CH 51.2

“There is no way. Please tell me in detail what happened.”

According to the story of the butler, Baroness Berne, who drank the red medicine that Emma gave her, had noticeably improved and regained stability, but she stopped taking the medicine at the pestering of the ladies who came to visit. The reason was that Emma’s identity was unclear and that the medicine she gave her was unknown. After she stopped taking the medicine, this morning, the baroness had a headache, then suddenly vomited blood and collapsed.

“How much medicine did she drink?”

“She drank about half.”

For a moment, Emma had a nudge. She rushed to the bed and touched Baroness Berne’s forehead, realizing the seriousness of her condition. Her body was boiling hot from her high fever. Her pneumonia worsened, also bringing with it further complications.

“We have to lower the fever first,” she said. “Order alcohol from an apothecary. And do you have any alcohol of high percentage in your house right now?”

“Yes, it’s in the basement storage.”

“Bring it. A basin with alcohol and clean towels.” The servants moved in perfect order under Emma’s direction. She instructed the maids to constantly wipe the whole body with a towel soaked in alcohol to lower the baroness’ body temperature.

While all the maids were hanging on to the Baroness to relieve the fever, Emma went to the basement and started dispensing a cure for pneumonia. Fortunately, she bought enough medicinal herbs, and didn’t lack the ingredients. The key was whether the elderly baroness had the strength to fight the disease until the medicine was completed.

Evelyn hiccuped beside her. “What should I do? Will grandmother be okay?” Evelyn asked Emma with a tearful face. Emma was pacing around furiously as Evelyn groaned and cried, so she firmly asked the other party to leave the basement so she could concentrate. The next day, at dawn, Emma poured the barely completed blue potion directly into the baroness’ mouth.

“It’s all right now,” she said. Although the fever had subsided, the baroness remained unconscious and was still battling the disease. Emma spoke calmly to the Berne family, who were looking only at her anxiously with tired, parched faces.

“Now we should wait for the medicine to work.”

* * *

Fortunately, Baroness Berne’s fever dropped the day after taking the blue potion, and even better, she woke up the next day. The tense atmosphere in the Berne estate, who were anxious and in fear, disappeared when they saw the baroness’s amazing improvement. After a few days, the baroness was fully energized. She firmly established herself once again as the lady of the family. The shaken barony gradually regained its former warmth and peaceful daily life.

One day, Lady Evelyn happened to say to Emma, “Don’t you happen to need an assistant?”

“An assistant?” Emma’s eyebrows raised slightly when she was asked out of the blue during afternoon tea time. Emma glanced at her side, trying to gauge further, but Baroness Berne, who sat with Evelyn, was still smiling with a benevolent face.

“…I don’t know.” Not knowing what the words meant, Emma was hesitant to answer, so Evelyn said softly again,

“Grandma’s health has improved a lot. I think this recovery is entirely thanks to you, Miss Herman.”

“Of course. Miss Herman is my lifesaver. I almost left without seeing my pretty granddaughter.” The baroness, who had escaped from the disease, spoke affectionately in the bright sunlight of the greenhouse. “So, in return, I want to give Miss Herman a trustworthy person.”

Only after hearing that did Emma understand that she wanted to give her a maid.

“Oh.” Emma pondered how to refuse the suggestion, but then recalled that somehow she had had no one, except for Irvan. Her father, her only supporter, died, and she was betrayed by her nanny and butler, whom she trusted for many years after her father left. The scar left behind by betrayal was deep, so it was hard to know who to trust in the future, but Baroness Berne’s maidservant could be more trustworthy than anyone else.

It was clearly presumptuous for commoners to hire maids, but it was not entirely without the case, as the affluent upper class often imitated the aristocrats. ‘This is an opportunity.’ Moreover, she wouldn’t be a common maid, but a high-class maid properly educated and nurtured by an aristocratic family.

Emma always knew that she needed someone she could trust for the rest of her life. It was a fact that she would later leave the County of Van Wert. After that, even Irvan won’t be able to stay with her. Living in a situation where she would be alone, she thought that it would be easier if she had a maid with her.

Moreover, her father must have left her a legacy. If she could quickly get a job in an apothecary, she could somehow feed one maid. There was also the last resort option – to send her back to the Berne’s again if her situation becomes difficult. After she made up her mind, the burden that had weighed heavily on her heart eased to some extent.

“With a very grateful heart, I will not decline. I just happened to be short-handed,” she said.

“That’s a good decision. I’m glad you didn’t disregard this old woman’s sincerity.”