Chapter 11 (Part 3)

One night, two nights, three nights… as the nights of calming his sorrow in his study continued.

Clang!

A sharp sound echoed beyond the open window, along the outer wall of the castle.

Though it seeped faintly through the rain, it was hard to ignore that strange sound.

Edarson leaned out the window and looked in that direction. It was the west wing where his wife’s room was located. There was no light anywhere.

It was painful to think that the warm period of their marriage would end like this, and he wondered if he was perhaps hearing things.

Listening to the steady sound of the rain, which was indistinguishable from silence, Edarson smiled bitterly.

The dark backyard, the pitch-black night sky without a single light, and the rain filling his ears all felt damp and oppressive.

Clang!

It was a slightly heavier sound. If the previous sound was glass breaking, this was definitely the sound of pottery shattering.

Once could be a hallucination, but twice was clear. Edarson hurriedly left the room.

It was the west wing he had avoided as much as possible since his wife’s coming-of-age ceremony. Every few steps, the wind and rain blew through the open windows, and the torches that lit the hallway had long been dampened and dimmed.

He climbed the stairs protruding from the castle wall at the end of the dark hallway and reached the upper floor where his wife’s room was.

Boom, crash! As he stepped into the corridor at the top of the stairs, a thunderclap fell from the long-overcast sky, accompanied by a noise like the world collapsing.

When the lightning illuminated the corridor, he saw a faint figure in the distance. It didn’t take long to recognize that the slow-moving figure was his wife.

She was wearing a thick sleeping tunic meant for the rainy season. Walking sluggishly with bare feet without slippers, her movements were slow. With her arms hanging limply below her drooping shoulders, she looked almost like a ghost.

Her bare feet were visibly red with blood even from a distance.

With a flash, her already pale hair shone even whiter in the lightning.

‘They say there are rumors of a ghost wandering around.’

The words the butler had mentioned in passing during last year’s rainy season came to mind. Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t something he would have said without knowing something.

Since when…

Gritting his teeth, he strode forward and picked up his small wife. She didn’t resist at all.

Unable to eat, her face had grown gaunt, and her watery eyes had lost focus.

Edarson headed to Ellenia’s room. It was only the second time he had entered the room in the two and a half years since she came to Tarnu.

And the scene there… the vase that had been on the cabinet, the silver candlestick that was fortunately only smoking at the wick, the picture frame that had been on the wall, the pillow that had been on the bed, all were scattered on the floor. The only thing that maintained its shape was the pillow.

“Tell me the truth.”

The next morning, the lord summoned the butler and his wife’s maids to his study early.

He had stayed by her bedside all night, fearing she might have another fit, as she had been groaning in pain. Her weak hands occasionally tore at her hair and struck her chest in self-harm.

His face, already weary from sleepless nights contemplating his forced end, was now haggard for another reason.

“What is happening to my wife?”

At his low words, Leni and Greta exchanged glances. As they stood there, hands clasped and hesitant, the butler finally stepped forward.

“It seems to be a kind of sleepwalking.”

“Since when.”

“Since last year…”

Edarson swallowed hard. His rough fingers brushed his forehead, pushing his hair back.

“It doesn’t happen during the dry season, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

The butler, recalling the day of Madam’s coming-of-age ceremony, which was still in the dry season, felt a bit sour. If he had been there, he would have known.

“Anything else?”

“Well, actually, she was unwell the year before last too!”

Leni quickly interjected. The butler and Greta, who were agonizing over whether to say it or not, looked relieved and worried at the same time.

“She couldn’t eat, and at night she seemed to see things…”

“Actually, she still does. She gets terrified when it rains, even during the day.”

Once they started talking, the words flowed like a river. The two maids explained Madam’s strange symptoms in detail. The shadow on the lord’s face deepened.

“And you kept this a secret from her?”

“Yes, we did.”

“So, you just pretended nothing happened every morning?”

The two women’s lips clamped shut like clams. Their faces were stained with guilt.

Even though the lord was a kind master to his servants, he did reprimand when necessary.

But they had done it with good intentions… After a long silence, Edarson spoke to the butler.

“Call George for me.”

While Leni and Greta took Ellenia out for a walk when it wasn’t raining, the old carpenter installed a latch outside Madam’s door. It was a temporary measure to keep her from leaving the room at night.

Seeing her fingers bandaged the next morning, Edarson realized it wasn’t a good idea either.

“What happened to your hand?”

“Oh, this…”

Ellenia slowly lowered her head and looked at her bandaged index and middle fingers. After a long silence, she raised her head with a bright smile.

“I must have bumped into something while sleeping. Greta bandaged it while I was asleep.”

That smile had a certain melancholy, like the cold sunlight of a winter sky.

