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The Man I Saved Burned My Family - Hot
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00:00My sister was tortured before she died.
00:02They threw her into the corpse pit behind the parish graveyard outside the city,
00:06without even a rough linen shroud to cover her birdie.
00:09Last night, she had been sitting by the fire, stitching a lace veil for her wedding.
00:12Eleanor, once I'm married, I'll bring you with me.
00:15But no, her fingers were a bloody mess.
00:17Her neck, snap, her back was a lattice of wounds,
00:20and between her thighs, mud and dried blood had cakes together.
00:23Not far away, the black carriage sat waiting.
00:25A hand extended from the carriage window and tossed a gold coin.
00:28The coin struck Alice's cold body with a dull thud.
00:32Clean this up properly. Don't let Victoria see anything unisely.
00:38Back then, he'd collapsed at the door of my herb-gathering cottage in the woods,
00:42poisoned half to death. I watched over him day and night.
00:45He gave me a badge, engraved with his family crest, a token of his word.
00:49Damien, is that the saviour you spoke of? She looks rather like a beggar.
00:53A country herbalist's daughter. Does she even deserve to be called my saviour?
00:57If I weren't afraid she'd take that badge and barge into the London season,
01:01dragging you and me both into scandal, I wouldn't spare her a second glance.
01:05I thought I had saved a fallen gentleman.
01:07Who would have guessed? What I nursed back to health
01:09was a wolf that devours without leaving bones.
01:14I carried Alice home on my back. The house had already been burned to ash.
01:18My parents' bodies lay in the ruins, charred beyond recognition.
01:22I did not cry. Tears cannot bring back my family.
01:24I died a grave with my bare hands.
01:26I buried Alice beside my parents and found a stone to serve as a marker.
01:30He swore, word by word, Alice, father, mother, wait for me.
01:34Wait until I have destroyed everything they hold most dear.
01:37They titled, I turned without looking back.
01:39I walked into the vast, blinding snow.
01:47I walked into an abandoned church, packed with the displaced and the destitute.
01:51Dangerous. Walking at night in a snowstorm like this.
01:54Why not huddle up with us?
01:55I'm an herbalist.
01:57Sprains, frostbite, fever, cough, I can treat them all.
02:00In exchange for two loaves of bread and a mouthful of hot water.
02:03Father, please, save my child.
02:06I pressed my hand to the child's forehead and checked his pulse.
02:10Find an iron kettle, boil three cups of water down to one and get it into him.
02:15Mother.
02:16Then did the people in the church begin to trust me, one by one.
02:19They came to have their injuries treated.
02:23Child, your skills are impressive.
02:25How did you end up like this?
02:28My family is gone.
02:30Someone had them killed.
02:31These days, it's always the poor who suffer.
02:33Those with titles and land, what do they care whether we live or die?
02:36Take the Duke of Ravencroft.
02:38Ambushed on the northern border three months ago, barely survived.
02:40Came back to London and married the Lord Chancellor's daughter.
02:42Brother to the king, decorated war hero.
02:44The whole of London bows to his shadow.
02:46And he dotes on that Victoria of his.
02:48The entire social circle knows it.
02:50Word is he dismissed every old servant in the household for her sake.
02:53I sewed the badge, engraved with the Ravenclaw family crest, into the lining of my undergarments.
03:00This badge is my shame.
03:06On the road to London, at every town I passed through, I visited apothecary shops, village doctor surgeries, and second
03:12-hand book stalls.
03:13I no longer devoted myself solely to the art of saving lives.
03:16I began to study how the very same herbs could kill a person without a sound.
03:21How to brew a draft that mimics death for twelve hours.
03:24How a single silver needle could induce labor, unconsciousness, even harm an unborn child without weeding a trace.
03:30To test my formulations, I drove myself to the edge of death the first time I tested the death-feigning
03:35draft, but that time I misjudged a dosage.
03:37When I woke, it was already the dead of the following night.
03:41My body was rigid.
03:42I had nearly frozen to death.
03:43The moment I came to, I coughed blood and cried for the first time, because I thought of Alice.
