Something Beautiful

Chapter - 33

Lisa had nightmares all night until she suddenly woke up and rolled on her back in bed, trying to escape the dream. In his dream he stood in the courtyard of a church surrounded by hundreds of tombstones, on each tombstone was listed the name of his father, grandfather or husband.

When he tried to open his eyes, his eyelids felt very heavy like iron ballast, but when he managed to open his eyes, he hoped not to open them. His head was pounding as if a hammer was buried in it, and the sunlight coming through the window made his eyes ache. Squinting, he turned his face away from the sunlight, his eyes turning to the figure of a thin woman wearing a black uniform, blemished in white and wearing a hat, who slept on a chair beside his bed. The waiter, Lisa thought grimly.

"Why are you here?" lisa asked in a weak and raucous voice that she barely recognized as her own. The room maid stayed asleep while snoring a little. Lisa lifted her throbbing head from the pillow. Confused he saw the nightstand next to him, there was a spoon and glass lying beside a bottle.

"What's that?" the question is, this time harder than it was.

The tired waiter woke up, saw Lisa's eyes open and jumped out of her chair. "Sleeping pills, My Lady, your doctor says you should eat once you're sober. I'll bring you some food and come back soon."

Too sleepy to understand all that, Lisa lets her heavy eyelids close. When he opened his eyes again he saw a tray of food beside the bed, and the sun was already leaning towards the west. It was late afternoon, Lisa thought, feeling confused and gamy, yet fresh.

The roomkeeper this time did not sleep, the woman was watching Lisa anxiously. "Geez, you sleep like a dead man!" she said, then covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes widened in fear.

Lisa glanced at the woman curiously, then in an awkward gesture tried to sit down so that the maid could put a tray on her lap. On the breakfast tray, as usual, was placed a red rose and a newspaper folded in half.

"Why am I taking sleeping pills?" lisa asked, annoyed that her voice was mumbling and she could not concentrate fully.

"Because the doctor said you should give it."

Lisa frowned cluelessly, then she automatically asked the same question she had asked every morning since she arrived at this house. "Has Sir Choi come to..." Pain melanda and he groaned bitterly as his mind began to work and remembered the last visit of Scoups last Tuesday. He shook his dizzy head, trying to shake off the shadows that flashed on his head, voices that said, "I sadly told him that all the crew on the ship had not been found.... Hurry up, get the doctor.... The authorities have been informed.... Will take her to bed...."

"No!" Lisa screamed and turned her face away from the waiter, but the newspaper remained on her lap. He stared at the boldly printed headline on the front page.

"What's up, My Lady?" What say?" asked the frightened waiter, staring cluelessly at the writing he could not read because he had never learned to read.

Lisa sadly understood every word. The newspaper said that Mingyu Kim had died.

Lisa dropped her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes, oblivious to everything around her except the agonizing pain of her mind.

"Oh, Your Grace, I don't mean to make you sad," said the waiter in a word as he quietly********* his own hand. "I'll call a doctor. Her Grace had already been taken to bed, she was so sick that the doctor did not dare to leave her..."

That last sentence slowly entered Lisa's mind. "I'll see him in a moment" he said to the bewildered servant.

"Oh no, Your Grace, you yourself are also sick, after all it is useless. Will said, Her Grace won't talk... Can't speak. He didn't recognize anyone, he just stared blankly."

Lisa's sadness soon turned to anxiety, and regardless of the servant's protest, she swung her legs to the side of the bed, held the bedpost so as not to stagger, and put on her bedroom robe.

When Lisa knocked on the door of the grandmother's bedroom, the doctor opened the door and stepped into the corridor. "How is he doing?" ask Lisa worriedly.

The doctor nodded. "Not good, not good at all. He was no longer young and was in great shock. Her Grace did not eat or talk and just lay there, staring into the distance."

Lisa nodded, recalling her mother's behavior when her father's mistress came to their home shortly after Lisa's father died. His mother was also lying in bed, not eating or talking, and not being comforted by anyone. When his mother finally came out of the cage she made herself, she was already not the same as before. It was as if grief and grief were still piled up inside his chest, messing with his thoughts.

"Of course not! Women who have a status like Her Grace will not cry. As Will and I have always told him, he has to be strong and see his bright side. After all, he still had one more grandson, so this title would not fall into the hands of others."

Lisa's gaze that had been low on the doctors, this time became even lower as she stared at the heartless arrogant man in front of her.

"I'd like to see him, please excuse me."

"Try to comfort her" said the doctor, unaware of the sour expression on Lisa's face. "Don't talk about Mingyu."

Lisa walked into the dark room and her heart beat hard with pity and dismay to see the normally healthy and feisty woman lying with her body propped up by a pillow, looking like a ghost. Under her white hair, the grandmother's face looked as white as cotton and her eyes were as pale as they glazed with sadness, and looked sunken and dark. Her eyes showed no sign of recognizing Lisa as she walked in front of the woman's bed, then sat down next to her bed.

Frightened, Lisa reached out and grabbed the hand of the bluish-tinted grandmother, who was now lying weakly on the cream-colored bed cover. "Oh, ma'am, you can't go on like this" he whispered in a soft, soulful voice, his eyes begging the grandmother to listen.

"You can't be like this. Mingyu wouldn't like to see you like this."

When there was no reaction at all, Lisa's despair increased and she squeezed the fragile hand tightly. "Don't you know how amazed he is at your spirit and your stubbornness? Do you know that? I know, because he's always been proud of me."

Those pale eyes were flinching. Unsure whether the grandmother listened to him, or did not believe his words, or did not care, Lisa increased her efforts to convince the woman.

"That's right. I remember that incident well. After the wedding ceremony we were preparing to leave Rosemeade, and she asked where you were. I told her you were upstairs and I was afraid you were devastated by our marriage. She smiled at me, you know, not one of her special smiles, that made us want to smile back? Then you know what he said?"

The grandmother remained silent.

"Say," said Lisa stubbornly, "It takes more than just our marriage to make my grandmother fall ill. My grandmother could subdue Napoleon by herself and if she had beaten him all out, Napoleon would have begged him to forgive for fighting with us. He said it exactly like that..."

The grandmother's eyes were closed, Lisa's heart stopped beating, but before long two tears slowly flowed down her pale cheeks, Lisa knew tears were a good sign, and he eagerly continued, "He knows you are brave and strong, and faithful. From what he told me, I don't think he believes women can be loyal, except you.'

The grandmother opened her eyes and looked at Lisa with a pleading and incredulous look.

Lisa put her hand on the sad woman's cheek, trying even harder to convince her that she was telling the truth, but his self-control quickly began to waver so much that he could barely speak.

"That's right. She was sure you would be loyal to her, she said even if you didn't approve of our marriage, you would torture people who dared to criticize me, just because I bear the name Mingyu."

Tears floated in those pale eyes and now began to flow down profusely on the cheeks of the grandmother and Lisa's fingers. The next few minutes of silence, the grandmother gulped with difficulty, then looked at Lisa's face. In a soft voice he asked, "Did Hawk really say that, about Napoleon?"

Lisa nodded and tried to smile, but the grandmother's next words made her tears flow and drip from her eyelashes.

"Do you, I love that child more than my own?" the woman sobbed. Raising her hand, the grandmother wrapped her hand around Lisa's body, who was also crying but trying hard to comfort her and pull her closer.

"Lisa" she said sobbing, "I never told her I loved her. And now it's too late."

Throughout the rest of the day and the days that followed, Lisa continued to be with her grandmother, who seemed to want to constantly chat about her grandson, Mingyu Kim, because now the wall of the grief barrier had collapsed.