Flowers, Swords and France

On the morning of the second day after meeting Charles, Matilda, who had returned home, wrote a warm and respectful letter to Her Majesty the Queen as she promised Charles, telling her that she had important matters to attend to and could only decline the honor of accompanying Her Majesty for the time being.

Out of habitual caution, she did not tell Her Majesty about her affairs in detail, but only said that the matter was very important and asked Her Majesty to understand.

After going to the palace and personally delivering the letter to the palace attendants, she did not go home directly, but took a carriage to the outskirts of Paris.

The streets were bustling along the way, and the hot weather made people more and more anxious. Various sounds mixed together, making people feel anxious.

After the initial war frenzy passed, the whole city had returned to daily life. The citizens were still singing and dancing, living as usual, as if they were not affected by the great war at all. The whole war was just a large-scale performance held thousands of miles away from the border for them now, and only a trace of it could be seen in the newspapers.

Of course, because of the huge government expenditure, prices began to rise slightly at this time, but because the government's control was effective, it did not cause too much trouble, and the city was once again intoxicated with its own glory.

In this noisy, Matilda's carriage finally squeezed out of the city and arrived at the destination in the suburbs.

Compared with the crowded city, this place is much quieter, with sparse houses and many more traces of green around. And she stopped the carriage in front of one of the unremarkable buildings-this spire building occupies a large area and was originally a church, but it has recently been bought for other uses.

After being inspected by the guards, Matilda was able to enter the church.

As soon as she came in, a strange smell mixed with alcohol, preservatives and blood rushed into her nose. The smell was so strong that even if she had some psychological preparation beforehand, she still felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

After standing there blankly for a few seconds, she finally recovered and looked carefully at the surrounding environment.

The original altar and seats in the church had been removed, so the interior was empty, with only some small compartments separated by wooden boards. From time to time, a large group of people in white or dark clothes passed through them as if no one was around, looking busy and very nervous. Among these people, Matilda found that there were even many women.

Matilda walked along the corridor between the compartments step by step, and found that some people were lying on the bed in some compartments, with painful expressions, and some were even wailing. In one compartment, an operation was in progress, and a group of people were operating on a comatose person and cutting off his arm.

When she saw this scene, Matilda's steps finally stopped, and she covered her mouth. The strong smell of blood, the smell of anesthetics and medicine, and the lonely arm made her, who had loved cleanliness since childhood, almost vomit.

Now she understood where the bloody smell came from when she first came in here.

"Matilda!" Just when she was in a trance, she heard a cheerful greeting.

Matilda trembled all over, turned around hurriedly, and looked at the person who greeted her.

This was the person she came to see today.

She was wearing a white skirt, the hem was a little short, only to the knees, but the white stockings on her feet did not expose an inch of skin to the air, and she even wore a strange white hat on her head, and her golden hair was tied inside the hat. The material of the skirt was ordinary, the design was also very simple, and the whole white outfit and the makeup without makeup made people feel that the other party was more beautiful and lovely, just like the child in the studio back then was resurrected.

This person didn't look like someone who should appear here.

Such a beautiful woman was too inconsistent with the simple, rough and even bloody scene here.

However, after the initial sluggishness, Matilda gradually regained her sanity. With the help of her glasses, she found that the other person's arms and skirt were faintly stained with some blood.

These bloodstains probably came from the people in the hospital beds.

"Fran, long time no see." She managed to calm down, and then greeted the other person with a forced smile. "I really missed you a little."

"Ah, I'm so sorry." Seeing Matilda's surprised look, Fran couldn't help laughing, "I can't spare the time recently, so I have to trouble you to come here to find me."

Then, she waved her hand and motioned the other person to follow her, "Come on, follow me, let's not disturb others here."

Matilda obeyed her will, and then followed her through the compartment and came to a simple lounge.

Along the way, she controlled herself and never looked at the scene in the compartment next to her, fearing that she would be shocked again, and she had too many questions accumulated in her heart.

"Is this your hospital?" Matilda asked as she sat down on the wooden chair.

"Yes, this is our hospital. Of course, it is only temporary. It should be more of a place for learning." Fran replied in a low voice, "There are now a large number of doctors being trained here and preparing to go to the front line as military doctors. Treat the soldiers, and when the war is over, this place will be closed."

"You...are you really going to the front line?" Matilda asked again.

"Of course, is there any room for regret now?" Fran replied with a smile, "You have already come here, and then I tell you that this is just a joke, I won't go... Wouldn't that It’s a big joke.”

"I'd rather you were joking..." Matilda whispered. The impact of the scene just now was so great that she has not really calmed down yet. "You...don't you feel scared?"

"It seems that you were really scared just now." There was something else in Fran's smile, "To be honest, I was also scared at first. It was so scary. The appearance of those mutilated limbs and dead bodies was in front of me. It lingered, and I vomited several times, and I couldn't sleep at night. But after staying there for a while, it wasn't so scary. People are like this. As long as you stay in an environment for a period of time, no matter how bad the environment is, Oops, I'll get used to it slowly..."