03:49When she died, how much pain she must have felt, how terrified she must have been.
03:53I wiped my tears, recorded the residual dosage, and re-formulated.
03:57Along this journey, my herb satchel grew heavier by the day.
04:01I wore through one medical text after another.
04:03Until at last, I arrived in London.
04:06I knew that as I was now, I needed a new identity.
04:09One that could walk through the doors of Ravencroft House.
04:13That day, I was passing through a narrow alley when I saw a group of ruffians kicking and beating an
04:17old woman.
04:18She clutched a wooden box to her chest.
04:20I rushed in.
04:21A few needles and the ruffian's limbs went numb.
04:23They staggered off cursing.
04:25I crouched down and helped the old woman to her feet.
04:27Her face wore several old scars, running from the corner of her eye down to her jaw.
04:32I helped her back to the crumbling room nearby, cleaned her wounds, and applied a poultice of herbs.
04:37Mrs. Morrow told me she had once served as a dressing maid to the queen, and that she was skilled
04:41in disguise, voice alteration, and the manners of the aristocracy.
04:45Three years ago, she had offended Vittoria.
04:46Vittoria found a pretext.
04:48She had Mrs. Morrow's faith flashed.
04:50One eye pull out, her tongue cut so her voice was ruined, and then cast her from court.
04:54She survived by doing up the faces of women.
04:56The moment I heard the name Vittoria, my heart slammed against my ribs.
04:59That night, I brought half a bottle of cheap gin and told Mrs. Morrow everything.
05:04Mrs. Morrow drained the gin from her cup and slammed the tin mug on the ground.
05:07A brute draped in a nobleman's coat.
05:10A duchess fattled on other people's flesh and blood.
05:13I should have died three years ago.
05:15Child, if you mean to have your revenge, I will help you.
05:20So long as I live to see Vittoria fall from her heights.
05:23This broken body of mine is a price worth paying.
05:28Mrs. Morrow began to teach me disguise, voice alteration, accent mimicry, and control of
05:34posture and bearing.
05:35She also taught me the rules within aristocratic households, the hierarchy of servants, and
05:40the filthy secrets hidden behind respectable facades.
05:43Her art of disguise was a craft carried out from the palace itself capable of transforming
05:47a girl of seventeen into a woman past thirty.
05:50At first, I learned slowly.
05:52The resin adhesive wouldn't hold.
05:54The wrinkles I painted looked stiff and lifeless.
05:56I practiced the hunched gait until my back was covered in blisters of raw, bleeding skin.
06:01The hardest part was the voice.
06:02Every day I practiced with nucleus pressed against my tongue, and I did not stop even
06:06when my throat bled.
06:07I had no time to rest.
06:08Alice was still beneath the ground, waiting for me.
06:11My father and mother's deaths were still unavenged.
06:13After a year of training, I could shift between identities with ease.
06:17I gave myself a new name, Susan Marsh.
06:20I would wear this false face into Ravencroft House and dismantle them from within, piece
06:25by piece.
06:27Before long, the name Mrs. Marsh had spread.
06:30Wives of minor government clerks and merchants began sending for me as well.
06:33The first time I attended the wife of a senior treasury secretary, I walked into a twin birth
06:38god mom.
06:38I steadied the mother's pulse with silver needles, then manually repositioned the babies.
06:43The secretary's family was overwhelmed with gratitude.
06:45He sang my praises at his gentleman's club, and at dinner parties.
06:48I gathered intelligence on the great families, especially Ravencroft House.
06:52I learned that Victoria had finally fallen pregnant, that the pregnancy was unstable.
06:56You incompetent fool!
06:57That royal physicians were attending high martation.
07:01The duke's mistress, Rydia, Captain the East Wing, was also pregnant.
07:05Yet she lived in conditions worse than a servant's.
07:09Rose beaten death by Victoria, then thrown out onto the street.
07:14Thomas, whose parents were driven to their deaths by the Ravencroft estate's land agent.
07:18Catherine, whose father was framed by Damien and withered away in despair.