Though he wanted to order Leni and Greta to guard her bedroom, their faces showed a certain fear when they cleaned up the broken and shattered things every morning.

After much thought, Edarson decided to guard his wife’s nights himself from that night on.

In their bridal chamber, that room.

“What brings you here?”

“Leni was worried about you and brought some herbal tea.”

“But why did you come, my lord…?”

“Because it’s night.”

Edarson closed the door behind him.

He dragged a stool to the head of Ellenia’s bed and handed her a cup of tea. Holding the handleless teacup with both hands, it felt warm like a stove.

Ellenia’s shoulders tensed slightly. Her lowered eyes trembled slightly, indicating that she was scared to be alone with him at night, even though he was her husband in name.

Despite the trust built over three years of marriage-like relationship, it was a bit hurtful.

She was still a very young girl, so it was understandable.

‘It was the right decision not to consummate the marriage…’

With trembling hands, Ellenia tilted the teacup and drank. It must have been hot, but the young woman drank it down without hesitation.

Edarson placed a piece of nougat from the tray near her mouth.

“Isn’t it bitter?”

“It’s not bitter. It’s tea that helps you sleep…”

Muttering in a small voice, Ellenia answered while nibbling on the small piece of nougat, making her cheek bulge.

The windows, which would have been filled with sunlight in another season, were tightly covered. Behind the heavy curtains, the sound of raindrops tapping could be heard.

Edarson showed no sign of getting up. Ellenia shifted her eyes awkwardly.

“Um, aren’t you going to sleep…?”

“I’ll leave after you fall asleep. I’m worried because you suffer at night.”

His voice was endlessly gentle. Maybe because it was so low, it seemed to resonate from the bottom of her heart. In her room, at night, his voice so close made Ellenia’s chest tingle.

Edarson lowered the pillow she had been leaning against, allowing her to lie down straight. Lying on the bed, Ellenia peeked up at his movements above her.

He adjusted the pillow comfortably, pulled the blanket up to her neck, and smoothed her pale golden hair that draped beside the pillow.

“When I was young, I couldn’t sleep well when it rained.”

Her symptoms were nothing like that, but Edarson added it in a casual voice.

Pulling the blanket up to her chin shyly, Ellenia shifted her blue eyes.

“Will you stay sitting there…?”

Her moist eyes made Edarson’s chest ache. He thought it must be sympathy for the sickly young woman who had married into a family of unbelievers at a young age and would soon have to return to her frightening family.

“Greta insisted I keep watch to make sure you sleep well.”

As he brushed her hair back, the soft yet firm sensation of her forehead clung to his fingertips.

‘Sometimes she falls asleep early, but on nights with heavy thunder and lightning, she seems to stay up late.’

The weather during the rainy season was unpredictable.

From that day on, Edarson spent every night in the bridal chamber. Even though the nights in the bridal chamber were not what they thought, the servants began to have irreverent imaginations about the lord.

Only the Madam’s maids and the butler, who knew the situation, were moved by the lord’s pure devotion.

“No matter how sick she is, isn’t he still a man? Does that mean our lord is not a man?”

“He probably didn’t learn properly because he spent his prime years on the battlefield.”

Their admiration didn’t seem to help prevent irreverent imaginations.

During that time, Ellenia slept peacefully every night. Although she sometimes sweated or talked in her sleep, she lay quietly in bed every day, unlike the ghostly figure he had encountered in the hallway.

“Did you sleep here again last night?”

And every morning, her eyes blinked with embarrassment and apology.

Sitting on the stool, arms crossed and nodding off, Edarson felt proud seeing her soft-colored face in the morning sunlight streaming through the curtains.

While guarding his sick wife’s nights, he found it a final way to dedicate himself to his only family before parting.

It also helped him forget the sleepless nights he had spent agonizing over the northern campaign…

“Um, my lord. If you’re going to keep sleeping here, why don’t you just sleep in my bed?”

When Ellenia mustered the courage to say that, some of Edarson’s pride evaporated.

What filled its place was confusion. Having decided not to consummate the marriage, he felt sorry for doing anything similar.

His green eyes glinted coldly.

‘Did I say something wrong?’

She thought her husband was kind for not consummating the marriage, but maybe he was just uninterested…

Seeing his serious face, Ellenia instinctively shrank her neck.

‘He watches over me every night and is so kind… I must have overstepped.’

But from that day on, Edarson added one more thing to his nightly routine.

After giving her herbal tea, tending to her bed, and watching her fall asleep, he would carefully lie down beside her.

Though they didn’t share the blanket, he was quite cautious. Edarson thought it was because he worried he might miss her symptoms if he slept too soundly.

It was a few days after he started sleeping in Ellenia’s bed that he witnessed her condition.