After the judges announced the punishment for Ellena Greystorm, Mars let Kira handle everything as she see fit. He just focused on his wife who started showing terrible symptoms after she passed her first trimester.
Emmelyn vomited most of the food she ate and even Bruinen's potions no longer worked to help her with body aches. She became weak and took a lot of rest in their chamber. Fortunately, her appetite was still good and she ate voraciously each time.
So, even though she would vomit some of the food she took, at least she could always eat more. Harlow started spending a lot of time with the Greenan boys at their home, or they would come to the palace to study and play together.
They couldn't do much outdoors, because the temperature had gone down really low. The weather outside by the end of autumn had become gloomier by the day and snow was expected to come by next week.
Mars had renamed the palace where his family resided as Wintermere Palace because he had ordered the gardeners to plant Wintermere flowers around it before he left for Summeria. And soon, when winter came, he hoped those flowers could warm his wife's heart.
He knew it was Emmelyn's favorite flowers and she loved it when he brought those flowers all the way from their native location and asked the gardeners to plant them in their castle yard.
However, now that they had moved to the royal palace, Mars thought it would be nice for Emmelyn to see the Wintermere flowers every day from her window. He didn't want her to travel to their old home just to see them.
Another thing that Emmelyn didn't know was that Mars actually ordered the ministry of environment to plant the flowers everywhere in the capital. That way, when Emmelyn went out of the royal palace, she would be pleasantly surprised to see her favorite flower was blooming everywhere.
He wouldn't tell her though. He wanted it to be a surprise when she decided to go somewhere, perhaps, like visiting Queen Elara, or doing a shopping therapy in the town center as she did in her previous pregnancy.
"How are you feeling?" Mars asked Emmelyn after he gave her a back massage for over half an hour. "Are you still feeling nausea?"
Emmelyn was closing her eyes and was in a state of bliss because she was feeling so relaxed. The gentle massage on her back and her upper arm felt so good and for a moment she forgot her surrounding.
"Eh?" She opened one eye.
"I asked if you are still feeling nausea," Mars asked softly. "Were you sleeping just now?"
Emmelyn closed her eye and again. "The nausea is gone but now I am really hungry. Gosh… this is awful. I feel like a pig who is always hungry. Haven't I eaten seven times today? And it's only 2 pm. This baby is a glutton."
Mars chuckled when he heard her complain. He remembered during her first pregnancy, Emmelyn also ate a lot and always blamed their baby for being a glutton.
However, now that he thought about it again, this time, in this second pregnancy, her appetite was much much bigger than the last time. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, she also vomited her food. So, she didn't gain so much weight.
"It's okay, honey… our cooks are happy to make food for you. What do you want to eat this time?" Mars replied without any change of attitude. His nimble hands still massaged her back gently.
Emmelyn furrowed her brows and thought about many different dishes. Then, she turned around and said, "Perhaps, I can eat a slice of apple pie. I should limit my food intake. I have eaten too much."
"Okay."
"So, just one apple pie."
"Understood."
"Well.. maybe I can eat a little pork stew after the pie."
"Noted."
"Wait… before the pie, perhaps, I can have some soup?"
"Got it."
"And several slices of melon."
Mars chuckled as he motioned a maid who was standing in the corner of the room, ready to receive order anytime from the monarchs. He raised an eyebrow and asked the maid, "Can you memorize this? Apple pie, pork stew, soup, and melon slices."
The maid nodded respectfully. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"Ah, don't forget the bread," Emmelyn reminded her husband. Mars nodded dotingly.
"Don't forget the bread," he told the maid.
The maid smiled and nodded to show that she understood the assignment. Emmelyn actually added two more dishes before she was done.
Once the order was complete, the maid immediately took her leave and went to the kitchen to inform the cooks about the king's order. The kitchen staff had all been wondering if the queen was pregnant because of her appetite.
However, none of them dared ask the king if their suspicion was true. They also knew they shouldn't talk about what happened in the royal palace to outsiders.