07:22I took them in.
07:24I placed Rose in the mistress's residential floor.
07:28I placed Thomas in the kitchens.
07:30I placed Catherine in the butler's office.
07:33They did not know I was Eleanor.
07:34They knew only that Mrs. Marsh could help them have their revenge.
07:37Only late at night, when I peeled away the resin and salve, and my fingers traced the scar on my
07:42wrist where I had tested Damien's poison against my own blood, only then did I remember who I truly was.
07:46Damien grew frantic.
07:48He stationed royal physicians inside Ravencroft house around the clock, whoever could ensure the safe delivery of the Duchess and
07:54his heir 1,000 gold coins.
07:57And through apothecary shops, parish priests, and migwifery circles, quietly put out a bounty.
08:09I raised my hand and under the stunned gazes of the crowd, gently peeled off the notice from the wall.
08:14I brought the notice, still bearing its Ravencroft whack feel, to the side entrance of Ravencroft house.
08:21You're the one who took the notice.
08:22You don't look like someone with any real skill.
08:24Sir, my name is Susan Marsh.
08:26Three generations of midwives in my family.
08:28So long as the Duchess still draws breath, I can ensure both mother and child are delivered safely.
08:31Bold words.
08:32Come in then.
08:33But if anything goes wrong, it's your neck.
08:36I kept my head low and followed him through colonnaded corridors, past gardens and fathoms.
08:41Every inch of respectability in this estate was stained with my family's blood.
08:50At last I saw him.
08:52Damien.
08:55He was more imposing than before.
08:58Victoria.
08:59These were just picked from the hothouse.
09:01Sweet with a touch of tartness.
09:03Try one.
09:03I don't want any.
09:04They're far too sour.
09:05The Duchess who destroyed my entire family out of jealousy.
09:08Damien.
09:08Is this midwife reliable?
09:09She's not another fraud, is she?
09:11Susan Marsh.
09:12At your grace's service.
09:14And her grace's.
09:15But he looked away almost immediately.
09:17He did not recognize me.
09:19The herbalist's daughter who had saved him bare-faced.
09:22Thin.
09:22Clean.
09:24Eleanor.
09:25Wait for me.
09:27I will come back to repay you.
09:28How could she possibly be this coarse, wrinkled woman bowing and scraping before him?
09:36Lift your head.
09:38The royal physicians have examined your methods.
09:40They say you possess certain skills of your own.
09:43I'll keep you on for now.
09:45If the Duchess delivers safely, 1,000 gold aims.
09:49But if anything goes wrong, I'll have your entire family buried alongside her.
09:53Damien Ravencroft.
09:54My family is already dead.
09:56The dead do not fear dying again.
09:57I will do everything in my power to ensure her grace and the child are delivered safely.
10:02And so I stayed.
10:04I became the Duchess's personal midwife.
10:06Victoria was impossibly difficult to serve.
10:09Every day I brewed herbal tonics for her.
10:11Massaged her swollen legs.
10:13Pressed too hard and slapped with land.
10:15Your filthy hands, you're hurting me.
10:17Aside from Victoria, I also happened to tend to Lydia, Captain East Wayne.
10:21She was Damien's mistress installed within the estate.
10:24Low-born, unfavored, and now pregnant with no one to care.
10:26Whenever I brewed tonics for Victoria, I would quietly set aside a bowl and carry it to the east wing
10:31under cover of night.
10:32You're the only one in this househouse who treats me like a human being.
10:36You're carrying a child.
10:38Take care of your health first.
10:40I'll help you.
10:44Victoria's child, also a boy, had...
10:46Lydia's child, on the other hand, the pulse was steady, the positioning ideal,
10:50and I had more than enough means to collapse that fortnight into a single day.
10:53A night of crashing thunder and driving rain, Victoria was seized by unbearable pain.
10:57Her waters broke.
10:58The entire state erupted into chaos.
11:00Amy and Ravencroft stood outside the birthing room, acing back and forth in a frenzy.
11:03Save the Duchess!
11:04Save the child!
