Chapter 10: And… He Snores
Another week passed before the doctor came to examine me. I held onto my breath and my patience as the doctor seemed to take more time than I thought necessary before calling my mother in law from the living room to share the results.
“It is very early, but indeed you are with child, my dear,” he announced and my heart nearly stopped.
“Are you… are you certain?” my mother in law asked as if not wanting her hopes to be dashed for a second time. “She bled just last week.”
“Maybe a little breakthrough bleeding. It was light, right?”
“Yes,” I swallowed my nervousness. “It was very light.”
“Happens all the time,” he explained as he packed to leave. “The bleeding is a concern so stay in bed as much as possible until delivery."
“Oh, this is more than wonderful! I will write to Josaun right away.”
I nodded to Caystance, feeling as if I’d been caught in an undertow as I realized I was indeed carrying Erich’s baby. I had been for more than a week and didn’t know it. I hadn’t needed to chain him up at all.
“You cannot have my child and stay here,” Erich warned me again.
“I have nowhere else to go, Erich.”
“Come with me, to my home.”
“No.”
I couldn’t imagine running away with Erich only to be confronted by the family he had waiting at home.
He looked confused. “You would risk Josaun killing our child?”
“Of course not. I won’t marry him, but I’ll need time to plan and leave before the baby comes.”
“So why not leave with me?”
“If I leave now, there will be a search,” I reasoned. “We don’t want that.”
“If we get this silver off you will never have to worry about anyone hurting you ever again.”
The look in his eyes was fierce and earnest. I could tell he genuinely believed what he said, but it didn’t make sense to me.
After receiving word, Josaun sent a daily package of flowers and a gift, and instructed Leena to move in with me to help me around the clock. Which meant Erich stayed in the basement getting weaker around the clock. I began to believe that my mother in law was right about Josuan’s feelings for me, not just the heir.
“Keep him happy. Life is a precious thing. I hate to think the worst but just in case, let him court you.”
I shrugged, not wanting to think about it. But I couldn’t ignore her final order.
“And if he asks, you will marry him.”
When Josuan finally came to visit, I insisted on being allowed out of bed to have a proper breakfast with him. He thought about it for a moment and then agreed to ten minutes. I requested Leena to make a breakfast for two. Even though she’d just fed me half an hour before she nodded her understanding and went to make more.
When she left, I eyed the key around his neck wondering why he still wore it if he thought Erich dead.
“That is a beautiful key,” I said when he noticed me looking at it. “What does it unlock?”
“Many, many secrets, my dear,” he commented before patting his chest softly.
“I imagine so,” I smiled at him. “I want to thank you for being so kind to me.”
“It is the least I can do for the woman carrying my brother’s grandchild.”
“Yes, I figured that was all,” I said, forcing a little disappointment in my voice. “I never expected to be a widow so young and now alone with a baby.”
I covered my eyes to wipe at invisible tears.
He leaned in to give me a hug.
I wrapped my arms around him and got a better look at the clasp of his chain.
“Please never think of yourself as alone. We are a family and I am here to help support you and my great nephew. He pulled back after a moment and I began working on how to dislodge the key from his neck.
It was not a pretty plan and would assuredly put him off from ever wanting to marry me. But once Lenna brought in breakfast, I was committed to it.
We both relaxed amid the aroma of fresh toast and tea with eggs and bacon, biscuits and jam. With the earlier meal still sitting in my stomach, it didn’t take long for morning sickness to find me and bring it all up over the magistrate.
While Leena fussed over cleaning up the magistrate in the bathroom, I hurried to give the key to Erich, while he looked dangerously weak and gaunt. When I unlocked each of the silver bracelets around his wrists and ankles, I thought I saw a warm amber light emitting from his eyes.
Shaking it off as part of my imagination, I cautioned him to lay low until I returned. It took less than two minutes to unlock the bracelets and get the key back to the bathroom counter before it was missed.
Well almost. Before I could slip in and out unnoticed, Leena’s penetrating green eyes made contact with mine as she worked on the magistrate. Her eyes dropped to the key and my heart thundered my chest as I tried to cover by asking:
“Are you alright, magistrate? I feel just awful.”
He turned to face me with a grim expression on his face.
“I will be fine. And I think you can call me, Uncle or Josuan now.”
He laughed and I couldn’t help but smile at how easily he was taking my ‘accidental mishap’.
When he left, I turned to Leena to try and explain.
“It is none of my business,” she assured me. “I do not need to know.”
“I understand but since you already know a little, I need your help to see it through.”
“Does this involve the man in your basement?”
My mouth hung open in shock.
She shook her head. “I make more than enough food for two and yet there are rarely leftovers. The smell of your husband’s soap lingers in the air every morning before I make the coffee and bake the bread. And… he snores.”
I looked at her, not certain if I wanted to laugh or cry.
She cracked a smile, the first bit of true humor I’d seen in her, at whatever expression my face landed on.
“You owe me one,” she let me know.
“I’ll owe you a thousand if you help me get him past the guards and to safety.”
“Who is he?”
“I love him,” I answered. “And he needs to get home.”
She searched my eyes as if looking for a lie and she seemed happy with what she found.
“I can start a small fire in the kitchen. You will exit through the door. When they come to assist, he can fall through the window. Should take fifteen minutes but, you will have to redo the kitchen and I might get fired.”
“No, I will insist the fire is my fault,” I assured her.