“Please, don’t tell Father or my older brother anything about this.”
Éloide clasped both hands over her chest. She bowed her head deeply, putting on the most pitiful pleading gesture she could manage at the moment.
‘It has to work this time, too.’ She summoned the power of her pretty face to seek protection from her father’s punishment.
The two men in knightly uniforms bearing the Bellmont family crest exchanged glances.
Doubt was plain on the faces of her older brother’s personal guards.
“We wouldn’t dare, Lady,” one of them said, turning his face away and deliberately avoiding her eyes.
Éloide racked her brain for another idea. “Five gold coins?”
“I’m sorry, Lady. That won’t make up for the lives we’ll lose at the hands of Duke,” the other man replied firmly, though his eyes did flick toward the coins she had mentioned.
‘What am I supposed to do? How can I get them to become my allies?’ she fretted inwardly.
Éloide bit the tip of her finger, her eyes darting around restlessly.
She knew very well that Bellmont’s guards were extremely difficult to bribe. It wasn’t just because of her; their loyalty to the Duke Bellmont family was well known.
Above all, their loyalty to her father was absolute—an unshakable price that could never be negotiated.
That could be rather inconvenient for Éloide in certain situations.
Realizing she had been thinking for too long, the girl’s gaze shifted to the pouch of herbs cradled in her arms.
The pouch had just been searched and neatly returned by the imperial forces. Éloide clenched her dress.
Would the reason she had suddenly been kidnapped and abandoned here be acceptable to her father?
“Just this once. I promise I won’t go outside again after this,” she urged, gazing at them pitifully. Fake tears began pooling in the corners of her eyes. “I know you’ve watched over me since I was little. If Father scolds me again, I’ll fall ill again. I only wanted to go out and play for a little while,” she lied.
A sudden silence fell between them.
“Duke will be furious if he finds out about this,” Sophia, her personal servant, whispered from behind Éloide.
Her voice was so soft it was nearly drowned out by the wind.
“I know,” Éloide squeaked, still maintaining a weak and fragile expression before the guards.
One of the armed men let out a heavy sigh, unable to bear seeing tears pooling in his young mistress’s eyes.
“All right, Lady. Please don’t make yourself even weaker by crying.”
Relief immediately flooded Éloide’s face. A faint smile nearly spread across her lips.
However, before Éloide could thank him, the man continued. “We won’t say anything first. But we still can’t stop the information from reaching Duke’s ears if it comes from the imperial side.”
The delighted expression on Éloide’s face instantly froze. She stood there, stunned.
He was right. Sooner or later, this news was bound to reach the Bellmont residence.
Her father and brother wouldn’t sit by quietly. In the worst-case scenario, her parents might lock Éloide in her room again indefinitely.
“As for that, I’ll handle it myself. You just keep your mouths shut,” Éloide replied quickly, refusing to think about it any longer.
Without wasting a moment, she grabbed her servant’s wrist. “Sophia, come on. We need to leave this place quickly before anyone sees us.”
“Yes, miss!” Sophia replied promptly as she tidied up the rest of their belongings.
The sound of their hurried footsteps echoed as the two of them left the area.
After Éloide and her servant had gone, the two men from Bellmont’s guards could only lean their bodies against the street wall.
They sighed deeply again and again, pressing the backs of their necks and massaging the bridges of their noses, which had grown tense.
“Why do we always go soft whenever we see Lady Éloide cry?” one of them asked, rolling his eyes at his own stupidity. “It’s so embarrassing.”
“I have no idea. I’m confused about myself, too,” his companion replied in frustration, roughly raking a hand through his hair.