Try Begging - Chapter 147.1
Anyway, because of that damned clown show at the palace, Leon had spent a week in the capital and was now on his way back. He couldn’t remember a thing about the ceremony, the palace, or even the look in the king’s eyes.
During the endlessly boring ceremony in a hall filled with countless people, he was lost in disgraceful thoughts.
Would that woman be listening to the radio broadcast somewhere? Surely, she would see his picture in the newspapers. Every now and then, he suffered the urge to scan the crowd for a face he knew wouldn’t be there.
Knock, knock.
Suddenly, the sound of knocking on the door of the adjacent compartment echoed through the wall. The relentless voice that had been going on for hours there abruptly stopped.
Soon after, someone knocked on the door of his compartment.
“Your Excellency.”
The door, guarded by soldiers from outside, opened to reveal his assistant, Pierce.
“We are approaching Winsford Central Station. For your safety, please wait to disembark until after all other passengers have exited…”
Leon, already tired of the familiar drill, waved Pierce off and turned his head towards the window. After a moment’s hesitation, Pierce left and closed the door.
As the train slowed down, the gray platform came into view.
Soldiers sent from headquarters for protection were lined up on the platform. As the train halted, several of them ran towards his compartment. While the soldiers guarded the door of Earl Winston’s compartment, the platform filled with bustling passengers getting on and off.
About ten minutes later, the sound of a whistle and the doors of other compartments shutting rang out simultaneously. Only then did a soldier politely knock before the Earl made his appearance.
Following Jerome down, Elizabeth pursed her lips tightly, a habit when she was displeased.
Having opted to travel alone in the adjacent compartment for work reasons, Leon was already outside on the platform.
‘That boy doesn’t even know how to be a gentleman and hold his mother’s hand… Military men.’
She lost a moment that could have been perfect for a photo where she would be getting off the train while holding his eldest son’s hand, now an Earl, by the photographers gathering on the platform and published in tomorrow’s paper.
Elizabeth was noticeably upset as she had been secretly hoping for such a coincidence.
Unaware of her dismay, her son Leon stood alone, enveloped in the flashes of cameras. What was he thinking? His attention wasn’t on the cameras but elsewhere.
Missing Person.
The words gripped Leon’s gaze, unable to look away. On the platform’s pillar, next to a flier soliciting information on the remnants of the Blanchard rebels, was a missing person poster.
Late twenties. Turquoise eyes. A small mole under the left eye. Slender. Pregnant, due in May.
Posters seeking the woman were plastered on every pillar.
It was a kingdom-wide effort, so intense that it was as if the flyers had been scattered everywhere. Though personal missing person posters adorned the streets, military checkpoints and ports bore official bulletins from Army Headquarters, anticipating she might attempt to flee to her aunt abroad.
Sooner rather than later.
Based on the leadership’s testimonies, they had estimated the amount the woman had stolen from the vault. It was money that would run out in a few months if she was on the run alone without any support. And by late spring, she would need a substantial sum.
That was why even pawn shops, jewelers, and black market dealers had been alerted.
Not for the woman, but for a ring.
It was calculated that the pregnant woman, unable to travel far due to her condition, would likely try to sell the ring Leon had given her to fund her childbirth expenses. By tightening the net around the area and thoroughly searching hospitals and maternity wards, they hoped to capture her.
Leon, his eyes fixed on the word ‘turquoise’ on the poster, silently warned the woman in his thoughts.
You know it’s only a matter of months before you’re caught. Quit the unnecessary hardship. Stop your stubbornness and come back quietly.
He pondered whether she was scared of the punishment he might inflict, and it was what kept her in hiding. Perhaps he should have written a kind word or two on the flier.
Even in moments usually ripe for mockery, Leon’s face was just hard and expressionless.
By now, a month after her disappearance, her belly would be more pronounced, and the physical burden of her pregnancy heavier.
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