Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 272: Someone’s Handmaid

Chapter 272: Someone’s Handmaid

To My Beloved Arabella,

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A day had not passed that I did not miss you so dearly. Despite everything going on, you are still all I could wish for.

Even now, I still love you just as much as I did before. No, I love you even more now despite all the barriers preventing us from being together.

My longing for you has only gotten stronger ever since we parted.

I’m dying to be alone with you again.

Even if I’m married now, my heart and mind still belong to you and only you.

I will never forget our amorous and passionate nights together. I wish I could hold you in my arms tightly again and cherish you forever.

You feel the same, right?

I am overwhelmed that you pitied this wretched soul and agreed to shower me with your love once again.

Thank you for agreeing to meet me. I look forward to being with you again.

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Forever Yours,

Andrew Lahar

* * *

"What the hell is this nonsense?! Though they were able to pattern it in the way he writes letters, this is not even Prince Andrew’s handwriting. And I never spent a night in his arms either," Arabella glared distastefully at the letter.

It was written to trigger her husband to think she was cheating on him and that she had already slept with Andrew several times even if she hadn’t.

[She looks pissed instead of getting delighted.]

A smile crossed Ferdinand’s lips.

[What’s this? I feel so happy and relieved. Is it because she wasn’t at all shaken by such sweet words? She didn’t even look like she was reminiscing good memories of their time together. I saw no nostalgia in her eyes but irritation instead.]

Ferdinand was delighted at Arabella making a disgusted face at the supposedly sweet and love-filled letter she had read.

’It wasn’t sweet at all. It was cringe. Who the hell would get nostalgic with this? It’s clearly not Andrew’s. And I’ve long forgotten the contents of the letters I exchanged with him in the past.’

Andrew was indeed a sweet person but he doesn’t spout nonsense like wanting to hold her again even though they were both already married.

Just as her talk with Andrew days ago emphasized, he was a good man. He wouldn’t ruin a marriage as this letter suggests. He wouldn’t tempt Arabella into cheating on her husband either.

The letter was just something a stranger they do not know yet had written using sweet words and phrases to make Ferdinand furious.

But whoever wrote it did not succeed since Ferdinand was here smiling instead of getting pissed.

[Even if this letter wasn’t written by her former lover, I could clearly picture that man writing something with this kind of sweet words. It really ticked me off after reading the contents and I wanted to punch that prince even if I know this wasn’t from him. Just thinking my wife used to read letters like this from him is annoying. But seeing my wife unaffected in the least bit is so satisfying.]

Ferdinand kissed the back of Arabella’s hand.

"So this letter was written by someone else, right?" he verified and Arabella nodded.

[I made Riley follow the maid who gave this to me. He should have captured her by now.]

’I see. He was already suspicious about the letter right from the start,’ Arabella was relieved Ferdinand didn’t conclude she was cheating on him.

[If she had dropped the letter, I would have picked up her scent from it. Rendell and Alwin wouldn’t have failed to notice something she dropped.]

Ferdinand thought about things logically first and did not get angry without checking if it was true or not. And since he did not pick up Andrew’s scent from the letter, he knew it wasn’t from Andrew.

But Ferdinand headed to the room where Arabella and Sera were supposed to meet since he was worried Arabella could have been in danger.

Likewise, Ferdinand cannot simply get rid of the possibility that the letter may have been written and sent with Andrew’s instructions.

But after seeing Andrew’s reactions, Ferdinand was able to verify that he, indeed, had nothing to do with the letter that was tempting Arabella into cheating.

. . .

Alwin and Riley caught the maids and questioned them.

However, none of the maids knew the end goal of the actions they took.

The palace maid who served the wine to Andrew was only paid to ensure Andrew tasted the wine and that the balcony door was open.

The maid knew the wine she served, was an aphrodisiac. But, she thought it was on purpose since the date was for a husband and wife.

The palace maid thought the balcony door had to be open due to the view which could help the romance of the husband and wife to progress by relaxing them first and helping create a good mood.

Meanwhile, the maid who gave the letter to Ferdinand didn’t know the contents.

She was merely told to hand the letter to Ferdinand since Arabella had dropped it. The maid didn’t dare open the letter even if it was not sealed since it was Arabella’s, the Empress of Valeria.

The correlation between the two was that it was a handmaid who paid them to do the tasks they did. But they did not know the identity of the handmaid.

When Alwin made them describe who the handmaid was, they said they didn’t know whose maid it was but it wasn’t someone from the Grand Palace of Medeus. It was someone among the guests.

They then made the palace maids paint a portrait of the handmaid who paid them.

A copy of the list of all the maids who attended the Assembly was then retrieved and Alwin and Riley secretly investigated them.

Alwin found someone that closely resembled the portrait that the two palace maids painted.

It was one of Julia’s maids.

But Julia wasn’t one to do something like this. What would she gain by making Ferdinand and Arabella fight? Or Andrew and Sera?

’Ah, it wasn’t her. It must be Lucille. She probably used Julia’s maid so it would be Julia who will be blamed. Is she still trying to get a chance with Andrew?’

By now, Lucille was already engaged.

King Neville was a good and wise man. However, Lucille was different from her father. Because her father was too kind, Lucille could have wanted to be different. Or Lucille was simply like this right from the start.