Angelus Carduus

Chapter 10: A Close Slip Up

Valeria walked slowly in the hallways of the mansion, briefly looking at every servant inside the mansion as she continued walking to her destination.

Without her realising, every servant she had walked past held a solemn expression but continued to smile as they noticed her.

Once she was far away, they looked at each other before whispering to one another.

"Did you hear from Maria? She said she saw the duchess coughing out blood when she was walking in the hallways!"

"No way... the duchess always looked healthy!"

"That's what I thought too! But do you notice how pale she is? As pale as a sick person!"

"Do you think that's why the duchess always kept her distance with us?"

"Maybe-"

"Girls please." a stern voice spoke to the maids who gossiped as they worked.

"S-sorry head maid!!" they quickly bowed and went on to their jobs, not speaking anymore.

Myra who was walking behind Valeria, heard their words and noticed their glances. She frowned at them but said nothing though her worries grew more.

"Your grace, shall we visit Keith today?" Myra asked, hoping the conversation behind them wasn't being heard.

"Can it be postponed tomorrow?" Valeria asked with a light frown.

She wanted to eat some cookies right now.

"No your grace."

"...Fine. Let's go."

Valeria knocked on the door before out came Keith who looked quite frantic. She could see beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. She raised an eyebrow before questioning him,

"What's wrong with you?"

"Y-your grace! Uh...well you see..um...." Keith dug the dirt under his nails nervously.

"Who is it?" Valeria heard a low voice coming from inside Keith's office.

She tilted her head to look inside and saw Aelius sitting on the sofa, looking paler than usual. She squinted her eyes before sneezing into her sleeve.

'Cold...'

"Keith who is outside?" Aelius asked again before getting up from the sofa, walking over to the entrance.

"N-nobody my lord!-"

Keith was a beat too late as he already saw Valeria's head peeking inside. His blue eyes widened, bewildered. Did she find out he was sick by Vincent? But he didn't tell anybody he was sick.

So why was she here?

"Duke?" Valeria questioned, sticking her head deeper to see him.

He blinked before nodding, "Hello duchess."

"Why are you here?" she asked, staring at his face which looked quite tired.

He hurriedly turned his head away and said, "Not feeling well."

"I see," she turned back to Keith who seemed like he was going to explode with nervousness, "I'll come back later."

Keith nodded frantically, "Yes your grace!"

"Get well soon." she said, walking away from Keith's office.

Myra and Keith made a short eye contact before Myra left with Valeria.

Keith closed the door and was about to heave a relief sigh when Aelius spoke to him,

"Why is the duchess coming here later?" he asked with knitted brows.

Keith started sweating profusely once more before coming up with an excuse on a whim, "For her monthly checkup, my lord!"

Aelius stared at him. He could feel his heart beating loudly against his ribcage as he prayed the duke didn't ask anymore.

"Have I done mine?" Aelius asked.

"..Pardon?"

"Did I do mine?" Aelius asked again and Keith quickly nodded.

"Yes my lord! You did it two weeks ago!!"

Aelius gave a small nod and said, "Medicine."

"Right away my lord!" he sped off to his shelves that had all the medicines and rummage through.

He quietly did a small fist of victory when Aelius didn't ask anymore and left with the medications he was prescribed with.

Valeria came back to Keith's office hours later. She relaxed into the sofa and glanced over at Keith.

"Your Grace, how have you been feeling these days?" he asked as he flipped through her health reports that he had kept during these past few daily check ups.

"The same." Valeria answered boredly, her eyes lazily staring at him as he noted down her answers.

Every week she had to come back, needing to answer his questions although it was always the same. She didn't see much point in this but when she tried to reason out of it, they didn't comply with it and instead became more motivated.

She gave up after that, not wanting to force something if she couldn't. As much as she thought ordering them to stop trying, memories of her previous doctor would always come back causing her to hesitate.

"Actually doctor, her grace has been coughing up more blood recently." Myra spoke causing Valeria to have a light frown upon her face.

"Great...now he's going to become even more worried-"

"What!? How much is more!?!" Keith yelled, shaking Myra by the shoulders, cutting Valeria's words off.

"Until she needs to keep two handkerchiefs with her everyday!"

"This is worse than I thought!"

"What should we do now doctor?!"

Valeria blankly stared at them as they tried to come up with ways to reduce her bloody coughs. This continued for an hour until she was finally able to leave the office.

"Your Grace, remember to eat the medications regularly." Keith reminded as he saw her and Myra out of his office.

She nodded without another word and left the office. Myra stayed behind and hurriedly whispered into his ear before catching up to Valeria who was quite ahead already.

"All the servants are gossiping about her being sick."

Keith sighed, cleaning his workspace although it was just pushing stuff away to make some space.

"Hopefully this doesn't get heard from the public.."

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Author's note: update was supposed to be earlier but i was practicing how to write /ahem/ /ahem/ sexy stuff (╹ڡ╹ )