The marble floors were slick with the water dripping from our clothes. I ignored the mess. I ignored the protocol. I carried her straight to the second floor, my voice echoing through the vaulted ceiling. "Hema!"
Hema, our head maid, an old lady in her forties, Who had had taken care of me since my childhood and has seen me more than my own parents, came along with two other young maids.
"Yes, young maste-no, my lord ?" she corrected herself, her eyes widening as she saw the mud-caked bundle in my arms.
"Take her to my room and put her in some clean clothes." I commanded, my voice vibrating with an urgency that left no room for questions. "Get her out of those rags. Clean her. Find the softest silks in the house. Go!"
I handed Naty over to the young maids.
"Understood!" They responded, feeling the urgency in my Voice.
The young maids took her to my room.
Sometime later the doctor came and checked on Naty.
I was there in the room, Right beside her bed, throughout the checkup. I was using the Light attribute illusion magic to turn Naty's pink hair color into a dull, inconspicuous blonde, the most common hair color in the world.
Although my affinity for Light or Illusion magic is not very good, it's enough for a small spell like this.
I can't let anyone know about her survival or even her existence Until the situation was safe. and pink hair was her trade mark. That alone can give away her identity.
The Doctor finished her check up. He straightened his coat, his face a mask of professional gravity.
"How is she ?" I asked, my voice sounding hollow in the vastness of the master suite.
"...For now, she is just tired and weak. And it seems she also has a light fever. Feeding her nutritious meals, warmth, resting and basic measures for fever should be enough. But..." He hesitated
"But ?" I prompted. I might already have an idea of what he wants to say.
"Duke, this is just her condition for now. But her body is extremely ...fragile. She..."
"Is it about her terminal illness ?" I cut him off. I had no patience for the delicate phrasing of a physician. I wanted the cold, hard facts I had been living with since that sunset of graduation.
"So you already know ?" The doctor sighed, his shoulders dropping. "...yes, it's about that. With what I am seeing, she.... Only have a few years left."
The same diagnosis as her doctor huh...
"I see"
I could not say anything else. After all, I had known this fact for more than two years, and perhaps, at some point, I have already come to terms with it.
"Then, I will take my leave." The doctor said.
"Yes. Hema. Escort the doctor out."
"Yes!" Hema bowed, her eyes lingering on Natasha with a flicker of motherly pity before leading the doctor out from the room.
"Everyone else. go out as well." I commanded the others.
The young maids and the Head Butler bowed in unison and retreated. The double doors closed with a soft, final thud, leaving the room in a silence so thick it felt like a physical weight leaning on my frame.
I pulled a heavy velvet chair to the edge of the bed and sat down on it.
The room was silent. There was her, who was sleeping peacefully and me, who was looking at her in peace, A peace that i had finally found after months.
She looked so small against the silk sheets of a Grand Duke's bed. Her face was pale, the blonde illusion I had cast making her look like a stranger, yet the rhythm of her chest—slow, shallow, but there—was the only truth I needed.
For months, my mind had been a battlefield of 'what-ifs' and 'if-only's. But now, as the rain continued to drum against the windows, the noise in my head that had been keeping at bay all the time finally seems to have calmed down a little.
I watched her sleep, and for the first time in a while since my end of duty in the North, I felt a sliver of peace.
*************
A few hours later, Hema came to the chambers.
"Duke, It's time for dinner." her voice was a soft anchor in the dimly lit room.
"I... will come later." I didn't turn around. My eyes were fixed on her beautiful sleeping face
A mind in turmoil makes for a bitter meal.
Food, taken in a restless state of mind, is not good. And my mind won't be at ease until she open her eyes.
"Are you going to stay here the whole night, until she wakes up ?" She asked dropping her formal tone, her voice was neutral but still filled with worry.
"Yes, if necessary." I said, The stubbornness was a Volk trait, but the desperation was all mine.
"...I see. Theo, I do not know what kind of relation you have with this young lady or what does she mean to you and why you are so restless about her. But, don't forget to take care of yourself as well." Hema sighed, a sound of weary affection.
Normally, the head maid is not supposed to call her master, the head of the house by name.
But, given the fact that she has taken care of me since childhood, this is a Right that she has rightfully earned.
She is more of a mother to me than my own mother.
"Yes, I will. Thank you, Hema." I answered her concerns.
She left with a respectful bow, leaving me to my vigil. Eventually, the rhythmic ticking of the clock, the sweet sound of the rain and the warmth of the hearth pulled me into a heavy, dreamless sleep.
*******
The next day, in the morning,
I woke to the soft grey light of dawn filtering through the heavy velvet curtains. But My neck was stiff, and my senses were screaming a soldier's alert—someone was watching me.
"Oh.. you're awake." I heard a familiar female voice.
I blinked,, I looked at the source of the voice. She was awake.
My vision clearing to find Natasha sitting upright in the middle of my massive bed. She wasn't lying back like a patient, she was perched there, knees pulled to her chest in a completely unladylike fashion, staring at me with an intensity that, though I will not admit it, made my heart skip a beat.
"Wasn't looking at other people while sleeping supposed to be a bad manner ?" I croaked, my voice thick with sleep. perhaps It was a silly try to lighten up the mood.
"Oh? So you remember the lessons i taught you ? This young lady is proud." She said puffing her chest with mock pride.
-Boing! boing!
And something swayed and it was not the Curtains. So, I turned away my head, a heat rising to my face that had nothing to do with the fireplace
Are you an exhibitionist or what ? Don't puff your chest like that.
The sight was a jarring reminder that beneath the illness and the rags, she was still a woman grown. The last few years had changed her a lot, In several ways.