"Maybe what you said is true." Matilda nodded, "But it's amazing that you are willing to force yourself to adapt."

Suddenly, she thought of a terrible question and asked the other party again quickly. "By the way, those who were operated on...were they not arrested?"

"Of course not, how dare we do this in the capital?" Fran laughed again, "These are patients we transferred from other hospitals, at the cost of spending a lot of extra money. But there is nothing we can do, you think? If you think about it, soldiers always need surgeries during wars, either from gunshot wounds or knife wounds. Either we have to deal with shrapnel, or even amputation, so we have to adapt first. The more we adapt to such scenes, the more useful we will be when the time comes. After all, no matter how miserable we are, we will not be as miserable as those soldiers. Well, at least we don’t have to live and die in a hail of bullets.”

She spoke very plainly, which made Matilda admire her even more. She never thought that a noble lady would do such a thing. Even she herself could not endure such an environment.

What a terrifying amount of self-control and willpower. She does bleed differently from us. Matilda thought.

"Well, since you said so, I won't stop you anymore. In fact... I admire you very much. Really, this is a feat of yours. I think you will go down in history for this!"

"My name will go down in history...I have never thought about such a thing. What's the point? I would rather the world forget me and no one will think of me. That way I will be the freest." Fran couldn't help but He laughed again, but his tone seemed a little bleak, "There are only two of us here, so let me tell you clearly, I want to please the world more, please my grandfather, and atone for my sins."

"Huh?" Matilda became even more confused.

"I want to please the world so that I can be considered a good person in their eyes. I want to please my grandfather so that he can forgive me for disobeying him... Yes, in the final analysis, this is just for one thing." Lan looked aside to make sure that no one could overhear, and then she told her friend the truth, "My brother has promised me that after the war is over, we will be together, so I... I have to do these matter."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"Oh God!" Matilda gasped.

However, surprisingly, she was not too surprised. She already knew the relationship between the two siblings very well, and even knew about some of the shocking things the other had secretly done before, so it wasn't too strange that they finally reached an agreement on their union.

However, it was still hard to accept.

In a sense, she also knows that her beloved is romantic, and even she can accept her less honorable situation. But Mary and Laura are one thing, but Fran is another.

This is really...

Her mind was already a little confused, and she didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Look, even you are like this, how can I expect to receive blessings from others?" Fran's smile added a bit of bitterness, "This is sin, I know it, I ask you not to say something The truth comes to advise me, it will only make me angry with you."

Matilda felt uneasy and didn't know what to say.

"Yes, I have committed countless sins, but none of them were for glory and wealth. They were just for chasing me and wanting happiness... But this is destined to not be forgiven. Sin is sin. Even grandpa hates it. Me, because of my willfulness." Fran continued speaking on her own, perhaps to express her feelings. , "So occasionally I think that I need to do something to atone for my sins. Every time I save one more person's life, I atone for one sin. Even if I can't redeem myself, I can at least feel relieved and don't have to worry about this curse. Pass it on to others. It’s ridiculous, you’ve already come this far and still have such an idea.”

"If you must do this, then I will not object. I...I will bless you, and I have no position to oppose you." After a long time, Matilda finally spoke, and she spoke a little dryly. , but finally said it. "But, I'm really worried about you. Oh my god... how terrible it would be if this nightmare came true!"

"Everything is human-made, isn't it? If we don't take action because of fear, then we can only be trapped in the quagmire of self-doubt forever and can't accomplish anything. I am very satisfied that my efforts have brought me today, and I will continue to go on. "I will never stop until I reach the end." Fran replied in a very determined tone, "I have no other way to go."

Matilda didn't agree with the other party's persistence. She didn't believe that with his family background and beauty, there would be no other way out. But in the face of this passionate love, she also knew that no matter how much she said, it would be of no use and would only affect the relationship between the two people in vain.

"Okay, okay..." She could only reply with a dejected sigh, "If only luck could always favor you!"

"Besides, the situation is not particularly bad now, is it? At least we have gone a long way. Matilda, please tell me, now that you know our plan, are you still going to help us? "

"I will." After just a moment of hesitation, Matilda finally made up her mind.

As she said, now that it's done, there's no other way to go.

It was impossible for her to go back on her word, and it was impossible for her to go back on her word, so she could only keep going all the way.

"Matilda, I'm really grateful to you. You have proven time and time again that you are indeed someone we can trust." Fran nodded to the other party in gratitude very sincerely, "Okay, I feel sorry for you to stay here today. Let's go handle the handover tomorrow. I think you need me to explain many things personally..."

"Well, although I'm not a very smart person, I have a pretty good memory and am serious about my work. I can remember everything you explain to me." Matilda didn't want to say anything else. , nodded quickly.

However, in the end, Matilda couldn't help but ask. "What should we do with Lady Charlotte?"

"One of the people we have to be wary of is her." A slightly sarcastic sneer appeared on Fran's face. "There are some accounting issues I want to tell you."