Erica

×39×

Since the knights were speaking of the beautiful young maiden staying with the physician Ron, it did not take long for word to reach the girls at the finishing academy as some were being courted by the knights.

This resulted in minor curiosity, jealousy and hatred to the girl that none of them had met yet. It was petty but there was nothing they could do even if they tried for she never came outside.

The only thing they could do was spread rumours. Nasty little rumours. Thankfully none of them had yet to reach Erica's ears as they truly were mean and blatant hurtful lies. Women can be very horrible to each other when the let jealousy get into the way. 

Erica was fortunate to find Ron walking the streets on his way back. Ron was definitely surprised to see the young girl out.

"Erica? You are outside. This is great." He warmly smiled at her. He was happy that she was venturing outside. It was a very good sign. It meant that she was beginning to heal her psychological wounds. It was a slow process to move through and yet here she was doing it all on her own. He felt proud of her and he wanted to tell her but stopped himself when he saw the worried urgent look in her eyes.

"It's the Duchess. She has had an accident." Erica's words were slightly shaky from rushing over.

Erica had been working hard on using her voice again. She is able to speak more and her words come out a lot stronger but unfortunately not being able to speak for ten years resulted in her being a quiet person. It was still a dream to her thar she could speak again but she was so used to being mute that she often forgot that she could speak. 

"Oh no. We must hurry, come quick." Ron quickly headed off in the direction to the Waisend estate. Erica hot on his heels. 

It was quite the distance to travel uphill to the main Waisend mansion so by the time the two of them reached the gates, they were completely out of breath, but there was no time to spare as they were rushed through to the Duchess of Waisend's side.

Ron instructed Erica to remain outside the room while he did his work not wanting the room to become to over crowded as already the Duke and two servants were at the Duchess's bedside. 

Erica only managed to catch a brief glimpse of the Duke as the doors shut. He was very tall and had a very mature handsome look. His sole focus had been on his injured wife who Erica was unable to see properly but she knew the Duchess was a beautiful women. 

The Waisend's were a very powerful and popular family back in the capital despite hardly ever visiting it more than ten times a year. The Duke of Waisend was especially popular amongst the ladies as he was the top bachelor of his time who many sort after. Being the brother in law to the Duke of Trencent who was brother to the Queen further boosted his status as one of the most ideal marriage partners yet no one was able to win his heart other than his beloved Duchess.

The Duchess of Waisend was not born into nobility. She was born into a wealthy merchant family in a neighbouring kingdom. She met the Duke by chance during a business deal and fell in love with him.

Unfortunately there was scandal that not many know of for at the time the young heir to the Earl of Faintree fell completely in love and became overly obsessed with her. It got so bad that he would continuously stalk her and even steal her intimate things. He once managed to steal a lock of her hair when he broke into her room one night while she slept. 

As a result of his creepily obsessive behaviour, he learnt very quickly that the girl of his dreams was in love with another. A man with a much higher status and political standing. A man that he had no chance of even competing with. 

So what could he do to get him out of the picture? Easy, ruin his reputation while at the same time gain the love of his life's sympathy.

So he tricked the Duke.