Chapter 65
Floria, who has unpleasant memories of the forest, would never have mustered such courage if it weren’t for Bella’s situation.
She let her guard down, comforted by the presence of her attendants.
Yet here they were—trapped in a rain-soaked forest with a fawn and a skittish horse.
She felt uneasy and afraid.
But fearing that her anxiety might spread to Bella and Rius, Floria forced her voice to stay bright and plastered a smile on her face as she chattered.
“It’s a good thing we got inside before the rain, isn’t it?”
Rius and Bella, however, seemed to sense Floria’s uneasy heart, and merely watched her with concerned eyes, blinking with gentle sympathy.
“It’ll be alright.”
She kept muttering those words—she couldn’t tell if they were meant for them or for herself.
Her mind drifted back to the time, years ago, when she got lost in the forest.
Trapped deep in the dark woods, she had wandered all day and never found her way home.
She cried so much. The nightmare returned in full force.
But now was different.
Back then, she was just a child; now she was a fully married Grand Duchess.
Then, she hadn’t thought her family would come searching, nor realized she was lost.
Now, surely her attendants were desperately looking for her.
How frantically they must be searching. They might be drenched by the rain.
By now, news has probably reached Aidan.
“So it’ll be fine.”
Her weary voice echoed through the cave.
“His Grace the Grand Duke will definitely come looking.”
Again, she couldn’t tell if she was speaking to Rius and Bella, or reminding herself.
She hunched over, watching the rain fall. Time passed with no sound of footsteps.
Exhausted, she slowly sank into a deep, dark sleep.
It was a distant dream.
A terrible vision recalling a time long ago.
In that nauseating hallucination, Floria wandered through a dark, damp forest.
She walked so long that her feet lost feeling. She tripped again and again, and her thin legs were wounded. On her pale calves were long, red scars.
The kitten—Fabian—was gone.
The moment Floria realized her older sisters had thoughtlessly abandoned Fabian in the forest as a prank, she had immediately run to her parents.
“Please ask the coachman or a servant who knows the forest well to find Fabian.
My sisters left him in the woods!”
Her tearful plea was met with her mother raising a teacup and sipping coolly, then continuing in a chilly tone.
“…Such a fuss over a cat? Whether it lives or dies is none of your concern.”
“…”
“A black cat has long been said to bring misfortune, hasn’t it?”
Rather than rebuke Natalie and Helia for their cruel prank, her mother welcomed it with a pleased expression.
“Forget about that Fabian or whatever his name was, and move on.”
Floria couldn’t understand her mother’s cold words.
If no one would look for him, I would do it myself.
She was still young and foolhardy, and worried for the little kitten.
She snuck away from everyone and entered the vast woods behind the royal palace.
It was her first time in that forest.
Dark and damp, she soon became lost.
“Fabian…”
Calling for the kitten, her voice lost all strength. She had gone out in broad daylight, yet the sun was already low in the sky.
Night would soon fall.
She didn’t even know how far she had gone.
“I’m tired…”
Eventually, Floria’s legs gave out, and she couldn’t take another step.
She collapsed onto a tree stump.
She thought she might die like this.
She recalled the words of her attendants about dangerous wild beasts coming down at night.
“Your Highness, it’s dangerous out here if you leave the palace.
Wild beasts live in the forest.”
I’m going to die soon—eaten by a beast.
Huddled still, Floria bit her lip to hold back tears.
She felt so wronged. She was angry.
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