The Sensory Animals of Ston Hill

Grace fell ill as badly as last winter, and spent days and nights in lethargy with a high fever.

Whenever he fell asleep, day or night, he would have nightmares.Sometimes it was the two poor fellows tied to the wheel; sometimes it was Ellen tied to it; sometimes it was me;

In his dreams, the king always looked the same, standing not far away, looking at them coldly.

Sometimes he dreamed that Allen had only one head left, stuck on the iron fence outside Crown Plaza, but this time the king stood beside him, pointing to the head and saying to him: "Look, Grace, that is Convicted of sodomy and incest."

Allen was almost executed.

It was he who fired the two shots, drawing the pistol from his waist in disregard of the king's order, and at that time he had a gun on his forehead.He put one round in the head of Captain Lane and the other in the head of Sergeant Lane.As he always said, the most honorable way for a soldier to die is to be shot in the gut.

Grace was thankful countless times that the guard who pointed the gun at him controlled his fingers.

If it wasn't for a bodyguard who admired him so much...if that bodyguard strictly obeyed the king's orders... Grace couldn't think anymore.

Sometimes he would get angry suddenly, and wanted to ask that bold guy, what if the guard accidentally pulled the trigger by his actions?But if he really asked, Allen would probably just shrug his shoulders nonchalantly and say, "It didn't happen!"

And the price he paid for this was being beaten with sticks by all the soldiers present.

It was a torture that would have meant death, but a miracle happened that day.

Whenever Anna told this passage, she would jump up excitedly, using all the good words she could to describe how Master Allen walked fearlessly in front of the soldiers standing in two rows.She would try her best to open her arms, and said in a higher voice than usual: "Master Allen was ordered to take off his shirt, and he just walked through the two rows of soldiers with his bare upper body!" She described excitedly How those soldiers raised the sticks in their hands high, then lowered them gently, hitting the ground where Master Allen had just passed, and kicking up dust behind his feet, "It's like paying tribute to him!"

Because Anna kept saying it, Grace imagined that image over and over again.In his imagination, Allen, who walks bare-chested on the dust, becomes Moses who divides the sea, and Napoleon who climbs the Alps, but he is more majestic than Moses, and more handsome than Napoleon.

Anna would use that word too:

"democracy!"

The soldiers worshiped Colonel Allen, who had won legendary battles, and collectively corrected the king's unreasonable orders. This is democracy.

Because of such democracy, Allen was squeezed out of the conference room.

After leaving the royal prison, the king went straight back to the palace, and the days of summer in the summer palace were thus over.The adults reasoned that Allen could not apply for a room in the palace because he did not have a noble title, so he could only come to the palace to attend regular meetings on the [-]th and [-]th of each month.But the regular meeting is only on the surface, and what really works is the daily closed-door meeting.

The "Ston Twins" lost their seats at the same time.

Unable to meet at any time like in the summer palace, Alan can only ask Anna about Grace's situation every day.He also sometimes sent notes through Anna asking how Grace was doing, if she was getting better, and if she was mad at him.

Grace never wrote back.He hoped Allen would understand what he meant.

Kailins often came to visit him, not only because he held on to Kailins's sleeve before he passed out, but also because he held Kailins and cried for his mother afterwards.

It was so embarrassing, but he couldn't remember it, and Eva and Anna had to tell him.At that time, the two girls were separated far away, and they fell down after seeing him run out a few steps.Karinth was the closest to him and ran to him first, but she had no strength to help him up, so she knelt down on the ground and took Grace into her arms.

Then His Majesty ran over, trying to take Grace from Kailins' arms.But as soon as he touched Grace, Grace shivered and shrank into Kerinth's arms, crying "Mom" and saying "scared" and things like that.

Kailinsi looked sick and weak, but she firmly protected Grace in front of the king, not letting the king touch him.

At that time, Eva thought that Grace was pretending. After returning to the palace, she prevented the servants from putting Grace on the king's bed in front of the king, saying that the sick should enjoy the whole bed alone and Grace should be sent to the king's bed. own room.

When she said this, the king was afraid to touch Grace anymore, and looked in a trance.Eva took the opportunity to take Grace away with Anna.

