Conquering His Cold Heart

Anastasia was still lying unconscious on her bed and Martha was sitting by the bedside.

Caspian stopped at the door once again. Vincent had told him that Anastasia wasn’t hurt anywhere. However, something didn’t feel right to him.

Thus, he decided to ask Martha. “Martha, did the Queen sustain any injury in that altercation with that maid?”

Martha politely answered, “No, Your Majesty. Thankfully, Lord Vincent reached there in time.”

“I heard that you were the one to inform Vincent about the situation. Thank you for acting fast and seeking aid.” Caspian was indeed grateful to everyone who was involved in protecting his wife in his absence.

He looked at his wife’s calm face. He was greatly relieved to hear that she wasn’t wounded. He slowly took a few steps toward the foot of the bed.

However, he came to a halt again. He knitted his brows together in confusion and looked at Martha once more. “Are you the one who is hurt?” he asked, even when he was almost sure that the smell of blood was coming from his wife.

Martha shook her head in denial. “No, Your Majesty. I didn’t come face to face with that maid at all.”

.....

The frown lines on Caspian’s forehead deepened when he gazed back at Anastasia. And he asked with a confused expression on his face, “Then where is the smell of blood coming from? It smells awful though.”

“Ah!” Martha finally understood why the King was hesitating to come inside the bedchamber. “Her Majesty is in her monthly cycle,” she replied while lowering her head.

“Monthly cycle?” Instead of understanding, Caspian looked even more confused than before. “Monthly cycle of what?”

“Er…” Martha furrowed her brows and subconsciously glanced at the Queen. ‘The Queen never told him before?’ she was wondering how the King wasn’t aware of it even after spending several months with the Queen already.

“What is it? Is it some kind of a disease?” Caspian now looked worried when Martha was hesitation to answer him.

“No, no. It’s not a disease. It’s umm…” Now, Martha felt a little bit embarrassed because she wasn’t used to openly discussing such things even with her husband. And now, she needed to discuss it with the King.

She took a deep breath before clearing her throat and then blurting out, “Women bleed from their reproductive organs every month if they don’t conceive a baby.”

“They bleed every month?” Caspian wasn’t sure what Martha was talking about. He promptly shook his head and insisted, “I don’t think that’s true though. I would know if my wife bled every month as you said.”

He thought that maybe Martha didn’t discover Anastasia’s wound and simply assumed that she was in her monthly whatever. “Are you sure you checked properly?” he restlessly asked, but didn’t dare to pull the blanket and check it himself. He didn’t know what to expect and was afraid he wouldn’t like what he saw.

Martha, on the other hand, was trying to recall if Tilla had ever mentioned anything about the Queen’s monthly cycle or had done anything that indicated that the Queen was in her cycle. And no matter how hard she tried to rack her brain, she couldn’t recall any single sign regarding that.

‘Was this her first monthly cycle?’ Martha was wondering to herself when she suddenly recalled something very important. “Ohhh!” she subconsciously exclaimed.

“What is it?” Caspian took one step towards Martha and stared at her for an answer.

“Er…” Martha hesitated for a moment because she was trying to remember if the Queen had forbidden her from revealing the information to the King too. ‘She just told me not to reveal it to Percy or the others because she didn’t want to make a fuss. She didn’t say anything about mentioning it to the King, right?’

“Martha? I am waiting for you to speak!” Caspian folded his arms and asked in a stern voice.

Martha instantly stiffened her body and replied while bowing her head, “The Queen had ordered me to prepare a tonic saying she wasn’t ready to conceive a child yet. I am positive that she is bleeding because of the tonic.”

Caspian was stunned when he heard Martha. He held his breath and kept on staring at her as if he heard something wrong.

He scoffed and then asked again, “I am sorry, what?”

Martha felt a cold shiver in her heart when the King stared right into her soul. Now, she wasn’t sure if she did the right thing by being honest with the King. ‘Did I just put myself and the Queen in trouble?’

Nevertheless, since the cat was already out of the bag, there was no way she could take her words back now.

So, she answered once more, “I had prepared an herbal tonic for the Queen. It prevents conception. The Queen will stop bleeding in a few days.”

Caspian felt like someone kicked him down the tallest cliff when Martha repeated it again.

Although he was almost sure that his wife wouldn’t have been pregnant, like always, he felt utterly sad upon hearing that his wife drank something to make it a hundred percent sure that a baby wouldn’t grow in her stomach.

“Why though?” he mumbled as he felt overwhelmed by this feeling of discomfort in his heart. “I thought she was eager to have a baby. What changed all of a sudden?”

Martha kept on standing where she was without even breathing. She feared that if she breathed, the King would take his anger out on her.

Caspian slowly dragged his heavy feet toward his wife’s bed. He sat down on the edge and looked at his wife’s face. He heaved a deep breath and whispered to his wife, “Why did you do that, Anna? Did I do something to upset you?”

He tried to think back if he did something to anger his wife so much that she would do such a thing. However, they had already resolved every difference they had.

“Was it just because you aren’t ready to have a child yet?” Caspian took Anastasia’s hand in his cold palm and whispered again.

Anastasia obviously didn’t answer him.

Caspian lowered his head and touched Anastasia’s palm with his forehead. He closed his eyes and kept on whispering, “If you weren’t ready yet then you should have said that to me. I would never force you to bear my child if you weren’t ready. You know you can be honest with me right?”

Caspian didn’t see it but warm tears rolled down Anastasia’s temples. She happened to listen to a few things that he was saying toward the end.

She slowly fluttered her eyes open to see her husband sitting by her side with his eyes closed. And seeing him like that, she felt a shrilling pain in her heart.

She closed her eyes again and thought to herself, ‘I should have told him that I did not want to bear a child before deciding to take the tonic when he wasn’t here. Why couldn’t I just wait a night? I made him sad for no reason...’

Then she remembered what she had planned yesterday night. ‘But I had decided to give him the biggest heartbreak ever…’