11:05Or none of you will live to see mourning!
11:09Save me!
11:10Mrs. Marsh, save me!
11:14Inside the birthing room, my hands were slick with blood.
11:16This moment, she was no longer the Chess who looked down on the world from her gilded height.
11:21I directed the Hambonade and Precision Boiled Water Passageers the same time.
11:24I caught the eye of another Hambonade with a discreet glance.
11:27He was one of mine placed inside the estate long ago.
11:29Within this estate, there were many more like her.
11:31All of them biding their time for the moment vengeance could be struck.
11:33Your Highness the Duke!
11:35Miss Lydia of the Eastern Wing has been startled by the thunder and is now in labor!
11:38Of them lying in wait.
11:39One word came from the East Wing.
11:45Your Grace, the Duchess will not deliver for some time yet.
11:48The East Wing has also gone into labor.
11:50The child Lydia carries is your flesh and blood as well.
11:53Perhaps you might allow me to look in on her.
11:54Get out.
11:55Damien's mind was consumed entirely by Victoria.
11:58He waved me off with an impatient hand.
12:01Good boy.
12:02Your fortunes are about to change.
12:06A tincture brewed from belladonna birthing linens.
12:09Concealed him beneath her rain-soaked cloak and followed me back to the Duchess's birthing room.
12:13Victoria was still screaming, her voice shredded raw.
12:15Several handmaidens and midwives turned to look at me.
12:18Push.
12:18I can see the head.
12:23As I spoke, I drew a silver needle from inside my cloak and drove it hard into a critical point
12:27between her lower back and abdomen.
12:28He's here.
12:29Congratulations, Your Grace.
12:30A boy.
12:33Good.
12:34You shall be handsomely rewarded.
12:36In the same instant, I delivered.
12:38The child that had been prepared all along from beneath the bedding.
12:41Damien was so elated he nearly lost his composure.
12:44He snatched the child into his arms.
12:45In Victoria's true child, I returned to the birthing room and looked at Victoria, still unconscious.
12:52I delivered the stillborn, placed it into the wicker basket I had prepared beforehand.
12:56When Victoria woke, what she saw was Damien cradling a healthy, robust son in his arms.
13:01She did not know.
13:04My child.
13:07Mother's precious darling.
13:09The infant in her arms was born of the very mistress she despised most.
13:12Just as she had once ordered my Alice thrown into that same pit.
13:15Lydia had hemorrhage during a difficult labor.
13:17Mother and child, both dead.
13:20The baby, too, was stillborn.
13:22Ill-ermened.
13:22As for Lydia, the next day, word came from the East Wing.
13:26Lydia had hemorrhage during a difficult labor.
13:28Mother and child, both dead.
13:30The baby, too, was stillborn.
13:32Damien did not even go to look.
13:34And Lydia, feigning death.
13:36Had already been smuggled out of Ravencroft House by my people under cover of night.
13:40When she woke, she would find herself in the countryside, hundreds of miles away.
13:44This, perhaps, was the last shred of mercy I still possessed.
13:47As a healer.
13:49From this day forward.
13:51Victoria would pour everything she had into raising a mistress's son to inherit the title.
13:55And this was only the beginning.
13:56I would make every person in this estate who owed a debt, suffer a fate worse than death.
14:01I would climb.
14:02Step by step.
14:03Until I stood above Victoria's head.
14:08Ravencroft House held a grand celebration.
14:10The priest christened the child before the assembled guests,
14:13inscribing his name into the parish register and into the Ravencroft family ledger.
14:17The child was named Nolan.
14:19From that moment, Lydia's son became the legally recognized heir to the Ravencroft title.
14:28Victoria.
14:29You've given me such a fine son.
14:33You must have suffered greatly.
14:36I stood in the corner, attending them.
14:37I stepped forward.
14:39Under the pretext of offering a handkerchief,
14:41I gently brushed aside the swaddling behind the baby's ear.
14:44They're a tiny brown mole.
14:45Lydia had an identical mole behind her ear.
14:48What an uncommon mole behind the old master's ear.
