Gardenia of Blooming Desire - Chapter 175: Miscarriages

Camille coughed again and again, her stomach was in so much pain that she almost fainted. She sat on the stool for a while, then she could feel something was wrong down there. She peeked, and screamed.

“How is it, doctor?”

“I’m not sure how this could happen, Duchess Camille is very healthy and there is no sign of infertility…” The palace doctor wiped his sweat with a handkerchief.

“But this is her fifth miscarriages, there must be something wrong, maybe it comes from me?” Harion asked. It was confusing, because it had been two years after their first consummation after Camille said that she wanted a child. But she got miscarriage three times already.

“All I can do is to give her medicine to strengthen her physique again, and hopefully it will strengthen her womb. Because the same medicine she had consumed didn’t have any effect on her.”

The palace doctor excused himself and left the room. Camille was still crying on the bed, her body was very weak, but she didn’t stop sobbing.

The miscarriages she had had traumatized her, she felt like a failure. And every time she saw her husband, she cried even more.

Harion also felt guilty, seeing his wife crying and despairing over and over made him somewhat afraid to face his wife. Harion only gently caressed Camille’s head and kissed her forehead. He left her alone in the room, of course, he had locked the window and got rid of any sharp objects, just in case.

Harion sat in his office, he pondered over the problem. He was raised alone by his father since his mother died after childbirth. He never knew how to deal with emotional damage. But seeing Camille only gotten worse and worse, her body also deteriorated. She refused to eat, to talk, to sleep.

This was the first time Harion saw Camille so heartbroken, she was not like her usual domineering and composed woman he always knew. It made him want to protect her even more.

‘But how? I don’t even know what’s causing this.’

Harion decided to leave his office to the garden outside. Since Camille refused to leave her room, to pass her time, she was always staring at the garden below. It was still summer, so the flowers bloomed beautifully. Harion sighed, he sat on the pavilion inside the garden with a checklist. He checked whether the flowers were well tended.

He just wanted to make sure that Camille always saw the most beautiful garden whenever she looked outside.

‘If this is the only way for me to relieve her stress…’

Harion sighed. He marked the checklist for some flowers he had ordered, then he was surprised when there was a gust of wind that blew his papers away and a man kneeled in front of him. He wore all black, with only his eyes shown. But guessing from his eyes, it looked like a young man.

Harion was shocked, because there should be many shadow guards who patrolled over the Lantern Palace. Yet, this man was able to bypass the security and kneeled in front of him.

Many shadow guards appeared and tried to reprimand him, but Harion forbade them, “Who are you?”

“My name is unimportant, I’m here to tell you something.”

He opened his palm and presented it in front of Harion. A small bottle with blue liquid inside.

Harion hesitantly took it, he opened the bottle and poured some of it on the table. The table didn’t corrode, nor it had weird smell. So, this was not a strong corrosive poison.

“What is this?” Harion asked.

“That is what your wife has been taking for two years,” the man said, “It’s on every food served to you and your wife, for a man, it will reduce your vitality and slowly reduce your fertility. But for women, it will gradually corrode her womb and make her infertile after long consumption.”

Harion’s hand trembled, he had never been this angry before. Someone dared to hurt Camille like this. He asked the masked man, “Who did this?!”

“Interrogate your main cook, he is the one who serves the food. I can only inform you that much, that’s all,” the masked man disappeared from his sight. Harion roared with anger. He rushed to the kitchen.

The masked man hid in a tree while observing the duke. He opened his mask and wore his glasses again, he was around fifteen years old, “My old master, Milady Celine, this is the only way for me to help your children. I can’t feel the warmth of yours in Lady Camille, but I will devote myself for her son. Just like what I promise you, I will protect your descendants.”

***

Harion slammed the kitchen door, “GET OUT!” he roared. The staff were so scared, they rushed to leave the kitchen. The main cook was about to escape too before Harion grabbed his collar, “I need some explanation from you.”

Shadow guards appeared in front of the cook and reprimanded him. They brought him to Duke Harion’s office. He was tied up and scared, he lowered his head, dared not to look at his master in his eye.

