Scars

The next day, Carl ordered one of his trusted knight friends to find a dead body similar to Elizabeth's.

"But it will take me at least a month to find someone with the same features as her." Said the knight.

"Then find a woman who has black hair and fair skin but has decomposed body already."

"Alright. I'll try my best."

As soon as they finished their talk, Carl went back to his Master's room to tell him that the breakfast was ready.

"Call Ashley and tell her I'll have breakfast with her."

"Yes, My Lord."

In the breakfast room, Ashley felt uncomfortable sitting at the breakfast table. The Count and the Countess are eating while she hasn't touched her food. The Count noticed her uneasiness.

"Don't you like the food?" he asked as he looked at Ashley. Ashley got startled.

"Ahhh…No… I-I'm sorry." Ashley answered, stuttering.

"And I heard you didn't sleep in the room I gave you. Why? And why are you wearing maid's clothes? Where is your maid?" he bombarded questions to Ashley.

"I-I don't have other clothes aside from this and my nightgown. And I don't feel comfortable there." Ashley said as she looked down at her clothes.

"What?" The Count yelled and looked at the Countess, who was still eating. She didn't seem bothered about Ashley's appearance and the Count's anger. Ashley was shivering in her seat.

The Count sighed. "Don't worry. I'll call a tailor to make dresses for you." Then he saw the scars on Ashley's arms.

"And I'll call a doctor who can treat those scars." He turned to the Countess again in anger while Ashley hid her arms full of scars. "For now, just eat your meal."

She grabbed a piece of bread from the center table and munched it. The Count looked dumbfounded upon seeing it while the Countess looked at her with disgust.

"What a disgusting manner. So shameful." The Countess said while the Count just glared at her.

'This is much harder than I thought.' The Count thought to himself.

After breakfast, Ashley proceeded to the laundry, where she met Mrs. Lana.

"My lady, why are you here?" Mrs. Lana asked.

"I'm not a lady of this house, Mrs. Lana." Ashley denied it firmly. "I don't know what the Count wants, but I won't fall for it."

Mrs. Lana brought Ashley out of the laundry room and went to her room in the servant's quarter.

"Ashley, listen now." She looked at Ashley. "I don't trust the Count, but if you want to be free from the Countess's hands, you need him."

Ashley thought about it for a while. Then Mrs. Lana got her attention again. "You need to be the Lady of this house. Lady Elizabeth is still nowhere to be found, so this is your chance."

"Then what if she returns? I'll lose my position, and they'll abandon me again." Ashley said as her eyes began to swell up.

"That's why you should seize this opportunity that Lady Elizabeth was still missing to establish your position in this family. If you would stay low and uneducated, the Countess will turn those flaws into her weapon."

Ashley was quiet for a while. All she could think about was how to be free from this life. Now that an opportunity has come, does she have to hesitate any longer?

"So, what should I do then?"

A smile formed on Mrs. Lana's lips. "First, you need to learn proper etiquette, and for you to learn it, you need a teacher."

###

Carl rushed towards the Count's office. When he came to the door, he knocked twice before the Count told him to enter.

"Sir, the news about Lady Elizabeth's disappearance has been leaked. Lord Owen Lottway is here."

"What? Where is he?"

"He is in the drawing room, Sir."

"I shall meet him then." Then the Count stood up from his chair and walked towards the door.

At the drawing room, Owen was waiting impatiently for the Count. He wanted to know what had happened to Elizabeth. When Count Harriston came in, Owen bothered to still bow to him and then asked. "What happened to Lady Elizabeth? I heard she was missing since yesterday."

"Lord Owen, I know you are worried about my daughter, but may I know where you heard such news?"

"That's not important now, Lord Harriston. I want to know what happened to Lady Elizabeth."

The Count sighed and told Owen about the disappearance of Elizabeth, but he didn't mention her affair to a knight. Lord Owen had a worried look on his face as he listened to the Count's explanation.

"They are still searching for her, and we are assuming the possibility someone might have abducted her." Count finished his explanation.

"I see. Then, I shall help with the search. I may still not have a title, but I almost have my authority on my knights and household."

"Lord Owen, I appreciate you helping us to search for my daughter. But this is a family matter, and I don't want this to get bigger anymore."

"But can't I just help a little bit? I also want to help you find her."

"It may be better to let my people do it, and I don't want more people to know about Elizabeth's disappearance."

In the end, Owen didn't win against the Count's reasoning.

"I'm sorry for coming here without notice. I hope you understand that I'm just worried for Elizabeth." Lord Owen's excuse.

"It's alright, but if you could just tell me how did you know about her disappearance-"

"Sir," Carl knocked on the door that interrupted Count Harriston and Owen's conversation. He came inside and whispered to the Count, "Doctor Johnson is here."

The Count let out a sigh and faced Owen. "Well then, I have other matters to attend to, Lord Owen. So, excuse me for now. You can stay for as long as you want."

"It's alright, Count Harriston. It's seemed I have taken much of your time. I shall go now." Owen and the Count stood up and shook hands.

"I hope they'll be able to find Lady Elizabeth soon," Owen said before he left.

"I hope so too." The Count replied.

Owen exited the drawing room with Carl and walked towards the front porch. There, he met a man in his fifties with a case. It is Doctor Johnson, the most famous physician in the empire.

"Good day, Lord Owen. It's nice to see you." Greeted to him by the doctor as he bowed down.

"Nice to see you too, Doctor Johnson."

"How is Lady Marianne's health?"