They were scared of John, the royal butler, who was strict with his job and had fired servants who couldn't keep a secret and gossiped about the royal family to outsiders.
"I feel so lazy…" Emmelyn touched Mars's hands on her back and then turned around to see her husband face to face. Her beautiful features looked especially more alluring than usual, and for a moment, the king was actually dumbfounded at seeing her beauty.
Perhaps it was the pregnancy glow, or the fact that Emmelyn was now happy and didn't have anything that worried her and made her sad.
After she found out the reason why she was cursed and went through so much, Emmelyn had made peace with the past. She no longer blamed her husband and his family for her misfortunes and for losing her family.
There was nothing she could do about the past, but she could do something in present to change her future. And that was exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with the people she loved, her husband, children, and friends, and never took them for granted.
She had lost so much time with them, and now she just wanted to make up for the lost time. She wanted to spend precious time with them and have a good life.
Mars really doted on her and spoiled her rotten. Just like today. He didn't flinch when Emmelyn asked to be fed, again, for the seventh time at only 2 pm.
His treatment of her made the wounds in her heart slowly recover and she felt so freaking happy every day, that secretly Emmelyn actually thought that maybe someday she could also forgive Jared Strongmoor and see her father-in-law again.
No matter what, without Jared Strongmoor, her beloved doting husband would never be born. So, Emmelyn could forgive Jared's crime for her husband's sake. But not so fast, she thought. Maybe give it several years.
Let Jared reap what he sow first. That was only fair.
"It's okay, honey. You are allowed to be lazy," Mars said. "You have worked so hard for so long. The journey that you took from Draec to Summeria, then Myreen, and then back to Draec must be so exhausting. Now it's time for you to rest and enjoy being pampered."
"Hmm…" Emmelyn nodded dreamily. "You are right."
"We will have snow soon," Mars said. "I can't wait to show you the Wintermere flowers I planted in the palace garden. They will look so beautiful."
"Yeah… I can't wait too…" Emmelyn said happily. "Oh, by the way, when will Ellena be sent to the forced labor camp?"
"Before winter," Mars said. "I let the judges handle the punishment. I don't want to deal with her again."
"So, it should be this week, no? I think next week is already winter."
"Yes, you are right." Mars raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to know?"
"No… I'm just wondering. I haven't seen Gewen all week," Emmelyn said. "Usually he is very tight with Harlow and would be around her anytime. But after the visit to prison, I haven't seen him much. Do you think he still has some regret or hard feeling that Ellena is punished for her crime? You know how much he and Ellena were very close in the past."
Mars thought about it too. Gewen didn't even want to see Ellena in prison at that time. He couldn't bring himself to see his childhood friend in that situation. And after that day, he went to Southberry with Kira and had not visited the palace at all.
Mars had not seen Gewen for weeks now. Did something happen to him? Was he feeling bad about Ellena's fate that he decided to stay away for a while until he could accept the reality that his childhood friend was going to spend her whole life as a slave?
"You are right. I haven't seen Gewen for a long time," Mars rubbed his chin. "However, I don't think it was because of Ellena. Perhaps… it had something to do with Kira?"
"Oh… I haven't seen Kira much either," Emmelyn looked at her husband deeply. "She said she needed to check in some people last week, and I had not heard from her again."
"I am sure she is fine," Mars immediately changed the subject because he actually knew where Kira was and didn't want to make his wife worry.
Kira was working with some thugs to rob Duke Preston's house and planted evidence that he paid people to help Ellena escape. This evidence would be used to charge him with treason and execute him.
Mars was a good king, but he was not shy from using some dirty methods if necessary when the enemy truly deserved such treatment. He had learned from experience how his trying to be righteous in the past had caused his wife to suffer so greatly.
Duke Preston managed to pressure him, together with his father, to chase Ememelyn and punish her for a crime she didn't commit just to appease them and the ministers. Mars would never forget it.
Now, he wouldn't be too righteous, especially when dealing with wicked people.. Experience had taught him well.
