CHAPTER 69 - EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY"YOUR GRAAAAAAAACE!"
With tears in his eyes, the Chief Lycan Physician of the Almandine Castle, Boris, ran towards the Old Duke's room with a wooden box in his hand.
"YOUR GRAAAAACE!" the old man burst through the door of the Old Duke's study with great enthusiasm.
As soon as he saw the people in the room, he shouted at them too. "YOUNG LOOOORD! MADAM! YOUR GRAAACE!"
Heath, Miriam, Harriet and Liam were in that room with the Old Duke as well. They were discussing Heinrich's change in attitude and everything they had known up to now. But suddenly, the old physician Boris appeared.
"What is it? Is there a problem?" The Old Duke stood up, and his wary demeanour made the physician burst into sobs, happily.
"Your Grace, Young Lord, Madam, Young Lord Goldlane, and Young Madam Goldlane…" he sobbed as he spoke, and the old man put his wooden box on the table. His voice was hoarse when he spoke, "Please look at this.…"
The old man took out the small glass jars in front of them from the wooden box. First, he showed me a pair of glass jars.
"These are wheat and barley seeds soaked in a small amount of my urine," he explained. The seeds in it did not grow.
He then took out another pair of glass jars.
"These are wheat and barley seeds soaked in a little bit of my wife's urine, and she's not pregnant," the old man explained. The seeds in it didn't grow either.
Then, he showed me the last pair of glass jars. This time, in the jars, the wheat and barley seeds grew into tiny sprouts.
"Everyone, this is wheat and barley seeds soaked in a bit of madam's urine," said the man.
"Madam Harriet is pregnant."
Silence.
Liam immediately stood up and grabbed the two jars, the seeds of which grew and gave rise to roots. He had just read the records and studies studying the wheat and barley test for pregnancy, and indeed it was said that the test had almost 70-85% accuracy in detecting pregnancy. After giving them a lot of attention, Liam looked straight at the physician.
"Do you have any other test results?" Liam asked.
The old physician opened the box wider and showed dozens of other small jars. Some grew and most didn't. He explained that all the test jars that grew were soaked with the urine of Harriet or another woman who was also pregnant.
"My daughter-in-law is 6 months pregnant, so I used her urine for the test as well. Please look, the wheat seeds that were soaked in my daughter-in-law's urine grow! They said that it means she will give birth to a girl!" the old physician explained then.
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong? How can both wheat and barley in my wife's test jar grow?" Liam asked.
The old physician nodded quickly. "I don't know what that means either. But doesn't this mean that Madam is really pregnant, Y-Y-Young Lord?"
Liam once again furrowed his brows deeply and gripped the old man's shoulder with one hand.
"Young man, are you sure you did the test correctly?" Liam asked.
The old physician trembled at Liam's sharp expression. He nodded again quickly. "Young Lord… I've been very careful," he replied.
The old man could feel Liam's grip on his shoulder loosening, then he looked up at Liam's face.
Liam's gaze was blank, and then the man suddenly coughed.
"Milord!" Harriet was awakened from her shock and went over to Liam to support him.
Then, the old physician looked into the room. The Old Duke leaned back on his sofa like a man who had lost his soul floating into the space. Heath and Miriam opened their mouths wide with shocked faces. Meanwhile, Liam started vomiting blood again.
Lastly, the physician looked at Harriet, who was laughing helplessly, watching the reactions of everyone in the room with him.
"Umm, actually, I've known that I was pregnant since yesterday afternoon," said Harriet quietly.
Everyone returned to their senses and turned to Harriet.
Harriet smiled gently. "Yesterday, Milord, when you forced me to sleep again in the morning, I was nauseous after waking up during the day, and I couldn't even eat anything until dinner."
Everyone blinked and gasped again.
"Madam, why didn't you tell me?" Liam couldn't understand how he could have missed that.
"That's because I don't want to talk about it..." Harriet was a little embarrassed she suddenly started having morning sickness. Her first instinct was not to tell anyone so as not to worry the people around her.
"I'm sorry," the woman said with an awkward smile.
Liam pulled his wife into his arms and saw that Heath slowly drew his longsword from its scabbard. "Unforgivable…"
Miriam shouted cheerfully.
"Kyaaaaa! Am I going to be an aunt? I'm going to have a cute nephew?!" she said frantically, trying to distract Heath, who had almost finished drawing his sword.
Heath's eyes went blank as soon as he heard the word 'nephew''.
"Heath! You're going to be an uncle! An uncle!" Miriam reminded him.
"An uncle…" Heath began to feel his soul floating into space, imagining his new life as an uncle.
The Old Duke himself had not yet returned to this world, and he was still imagining his new life as a great-grandfather.
At the same time, Harriet realized Liam was holding her more tightly than usual. The man's face was buried in the crook of her neck. He didn't make a sound at all, but Harriet could feel the warmth and wetness of her dress at her shoulders. At that very moment, Harriet felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
She started to hug Liam back just as tightly. Harriet's eyes slowly heated up, and tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
Liam noticed Harriet's body was starting to shake and gently stroked her back.
Both of them felt the same way.
Pain.
Spread like black ink from the corner of their chest.
"It's all right, Milord. Everything will be okay," whispered Harriet softly in a trembling voice in Liam's ear, even though both Harriet and Liam knew she was the most frightened in the room.
***
Ezekiel saw the carriage door open, and slowly, a beautiful young woman walked down from there.
Cecilia Morganite, the woman with brown hair and pink irises, looked up at Ezekiel and plunged herself into the man's arms.
"Zeke!" she called cheerfully.
"Ceci," Ezekiel tightly hugged his beloved woman, his lover and soulmate, Cecilia, who had come only to visit him all the way from the Capital.
"Are you okay? I heard there was a big commotion two days ago?" Cecilia asked with a pretty face that was so worried. Her big, round eyes sparkled, staring at Ezekiel lovingly.
"I'm fine," replied Ezekiel.
"Are you really sure?" Cecilia confirmed once more, and Ezekiel just nodded with a soft and warm smile.
Ezekiel then brought Cecilia into the hotel while making small talk. The two of them seemed like a perfect couple. Cecilia's cheerful and caring aura, as well as her chiming voice as sweet as a canary, caught the attention of hotel residents and staff.
Everyone was fascinated by Cecilia's figure, and it made Ezekiel furrow his brows in annoyance. The man hid Cecilia behind his body, and immediately entered their room.
Ezekiel finally calmed down, and after they sat on the sofa in the hotel room, he asked his girlfriend. "What's with all of a sudden following me here, Ceci?"
Cecilia turned her gaze in another direction and smiled gently.
"I just missed you… and I have a really bad feeling. Thank goodness I went to you and saw you're okay," Cecilia replied then.
The woman thought the 'bad feeling' was a strong enough excuse, when in fact, even if nothing bad happened, she could act spoiled, and Ezekiel would let her come.
After all, Ezekiel never scolded her for interfering with his imperial responsibilities. Actually, she was here for another reason, and 'worrying about Ezekiel because of a bad feeling' was just a fake reason.
Liam Almandine.
He was the real reason for her coming here.