"Her health has improved thanks to you."

"No need to thank me because I'm just doing my job."

"But I'm still grateful. By the way, Count Harriston was not feeling well when I met him. Maybe that was why you're here. Please take good care of him."

"Really?" The doctor suddenly kept quiet. Carl, who was standing beside Owen, caught their attention.

*clears throat* "Doctor Johnson, the Count is waiting for you in the drawing room."

The doctor who woke up from his thoughts nodded his head. "Oh, right!"

"Then I shall get going now. See you again, Doctor Johnson." Owen bid goodbye to them and exited the mansion. Upon entering his carriage, Owen frowned as he looked back.

"Let's go," he ordered his coachman.

When the doctor entered the drawing room, the Count welcomed him.

"Doctor Johnson, thank you for coming even though you are so busy." The Count said as they shook hands.

"Don't worry about it. Anything just for my dearest friend. Are you alright? Tell me what happened?"

"Please take a seat." The Count offered.

As they sat down, a maid brought in a new tea for the two gentlemen. As soon as she finished, she bowed and was about to exit the room when the Count stopped her.

"You, Call Ashley here."

"Yes, Sir." The maid bowed again and exited the room. The doctor who was watching showed a confused face. The Count sighed and looked at him. "Can you treat scars, Doctor Johnsons?"

The doctor thinks for a while. Then he answered. "If it were light scars, they'll heal as time pass by. But if it were deep and big scars, I'm uncertain if it would heal."

As soon as he finished talking, Ashley entered the drawing room.

"You called for me, Sir- Fa...ther?"

"Come here, Ashley. I'd like you to meet Doctor Johnson." The Count was so happy when he heard Ashley call him father. Ashley walked forward and bowed down to the doctor. The doctor was shocked because she bowed down to him instead of curtsy. But he was more shocked to hear a lady in maid's clothes called the Count Father.

"Ashley, there is no need to bow down. You are a lady now, and a lady should not bow down." The Count explains. "Take your seat now."

Ashley sat on one of the chairs. The Count then faced the doctor, who became speechless.

"Doctor Johnson, meet my youngest daughter, Ashley." Introduced by the Count. "And I want you to tend her wounds."

'Wounds?' the doctor thought.

The Count takes a glance at Ashley, who is feeling uncomfortable. Ashley is to show her scars. She doesn't want others to see it because she doesn't want to appear miserable.

"Ashley, he needs to see it so he can treat them. Don't be afraid." The Count assured her, but she won't budge.

"It's alright. I'll only need to know what kind of scars it is and what it causes." The doctor said.

"It was..." Ashley mumbled.

The Count just sighed and said. "Just show him your arms, Ashley."

Ashley was shaking while she tucked her long sleeves slightly, which revealed big, long whip marks. The doctor's eyes widened as he saw the scars. There are old and new whip marks. If her hands were full of these scars, the doctor was sure her whole body had it, too.

"W-what happened, My Lady?" the doctor asked her.

Ashley, who was feeling uncomfortable, hid her scars away again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that those scars. They all are scars from a whip, right? I am certain of it." The doctor gulped his saliva as he said it.

"I just feel uncomfortable when someone sees it," Ashley said.

"So, can you treat them?" The Count asked.

"I have tended to victims of slavery, but their whip scars never healed. I'm sorry I can't do anything about it."

'Slavery,' the word itself, hurt so much that Ashley's wound started to throb. She stopped herself from crying and but her body was still shivering.

The Count couldn't accept what the doctor said. "Is there nothing you can do?"

The doctor shook his head in dismay. The Count gritted his teeth and frowned. Ashley couldn't take it anymore, so she stood up.

"Sir- I mean Fa...ther, can I go now?"

"Okay. You may go now." Upon saying this, Ashley bowed again to them and exited the door.

"I never heard about your youngest daughter. And those scars, did you buy her in a slavery house?" the doctor asked.

"What are you talking about? She is my daughter from another woman. I didn't buy her."

"Then those scars, where did she get them? It's so deep and many. She must have suffered a lot."

"You saw her etiquette too. I'm afraid she is too far from being a lady."

"How about your eldest daughter and your wife? They should be the ones to teach her that kind of thing, right?"

"Well, how could they teach her if they couldn't accept that she was my child and an illegitimate one, to be precise?" the Count sighed and massaged his forehead.

The doctor and the Count keep quiet and think for a while. Then the doctor thought of something.

"I think I know who can help you with that." The doctor said.

After she left the drawing room, Ashley rushed back towards the servant's chamber, where Mary and Mrs. Lana waited.

"Are you alright?" the two asked her as soon as she arrived. When Ashley got called into the drawing-room, she was with Mrs. Lana, while Mary somehow heard from the other maid about it.

Upon seeing the two worried people, Ashley felt so warm and secure that she hugged them both.

"I'm alright. The Count just wanted to treat my scars that he even called a doctor." Ashley said.

"A doctor? But those scars--" Mary hesitated to continue her words when Mrs. Lana glared at her. They both knew those scars wouldn't disappear and last a lifetime.

"Well, it doesn't matter. As long as you are okay." Mary said that made Ashley smiles.

"Well then, shall we continue?" Mrs. Lana interrupted.

"What? What are you continuing?" Mary asked in confusion, looking at Ashley and Mrs. Lana.

Mrs. Lana sighed and said, "I'm discussing to her a plan."

"A plan?"

"Yes. A plan that could change Ashley's life here in the mansion." Mrs. Lana flashed a smile at Mary.