The Substitute Bride is adored by the clumsy Margrave - Chapter 3

Meanwhile, Mary, the maid, was suffering from severe motion sickness in the Margrave’s luxurious carriage. It hadn’t been long since they’d left the mansion, yet she was extremely ill when they arrived.

“Oh, Miss… I’m sorry…please forgive me for going before you…”

Clarisse giggled at the maid, who appeared to be dying and was out of breath.

“You’re exaggerating, Mary.”

She then showed Mary a small glass vial that she had hidden in her skirt pocket.

“I brought you some motion sickness medicine, just in case this would happen.”

“As expected, my lady is always prepared…”

The servants surrounded Mary after they parted. They tearfully asked her to take care of the young lady. Still, even before doing anything, she had already caused trouble…

Mary reflected on how she shouldn’t have pretended to be calm and said, “Even if it costs me my life.”

She should have died immediately to apologize and make up for this situation – but instead, she’s already dying of motion sickness!

“Yes, it doesn’t smell great, but drink it all at once.”

Clarisse, with her angelic smile, handed her a black liquid with a strong odour. The smell alone made Mary think that if she drank it, she might die anyway.

It smelled like a sweaty shirt that hasn’t been washed in three days after working outside every day in the middle of summer. It’s one of two options: does she want to keep having motion sickness ? Or, will she take this medicine? Does she have the courage to take it?

Mary took the vial with trembling hands and looked at Clarisse. She was watching her with a smile plastered on her beautiful face – making Mary fall in love with her.

‘Oh, my Lady, these clear eyes of yours…they are dazzling….’

‘Eeeeew, whatever!’

Mary slurped down the contents of the vial in one gulp.

Suddenly, violent coughing came from within the carriage, and Marius, startled, turned around.

There was a small frosted glass window between the seat outside where the coachman sat and the inside of the carriage. Still, it could only be opened from within for security reasons, so he knocked lightly on the window.

Though the intermittent coughing was still going on, the window opened a few moments later, and Clarisse’s beautiful violet eyes peeked out.

“What’s the matter, Mr. Marius?”

“No… um… there was a coughing sound…”

“I’m sorry, but Mary is coughing.”

It’s not possible to see where Mary, the maid, is sitting through the small window, but since Clarisse could talk normally, the coughing could only belong to Mary. And while Marius and Clarisse were talking, the coughing seemed to have finally subsided.

‘Hmm? What’s that…strong smell…?’

For a moment, the scent of condensed sweat drifted around him. Still, Marius decided to believe that the wind was changing direction and that he smelled the scent of the coachman. It was a cool, early autumn day, and he didn’t think that someone would sweat that much.

When the window closed, the pungent smell subsided, and Marius forgot about it for the rest of the day.

“My Lady… the motion sickness is definitely gone… but the other side effects are terrible.”

Mary opened the small window behind her; as she was seated in the back, the window faced away from the coachman. She had a hunch that if she didn’t aerate the carriage then she would definitely find herself dead. She heard coughing from the coachman of the second carriage behind them, which carried Clarisse’s belongings, after being hit by a scent bomb.

‘I’m sorry, coachman… it’ll go on for a while, get used to it… but I promise you won’t get motion sickness…’

Mary apologized in her heart.

“That medicine is very effective, but it smells… I think I’ll add some dates to it next time, just to make it more fragrant.”

“What, you’re going to add dates to that medicine? Won’t it make it smell even weirder?

“I know, but there isn’t any other material that smells so good and won’t compete with the benefits…”

Mary imagined a version of the sweat she had just smelt with a sweet smell added to it. She was confident she could vomit from that alone. They say sweetness together with sweat brings memories of sweet youth…

Clarisse’s wooden box, which she had placed on her cart.

Having been isolated at home since childhood, Clarisse’s interest was in gardening. She became friends with the gardeners. As they shared their knowledge with her, she began to study them: focusing on medicinal herbs.

She now knows so much about medicinal herbs that she can mix and create her own natural remedies. Of course, this is Clarisse’s hobby and skill that no one in her family knows about. However, all the servants working for the Farenheit family knew about it, and her knowledge had saved them many times.

Clarisse, of course, has brought with her to the Margrave mansion a guide to medicinal herbs, a medical book, and a notebook containing all the medicine she has created so far and the methods used to prepare them. It was the first thing she had packed away, for it was the only thing she was absolutely determined to bring along.

‘I hope the Margrave will be open to the idea of Lady Clarisse handling medicinal herbs… I don’t even know if he will give his wife that kind of freedom in the first place… I’ll have to be careful…’

Mary made up her mind after her motion sickness had subsided entirely.