Chapter 7 Please Forgive Me

As soon as Harper returned to her yard, her maid, Nina, rushed to her anxiously. "What happened, My Lady? You went to deliver the baby of General Maxwell's concubine yesterday. Lady Sue had us locked in the house and didn't allow me to go out. Are you all right?"

Seeing the concern in the maid's eyes, Harper let out a weak smile and said, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure, My Lady?" asked Nina. Nina helped Harper enter her room and poured her a cup of warm water. Harper drank some water and started to look better.

Harper looked up at Nina with a wry smile. "Nina, you have suffered a lot."

"Why are you talking like that, My Lady? What's wrong?" Nina held Harper's hand and shuddered. She looked at Harper's face and asked, "Your hand is so cold. Did Lady Sue scold you?"

Harper shook her head. She was grounded by Charles. Sue and her daughter definitely would seize such a good opportunity. After she had lost her position in the Imperial Academy of Medicine and was rejected by Hansen, they would take advantage of her weak moment and try to kill her by all means. At this moment, the only person who could save her was Mavis, her grandmother.

Harper turned towards Nina and gritted her teeth as she wrote something on her palm carefully. Nina was surprised, but she remained silent. She looked at the handwriting carefully and nodded.

"Just go out secretly so that no one sees you. Remember, your attitude must be sincere when you tell her that I am truly wrong." Harper then went into her room and took out a book of Buddhist sutras she had transcribed. She handed it to Nina and said, "And one more thing. Remember to be as quick as possible. I'm afraid I don't have much time left now."

Nina was too frightened to say a word, but she understood the great significance of the task she was asked to complete. After Nina left, Harper called in another maid. "Anabel, did Lady Sue give you some hard time yesterday?" she asked.

"No, My Lady. Lady Sue didn't do anything to make things difficult for us. She just locked the door and didn't allow anyone of us to go out," Anabel answered respectfully. Although Harper was a little dominating, she was never harsh to her maids.

"My father grounded me. We can't go out of this place for a long time." Harper let out a pale smile. "Tell others to be careful and not to provoke them."

"My Lady, why did His Lord ground you?" 'Although His Lord has a preference for Lady Hailey and Lady Felicia, I don't understand why he decided to ground Lady Harper. Lady Harper will be the wife of Prince Kevin's heir in future. It's not wise to offend Prince Kevin, ' Anabel thought to herself.

"Because Hansen has called off our engagement, and I have also lost my position in the Imperial Academy of Medicine," Harper explained with a wry smile. "You'll have a tough time being my maid."

"How could His Highness call off the engagement? This marriage was proposed and agreed upon even before the two of you were born! My Lady, what should we do now?" Anabel became unsettled to hear that. She knew it very well that it would be difficult for Harper to find a husband in the future after Hansen called off the engagement.

"Just stop it now. Gather everyone here. I have something to tell." Harper took a deep breath, hoping that she could put up with it and buy some time for Nina to bring back Mavis. Otherwise, she would die.

Soon, Anabel gathered all the maids here. Harper addressed them and made them aware of her current situation. She told them that she had been grounded by Charles and that she had even lost her position in the Imperial Academy of Medicine.

"Now that you know my situation very well, you can understand that there is no future for you if you continue to follow me. If you are willing to leave my place, I will give you two taels of silver. If you are willing to stay, I won't treat you harshly. My father doesn't like me, and I believe I'll live a hard life from now on. Is there anyone who wants to leave?" Harper ended her speech and looked at her maids, waiting for them to answer.

As soon as she finished speaking, a sudden silence befell the hall. All maids exchanged looks with each other. Harper was the daughter of Charles' first wife, who had passed away. She had two first-class maids, two second-class maids, two third-class maids, three cleaning maids, and a nanny.

After a while, the three cleaning maids and the nanny stepped out together. They came to serve Harper only because she was going to marry Hansen, the heir of Prince Kevin. Now that Hansen had called off the engagement and Harper was even fired from the Imperial Academy of Medicine, she would never have a chance to regain her status. Needless to say, it was useless for them to serve her anymore.

"Anabel, give them the money and let them leave."

"Yes, My Lady." Anabel followed Harper's instruction and gave each of them two taels of silver. The four of them packed their belongings quickly and left the Emerald House. Harper looked at the rest of the maids and asked, "Is there anyone else who wants to leave?"

"I'm sorry, My Lady. I can't serve you anymore. Please forgive me." Two second-class maids knelt down immediately and kowtowed to Harper. Anabel opened her mouth to say something, but she was stopped by Harper. She instructed Anabel to give them the money and let them go.

