Not Your Typical Villianess

The Main Courtyard, Duke Wu's mansion. Some minutes before the incident.

"There is a step ahead, Your grace. Please watch your step" the maid at Zhu Fengyin's Left said holding her hands as they walked out to the balcony.

"Mm," Zhu Fengyin slowed down her step once more as they got to the small five steps leading down the pavilion. The maids held her tighter as they carefully got down the stairs, she stretched out her leg to go down the second step when she felt a sharp pain in her lower stomach that knocked the Breath out of her. 

"Ahh!" She gasped pulling her hands away from the maid and placing them on the spot she felt the most pain. She felt a much sharper pain at the same spot, she took in some breath and clutched her gown tightly falling forward.

"YOUR GRACE!!' The two maids grabbed her hands and pulled her up immediately, the maid at her right glanced down at saw a small pool of blood on the step below Zhu Fengyin. " Blo_ blood!" The maid shouted pointing at the step. The other maid gazed from her colleague's colour drained face to the step.

She gasped when she saw the blood, she pulled back and shouted looking back at the maids that stood just behind Zhu Fengyin. They had come out when they heard Zhu Fengyin's scream. Their gaze intently, eyes wide at Zhu Fengyin's skirt. The maid didn't follow their gaze, "Call the doctor, immediately!" 

Her loud cry seemed to get their attention away from whatever held their gaze previously. A maid stepped out of the line-up and ran down the side of the balcony towards the clinic located a short distance away to call imperial Physician Gu. The heartbeat of the maid standing at Zhu Fengyin's left rushed forward as Zhu Fengyin lost blacked out and fell backwards. She quickly shifted to stand behind Zhu Fengyin while holding tightly to her left hand, in an attempt to wedge her fall.

Her partner at her right, stood motionless and stared down at the pool of blood, on the ground below Zhu Fengyin. The other maid hissed when she saw her unproductive partner, "Hey, help me get her inside", the maid at the right didn't move. An outside guard dressed in black who ran in as he heard the scream ran forward and Carefully carried Zhu Fengyin into his hands. 

"Lead the way", the guard said to the maid at her left. " Yes" the maid ran forward, she led him straight to the bedroom. She raised the sheer bed curtains, tired it to the side and stepped back while the guard laid Zhu Fengyin on the bed. Aunt He stopped at the step as she saw the pool of blood, without soaring the maids standing around sheepishly. 

Aunt He rushed in, "Your Grace!" She called out as she beelined to the bedroom. Her heart skipped when she saw Zhu Fengyin lying on the bed with a long line of blood darkening the wide skirt of her light blue gown. "oh no", she rushed to the clothing cupboard beside the bed and pulled a blanket out of the cupboard, rolled it up and placed it Zhu Fengyin's under buttocks. 

She had served Madam Lu for decades, she more than most people understood the pain Zhu Fengyin was going through. She had witnessed Madam Lu go through multiple miscarriages before she gave birth ti the duke and her other children. She had a bit of medical knowledge and quickly applied that knowledge's as she tried to save the baby.

Minutes later, Physician Gu rushed in with the maid that had run to his quarters at the clinic to call him. He gave a lot of orders which the said promptly performed as he tried to save the child. Madam Lu and Lu Yiling rushed in minutes later and stood outside the bedroom in the main room. She placed around silently as she prayed in her heart that the gods save Zhu Fengyin and the baby. 

Her heart skipped a beat every time the bedroom door opened and a maid rushed in with a bowl of water. She felt even worse when the maid rushed out with a bowl of bloodied water. The wait seemed endless. Finally, an hour and a half later the running around stooped and Physician Gu rushed out with his medicine box.

"Doctor! How is she! How is the baby?" Madam Lu said standing by the open window?

Physician Gu cane forward, "Her grace is out of the woods, so is the baby. The child was disturbed in the womb my Lady, luckily it was discovered on time. I have treated her well so far but we have to be careful. I think that she should be placed on bed rest for a while until the baby is stable. She should get a lot of rest, I gave her something for the pain is she will sleep for a while"

"Thank you, doctor, about this. What do you think caused this, she was doing well so far*

"A lot of things can cause a miscarriage, it can range from stress to previous health conditions. However, it doesn't seem to be caused by any previous health conditions. I checked on her grace yesterday and she was in good health, base on her symptoms. It doesn't seem to be natural, was there anything different her grace ate today?"

Madam Lu's eyes narrowed, "are you suspecting poison". On receiving a nod from Physician Gu, she gazed at her dowry maid, " Did she eat anything different?"

Aunt He shook her head, "no, my Lady. Everything she ate was carefully prepared. I prepared them myself to make sure of that, it can not be from her food".

"if it isn't from her food then how did this happen? Was there anything recently bought from outside the house?"

Aunt He quietly thought back in the events of the past few weeks, they hadn't gotten anything new apart from_ "my lady, there is something new that we recently ordered".

"what is it?"

"The new skincare and makeup products. We ordered a new set of ther pregnancy-friendly products because of the baby. The manager send down a mint and rose flavoured incense with our orders that the steward brought over A month and a half ago. The manager claimed that it was a complimentary gift given to their customers.

Three weeks ago, Her grace complained that the scent of the previous incense made her nauseous. Since she didn't like the scent of the previous incense so we took it away and brought this out. I remember that the mistress started sleeping longer after we started using the incense. We didn't think anything of that and just assumed that it was because of the mint leaves in the incense."

Physician Gu walked back into the bedroom, he searched the room with his eyes until his eyes fell on the lit incense close to the bed. Aunt He and two of Madam Lu's dowry maids followed him in. He glanced at the senior maids, "bring the incense over and open the window so that the scent would go away."

One of Madam Lu's dowry maids picked up the incense and left the room with physician Gu, while the other dowry maid stayed back with Aunt He. A few maids stood in the hallway leading to Zhu Fengyin's bedroom. Aunt He quickly ordered them to open the windows before leaving with the other dowry maid.

Aunt He was no stranger to Madam Lu's methods, the fact that her young mistress was poisoned on her watch did not look good for her. Madam Lu had all the right to be suspicious, many years of painful experiences thought them to trust no one. She already felt like she had failed her mistress by not protecting her daughter-in-law.

Aunt He was led to stand by the side while physician Gu opened the incense at checked the ingredients. His lips tightened as he carefully searched through the ingredients, "these ingredients of this incense are very toxic to pregnant women my lady. The mint and rose flower were used to mask the scent of Gui flower".

"Gui flower again, so it was the same person that is behind the previous attempt that is behind it this time?" Lu Yiling said.

"It would seem so, young Miss" physician Gu replied.

Madam Lu breathed in and out silently, she knew that it was the heir to minister Zhu that was behind the earlier poisoning, her men already found evidence but she stayed quiet out of respect to Zhu Fengyin. She felt that since it was her family issue, it was better to let her handle it but since he still tried to poison her again, she couldn't let him go this time.

'I should have nibbed it in the bud when it happened last time' madam Lu thought glancing at the bedroom. 

Aunt He immediately rushed forward at fell on her knees in front of madam Lu, "Madam I deserve ti be punished. I should not have let down my guards, because of my mistake you nearly lost your grandchild. Please forgive me!"

Madam Lu glanced down at her maid and sighed, "stand, there is no way anyone would have suspected anything. Take care of Fengyin, as for your punishment. You wouldn't receive any salary for four months" 

"Many thanks for your kindness, my lady" Aunt He said.