The Dumb Duchess (2)
"Uhm… is something the matter?" Merry asked.
Rosalie recovered from her shock, lifted her long skirt, and strode in a hurry towards Merry. She held both of Merry's shoulders, giving her face a good look.
"Miss, is something the matter?" Merry repeated her question in confusion. She knew she looked prettier now, but was there a need for the other woman to look at her at such proximity?
"Miss Merry, can't you recognize me?"
Merry looked at the other woman longer and slowly shook her head. How did this person know her name?
"Miss, you are?" She asked in return. She was certain that she had never met this woman before.
Rosalie released Merry and dropped to her knees while holding the sides of her head. How could this happen to her lady? When she left to go to the kitchen earlier, she was relieved when Merry's fever finally broke. She only left her miss asleep. Who would have known that the moment her lady finally woke up, she had lost some of her memories?
"Hey, what's wrong, Miss?" Merry blurted out. She couldn't understand why this woman was acting like this.
"Everything," Rosalie murmured as she talked to herself. She continued dejectedly with tears streaming down her face, feeling so hopeless: "Miss Merry couldn't even remember me."
It seemed like her lady was able to regain her senses, but why couldn't she recognize her servant anymore?
Merry could only wait for the other woman to calm down before asking this person some questions. She needed to know where she was and what was going on before deciding what she should do next.
Once Rosalie finally calmed down, she looked up to her lady and held Merry's hands.
"Milady, it is I, Rosalie Benson—have you forgotten? I've been serving you as your lady-in-waiting for years," she said with teary eyes, freezing Merry on the spot.
"Perhaps the fever has really affected your mind. Why don't you return to bed and take a rest while I find something for you to eat?" Rosalie suggested, but Merry remained unmoving on her spot.
"Milady?" Rosalie called Merry's attention.
"What did you say your name is?" Merry asked, wanting to know if this was some kind of prank someone pulled on her.
Rosalie Benson. Of course, she knew that name. She had been reading a serialized webnovel titled 'The Lily of the Valley'. The only reason why she was interested in that novel was that the deceased wife of the main villain shared the same name with her.
In a short arc about Duke Ethan Lancaster, it was mentioned that his wife had died in his own hands. It came to a point that she went mad and attacked their children due to the influence of the curse that was placed on her.
She regularly read it after a long day of work, and Rosalie Benson was a minor character in the novel she was reading. Rosalie Benson was the lady-in-waiting of the pitiful and dumb duchess of the House of Lancasters.
Thinking about it, Merry noticed that the physical description of the character Rosalie Benson perfectly fit the woman kneeling in front of her.
Merry looked around and noticed that there was no hint of modern technology—such as an air conditioner or a television—nor any indication that this was all a set-up to deceive her.
'Please don't tell me I transmigrated.' Merry thought it was incredulous. She was inwardly panicking, wondering what she should do this time.
If she had died and was transmigrated as the dumb duchess—the Meredith Stahl of the novel she was reading; wouldn't this mean that she would also lose her life in her husband's hands? She couldn't even believe that she and the duchess also shared the same appearance.
'No! I don't want to die again!' Merry thought as she gripped the long skirt of her nightdress.
She didn't even enjoy her previous life in her original world; if she were to die here, what's the point of being alive again?
While she was excited to meet Gio and Blanche, the children of the duchess; Merry wasn't looking forward to meeting the infamous Duke Lancaster. No matter how handsome the author described him to be, Merry would rather not get involved with him.
"Rosalie, what year is it?" She asked calmly, despite the panic she was feeling inside.
Rosalie blinked twice and frowned. Why did she feel like her lady had turned into a different person? Most of the time, the duchess refused to meet anyone, keeping their meeting short.
"It's the seventh year of King Frederick's reign. What's wrong, Milady? Do you feel unwell?" She asked, baffled as to why her lady was asking and speaking as if she had no idea of who she was and where she stood.
"Seventh year of King Frederick's reign, huh," Merry mumbled. This only meant that she still had five years to change her fate and escape from her brutal death.
"What happened? Did I fall sick?" She asked Rosalie. She needed to know what kind of circumstances she was in just so she could understand how this world worked.
Because the author only provided small details about the duchess, Merry had no idea how many similarities she shared with the duchess… and what kind of life the duchess had before marrying into the House of Lancasters.
"Yes. You fell to the pond and had been burning with fever for the past three days. Please don't make me worry like that again, Milady," Rosalie said in a pleading tone.
Merry stared at Rosalie and sighed dejectedly. She then helped Rosalie to stand up from the ground and gave her a weak smile. Not only might she lose her life again, but this poor woman might also follow suit.
How did those protagonists manage to get used to their new lives so easily? She wondered. There must be a kind of cheat sheet that was passed around, and she somehow missed it.