina takes a cookie and bites into it, savoring the sweet taste she hadn't had for a few years now.
"I-I've been stealing them, my lady" Aina stops chewing and looks at her maid, who now turned as red as the tea she was drinking. The sight of her usually uptight maid with a flushed face amused Aina as how a child looking at something she has never seen before was amused.
Aina raises her brows in surprise. "You stole them? From the kitchen?" she clarifies, her tone dripping with mirth.
The maid nodded with a nervous smile. She didn't really know how her lady would react by what she did but she really wasn't expecting her to find a smile threatening on her face, or for her to laugh even. It was the maid's turn to look at her lady with surprise. She had never seen her lady smile or laugh for the whole year she had worked for her.
She wasn't even aware that her lady could laugh so...freely.
When she has stopped laughing, a smile remains on Aina's lips as she looks at the large window beside them before glancing back at her maid. "Thank you" she said, her voice filled with gratitude and sincerity.
Allie looks at her lady with wonder. She was thinking if this small precious moment with her lady could be carved into her mind, so she wouldn't be able to forget it. Still, she couldn't deny the sadness behind Aina's smile. The maid didn't want to admit it, but her lady was starting to grow on her. Especially now that they are becoming closer together.
"You should stop before you get caught, Allie" Aina places the teacup down on the saucer on her lap.
"But he has been disrespecting you, my lady"
Ordering for only cold soup to be served, treating the lady as if she was in a lower position than him, acting obnoxious and rudely around the lady, preventing the servants to clean her room regularly, and according to what she had heard from servants who had been working at the duchy longer than her, he had also been limiting the amount of firewood the lady could use during winter. And winter is coming soon, Allie stares at her lady worriedly.
"There is nothing to be gained by aggravating him" Aina answers.
"What about his grace, my lady? What if you tell him?"
Aina looks down on the almost finished tea on her lap. She glances back at her own reflection, growing silent after her maid's words. The Duke doesn't care about me, she almost wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to say it. Somehow, somewhere in the back of her mind, she was still hoping that she was wrong. That the Duke really cared for her and he just didn't know how to show it.
Aina wanted to be proved wrong.
She wanted it so badly.
So I can finally let go.
Allie noticed how her lady had now grown silent. Like the competent maid that she was, she chose not to probe further and instead diverted the topic to something much lighter.
"Do you have anything you want to do today, my lady?"
Aina shakes her head. "No, it is not like you would allow me to go outside anyway" she says.
"Then... would you like me to bring you books?"
Aina seems to perk up at the sound of books. Now that she thinks about it, it has been some while now since she last read or even touched a book. But at the same time, reading was too tiring.
"No, I'm going back to sleep. You can wake me up later for dinner" Aina realises how limited the things she could do in the manor is. It is not like she was able to embroider, or knit, or crochet, or any other things that noble ladies usually do to waste their time. Aina wasn't taught those things, she never had the chance to learn after what had happened.
For her, it was only between taking a walk around the manor and reading.
It was all so utterly boring.
She supposed it was a miracle that her night terrors hadn't been coming lately. Aina learns how relaxing sleep is. It's like hiding away from reality. In her sleep, there was only her and the darkness around her.
When Aina woke up again, she woke to the maid's voice. "My lady, my lady!" Allie sounded distressed and panicked. And Aina wonders what made her so frightened when she had only been asleep for a few hours.
"Why are you so loud?" Allie's voice grated her ears. She didn't know why her ears were so sensitive at the moment. But the maid's voice made her dizzy.
"Oh, thank the saints, my lady, if you hadn't woken up I would've called the Medic!"
The medic?
"For what? I've only been asleep for a few hours" Aina slowly gets up, wondering why her limbs felt like they had fallen apart and were just glued back together. Not to mention the headache she was experiencing at the moment. She looks at her maid and noticed how Allie had never looked more frightened in her whole life.
"My lady…you've been asleep for a whole day, you never woke up no matter what I did! I-I thought you wouldn't wake anymore" Allie was on the verge of tears. And Aina finally realizes why her maid looked so stressed. Allie looks like she had aged a few years from the fear of her master not waking up anymore.
"C-Calm down, I'm still breathing, okay?"
"I-If you really hadn't woken up, I would've called Dritan!"
Aina was hit with a sudden feeling of 'not being there'. She wonders how on earth she managed to sleep for a whole day while not being able to wake up. Aina tries to recall what happened in her sleep, but she could only remember the nothingness that she felt.
"Allie" she called out and the light-haired maid who looked like she hadn't slept for a week instantly looked at her.
"What about the tea with Leianna?"
Allie looks like she had just remembered about it. "T-That's today, my lady"
"What time is it?"
"It's a bit past noon, my lady" Aina struggled to find strength after being in a coma for a day. She attempted to stand up by herself only to almost fall on her bottom as she was unable to find enough strength and balance herself upright.
"My lady! Are you alright" Allie was by her side immediately, and Aina wonders how she was able to move so fast.
"I'm alright, Allie" Aina allows herself to be hoisted up by her maid, suddenly finding contact with Allie to be much more bearable than it was before. But Aina knew she mustn't be so confident. Her avoidance with physical contact had always been stronger towards men than it is to women.
"We need to get ready"
Allie looked like she was about to object, but fixed her expression immediately. And Aina applauded how professional her maid is. "Of course, my lady," Allie says.