Chapter 14
Katherine looked at him, her leg burning with pain, and suddenly the whole thing felt so absurd that she almost laughed.
She shook her head, said nothing, and limped slowly back to her room.
Nicholas watched her leave, then looked down at the packed food in his hand.
In the end, he only sighed and hurried away.
Back in her room, Katherine found burn ointment and applied it herself.
Lila stood nearby crying.
“Mrs. Padilla, why do you keep doing this to yourself?”
Katherine spread the ointment gently over her blistering skin.
“I’m not wronging myself,” she said quietly. “It’ll be over soon.”
The next few days, she stayed in her little courtyard and focused on healing.
She ignored the stories spreading through the estate—how carefully Nicholas tended to Samantha, how he granted every little request, how he barely left her side.
Then one afternoon, while Katherine was reading by the window, she heard hurried footsteps and chaotic shouting outside.
“Careful! Get the doctor!”
“Watch the stairs!”
She looked up.
Through the half-open window, she saw servants carrying a man soaked in blood through the courtyard toward the main house. Samantha followed beside them, crying so hard she could barely walk.
The injured man, pale but still trying to comfort Samantha as he was carried inside, was Nicholas.
“Don’t cry,” he murmured weakly. “I’m all right. It doesn’t hurt.”
Lila came hurrying in.
“Mrs. Padilla, I heard Mr. Padilla took Miss Lester to a jewelry gallery today. On the way back, they were attacked. He was badly hurt protecting her.”
Katherine listened, expressionless.
Then she nodded once, returned to her chair, and lifted her book again as if nothing outside had anything to do with her.