14:52I recall seeing one just like it in Lydia.
14:55And I attended her in this wing.
14:58Damien's movement still, just barely.
15:01The child is distressed.
15:03Take me away.
15:03I won't have anything seen with you for guests.
15:05The smile on Victoria's face froze.
15:08She glared at me with venom, but did not dare make a scene.
15:12Not here.
15:13Not in front of Damien.
15:14She could only clutch the still-wailing infant and withdraw.
15:19Someone!
15:20Give her twenty flashes with the board!
15:22The rough wood struck my face, searing, burning.
15:25But I did not make a sound.
15:27Every blow I added to the legend.
15:29Victoria.
15:30The harder I am beaten, the more cruel and unbecoming you appear in Damien's eyes.
15:39Victoria startled.
15:40Damien, this servant was being insolent.
15:42I was merely disillusioned.
15:44Susan Marsh is Nolan's midwife.
15:46And the woman who saved his life.
15:48If you treat servants this savagely and word gets out, how will that reflect on the Ravencroft name?
15:52He glanced at me.
15:53Go and have your injuries tended to.
15:56Thank you, Your Grace.
15:57As I rose on it, an old scar.
15:59That scar on your hand.
16:01Your Grace, it's...
16:03It's...
16:04It's an old wound.
16:05From gathering herbs.
16:06Years ago.
16:08Damien began visiting the private quarters more frequently.
16:11Not always to see Victoria and the child.
16:14More often, he came to see me.
16:16I did not make my disguise appear younger.
16:18I only changed one thing.
16:20I wore again the herbal scent I had always used in the woodland cottage.
16:23A faint trace of mint and mugwort.
16:26Cool.
16:26Calming.
16:27Victoria could not detect it.
16:29But Damien could.
16:31One afternoon,
16:31Victoria had taken the child to visit the Pemberton family.
16:36Ravencroft house was unusually quiet.
16:38Damien sent for me.
16:41But his eyes never left my wrist.
16:44Mrs. Marsh, the scent of herbs on you.
16:46It reminds me of someone I once knew.
16:49Your Grace flatters me.
16:51A coarse woman such as myself could hardly compare to anyone you once knew.
16:55Three years ago, I was attacked.
16:57A girl who gathered herbs saved my life.
17:00She had a scar here, identical to this one.
17:02A pity she took the token I gave her and tried to use it to climb her way into the
17:06Ravencroft family.
17:07Nearly dragged me into a scandal.
17:09I despised being manipulated, so I paid her no further mind.
17:11So that is the lie Victoria spun for you.
17:14You sent killers to silence me, yet she made me the villain.
17:17So that even in death, I would carry the name of a grasping, lowborn schemer.
17:21The person your graces speaks of, would her name be Elinor?
17:27How do you know that name?
17:30Because before I came to Ravencroft house,
17:33I saw a dead girl in the pompous pit behind the parish cemetery outside the city walls.
17:38She was clutching a badge in her hand,
17:40so tightly that even death could not pry her fingers open.
17:44That badge bore the Ravencroft family crest.
17:46What did you say, she's dead?
17:49Yes. Dead.
17:51There wasn't a patch of unbroken skin on her body.
17:54It looked as though she had been beaten to death.
17:57The beggars nearby told me that girl had been waiting for her sweetheart to come for her.
18:01She waited until she died. He never came.
18:04She said she didn't covet wealth or station.
18:08She only wanted the man who had promised her forever.
18:11His face was ashen.
18:12In that instant, I knew he was remembering the body thrown into the pauper's pit that night.
18:17People always beautify the one who died because of them,
18:20the one they can never have again.
18:21And what I was doing now was forging that remorse into a blade aimed straight at Victoria's heart.
18:27That night, Damien drank himself into oblivion.
18:30He did not go to Victoria's rooms.
18:32He stayed in the study.
18:33I went in to bring him a sobering tonic.
18:36Through the haze of drunkenness, he seemed to see me as the dead Elinor.
18:39He seized my hand and pulled me into his arms.
