Chapter 54: kremsburg

~Ian~

I reached Ivaris Central in no time, and the first thing I noticed was a large group of people surrounding something and a lot of commotion. I pushed my way through to find that Andrew was beaten to a pulp and my men were in a heated argument with a handful of commoners.

"What's going on here?" I helped Andrew off the floor and asked him.

"That woman in the barracks, she's Noah's accomplice."

"Which woman?"

"She's pregnant now. She ran after him while we were chasing him. I tried to stop her, but she concocted some cock and bull story and got me beaten."

"Where is she now? Did you hurt her?"

"She ran after him, that way." He pointed to the tracks.

"I saw her get into the train that left about twenty minutes back." Another one of my men told me.

I went to the ticket counter to ask which train she might have taken. Only two trains left in the last thirty minutes, one going to Arcadia and the other to Kremsburg, Caty's hometown, and Ivaris's last stop.

"Follow the path that Noah took and send a few men that way. You go to the checkpoint at the Arcadia borders and look for Nadia Varga when Westwood Express stops for inspection," I told my bodyguard.

It was highly unlikely that she had gone that way, but I wanted to make sure. Borders were still closed to home, and we have been checking everyone before letting them pass back and forth since yesterday evening.

"There are only five stops between here and Kremsburg. Get our men at every stop in between and search passengers that exit the station. Here are her pictures." I passed orders to more men and left for Kremsburg right after that.

It was around midnight when I reached Caty's town, about fifteen minutes before the train arrived, and talked to the officials there. We checked every person who got off the Mountbatten Express. There was no sign of Nadia. We waited for another hour and checked more trains that arrived. It looked like she didn't come this far.

She probably got off at the very next stop. I went back to Ivaris Central, and all my men's responses were negative. She didn't go East or North.

Was Andrew telling the truth? Where the fuck did Noah take her? She could be almost twenty weeks pregnant if the baby was mine. Was it safe for her to run at this time? I should have paid more attention to these details when Caty was talking to me.

After looking for Nadia all night with no luck, I stayed in Ivaris for two more days hunting for Noah since there was no other way to find Nadia anymore. We found two hideouts in the forest, but Noah wasn't in either of them. Andreas and I went to talk to the people Nadia stayed with until yesterday and thanked them in every way possible for taking care of her.

I looked into Noah/Barnekow's case more seriously after gathering information about his ties to Ivaris. I never paid much attention to these spies and their captures. Big mistake!

It was not my problem until today. Damian was their target, and my father didn't care to do anything either. I had Noah in the Arcadia prisons all this time, and I was looking for him all over the kingdom and around it until he escaped.

He was captured and thrown into prison the day he met me. Lydgate's case was reopened because of him. As I was looking through his prison record and life before joining the military, my stepmother came to talk to me about Nadia.

"What the fuck? Why would Nadia need cyanide? There is a limit to making up shit." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"It's true. Bella found it in her room along with the letter. But it's fake. She must have bought it from Lydgate along with her spy friends."

I went to Lydgate's lab to confirm.

"She used to buy an ointment for her grandfather. But one day, she wanted cyanide."

"How much volume do you sell?"

"Ten milliliters in each vial."

There were only a few drops left in that vial, which the Queen claimed to be Nadia's.

"When did she make this purchase?"

"Sometime in March. My apologies, I have started keeping records now."

I tried to recollect my conversation with Nadia. When I asked her how long she has known Noah, she didn't answer. Neither did she want to tell me how she met him. She said she met him when she was at her lowest. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? When and why was she so low?

Was she really involved with Noah and this whole spy thing more deeply than I would like to believe? His daughter seemed to be very attached to her and wanted to look for her with me.

Andreas told me about her weird behavior at the fair after Noah's daughter wandered off. She does not look like a person who would poison someone to death. Or would she? How much did I really know about her?

Every piece of evidence points to only one thing, that she's not innocent but deeply involved in whatever Noah was doing. She didn't write to me because she was in hiding. Noah's grandparents said they received two letters in April meant for Johann Barnekow, but I couldn't find them. Nadia had something to do with them as well.

**********

~Nadia~

"Are you lost?" An old man with a funny mustache asked me when I got out of the train.

I must have slept for over ten hours on the train until that cleaning person woke me up. My neck was stiff and my back was aching.

"Um... I don't know." I read the name of the place on the board near the platform.

"Are you from Sisadal? We have a lot of people trickling down from the mountains. You don't have to fear being sent back. This town welcomes everyone in these tough times despite the King's orders to close the borders. We are a kind of independent province run by the Hahn's."

"I just need a place to wash up."

"I am going to the Rescue Project Building. You can come with me. There will be food and shelter for the likes of you."

The likes of me? I looked at myself.

"No one plans on becoming homeless. It's been a tough year for a lot of us." He said and introduced me to his wife, who was tending to cattle, and we walked for about a mile to reach a giant enclosed structure.

What is this place? I looked around in amazement. There were over a hundred people on the farm, another twenty in the garden, several more in the orchards. The building interiors were even busier with noisy kitchens and scores of people helping with cooking, cleaning, and serving food to the countless people in a ginormous hall.

He introduced me to a man at the reception desk who gave me a register to fill in my information.

"I'm sorry, but I am not looking for charity. I just need a place to shower and eat some lunch, and I would like to pay for it."

"We don't accept money for food and shelter. You can contribute your bit by helping out anywhere in the building you like. We are not looking for donations either. We are well funded."

I planned on helping with a meal and leaving. Where do I want to go? Arcadia wasn't an option because of the baby. Neither did I want to go back to Noah's grandparents. I would never ever want to see Ian again and wouldn't want to be anywhere where there would be even the slightest chance of running into him.

I saw portraits of an old couple everywhere with a lot of philanthropic writings on the walls. The old woman in the picture had hazel eyes like someone I have met before. Even the name Hahn sounded familiar.

This place had a strange aura, a heartwarming feeling after reading all these nice words everywhere.

'When the sun rises tomorrow, some of you will be on your feet. Wait for the tough times to pass.'

What was supposed to be a stop for one meal and shower turned out to be a stay for over four months. I found my strength in a woman named Shirley Reyes. Her books were everywhere in the library. When I found out that she was the philanthropic couple's daughter, I stayed back to do my part until I figured out what to do with myself and the baby.

There were a lot of things I could help with, cooking, gardening, and accounting. I started as a bookkeeper and took over the entire accounts wing. Unlike my mother or Marley in the palace kitchens, my talent was welcomed here.

I left behind my real name and told everyone my pen name, Angela Novac. I started writing books on small-scale gardening and reached out to Shirley Reyes with not much hope that she would respond or help. But she proved me wrong. She sent me books on writing and stayed in touch with me as a friend with a lot of good advice. I never expected someone so rich and popular to be so humble.

By the time it was December, I made a few good friends, and more than a dozen people were awaiting my baby, which was due in less than a week. There was something else that I was awaiting eagerly; Shirley Reyes was visiting for the holiday party.

I put on the best dress I had and eagerly waited to see her in person. I have hated two people the most these past few months, Ian and Caty. And I had no clue how to react when my favorite woman Shirley turned out to be Caty.

"Oh, you stupid, stupid woman!" She threw my flower bouquet back at me and scolded me.