After a while, when everyone was ready to go hunting, all the ladies approached their husbands, finances, or the people they were in love with and handed them a handkerchief. Even her mother-in-law gave her husband a beautiful handkerchief with an embroidered lion.
Leonard, seeing that Olivia was the only one keeping her distance, approached her and said, "Don't you have something for me?"
Olivia took out the handkerchief she had embroidered and handed it to Leonard. Upon seeing the embroidery, he said, "Thank you for the handkerchief, the flowers turned out very well."
"Leonard, they are leaves, not flowers. If you don't like it, you don't have to take it," Olivia replied.
Leonard kissed Olivia on the forehead and said, "It doesn't matter what you embroidered, I will still keep it because you put a lot of effort into it. Take care while I'm away."
"I will, you take care too."
"See you later."
Leonard got on his horse, and he and his father ventured into the forest while Olivia and her mother-in-law entered the mansion because the weather had started to get much colder.
Inside the house, all the ladies sat down to have tea with cookies and pastries, waiting for the men to return from hunting.
Vanessa had sat far away from Olivia and Sarine because Vandal had curled up at Olivia's feet. The other ladies were a little surprised when they saw the wolf cub, but they already knew the Duchess Sarine's pet, so the fact that Olivia had a wolf as a pet didn't bother them much.
The cub only allowed a few people to approach them, and this made Olivia relax as she ate. She thought that bringing Vandal with her had been a good idea.
When Leonard saw that Olivia was bringing Vandal with her, he told her that he couldn't go with them. However, Olivia kissed him repeatedly until he gave in. Olivia was starting to realize that sometimes it was better to convince Leonard with caresses than with tantrums.
When he asked her why she was bringing Vandal, she simply answered, "I don't know, I just don't want to leave him. Today, I feel like I should bring him with me to protect me when you're not here."
Leonard sighed and said, "Fine... Take him with you if that makes you feel safer."
Since she woke up that day, Olivia had a bad feeling. She didn't know why, but she felt restless as if something bad was going to happen. That's why she decided to have Vandal by her side all the time. Although he still needed to grow, in the last few months, he had grow, in the last few months, he had grown a lot. He had become too heavy for Olivia to carry him in her arms.
While they enjoyed the pastries, Olivia asked a middle-aged lady who had sat near her and was talking to her mother-in-law because Vandal didn't growl at her when she approached.
"Do you know if the Marquess Norfolk's niece has come?"
The lady turned to her and said, "No, Duchess, she hasn't come. I suppose she's very busy preparing for her wedding."
Olivia was shocked to hear that Daphne was getting married and said, "Daphne is getting married?"
"That's right, Duchess. I heard that a few days ago, Count Doriel went to the Marquess Norfolk's house to ask for his niece's hand in marriage, and he accepted. Everyone says that Count Doriel is in a hurry to get married because his wife died recently and didn't leave him any heir. And since he's already a bit older, he didn't want to wait too long to get married."
Olivia felt really sorry for Daphne since she was even younger than her. From what she had been told, Leonard's mother's friend's daughter was going to marry an old widower, and it was likely that he would be ugly too. She wished she could do something to help her and thought that when Leonard returned from hunting, she would ask if they could do something to assist her.
She had been forced to get married, and she knew how difficult it was. Luckily, she had married an incredibly handsome man, and always been kind and sweet to her, which is why she had ended up falling in love with him.
The afternoon seemed never-ending for Olivia, as she couldn't wait for Leonard to come back so she could talk to him. Her legs began to feel numb from sitting all day without doing anything, so she got up from her chair and decided to take a walk around the surroundings. Since her mother-in-law was busy talking, she decided not to bother her and went off alone with Vandal.
When Olivia left the room by herself, Vanessa got up from her chair and followed her. When they reached the garden, Vanessa made sure no one was following them, caught up with Olivia, and said to her.
"Where are you going, Duchess?"
Olivia was startled by Vanessa's voice and said, "Miss Vanessa, you scared me."
Vandal started growling, and Vanessa kept a distance from them as she said, "It wasn't my intention to scare you. I only followed you because I wanted to talk to you."
"And what do you want to talk to me about?"
"Actually, it's not important. I just wanted us to have a chat as friends."
Being close to Vanessa made Olivia a little nervous since she didn't like her, and Vandal's constant growling didn't help either. She tried to distance herself from Vanessa and said, "I only came out to stretch my legs, but it's a bit chilly out here, so I think it's best if I go back inside. We'll talk another time."
As Olivia was about to leave, Vanessa covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and a strange smoke emanated from behind her. Olivia covered her mouth with her hands, and Vandal was going to throw himself at Vanessa when he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Olivia approached Vandal and said to Vanessa, "What are you doing?"
Olivia's vision became blurry, and her body began to feel heavy. Vanessa approached her and said, "I'm getting rid of what's bothering me."
