As soon as she unfolded the letter, she realized what the medicine Fendrick had taken truly was.

Her hand trembled around the page. It was unmistakably a contraceptive.

‘…So you’ve been playing with me all this time.’

A rush of emotions — betrayal, disappointment, and a feeling she couldn’t define — surged through her.

On the first night he touched her, he didn’t finish inside her.

Instead, he had merely positioned himself above her and rubbed himself between her thighs, exploiting her body while keeping himself separate.

It was only after Dr Weber had visited several times that Fendrick took her fully.

He must have been using contraception from the beginning. He had never intended to get her pregnant. He knew exactly why she had come here.

‘Right… Maybe he only meant to use me until the moment he married. Once Lady Loretta became his wife, he could hardly keep taking his wife’s maid to bed in front of her, could he?’

Rationally, it all made sense.

However—

‘Even last night, he made me say with my own mouth that I wanted him to get me pregnant.’

Katarina’s vision went white with rage. She realized then that when anger reached a certain point, she couldn’t even cry, her sight simply blurred.

At the very least, today, she did not want to be held by him.

‘If Mr. Weber brings the new medicine today, he’ll be thrilled and try to do it again. Should I hide it and not give it to him? That would buy me at least a few days.’

Then she remembered that there was one last pill in the bottle in the bedroom. Fendrick would remember that there was only one left.

Without fail, the moment he returned from Herrenhaus, he would send Hans out of the room and go to her. Just as he had done every day lately.

The thought of begging him to impregnate her now that she knew he had been taking contraceptives the entire time made her feel as if her blood were boiling backwards.

‘I can’t. I won’t!’

If she stayed here, she would become nothing more than a plaything.

She had no time to think deeply, no room to hesitate. There was no way she could wait for the next day she was allowed to go outside.

‘Just leave now. Leave and never come back.’

She felt ridiculous for having delayed until now.

Despite everything, she had fallen for Fendrick.

She had liked him. She liked his occasional smiles, and she liked the way he had recently started treating her like a lover. His short lifespan had also made her pity him.

Perhaps that was why she had wanted to stay. But the moment she read Weber’s letter, those feelings vanished.

The poison that Loretta had supposedly given her was most likely fake. She didn’t need to get pregnant. She didn’t need to return to Loretta.

Although she had lost her virginity to the Marquis of Lorhast and had to endure his advances throughout her stay, she was now free.

She didn’t want to think of anything except escaping this place.

Katarina walked quickly back to her room. Only then did she realize she was still holding Weber’s letter and the bottle of pills—but it no longer mattered. She could simply leave them here and go.

“This stupid medicine, he can take it the next time he sleeps with some other woman. Ah, maybe he’ll actually want to get her pregnant.”

Saying it out loud made her even angrier.

She threw the bottle and the letter onto the bed. She packed her belongings into the bag she had brought with her when she first arrived at the estate.

She hadn’t owned much to begin with, so it took her hardly any time at all.

Katarina looked at the dress hanging in the wardrobe for a moment, the very one Loretta had made her wear when she sent her here.

She could have stuffed it into her small bag if she had wanted to, but she didn’t.

She closed the bag as it was.

Only one thing had increased since she arrived: the amount of money she had saved.

She was leaving earlier than planned, but the base pay had been generous, leaving her purse comfortably full.

That alone steadied her heart.

‘Yes. I’ll build my future with the money I earned. With my own hands.’

She changed into the plain clothes she had worn when she left the convent and pulled a wide-brimmed hat low over her face.

Glancing at the clock, she saw that she had four or five hours before Fendrick was due back.

That would be enough time to take a carriage and travel quite far.

She remembered the housekeeper telling her to come and find her before resigning and saying that she would give her the severance pay she was entitled to.

However, Katarina had decided to forgo that money.

She didn’t want to prolong the process with a meeting, nor did she want to leave the estate surrounded by gossip.