"And? What about the two of you? Are you not planning to leave?" Harper looked at the two third-class maids who were standing silently with their heads bowed down. One of them was Enya and the other was Elsie.

"My Lady, I am willing to serve you." Both of them, then, knelt and kowtowed to Harper. "You have always been nice to us, My Lady. Now that you are in trouble, we will not leave you!"

Harper nodded with satisfaction. Although the former owner of this body was dominating, fortunately, she had some loyal maids by her side. "Since you've decided to stay, I have something to say. As my maids, you don't need to be clever or eloquent, but you must be loyal. If anyone is ever proved to be disloyal, then she will face extreme consequences. Do you still want to serve me after hearing this?"

Enya and Elsie looked at each other and answered decisively, "Yes."

Sue was well aware of what was going on in the Emerald House, but she did not comment.

"Mother, this is a good chance!" Felicia said.

"Yeah, this indeed is a good chance," Sue said with a sneer. "Felicia, Harper has given you such a good marriage, and you should go and thank her."

Felicia raised her eyebrows and smiled, "Of course I should thank her. Had it not been for her, I could have had the chance to marry His Highness!"

"Go ahead then. Your father will be in my room tonight."

"All right." Felicia nodded. After that, she left.

At dusk, Felicia visited Harper with some food. As soon as Harper saw her, she knew that Sue and Felicia couldn't wait any longer. They didn't want to spare a single day to get rid of her. After that, they could prove her death to be a suicide following her rejection by Hansen. In this way, Sue and Felicia could remove the biggest hurdle from their path as well as protect the good name of the Chu Clan.

"Hi, Harper. I brought you some food." Felicia's maid put the dishes on the table. Harper squinted as she looked at the food with suspicion. 'Has she come here to poison me?' If Harper got Poisoned, Mavis would look into it. Felicia would not dare to do such a thing.

"What are you doing here?" Harper ignored her gesture and asked. Felicia was very cunning. She had been flirting with Hansen for such a long time without a single person coming to know about it.

Felicia poured a bowl of soup for Harper and said politely, "I know that you are not happy since His Highness has proposed to me. But please don't be mad at me. It was His Highness's decision, and Father has agreed to it as well. You know it very well that neither you nor I have the audacity to disobey him. I come here to apologize to you. Will you forgive me?"

Harper frowned and refused the soup offered by Felicia. She knew both Sue and Felicia too well to trust them to be nice to her. She was aware that she came in their away. Now that she had hit the lowest point in her life, how could Felicia possible come to see her and apologize to her?

"What trick are you trying to play?" Harper asked in a cold voice.

"Trick! What are you saying? Are you afraid that I will poison you?" Felicia's voice was choked with sobs as if she was deeply hurt by Harper's allegations. She then took a sip of the bowl herself. "Harper, trust me. I'm sincerely apologizing to you. Please forgive me."

Harper could still not rest assured. She could not believe that Felicia would be so nice. She winked at Anabel, who gave her a pair of silver chopsticks immediately. Felicia bit her lip but remained quiet. She sat down to have dinner with Harper.

"You really made me sad. I came to see you out of kindness, but you suspected that I was going to poison you," Felicia said in a sad voice. "Harper, His Highness wants to marry me, which is also very surprising for me. You cannot force him into a relationship with you. Even if I want to give him back to you, I'm afraid that he won't agree!"

Harper was suspicious, but she didn't show it. "There is no need for that. I don't like such a fickle and lascivious man anyway."

Felicia was stunned to hear that. She had thought that Harper would react violently and make a scene out of anger when she said that. But she didn't expect that Harper would have such an indifferent attitude. 'Doesn't she love Hansen anymore?' she thought to herself.

'No way! She has done so many things and made a joke out of herself for Hansen. Now, how could she give up so easily? I don't think so.'

"Harper, I can understand your state of mind, but His Highness is not fickle-"

"Fickle and lascivious. A perfect match for you." Harper let out a cold smile. "I was already disappointed with him. It was good for him to call off the engagement, which saved a lot of trouble for me. But I never expected you to fall for such a man. Quite an eye-opener for me."

"Harper..." Felicia called out as Harper's words pierced her heart like a sharp arrow. She had never believed that Harper would really let go of Hansen so easily. Now that she knew that she was unable to irritate Harper anymore, she had to find out some other way.

Harper was indeed on guard against Felicia. Felicia used to play such cunning tricks to create a rift between her and Hansen. But Harper managed to pull that off only because she truly loved Hansen. However, at the moment, she didn't love him anymore. Rather, she hated him. So she was not angry at Felicia's words. Instead, she was eager to see what Felicia was going to do next.