~Chapter 23~
Dane shouted.
“Call Ain!”
Camilla spoke gently to the Grand Duchess.
“You need to control your breathing. Slowly— And Young Duke! Please give your hand to the Grand Duchess.”
She placed the Grand Duchess’s hand on top of Dane’s hand and guided them to breathe together.
“Breathe in, stop for a moment, then breathe out. That’s it. One more time.”
But the Grand Duchess’s chest was still moving up and down fast. Her eyes shook, and her lips were pale.
“Oh, no! Grand Duchess!”
Just then, Ain rushed in. But all he could do was help with the breathing—he couldn’t do anything else.
“Mother, please wake up!”
Even the Young Duke lost his calm and looked helpless.
‘This isn’t working.’
The Grand Duchess was pregnant. If this continued, something bad could happen to both her and the baby.
‘Breathing into a paper bag is dangerous, because it can make you run out of oxygen.’
So what should she do…?
Suddenly, like a flash, Camilla remembered the medicine she had with her.
It was the anesthetic the baron gave her just before she came to this house.
But it wouldn’t help the Grand Duchess as it was.
‘But what if I only use some of the ingredients, and add something safe to balance it out?’
Thinking quickly, Camilla said,
“Dane, keep helping your mother breathe! And, Dr. Ain!”
Ain hesitated for a moment, surprised by the strong voice from such a young girl.
“Do you have valerian root with you?”
“Valerian root?”
Valerian root was good for calming people. Ain didn’t have a proper sedative, so valerian root could work.
“In the innermost pocket of my bag… Young lady, what are you doing?”
Camilla grabbed his bag, took out a tray, a dropper, and the valerian root. She also took out the anesthetic from her clothes and put one drop on the tray.
‘I have to make the ingredients safe.’
“Ain, shouldn’t you be helping the Grand Duchess instead of watching me?”
Ain was flustered, but Dane stopped him. While they were distracted, Camilla kept working.
‘Please.’
It was a gamble if it would work.
But when she mixed the crushed valerian root with the medicine she took from the anesthetic, the reaction she wanted happened.
‘It worked!’
Camilla carefully poured the medicine into a bottle. She wiped the sweat from her face and gave it to Ain.
“This is a breathing stabilizer. Please give it to the Grand Duchess!”
Ain said in shock,
“But the Grand Duchess is pregnant! I can’t give her a medicine like this…”
Camilla knew she hadn’t earned their trust yet, but there was no time.
“I promise on my honor with the Young Duke. This is a proper stabilizer.”
“Maybe so, but… what if something happens to the baby?!”
Suddenly, anger she didn’t know she had filled Camilla, and she shouted,
“The one who’s in danger right now is the Grand Duchess!”
Ain hesitated, surprised by her force.
“Stop.”
“Are you alright, Mother?”
“…I’m alright. My breathing is back to normal.”
The Grand Duchess’s breathing returned to normal and she called for a maid.
“Marie, please bring some herbal tea. And a glass of water, too.”
“I’m so glad, Teacher!”
As a great doctor, the Grand Duchess was able to deal with her hyperventilation well.
After she drank the calming herbal tea, she took a deep breath and whispered,
“I lost my calm and showed a weak side of myself just now.”
Dane bit his lip and asked,
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Dane?”
“That wasn’t weakness. Then, is me being sick also weakness?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“It was just dangerous. You were just a patient. Please don’t say things like that.”
The Grand Duchess was surprised. Her son, who always looked cold and distant, now looked at her with tears in his eyes.
“You… No, Dane, you don’t even like me.”
Dane, who had been sitting across from her, suddenly stood up.
“Is there a son who likes seeing his mother sick?!”
The Grand Duchess had always looked sad and made Dane feel trapped. But he never hated her.
He just felt frustrated. He felt guilty watching her hopes for his recovery slowly turn into despair.
He didn’t say he didn’t hate her, but his true feelings showed, and the Grand Duchess was shocked.
Usually, he would have left the room after saying something like that. But this time, he didn’t.
“Dane, calm down.”
Maybe it was because of the girl in front of him, who called his name and held his hand so tightly.
The Grand Duchess thought back to what had just happened.
She knew as a great doctor that she could have died just now.
And Camilla’s emergency care was amazing.
‘If that girl hadn’t been here…’
The Grand Duchess touched her belly without thinking. Her second child, whose gender she didn’t even know yet.
‘I had almost given up.’
When Dane didn’t get better, sadness started to eat away at her mind and body.
When she became pregnant, a strange thought struck her like lightning.
She was convinced she would die giving birth—even though there was no reason.
So she didn’t want Dane to see her dying. She started to avoid him, and the mother and son slowly grew apart. She started to cling more tightly to Dane.
But maybe she had been wrong all along.
The girl she tried to keep away from Dane had just saved her.
Maybe she was wrong about herself, Dane, death, and even that girl.
The Grand Duchess reached out her hand to Camilla. This was not just to thank her for first aid.
“Little lady, show me the medicine you just made.”
“Te-Teacher?!”
Ain was surprised, but Camilla politely gave her the bottle. The clear liquid shimmered inside.
The Grand Duchess took it and gently shook it.
“It’s evenly mixed. There are almost no impurities. I can smell a little valerian. What else did you use?”
Camilla listed the ingredients, and the Grand Duchess wrinkled her nose.
“How did you get that from the root?”
“I lightly heated the root and used sansol sap instead of alcohol for the liquid.”
There was no proper heating tool, so she had to use the flint from Ain’s bag, but she managed.
“Sansol sap…”
The Grand Duchess spoke softly.
‘She left out alcohol to make it safer for the baby. That’s excellent.’
Even if Ain hadn’t stopped her, nothing would have happened to her. Maybe she would have calmed down even faster.
The Grand Duchess looked at Camilla.
“Usually, people use a paper bag for hyperventilation.”
Camilla replied calmly.
“But if there’s not enough oxygen, it can be even more dangerous. That’s probably why Dr. Ain didn’t try it either.”
Such a young girl, but so smart.
The Grand Duchess, who had thought Camilla was just a bother and close to death, realized Camilla tried her best to save her.
“…Little lady, did you care more about me than the baby?”
“Mother!”
The Grand Duchess remembered the argument between Camilla and Ain during the crisis.
“Te-Teacher! It’s not that I cared less about you…”
Ain tried to explain, but the Grand Duchess kept looking at Camilla.
Camilla swallowed hard.
‘Oh no, this is bad.’
In this time, depending on the baby’s status, even unborn children could be valued above their mother.
‘A baby from the Grand Duke’s family would be precious, even before birth.’
But in that moment, Camilla had only wanted to save the woman in front of her, even if it meant putting her before the baby.
She just wanted to save the person she could.
There was no excuse for this.
“Yes, I did. Please punish me if you want.”
‘Whatever… If I have to go to jail, then I’ll go.’
