We're Married, After All - Chapter 69
The earlier commotion hadn’t just shortened my walk—it must have disrupted Danel’s work as well. If it were something he could do in front of me, he would’ve finished it in the bedroom. But judging by his absence, what he was handling in the study was likely something I wasn’t allowed to see.
I absentmindedly glanced down at my ankle. There were no shackles.
After several mistakes in the past, Danel had become someone who rarely let his guard down when it came to me. On days when he was too busy and a maid brought my meals, the food always came on unbreakable wooden plates. Every dish was something I could eat with my hands, requiring no utensils.
So how could such a meticulous man leave me like this? Was he testing me again… or looking for an excuse to bind me even more tightly?
But what if it really was a mistake?
Hope, crushed so many times before, stirred again in my chest.
Perhaps he thought it was fine because it would only be for a short while. The door was only one thin barrier away—if anything happened, he could check on me quickly. Or maybe he thought I would remain unconscious for a long time. After what happened earlier, I had often fallen into a deep sleep for an entire day.
And besides…
I swallowed dryly.
Even if it is a trap, I have no other choice. If not now, I might never get another chance.
My belly grew larger by the day, even as the rest of me wasted away. Danel’s seed, taking root inside me, was another chain holding me to this place. I couldn’t be sure if there would ever be a “next” opportunity.
In the familiar darkness, I located the tea table. Carefully, I picked up the sugar bowl and glanced once more toward Danel’s study. There was no sign of change. I heard no creak of a chair moving or the scratch of a pen stopping.
Silently, I approached the door connecting my room to the adjacent corridor, holding my breath as I turned the doorknob. The door opened with a faint sound.
As I thought, it’s unlocked.
This was a mistake Danel would never make—but the maids left to manage me in his absence were different.
Like most ladies’ chambers, my room had a vertical laundry chute. The maids used it to send down linens instead of carrying them by hand. Since the door needed to be opened every couple of days for this, they likely hadn’t bothered to lock it.
I raised myself on tiptoes and moved quickly. I had rehearsed this escape in my mind thousands—no, tens of thousands—of times. Every next step, every destination, was already planned. Even as I cradled the sugar bowl and leaped into the chute, I didn’t hesitate for a second.
Thud.
After falling through the darkness, I landed on a pile of laundry. The laundry room was empty.
Just as the maid had told me. In warmer seasons, washing could be done at night, but in the cold, wet clothes would freeze if left out, so laundry was usually done during the day.
She even demanded a raise during summer because hiding my laundry was harder then…
I thought of the maid who had helped me. She was greedy but not very smart. Fearing that involving others might reduce her rewards, she had kept my secret to herself.
In the end, she’d been the right choice. It was from her that I learned the layout of the laundry system—how all laundry gathered in one place.
I pulled out a dried, plant-stained overdress from the pile of laundry and draped it hastily over myself. Stepping out through the back door of the laundry room, I was hit by a biting wind. Being so close to the forest, the night air felt particularly cold.
The laundry room, needing the most water, was located closest to the stream. It was a good place to leave the building unnoticed, though it meant I’d have to circle the estate’s outer perimeter to reach the barracks.
I crouched low and headed toward the barracks. The estate was still quiet. It seemed Danel hadn’t yet returned to the bedroom.
I managed to slip into the forest where the horses were tied, but a problem soon arose. Still on edge from the earlier commotion, the horses began stomping nervously the moment they heard my footsteps.
“Shh…”
Trying to calm them, I opened the sugar bowl I had been clutching. The soft clinking of sugar cubes caught the nearest horse’s attention. It stopped stomping and looked toward me.
Good.
I quickened my pace toward the horse. Crunch, crunch. My bare feet rustled against fallen branches and leaves, making more noise than I liked. I worried someone might hear, but there was no other way. In this darkness, throwing sugar cubes from afar might startle the horses even more.
At last, I reached the horse tied at the very edge. I offered it a couple of sugar cubes, and it neighed softly, flicking its tail in satisfaction. The other horses, seeing this, quietly accepted the cubes I tossed to them.
As I untied the rope from the tree, I glanced toward the barracks. Fortunately, there was no sign of movement. The horse I’d freed didn’t seem wary of me either.
Gripping the horse’s reins, I slowly led it deeper into the forest. I planned to follow the path leading to the hunting grounds and escape the estate from there.