18:44Elinor, I'm sorry. I failed you.
18:47I did not push him away, but neither did I yield.
18:49My fingers threaded gently through his hair, but my eyes were cold as ice.
18:54When he tried to go further,
18:57I shoved him back and struck him hard across the face.
19:01Your Grace, look clearly.
19:04I am Susan Marsh, not your Elinor.
19:09That slap sobered him.
19:11For men like him, what comes easily is never treasured.
19:13Only the thorned, the one who refuses him, that is what he cannot let go of.
19:17He stood frozen, watching me flee with my clothes in disarray.
19:21The desire in his eyes did not fade.
19:23It burned stronger.
19:24That was the hunger to conquer.
19:25Damien fixed his attention on me.
19:26He began finding excuses to bestow gifts upon me with increasing frequency.
19:30Jewelry, bolts of fine cloth, even rare and costly herbs.
19:34I refused them all.
19:35The more aloof I appeared, the more he could not relinquish the pursuit.
19:39Meanwhile, Victoria, because of the child, grew more volatile by the day.
19:42The boy carried Damien's blood, true enough, but he had been raised into a frail constitution
19:47and with my quiet interference kept perpetual ill, crying through the nights.
19:52Victoria was worn haggard by the ordeal.
19:54She looked half mad.
19:55The contrast between us sharpened.
19:58Damien grew more impatient with her by the day.
20:00On one side the gentle, sensible,
20:02Mrs. Marsh, carrying the ghostly shadow of an old regret.
20:06On the other a hysterical Victoria, capable of nothing but complaints.
20:10I wore a thin white dress soaked through and stood in the rain,
20:13holding an umbrella over a rose bush the storm had bent sideways.
20:17That rose it was Eleanor's favorite.
20:20Damien came toward me with his umbrella.
20:22He looked at the slender, stubborn figure standing in the rain.
20:25I did not push him away.
20:27Don't go.
20:28This time, don't leave me again.
20:33Alice, do you see?
20:35I have him.
20:36I have caught this wolf.
20:38I am going to tear his heart out and lay it at your grave.
20:40But the face that surfaced in my mind was Alice's.
20:43Desperate.
20:44Dying.
20:46I became Damien's mistress.
20:48But I did not ask for a title.
20:50So long as I may remain at your grace's side and atone for the sins of the past, I am
20:57content.
20:57He began to favor me exclusively.
20:59He even rebuked Victoria for the first time on my account.
21:02Mrs. Marsh is in poor health.
21:04Stop making her do rough labor.
21:06Damien, she is nothing but a common midwife.
21:09You would scold me for her?
21:12She is more sensible than you.
21:14She has more kindness in her than you.
21:16She has more...
21:17Every time, Victoria shook the fury.
21:19And in the places Damien could not see, she devised ever more inventive ways to torment me.
21:32Three months later.
21:33While paying my respects to Victoria, I collapsed in front of the assembled household.
21:44The royal physician was summoned.
21:46He took my pulse.
21:48His expression grew complicated.
21:49His head.
21:54Congratulations, Your Grace.
21:55My felicitations.
21:57Mrs. Marsh...
21:58Is with child.
22:02Dead silence.
22:03The teacup in Victoria's hand slipped and shattered against the floor with a sharp crack.
22:07At last.
22:08I am with child.
22:09This is my baby.
22:11And it is the greatest weapon I possess to take everything from them.
22:14Victoria.
22:15Your time is running out.
22:17The news about pregnancy fell like a drop of boiling oil into Victoria's already smoldering
22:21mind.
22:22She began to lie awake through the nights.
22:24The handmaiden on nightlife reported that every evening, the sound of shattering porcelain
22:29came from the Duchess's bedroom along with cursing.
22:32She called me a base woman.
22:33A whore who had seduced her master.
22:36To soothe me, Damien sent gifts into my rooms, like a river in flood.
22:40That was the color Victoria favored most.
22:43The one she used to proclaim her status.
22:45I wore it deliberately.
22:46And I wore it on the nights Damien stayed.
22:48That night, Damien traced his fingers over the red fabric.