“Do you know what kind of poison is this?” Duke Harion put the bottle with blue liquid on the table.

The cook jolted, but he shook his head quickly, “T—This servant doesn’t know…”

“Then, under the name of Duchy Stormhill, I order you to pledge your loyalty. If you are my true servant, tell me who is your master and drink this poison.”

The cook was so scared that he pissed himself. He knew that poison, of course. In fact, he was familiar with it. It was what he gave to the Duke and Duchess’ daily food, he sprinkled some so in a long run, it would make them both unable to get an heir.

But he didn’t want to drink it either, because he knew if that one was consumed in high doses, it would corrode your stomach and give you excruciating pain.

The cook stayed silent and lowered his head even more.

“Fine then, if you don’t want to admit it, the shadow guards will help you admit your treachery, you ungrateful bastard!”

The cook struggled and tried to escape immediately, but he was reprimanded again by the shadow guards and was brought into the dungeon below the Lantern Palace for interrogation.

Duke Harion was waiting for hours until one shadow guard returned with the result of the interrogation, “Reporting, Milord, the cook is actually a guard medal subordinate of Empress Eva. She is the one who supplied the poison to the cook every week. His task is to… make Duke and Duchess of Stormhill unable to conceive a child.”

Duke Harion slammed the table. He was so furious, and at the same time, he felt guilty for his wife. He was unable to oversee everything around her when she was pregnant, but, for Empress Eva to be able to get this poison every week, then there must be someone behind Empress Eva.

“Where does Empress Eva get this poison every week?”

“… Crown Prince Ludwig helped her, he is the one who supplied the poison. They colluded with each other.”

‘My god.’

Harion ran to Camille’s room and opened the door. Camille was sitting while knitting another baby sweater for her baby. She already knitted so many kinds of knitwear for her baby, but the baby never came.

She saw Harion enter the room with an aghast expression on his face. He approached her and hugged Camille tightly, “Camille, I’m sorry, this is all my fault.”

Camille frowned, if this was about her miscarriages. She knew that it was her fault, but there was nothing that she could do. In fact, she was the one who felt guilty, “What is it, Harion?”

“Empress Eva, she… she infiltrated the duchy and used the cook to poison our daily food. She poisoned us to make us infertile…”

Camille trembled instantly, her hand was gripping the armrest of the chair, “H—How? How could she, how did she get poison?! I already ordered my people to watch over her every day in Golden Palace!”

“Because… your brother colluded with her. He is the one who supplied the poison,” Harion replied in low voice.

Like a thunder in clear sky, she was struck until she couldn’t even talk like a normal person.

‘I’ve been dreaming to have my own baby for years, and they… they colluded just to make me lose my children? They… they killed my children! THEY KILLED MY CHILDREN!’

Camille roared like a madwoman. Harion hugged her tightly, afraid that she would do dangerous things. She clawed Harion’s back until his shirt was torn and her nails scratched Harion’s back many times.

Harion didn’t leave Camille’s side for the whole night, she was screaming and crying frantically until the next morning.

The next morning, Camille was still sobbing in Harion’s embrace. She kept saying the same thing, “Harion, all I want is a children from my own flesh and blood. Is that too much to ask?”

“No, it’s not too much,” Harion replied.

Camille’s eyes were puffy because she cried for the whole night. She kissed her husband and whispered, “Harion, I’m sorry that you are marrying me. My life has never been the ideal life of a proper lady. If—If you are going to divorce me and remarry, give me time to cope. Then I will tell them that I’m infertile.”

Harion tightened his hug on Camille, “I told you, you are the only one for me. I will never divorce you and I will never remarry.”

“Until death do us apart?”

“Until death do us apart.”

“Harion, I’ve been limiting myself for hurting them because I don’t want to set a bad example for my children. But this is inevitable.”

Harion understood what she meant, he nodded, “I will support you for whatever you are going to do with them.”

“I will skin them alive, I will make them beg for their life.” Camille said with a gentle, low voice that it creeped Harion slightly.

“Yes. Camille.”