Provoking a Graceful Bloom Novel

---- Chapter 141 "Yes, my lady!" Yuvan, brimming with energy, had somehow managed to. produce a wooden staff. Now that Aurora had departed, he once more reigned as the strongest fighter in the courtyard. He struck with unrelenting force, each blow landing with precision and fury. Emily screamed, and Ivan cried out in pain Even Steven's second son, Gregory Campbell, and his wife, Amanda Holt, were no exception, receiving one strike each. Yuvan left the entire household shrieking in disarray. "You whelp! Do you not see whom you strike? Stop! Stop at once!

You-ah!" Emily cried out, her tears threatening to fall. Ivan snapped, "Stop immediately! | am to be the duke's rightful heir. How dare you" But Yuvan cut him off, "The duke's eldest son fell on the battlefield, as all the world knows. Who do you think you are, pretending to be the Marquis of Whitgrave? | shall strike you dead!" Yuvan made no concessions. Blow after blow fell with merciless precision, leaving the Earl of Greymoor's family in shambles. Stanley looked on, so enraged he nearly lost his breath and ---- fainted outright.

In the end, his family was forced to wheel him away in haste, retreating in the most undignified disorder. Observing their retreat, Sally couldn't help but laugh aloud. "Ha! Let's see if they dare return! A thoroughly wretched lot!" "They will, of course," Selena said, her expression cool. "Next time, we cannot know who they might bring." While Selena retumed the emblem to its place, Sally shook her head in exasperation. How had her mistress come to be saddled with such relations? They were enough to make one's blood boil "My lady, why do you have Lord Sebastian's emblem?" Sally asked.

It was the token of command over the Campbell Regiment. Aurora had once served among their ranks, and though she had retired, her loyalty had never wavered. She still recognized the emblem at sight. Selena smiled lightly. "! asked Seb for it last night. I'm going to check on Grandpa. You remain here, in case that family causes any further trouble." Though most of the Earl of Greymoor's household had accepted Ruth's request to intimidate Selena and her family, they were really thinking of a far greater prize.

Their true aim was to see Gideon, for the plan to have Ivan adopted into the main line had ---- never changed. Selena entered Elysian Pavilion. Lately, Gideon's health had been failing. In the course of a single day, he was awake for no more than five or six hours. The remainder of the time, he drifted in and out of a deep sleep. Selena checked her grandfather's vitals herself, while Felix looked on with a face full of worry. "My lady, His Grace has barely eaten these past two days. He can scarcely swallow even a thin gruel. | fear...

if this continues, his health may not endure." Selena gently laid Gideon's hand back beneath the covers and smoothed the blankets around him. She glanced at Felix, who understood at once and accompanied her to the door. Facing the wind, she hid the sorrow in her eyes, but looked back at him and murmured softly, "I fear... it will be hard for him to survive this winter." The words shattered the steward's heart, making him nearly weep openly. Selena remained composed, offering comfort where she herself should have been comforted.

"Felix, Grandpa has been ill for so long, his spirits weighed down by grief. To have endured until now is already a mercy from the heavens. We need not despair. Such trials come to everyone." ---- Felix's gaze was filled with sorrow as he looked at her. "My lady, you're feeling this anguish yourself, yet you comfort an old man like me. | am not worthy of even one fraction of your courage." Selena was only 17. When her parents and two uncles passed away, it fell to her alone to hold the household together.

Yet the young girl had managed, arranging every detail for her elders' final rites with remarkable care. Only Felix knew that once all had been settled, she had hidden herself away and wept through the night, her sobs tearing at her very heart. She had grieved until she fell dangerously ill. At that time, she had only been 12 years old!