The General's Wife Wants to Leave
Chapter 67: Sharp spines that hurt one’s hand

Chapter 67: Sharp spines that hurt one’s hand

Directing her eyes at the hand on her wrist, Joanna could only sigh.

There was no way he would let go of her hand even if she protested, as they would likely end up arguing, while he would reason that she might run away again as she was now out of the deep forest and Barasca knights were with her.

Wasting no more time, as they should quickly return to the orphanage to attend to two sick people now, she made her way toward the purple flower-headed herb that she had failed to obtain before, hand in hand with the General, who still wore a wide smile on his lips.

When the herb was within her reach, Joanna, whose left hand was not free as it was still in the hold of the General, who was not willing to play hide and seek with her, tried to pick the herb with her only one free hand. However, it was not easy, as she had to be careful due to the stiff and sharp spines on the surface of the herbs.

At such difficulty, Joanna turned to look at the General, but before she was able to ask for him to let go of her hand, she was taken by surprise as she found him staring at her.

Since when did he stare at her? Should he act like that, keeping an eye on her so that she would not escape? Didn’t he know that his grip alone was hard to be broken by a weak woman like her? Joanna wondered in her mind.

Bracing herself to not retreat from the intense gaze stubbornly aimed at her, Joanna cleared her throat before saying, "Can you please let go of my hand, Sir Canillas? I need to pick these plants." Joanna pointed at the purple-flowered herbal plants that grew as tall as her knee in front of them.

Canillas turned his head to look down at the herbs at which she pointed. "These purple flowers?" Canillas asked curtly, nudging his head toward the herbs. And he saw his wife give a nod as the answer.

Then, Canillas bent over. With his free hand, he grabbed a handful of stalks of the herbal plants that were wanted by his wife and pulled them out to the roots in only one move.

That action did not fail to cause Joanna to open her eyes wide and hold her breath. He plucked them with his bare hand. Didn’t he know that the sharp spines would hurt his hand?

Before she recovered from her astonishment, her vision was suddenly filled with the swaying purple-flowered herbs. "Is this enough? Do you need more?" the General asked, taking the herbs into her sight and moving them to and fro with a swaying motion when he noticed his wife to be in a daze.

Joanna wanted to ask if his hand was fine, but she refrained as she did not want to make the General mistakenly think that she cared and was worried about him, thinking that she had changed her mind from her initial intention.

Roughly counting the number of flowers on the herbs that had been pulled out, Joanna shook her head. "No, it is more than enough. Thank you," replied Joanna in a feeble voice, with her eyes fixated on the hand that was grabbing the herbs.

"What else do you need?" Canillas inquired, lowering the herbs in his hand to his side.

As the objects disappeared from her sight, Joanna lifted her head to look at Canillas. She answered, "I need one more herb, but it is not here. It is in the outer part of the forest."

At Joanna’s reply, Canillas said, "Then, let’s get out of here. We need to treat Luca as soon as possible." With that having been said, they moved back to the location where their people were waiting for them.

On their way in the direction of the others, Joanna felt the grip on her wrist loosen, but before she felt relieved as she thought that he had finally let go of her, she was surprised when he held her hand before intertwining their fingers.

Upon another intimate action she received from him out of the blue today, Joanna wriggled her hand, attempting to be free from the grasp this time. But to her dismay, the man beside her was again unwilling to let her go.

"Let go of m..."

"Shhh!! Keep on walking ahead," Canillas demanded in a hushed tone, cutting off her words of protest. He did not offer her a look, as he had his face forward while slightly pulling her to keep up his hastened pace.

Instead of keeping on rebelling, Joanna quickly obeyed this time. She recognized this kind of urgent action as it reminded her of what had happened in the deep forest when he pushed her to hide behind the tree and covered her mouth with his hand.

A curiosity grew inside her, suddenly wanting to prove that her guess about his current behavior was not a false presumption.

She was about to turn her head to see behind them, as she wanted to check whether those mysterious people who seemed to target her in the deep forest were there. However, before Joanna managed to completely turn her head to look behind them, she straightened her head back to look ahead as she heard the voice of the man beside her.

"Don’t look back! Keep on walking ahead!" commanded Canillas in a whisper, tightening his grip on her fingers and pulling her to walk faster.

And that action was enough to prove that her guess was right. Those people who sought after her in the deep forest were behind them now.

Anxiety rose inside Joanna. Why did they look so adamant about getting her? What did they want from her?

The presence of those mysterious people had disturbed her mind since they were in the deep forest. She had not got the exact answer yet, but she could not agree with the simple thought that could be developed in order to ease one’s mind that their intention was simple, that they just trespassed the forest to only pass by and would go later if they did not get what they searched for.

Based on the fact that they had brought the wolves with them, which might be intended to separate her from her attendants, it was enough to imply the whole situation that they were not good people as they put someone’s life in danger.

Looking at the man, who had his jaw clenched and his eyes sharply straight forward, as he walked next to her, she knew that he should have the answer she needed, as there was no way he looked as tense as he was now if he did not know who they were and what their intention was.

Different from when they were in the deep forest, she could only look at his side profile now, but she could depict in her mind how he looked from the front, as she still remembered his calm yet serious demeanor when they were hiding behind the large tree.

She once again felt fortunate that she was not alone in picking up the herbs that were now gripped in his other hand, which might have been hurt by their sharp spines.

As she had her eyes on him with many questions and guesses playing in her head, Joanna shuddered when she suddenly met his eyes as the General suddenly turned to look at her, and she had her heart skip a beat when she saw him smile at her. There was no mischief in there, as he had mostly displayed to her.

It was a soothing smile this time.

"Later. I will tell you later." It was the only word he said, as if knowing the meaning of her quizzical look.

Joanna nodded her head, understanding his attempt to console her.

---

A few meters away, behind the General and his wife, there were indeed lurking shadows, like predators eyeing their prey. And their prey was none other than the young noble lady of the de Lara.

"We lost her," said one of the lurking shadows.

"It is your fault to be easily deceived by such a cheap set-up," the other shadow responded in annoyance.

"Who would ever think the trace I found didn’t belong to that woman?" The lurking shadow who first spoke uttered a defensive reason.

"Stop both of you!" Another shadow with a deep, husky voice snapped. "Blaming each other while you two were to blame is indeed useless!"

"Owl is right," another voice joined. "You two are in the wrong. How can you let such a flawless beauty escape just like that?" He clicked his tongue before slipping out a chuckle.

"It is because of that man!" responded one of the two who was at fault with a hateful tone of voice, refusing to be blamed.

"You are right, Worm. You and that man are to blame." The previously chuckling man chuckled again after uttering that word. He then continued to say, "That’s why, to pay for your mistake, you need to distract him, to make him away from that beautiful lady. Don’t you think that it will be a waste for such an alluring lady to be devoured by that trashy man?" He clicked his tongue, weighing with disgust.

"Stop it, Shark! Don’t you ever dare repeat the trouble that you did before! Try to hold back your beastie nature!" The lurking shadow, called Owl, warned with a stern voice, glaring at the man beside him, whose stature was shorter than his.

At the warning that was shot at him, he replied, "I wish I could, brother." An indecipherable smile spread across his face as he had his eyes planted on every move made by the so-called alluring, beautiful lady who walked further away from them with the trashy man beside her.