Chapter 70 Their Second Meeting
No moon tonight. Good. Darkness is safer. Greta, one of the maids serving Gisella's mother, stood by the kitchen door, face pale as a sheet. She was shaking. I grabbed her collar and pulled her close.
"Choose, Greta. You keep your mouth shut about tonight, or tomorrow morning, the head of the Mercer household finds out about those family ceramics you've been selling on the black market," I whispered.
Cold. Greta nodded quickly. She didn't have a choice but to open the back door.
Thank god I remember everything from that novel; it's a weapon. Greta was just one example.
We crept out slowly. The greasy kitchen floor was freezing under my shoes. Gisella gripped my arm tightly. She was scared, but the urge to get out was stronger. At the back gate, as I instructed, the Varannes family carriage was waiting. No lights. No sound.
Throughout the ride, Gisella didn't stop asking questions. "Ilse, where are we going? Why the back way?"
I just stared out the window, hidden behind the black curtains. "Just wait. A surprise."
Meanwhile, earlier that morning, at the Holy Order Commander's office, in Julian Vance's room.
The letter landed right in the middle of a pile of boring military reports from Julian's subordinates. Julian barely recognized the envelope until he saw the sender: Gisella de Mercer. That handwriting. Neat, with a thin curl at the end of every letter.
His heart... felt like it had been punched.
He read it over and over until the paper was wrinkled in his hands. Meet me at the Varannes family cornfield. It's important. We need to talk.
Crazy idea. Who meets in a place like that in the middle of the night? It's huge, dark, and in the middle of nowhere. No protection, no lights. I'm the Commander of the Holy Order; I should be suspicious. Maybe it's a trap. A trick by someone else to screw me over.
But when he looked at that handwriting again, all his logic evaporated.
He couldn't focus on anything all day. Reports that usually take him an hour felt like an endless pile of paper. Only one thing on his mind: when's the sun going down?
Julian was happy. Why was he acting like such an idiot? The location didn't matter anymore. A cornfield, the woods, or even the middle of the street, he'd come.
"I'm coming because she asked me to," Julian muttered to himself, oblivious.
Meanwhile, the carriage stopped.
"Get out," I told Gisella.
"This is a cornfield?" Gisella asked, hesitantly. She looked around. Dark. Just the sound of crickets. "Why are we here?"
"Just follow me," I replied.
I dragged her out. The night air felt damp.
Julian must be around here somewhere. He'd see Gisella in the darkness, and I just needed to make sure they ran into each other.
The scenario I'd been building was going to run itself.
Everything was going to fall apart tonight, and I couldn't wait to see their faces when they realized what was actually happening.