Having spent so much time avoiding the other servants and staying out of sight, she knew exactly which routes would take her off the estate without being seen.

Carrying her bag, she said goodbye to the tiny maid’s room.

***

Fendrick returned to the estate after dinner, brushing aside the friends who wanted him to stay longer and talk.

But the small figure who should have been standing beside Hans to greet him was nowhere to be seen.

As Fendrick handed his coat to Hans, he asked.

“Where is Katarina?”

“I’m not sure. Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen her at all this evening. Lately she’s been taking her meals and sneaking off to the library to eat alone. Maybe she fell asleep there while reading?”

Hans spoke casually, but Fendrick frowned at the thought of Katarina hiding away to eat alone. Naturally, it would be because of him.

“I didn’t realize.”

“Well, she hasn’t looked like she’s been getting much sleep lately either.”

Hans added, watching Fendrick’s expression carefully. As if to say, Isn’t it because you don’t let her sleep and overwork her to death?

Fendrick let out a bitter smile.

It wasn’t the kind of remark a mere servant attending his master should make, but Fendrick decided to be generous.

It was true that Katarina wasn’t getting enough sleep.

Hans quickly changed the subject.

“I’ve prepared your indoor clothes here. Would you like to change now?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

“Understood, my lord.”

After Hans left the room, Fendrick awkwardly rubbed the bridge of his nose.

‘Did I push her too hard last night?’

Then again, he had always tormented her, keeping her from falling asleep until late. When he woke in the morning, Katarina had already fled back to her own room.

There had been times when he sensed her stirring awake, reached out, and pulled her back into his arms, but Katarina had firmly refused.

The reason she hid away to eat alone and the reason for that refusal were likely one and the same.

‘I suppose I should let her sleep properly tonight.’

After sending Hans away and changing his clothes, Fendrick headed to the library.

If she had fallen asleep while reading, as Hans said she had, he planned to pick her up and take her back there.

Of course, he wanted her to sleep in his bed. But she would undoubtedly feel uncomfortable. If so, he would have to carry her to the maids’ quarters.

He wasn’t keen on the idea, but it was the only option.

Suddenly, he found himself wanting to see Katarina’s room.

Come to think of it, he had never once set foot in it.

No master took an interest in a maid’s room unless he was sleeping with her.

He let out a brief laugh.

The master in question was standing right there.

‘She won’t be a maid for much longer, though.’

Once he had secured her noble status, Markus intended to free Katarina from her duties as a maid.

However, she had initially refused his offer of the room next to his, feeling burdened.

This time, however, he would make sure that everything was prepared so thoroughly that she would have no choice but to accept.

Until then, he would act as if nothing had changed and carry on as usual.

Unfortunately, this meant that tonight he would have to take her back to her room instead of to his bed.

Fendrick stepped carefully into the library.

But there was no one inside.

‘…Is she in her room?’

Maybe she had fallen asleep there instead of in the library. Or maybe she had fallen ill and was lying in bed?

Just as he was about to hurry to the maids’ quarters, Fendrick realized that he didn’t know where Katarina’s room was.

He knew the maids’ rooms were on the fourth floor of the east wing, but he had never been inside them. Instead, he summoned the housekeeper.

“Mrs. Keller, I hear the maid who attends me hasn’t been seen all evening. Do you happen to know where she is?”

“Is that so? Shall I look for her?”

“She suddenly disappeared, so I’m wondering if something happened.”

“I will check her room.”

A short while later, the housekeeper returned with a pale face and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry, my lord. It seems the girl… has left.”

Fendrick tilted his head.

“Left?”

“She packed her clothes and her money and vanished.”

“…What?”

“She left a few things on the bed…”

What the housekeeper held out was a letter.

Fendrick’s name was written on the outside.

Recognizing the handwriting, Fendrick unfolded the letter so roughly it looked as though he might tear it apart.

It wasn’t from Katarina, it was from his physician.

Once he finished reading, Fendrick let out a low breath and shut his eyes tightly.