Olivia couldn't hear what Vanessa was saying anymore and fell to the ground unconscious, next to Vandal.
Vanessa's father and her father's friend, who had a scar on his face and tan skin, emerged from the bushes and said to Vanessa, "You've done well. Now you can go back inside. We'll take care of her."
Vanessa returned to the salon with the other ladies and drank tea, ate cookies, and conversed with them as if nothing had happened. At first, Vanessa had opposed her father's plan to kidnap Olivia. However, when she didn't receive an invitation to the wedding, she became furious and wanted to make her suffer for humiliating her in that way.
So, he decided to help her father kidnap Olivia. Vanessa didn't understand why her father wanted to kidnap her, but deep down, she didn't care. She thought it would be better if she knew less about her father's plans, so she would have fewer feelings of guilt.
Vanessa's father and his friend loaded Olivia into a carriage and hurriedly drove away from the place before Leonard returned.
Vandal woke up a while later, disoriented from the smoke her had inhaled. Not seeing Olivia anywhere, he started sniffing the air, searching for her scent, and ran off to find her.
When Olivia woke up, she felt disoriented and frightened to find herself locked in a cart with only a small opening. She didn't know what was happening. The last thing she remembered was inhaling the strange smoke Vanessa had created, and after that, everything became blurry, and she couldn't remember anything else.
Olivia looked around for Vandal but couldn't find him. She thought maybe they had left him behind in the garden.
Olivia thought about screaming for help, but the cart was moving a lot, and all she could see through the opening were trees. She doubted anyone would hear her, especially since her captors believed she was still unconscious. So, she lay back down on the floor, pretending to be asleep so they wouldn't realize she was awake. When they stopped, she would try to escape.
While she pretended to be unconscious, she overheard a man's voice saying.
"What will you do with her?"
"I will take her to the King of Azur. He will be pleased when I bring him the person the Duke of Forest loves the most. He attacked our kingdom and killed the King's children during the battle. The king, in his pain, asked me to bring the person the Duke loves the most, so he can kill her with his own hands, for the Duke to know what it feels like to lose a loved one."
Upon hearing what they intended to do to her, Olivia felt terrified. She hugged her belly and whispered softly,
"I won't let anything bad happen to us, baby."
...
While hunting, Leonard had a feeling that something was wrong. He wished he could see Olivia and felt so anxious that he decided to return home early. Leonard galloped back at full speed, and as he approached the mansion, a wolf crossed his path, nearly knocking him off his horse.
Leonard stopped abruptly and, upon talking a closer look at the wolf, recognized it as Vandal. The wolf, still a puppy, had a navy blue ribbon tied around his neck, which Olivia had put on him that morning.
Seeing Vandal in that place seemed very strange to Leonard since the puppy never strayed far from Olivia Leonard got off his horse, examined the puppy carefully, and grew even more concerned for Olivia. He asked Vandal.
"Where is Olivia?"
The puppy seemed to understand what Leonard meant. It started sniffing the air and pointed its head north. It bit Leonard's pant leg and pulled, urging him to follow, and then took off running again.
Leonard didn't know if something had happening to Olivia, but Vandal seemed to want him to follow, so he mounted his horse and quickly followed.
Sarine had been distracted talking to her friends and when she went to look for Olivia, she couldn't find her anywhere. Sarine told the servants to help her look for her, and that's when all the people who had gone hunting started to arrive. Sarine searched among the crowd for her son and her husband to help her look for Olivia, but she couldn't see Leonard anywhere.
Sarine approached her husband, very worried, and said, "Where is Leonard?"
"He came back a while ago," he replied. "He said he had a feeling and had to come back immediately."
"Leonard hasn't arrived and I can't find Olivia anywhere," Sarine said. "Do you think something has happened to them?"
Leonard wrapped his arms around his wife's shoulders and said, "Calm down, darling. I'm sure they're fine. Maybe they went for a walk."
"But I've looked for then everywhere and I haven's found them," Sarine said.
"Stay calm. I'll go with some servants to look for them in the surroundings," he assured her.
"Okay."
...
Olivia felt the carriage stop and she began to shake like a leaf because she was very scared of what they were going to do her. Her captors opened the carriage and, upon seeing Olivia still unconscious on the floor, the scarred man asked, "Why is she still asleep? I thought you said it was a short-acting sedative."
"That's what I was told, maybe she hit her head when she fainted," one of Olivia's captors replied.
One of Olivia's captors approached her nose with his fingers to check if she was still breathing. When they confirmed that she was still breathing, they said, "She's still breathing. When she wakes up, don't forget to give her water. We don't want her to die before we reach the kingdom of Azur, as that wouldn't make the king very happy."
Olivia opened her eyes a little and seeing the two men distracted, she got up very carefully to not make any noise and escape from them