Chapter 5

Arissa woke up with blurry vision. She blinked, yet everything remained clouded by a thin veil of red, as though she were looking through a gauzy curtain.

Helen rushed to the bedside and cried so hard she could barely breathe. "Miss, you're finally awake. The imperial physician said... just one more inch, and your eyes would..."

She did not finish, yet Arissa understood. She had almost gone blind.

Arissa slowly raised her hand. Her fingertips touched the gauze wrapped around her eyes. She suddenly smiled. "Helen, stop crying."

"Miss, does it hurt?" Helen's tears fell onto her hand. "If it hurts, just cry it out. Don't hold it in."

Arissa looked at the phoenix pattern embroidered on the canopy and remembered the scene before her coma.

Louis had swung his sword to cut the strings of the harp. Wooden splinters flew into her eyes, yet he carried Nicola and left without hesitation.

Her heart hurt, yet she could no longer shed tears.

She muttered, "Crying is only worthwhile if someone cares."

No one cared about her, so she would not cry.

Helen cried even harder and almost fainted.

The door pushed open, and Louis strode in.

Helen could not hold back any longer. She fell to her knees in front of him. "Your Highness, please show mercy to Miss for once."

"To accompany you in exile back then, she endured 99 lashes from the Prime Minister and his wife. Every lash drew blood. The Prime Minister still refuses to forgive her and vows never to see her again. Miss has nothing left but you."

Louis froze. He looked at Arissa lying quietly on the bed. Her eyes were hidden behind gauze, unknown if they were open or closed, and her lips were whiter than paper.

He suddenly remembered that rainy night during his exile. She had a high fever, yet she wrapped her last dry garment around him.

He had asked her why she had come, and she replied with a smile, "Because Your Highness is here."

He never knew she had endured 99 lashes before accompanying him in exile.

Louis' heart trembled. He cupped her cold hand in his. "Arissa, I never imagined the harp strings would hurt you."

His voice tightened. "I was only thinking about the child in her womb..."

He realized his slip of the tongue and quickly corrected himself. "I mean, the child could be useful."

Arissa quietly watched the panic in his eyes and thought, "How ridiculous. He cannot even make up a coherent lie."

"This will never happen again," he promised as he stroked her face. "I'm on leave these next few days, and I'll spend all my time with you."

In the days that followed, Louis seemed determined to make up for everything he owed her.

The Imperial Household Department sent ten bushels of diamonds. He carefully selected the brightest ones, inlaying them into a lamp and placing it by her bedside. "This way, it will not be dark at night."

She disliked the bitterness of her medicine, so he had the pills wrapped in candied fruit and fed them to her like a child. "It's the last one. Good girl."

Nicola's maid came to summon him three times, yet he refused to see Nicola even once. He even brought his documents to Arissa's bedchamber to review.

Arissa's heart was like a barren snowfield, devoid of warmth.

She silently embroidered her wedding dress. Each stitch seemed to sew all her pain into the fabric.

Louis embraced her from behind, kissed her earlobe, and asked with a chuckle, "You're always embroidering the wedding dress. Are you so eager to marry me?"

Arissa's fingers paused slightly. She whispered, "I am eager."

She commented silently, "But not to marry you."

The day this wedding dress was finished would be the day she left him forever.

During dinner, Louis was clearly distracted.

Nicola's maid came again and sobbed outside Arissa's bedchamber.

Arissa put down her cutlery. "Your Highness, go."

"No." Louis placed a piece of shrimp in her bowl. "I neglected you last time. I only want revenge on her. And I want the child in her womb. Under normal circumstances, I'll stay by your side."

Arissa looked down at the shrimp on her plate.

He said he would stay by her side, yet he did not remember that eating shrimp would cause her to break out in rashes.