The Truth Will...

Felicity walked into the room, and all air was suddenly gone from to Rhea's lungs.

The older woman was the first to break the tense silence when she finally noticed Rhea's presence, causing a frightened jump.

"My Lady!" Fhe exclaimed with a burst of laughter, one hand gently patting her chest to calm her racing heart. "I was not expecting you here."

Her eyes flickered to George's large form and the delighted smile on her lips grew tense as her brows furrowed in confusion.

"What's going on? Did something happen?" She queried as she hurried over to Rhea and began checking her over for signs of hurt.

"Are you alright?" Felicity asked, casting a suspicious glance George's way and gently rocking Rhea to snap her out of her spell.

"I... We... That is..." Suffocated by Felicity's concern for her, even after being caught in such a suspicious position, rendered Rhea scatterbrained by guilt.

Not once had she planned on Felicity walking in on her, and even as it was a Lady's right to have access to one of her household staff's rooms, she still felt invasive.

"I think the hard truth would be best, Lady Montgomery," George advised with an encouraging nod, his eyes silently promising support to the flustered woman.

Rhea inhaled deeply and sent a silent prayer to the Holy Mother before turning back to Felicity to speak.

"You know I care very deeply for you, do you not, Felicity?"

"I've never doubted it, Lady Rhea," Felicity answered, her face twitching with growing nervousness.

"And am I correct to believe you care for me too?"

Felicity's lips parted, and her hands fell away from Rhea's arms, as if she had been struck across the face.

"I-I am... I do. Of course I care for you! With every fibre of my being!" She swore with passionate reverence, her body trembling as if she were one strong gust of wind from collapsing to her knees. "Have I done something to prove otherwise?"

Rhea shuddered as her heart gave a painful twist at the emotion distress she was causing her friend but she swallowed her affections and steeled herself.

"I have discovered your deceit, Felicity. My tea has been of questionable quality for some time, and investigations have led me to uncover the secret purchases you have been making alongside my teas."

All colour drained from Felicity's round face, as if she were staring into her executioner's eyes, and her breathing ceased, threatening that pale would soon become blue.

That was the confirmation Rhea needed, and she took a step away from Felicity as a single tear rolled down her right cheek.

Quickly she wiped it away and pressed her hand to the thin bandage wrapped around her neck to ground herself with the little pain that remained.

"W-What have you done, Felicity?" She demanded, her voice trembling with pain rather than firm like she had been aiming for.

"I'm sorry, My Lady!" Felicity dropped to her knees with a loud wail and threw herself at Rhea's feet.

George was across the room in a matter of seconds, pulling Rhea away from Felicity and tucking her safely beside him.

"Confess and spare yourself my manner of questioning," the large man hissed, a dangerous glint in his eyes that chilled Rhea to the core despite not being on the receiving end of it.

It was worse for Felicity, whose crying immediately ceased, and she quickly nodded in agreement. With soft sniffles, the older woman rose on legs that trembled so she almost went tipping over.

"I want to get it," she appealed to George with a point at the radiator he had been observing earlier.

"Slowly," he instructed, moving aside for her with Rhea still in his hold.

As led, Felicity made her way to the radiator and pulled a bobby pin out of her hair. Deftly, she used the pin to dislodge a square of wood from the panel, revealing a hidden compartment on the other side.

Rhea watched with her breath caught in her throat as Felicity fetched a white cloth sack, almost as large as her head, and presented it to them.

"Turn over the contents on the ground, slowly," George instructed, his body growing tense as if he expected a weapon to be revealed.

Carefully, Felicity untied the brown strings from the bag and grabbed the bag by its bottom. Then she tipped it over, and out tumbled its contents.

Delicate brows furrowed in confusion as Rhea observed the flowers that now covered the floor. Its petals were a vibrant blue that slowly bled to green at the tips, and its stem, each holding five or so blooms of flowers, was a dull purple.

Rhea had never seen anything like the flowers presented to her and she had no idea what they were but she knew that plants with vibrant colours were more than just pretty in mother nature's cruel kingdom.

She looked to George with a question on her lips but stilled when she met the horrified look he was giving, not to the flowers but to her.

Rhea felt a shiver go through her, as if all warmth had been sucked out of the room, and she found herself unable to ask what the flowers were, for fear of what the answer would be.

"I had no choice, My Lady," Felicity spoke up, desperate to clear her name. "He threatened my family, and it was only supposed to be in the first few months until things settled down. But then those months stretched into years, and I was too deep into the plot to back out."

Rhea looked away from George to her once loyal maid. "Who is behind this? Is it enemies of the Montgomery Countship?"

Felicity shook her head and then hung it, unable to look Rhea in the eyes as she spoke the damning words. "The man behind it is your Lord-husband, My Lady."

Rhea blinked once and then twice as she struggled to to process Felicity's confession.

"Lonan asked you to do this." She said the words slowly, and it was only then Rhea's troubled mind—broken heart—accepted it as truth.

Felicity nodded, still not meeting Rhea's hurt blues.

The young Countess breathed a shaky sigh through her nose and her eyes fell on the flowers once more.

"What is it, then? This poison my husband has been feeding me?"

Felicity remained mute, still curled into herself.

Like a dragon protecting its horde the flames of Rhea's anger roared and she glared down at snivelling woman with such fierce hate it would scare the colour off a rainbow.

"What have you been killing me with, Felicity! Speak, for Goddess' sake and prove that there is still some good and truth in your wicked heart!"

She thundered, and the older maid burst into shrieking sobs, collapsing to her knees in the proof of her betrayal.

"Galenia's Purge," George's voice pierced the rageful heat that blinded Rhea, and she turned to him for an explanation.

He hesitated for only a second, as the words were too heavy to say, but he could see her growing impatient and thus continued.

"It is a banned herb in Euthoria named after a midwife from the Reeserian era. Galenia offered her services to married women some which extended past childbirth and into taboo territory for the time."

George sighed, looking to the flowers to avoid meeting her eyes as he landed the final blow to Rhea's battered heart.

"Galenia's Purge is an aggressive herbal contraceptive."