Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 217: Fatigue

Anne slept a lot that day, her body felt like it was made of lead, every limb, every muscle and every cell seemed to weigh a ton making it very difficult for her to want to get out of bed, her eyes felt incredibly heavy, her mind seemed to be overshadowed by a dense fog where she couldn’t think straight, and all she wanted to do was sleep and keep sleeping endlessly. Thankfully it was a rest day from work, so Anne didn’t force herself to get out of bed after laying in it.

It was exactly as Shawn said, the feeling of fatigue made her extremely weak.

When someone knocked on her door, Anne barely heard it, she snuggled further under the blankets covering her face hoping no one would attempt to wake her up. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Mistress, it’s time for breakfast." The person called from the outside. It was a female voice and in Anne’s hazy memory she recognized that voice to be Razia.

At the mention of food, her stomach growled inaudibly. She indeed felt extremely hungry this morning, but then weighing between how tired she was feeling and how hungry she was, she would much rather stay in bed.

"Thank you Razia, I’ll have breakfast later." Anne called out hoping her voice was loud enough for the woman to hear outside.

"Yes mistress, but are you feeling okay?" Razia asked in a tone of concern. She had seen the doctor come in today and since he had not been here to see the master, he was most likely here to check on Anne.

"I’m fine Razia." She heard the woman mumble again from inside the bedroom and she sighed and stepped back.

The toughest times of pregnancy were the early months, one’s body had to slowly begin to get accustomed to growing another life, at the same time trying to survive. It was a lot for a woman’s body to handle, yet women bravely carry the weight till the very end.

The later parts of pregnancy weren’t any easy either, the weight became heavier, the hormones toyed with the mind, and for a young woman being pregnant for the first time, Razia could only sigh in pity for her.

"Please call me if you need anything mistress." Razia left these words before turning back to head downstairs.

Every young woman would do perfectly with a mother’s guidance when they’re in this phase of life, having an older figure who has experienced the exact same thing multiple times or even just once can be reassuring, it was a pity the mistress no longer had a mother in her life. In cases like these if the husband still had his mother, it would be a bit easier, especially if the mother in law was kind and genuinely cared for her daughter in law, but the master was exactly the same as well.

In such a situation, only the husband could be there for his wife. There have been rumors among the staff that it wasn’t a love marriage between them, hence the couple kept a strict distance from one another.

Some of the maids have sworn they witnessed the master carrying the mistress in his arms and whispering sweet words to her ears, others swore they saw him walk past her disdainfully as if she weren’t his wife at all. Others have also said that the master had never gone into the mistress’s bedroom to spend a night with her, if he were a man who loved his wife he would not even stand the thought of sleeping in separate bedrooms. There were some who swore they had seen the mistress lovingly feeding her husband around the time he had gotten injured, something all the staff had been forced to sign a non disclosure agreement not to reveal.

All these speculations led to conflicting gossips among the staff, some of the maids created weird narratives of a one night mistake that led to pregnancy hence the master had no choice but to marry her.

Others said the master might secretly like her, otherwise he would have forced her to get rid of the child if he had no feelings for her at all rather than marrying her.

In the end, the marital affair of the couple was a big time gossip topic among the staff, and all of it made Razia feel even more sorry for Anne.

Razia came to the breakfast table where several other maids had served the master’s breakfast but he didn’t touch his food, when he heard approaching footsteps his usually indifferent eyes snapped towards the entrance of the dining room.

The man’s sudden gaze in the woman’s direction made her feel nervous immediately. Most of the staff in the manor were wary I not extremely frightened of the master’s presence, his gaze was always sharp and direct, indifferent in a way that made him unapproachable, and whenever his mood was off and his eyes turned cold, one would freeze up without being able to utter a word.

Razia felt that way until she noticed his gaze wasn’t cold or indifferent this time but it seemed to be holding a strange light of expectation, the woman hadn’t even gotten accustomed to seeing such a strange look in his eyes when that expectation suddenly dampened the minute he saw that no one else was coming in behind her.

"Where is she?" He shot the question in Razia’s direction, his displeasure evident in his chilly voice and the older woman was taken aback at first that he was actually asking about his wife. And it seemed he had been waiting for her too since he didn’t touch a single meal on his plate.

Actually, Razia was one of the people in the manor who leaned towards the side that argued the master didn’t care much for his wife. She knew what a loving husband looked like and she had never seen that type of gentleness in master Andrew before. She was surprised he had noticed she was the one who went up to call the mistress down to come have breakfast when normally he wouldn’t seem to care at all.

"Mistress says she’ll eat later." She informed respectfully while subtly taking a peek at his face to see how he would react to his wife not willing to eat.

His expression darkened subtly and he glanced down at the food in front of him distastefully.

"Pack up her food and take it upstairs, she can eat in her room." He ordered and immediately stood up from his seat like someone who had completely lost interest in having his own meal.

"What about your breakfast master?" Razia dared to ask as she noticed him about to leave the dining room, his mood seemed entirely different from what it was earlier after he had stepped into the dining room.

"I’ve lost my appetite." He said dryly striding away decisively.

Razia stared at his back as he walked away feeling the urge to say something but held back.

Half an hour later, after completing a short meeting with a business acquaintance, Andrew hung up the call and threw his head back against the swiveling chair in his study room.

The guilt about her condition was sinking in heavily through his chest.

He reached out and pushed a button on his desk, ringing for one of the manor staff. In a few minutes, someone knocked on the door of his study.

"Come in."

A maid he somewhat recognized walked into the study, her stance trained and professional.

"Has she eaten her breakfast?" He asked straightforwardly.

"Not yet master."

His brows creased and he stood up immediately, striding right past the maid out of his study.

The maid looked curious where he might be heading to, hoping to get a hint of gossip on the couple’s relationship which she would share with the others at the staff quarters later that night.