The General's Wife Wants to Leave
Chapter 119: It is over

Chapter 119: It is over

The four horses had stopped pulling the grand carriage after passing through the gate and arrived at the front of the large main door of the de Lara mansion.

The rising tension that had accumulated as if it were ready to explode in the carriage was soon released, following the relief in Joanna after feeling like she was holding her breath on their way back home.

It was not that there was no tension during their journey from home. It was because the tension felt different and got heavier during their journey back home, which was hard for Joanna to turn a blind eye to.

She had also had a new experience where no hand was extended to help her descend and ascend the carriage when they made a stop in the Glasstown River. The man who had diligently reached out his hand for her to take had taken his position first inside the carriage near the window, leaving her on the side of the clean and freshwater river.

When she stepped inside the carriage by herself, instead of taking a seat across from him as she sat before they stepped down to the river, Joanna took a seat near the door after she closed it herself. Since then, no words had been formed between them.

The only sound that accompanied them was the sound of horses hooves and clopping along with the carriage wheel.

The only activity each of them did was to enjoy their own world, which lay beyond the window on each of their sides.

Everything was really awkward. There was no mischievous man who liked to poke her for his amusement, which still happened before they met Lady de Lorn.

It was really over. It was the words that had been chanted repeatedly in Joanna’s mind during the rest of the trip to her home.

As the carriage had stopped, Joanna did not bother to wait for the footman to open the door for her, as she guessed that he would not appear to do his duty as he might think that her husband would do that for her as it was what her husband did for her when they just arrived from the West Lane Mountain.

Aside from that, Joanna also had an urge to leave the suffocating atmosphere as soon as possible.

However, when she was about to step out of the carriage, right after the door was pushed open by her, Joanna was jolted when her right arm was grabbed. In reflex, Joanna halted from what she was going to do and turned her head to see the man who had placed his hand on her arm instead.

In a blink of an eye, like a gust of wind, the man passed her seat and stepped down the carriage. He then extended his hand.

Joanna stared at the open palm with the indescribable feelings that surged inside her again. She then looked up at the man, only to find him lower his gaze on his palm as well.

For the first time, his green eyes were not directed at her. when they happened to face each other.

Joanna nodded to herself. It was really over.

With that thought, without any hesitation, Joanna placed her hand on Canillas’.

Standing on the ground, Joanna was unable to pass him a thank-you, as the man who usually gripped her hand when it was on his now seemed to easily let it go and walked past her, leaving her alone once again.

Under the balmy rays of the sun, Joanna stood alone in front of the opened door of the carriage, without green eyes that looked like a deep ocean, staring at her with a small smile on his face this time.

Once again, Joanna watched his back gradually disappear from her sight.

It was really over. Joanna said it again in her mind.

It was a farewell gesture. Joanna added to the monologue inside her mind.

With the other monologue that appeared in her mind, Joanna made her way inside her home to prepare for the separation that might be announced soon.

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The next day in the de Lara mansion, Joanna sat alone in the dining room for lunch.

Her father could not have lunch with her as he had to go to the Duchy Council to accept a report about the investigation progress from Barasca security officers regarding the captured Tres that had been handed over by Barasca knights the day before.

Sitting alone in the dining room with a couple of servants who were there to attend to her, Joanna occasionally lifted her head from looking at her plate to the opened door.

Since the previous day after she stepped inside her home from Mr. Simone’s shop, she had not seen the figure of a person who kept on wandering around her since they met in the deep forest.

He had been absent during lunch and dinner the day before, and today he also did not appear for breakfast and lunch. He also did not appear to disturb her at night.

Her father had asked her about the whereabouts of the General, and she simply answered that she did not know because she really did not know where he was.

As if understanding that she could not give a satisfying answer, her father had asked a servant to ask the General to have breakfast with them this morning. But the General, who was in the knight quarter with his men-at-arms, said that he apologized for not being able to join the breakfast as he wanted to have breakfast with his people as they had not had meals together since they arrived in Barasca.

It was the reason that the servant relayed to her father, to which her father responded with a complete understanding.

After lunch, Joanna went back to Alenna Garden, which she had not visited for more than a week. The last time she visited to work on the garden was on the day when the General gave her a surprise that she had not expected to come. It was when they met in person for the first time.

Joanna had begun her activity in the garden since the morning after finishing her breakfast and seeing her father off to do his duty as the Duke. As she had to leave again for a few days to the capital, Joanna maximized her time in the garden.

Joanna walked down the flagstone with a wooden basket in her left hand. In the attire that she usually wore to adorn herself every time she went gardening, including gloves and a wide-brim hat, she continued picking herbs that she would air dry for tea and keep as a stock to warm the body and maintain health since autumn had arrived.

As the herbs that she wanted had been picked, Joanna washed them after removing her gloves and headed to the gazebo to tie green-leafy herbs and some flowering herbs into small bundles and hang them on the rope that she had installed in the pillar of the gazebo.

Feeling satisfied with the curtain of herbs hanging in line on the rope, Joanna stepped out of the gazebo and went to check if the herbs that she had put to dry under the sun since the morning had been dried.

Once she stood in front of the rack, on which lay three wide, round bamboo-woven trays filled with the herbs that were spread evenly so that they would not lay on each other, which would delay the drying process, Joanna gathered them and collected the three different kinds of dry herbs to be placed separately on the wooden stacked container.

Turning around as she had to head back to the gazebo, where she would grind and keep the dry grounded herbs in the porcelain jars for ready-to-drink tea, Joanna took an abrupt halt in her tracks when she caught a sight of someone standing under the shade of a silver birch tree.