22:51Mrs. Marsh...
22:53You look beautiful in red.
22:58More beautiful than Victoria.
23:00Your grace is too kind.
23:01The Duchess is your lawful wife.
23:03How could I dare compare myself to her?
23:06If she found out, I fear she would have me kneel on broken porcelain again.
23:11A few days prior, I had been a moment too slow bringing tea, and Victoria had forced
23:15me to kneel on shard.
23:16She wouldn't dare.
23:17That madwoman.
23:18If she touches you again, I will not show mercy.
23:20I will peel them from you, layer by layer.
23:24That day, Victoria could bear it no longer.
23:26She made her move.
23:28It was a bowl of egg custard sweetened with honey.
23:31The one who brought it was Daisy, Victoria's senior handmaiden.
23:36Mrs. Marsh, the Duchess, had the kitchen pair this specially.
23:40She says it is to nourish your health.
23:42Beneath the cloying sweetness, a faint metallic bitterness.
23:46Arsenic.
23:47Victoria.
23:47Oh, Victoria.
23:48You truly are desperate now.
23:50Watching me grow more favored by the day, my belly swelling larger, while Nolan wailed
23:54and sickened without end, how could she not be desperate?
23:56She feared that if I bore a son, it would threaten Nolan's claim as legitimate heir.
24:00She feared I would replace her become the mistress of Ravencroft House.
24:05A pity.
24:06Her terror had only just begun.
24:10Please thank the Duchess for me.
24:12Only, my appetite is poor at the moment.
24:15I think I shall rest a while first.
24:17Daisy fled as though granted a pardon.
24:19The moment she was gone, I drew a silver needle and pierced the custard.
24:23The needle blackened almost instantly.
24:25I overturned the trade.
24:28Then pinched the soft flesh of my inner thigh with savage force.
24:32Help me.
24:34Someone.
24:35The baby.
24:37My baby.
24:39Damien came quickly.
24:40When he burst in, what he saw was this.
24:47Mrs. Marsh.
24:48He rushed to me and gathered me into his arms.
24:50His hands were shaking.
24:52What happened?
24:56The custard.
24:57The custard the Duchess sent.
25:00She wants to kill me.
25:02To kill our child.
25:05Victoria.
25:08Wait here.
25:09I'll be back.
25:11Send for the royal physician.
25:13Now.
25:14I heard it all.
25:15From the direction of the Duchess's chambers, the thunderous crash of a door kicked open.
25:19It wasn't me.
25:21Damien, believe me.
25:22It truly wasn't me.
25:24How pale a denial.
25:26In Ravencroft House, the truth has never mattered.
25:28What matters is who holds more favor.
25:31Who appears more the victim.
25:33And besides, the custard had indeed been sent on her orders.
25:36Witnesses.
25:36Evidence.
25:37All accounted for.
25:39Damien would not believe her.
25:40Just as he had not believed me all those years ago.
25:43An hour later, Damien returned.
25:46Carrying with him the faint scent of blood.
25:51Don't be afraid.
25:53It's been dealt with.
25:55Victoria has been stripped of all standing for her depravity.
25:58For conspiring to murder my own flesh and blood.
26:03She has been confined to the cold room in the West Wing.
26:06I have given orders.
26:09Without my express permission, no one is to visit her.
26:15Even if she dies, she dies in there.
26:20Your Grace.
26:22The Duchess is still Nolan's birth mother after all.
26:26Don't speak that woman's name to me.
26:29If not for Nolan's sake,
26:31I would have run her through with a blade today.
26:34That boy, she's ruined him.
26:36Timid, cowering, not an ounce of an air's bearing.
26:39The child in your belly.
26:41That is the one I value most.
26:43From now on,
26:45the keys to Ravencroft's house will be in your hands.
26:48I nodded, obedient and meek.
26:50But inside, I was laughing.
26:52Damien Ravencroft.
26:53You think this is the end?
26:55No.
26:56Locking her away that is merely to let her suffer while she lives.
26:59The true retribution is only just beginning.
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