Chapter 4

The door squeaked open and a woman wearing a bloody white robe had emerged. She turned to Alexander, who was standing next to the door anxiously.

“You may enter to see your wife and child, sir,” the midwife said.

Alexander rushed inside. Elizabeth lied on the bed pale, sweaty, bleeding, and exhausted, she was carrying the baby which was wrapped in white silk cloth. The bed itself was a wet mess and beneath it was a tub full of blood still rising slowly.

The midwife leaned on Alexander,

“Her wounds, sir,” she wiped the sweat on her eyebrows, “her wounds are still bleeding, sir” she whispered.

Alexander glanced at the midwife and turned his eyes back on his child,

“What about my child?” he asked.

“It’s a healthy boy, sir. He will be fine,” the midwife answered.

“Good. That’s good,” Alexander was relieved and nodded slowly.

“I shall leave you now, sir.”

“Yes, thank you for your services.” Alexander replied with a faint smile.

The midwife bowed and left the room carrying the extra towels and tray of medicine. Alexander sat beside Elizabeth, the latter handed him their baby and smiled.

“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Elizabeth said with a frail voice. Alexander smiled. His eyes fixed on the child’s wide brown eyes that reflected him.

“Very. He’s very beautiful.”

Alexander rose and placed the child gently on an old dark wood carriage across the room. He returned to his wife still refusing to look at her directly.

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“Did she told you that… that-“

“She did,” Alexander replied coldly.

Elizabeth held Alexander’s arm, her tears flowed down her grey cheeks and her breathing started to get heavy.

“I won’t be able to watch our little boy gro-“

“You’re dying, Elizabeth. Is this not the best time to confess your sins?” he interrupted.

“My… sins?” Elizabeth turned to him with her eyes wide.

“I know you’re an adulterer. Are you going to show me that you’re a lying a whore too?”

Elizabeth gripped his arm with the remaining strength she had. Alexander finally faced her and their eyes fixed on each other’s.

“Don’t you dare,” she growled, “I never loved you, Alexander. And you don’t really love me too. It’s all an obligation to you. You did your role and so did I. You do nothing but imitate your father, always boasting about yourself, it’s all about you, and your honor, and you glory. Since you want to be him so much, then you deserve to have an unfaithful wife too. You’re not heart-broken, you’re humiliated because a knight like you, an arrogant noble who knows nothing else, had been cucked by a commoner that makes women’s clothes for a living.”

“Are you done?” Alexander asked calmly.

“No! Unlike you, he made me feel I was desired for who I am, he did not see me as some baby-making ornament or a bar-maiden to pleasure yourself with. We made love, Alexander! Here! On this bed! On that one night, he satisfied me as a woman more than you ever could in our whole marriage!” Elizabeth breathed heavily, her teeth grinded, and her eyes red with bitterness.

“Very well, now I shall confess to you too,” Alexander said flatly.

His wife was speechless. Her anger was replaced with shocked and curiosity.

“When I fetched the tray of potions and concoctions that the midwife asked for,” Alexander continued, “I replaced one of the potions you have to drink with a blood thinner I had bought outside and poured it in one of the bottles from the laboratory. I took the bottle from the laboratory before our previous alchemist had an unfortunate accident, so her replacement does not know that I have the same type of bottle she used.”

“You murderer!” Elizabeth pulled herself towards Alexander and grabbed on his black robes but immediately released it. She sunk back to her bed, her breathing worsened and her cheeks and lips became paler, but her eyes remained fixed on Alexander.

“Now I shall have the satisfaction of watching you die, Elizabeth.”

Alexander watched his wife’s eyes dilate and slowly roll-up and her eyelids shut. He listened to her breathing slowdown until it stopped. It was as quiet as the southern battlefields after the slaughter, he thought. Yet again he found himself watching over another corpse drained of its blood, and it was blissful.