Eva later surreptitiously asked Grace if his coma and gibberish at the time were fake.Grace thought about it seriously for a long time, but she had no memory of what happened at that time.

Afterwards, His Majesty came to visit him every day, and every time he caught up with him, he was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, but it was all pretending to be asleep.

Eva and Anna also told him that the grown-ups called his wedding to the king a marriage of democracy and monarchy.His Majesty lost his temper because of this, saying that this is not a shitty political marriage, but a marriage between Louis Chris Caroline and Grace.

Anna said that although His Majesty is terrible when he loses his temper, he really likes Grace.Eva reminded her that when thinking of the king, don't forget how the king once threatened to lock them in a closed room.

Grace knew that Eva was talking to herself.Eva had reminded him long ago that a king is a king.It's because he has a bad memory, he is always easily moved by gentle words and kisses, and forgets about other things.

Every time the king stood up from his bed and turned to leave, Grace would secretly open her eyelids and peek at the departing figure through the gaps in her eyelashes.What he wants to look at is not the person in front of him, but the Chris who is walking with him by the lake holding hands.

He watched that Chris with his back turned to him, gradually walking away.Grace knew they would never see each other again.

Grace also always said that she might have such a serious illness every winter in the future, and if she couldn't survive any time, she would die.

Eva joked that he turned into a child when he was sick, and only a child would ask himself if he was going to die when he was sick.Anna said that it was because he was too tired, and he hadn't had a good rest since he planned to hold the national conference.She also said, especially if you didn't sleep well the night before and went through so much the next morning.

Anna was able to bring up that morning without scruple because she was easy to deceive.Grace said that she just happened to grow up in the villa, and the rumors about the illegitimate daughter were all false, so she believed it.She also said that it was a great thing that Grace fell in love with Master Allen. She used to think that Master Allen was very kind to Grace, but now she realized that Master Allen had been deeply fascinated by Grace long ago. .

But lately Allen has stopped sending greetings via Anna.

Grace had already missed two routine imperial meetings, and he went for the third time. As soon as he entered the door, he couldn't help but glance at Alan's usual position, and saw that he was already sitting at the table.Allen stood up with others to pay tribute to the future queen, and then withdrew his gaze and sat back in his seat with others.

Grace's heart seemed to be pricked several times quickly and densely by tiny needles. Only then did he realize that during the days when he was recuperating in bed, he thought about this person too many times.This time, he couldn't help sneaking glances at Allen, but the other party never looked back.

The meeting discusses the details of the wedding, how many floats there should be, how many horses should each float be pulled, with or without a roof, how many beautiful couples should stand in the street and throw bouquets at the king and queen's golden coach .

Grace hadn't said anything while they were talking, because Ellen was sitting here, and asking him to discuss the wedding in person would only embarrass him.What's more, he didn't care about these wastes of money.

And he really didn't need to speak anymore.

The adults have already announced the news of the queen change.Grace had read the articles written by the official newspaper. The old queen was written as the core of the diehards and conservative priests, while he, Grace, became the representative of the reformers.They also gave him new names—Queen of Progress, Queen of Commoners, Queen of Reform.In the end, the name "Public Queen" was the most popular, so it was settled.

It was a clever idea, and Grace was no doubt more likable than any other lord in the Reformation.The citizens still remembered seeing him once on the Easter float. Although their memories of his facial features were not accurate, they all said that the future queen was very beautiful.

An adult pushed several newspapers and magazines to the center of the table, saying that these were very popular publications recently, they were all private publications, and there were portraits of the future queen in them.

Grace picks up a copy to read, and out of the corner of her eye she catches a glimpse of Ellen picking up one too.He seemed bored when he saw Allen flipping through the magazine, flipped through it a few times and threw it back on the table.

Grace looked down at the one in her hand, her face burning with shame.That picture doesn't look like him at all.

The adults began to discuss with great interest the parade before the wedding.

"Gentlemen," Allen finally said, "Can we put aside the matter of the wedding for now? I think the heavy rain in the northern provinces is more worth worrying about—"

His words were interrupted by an adult, "Colonel Ston, there are natural disasters every year. This is what the local lords are worried about, and the wedding of the king and the new queen is our most important task at the moment—"

"Your Excellency, please let Colonel Ston finish." Grace interrupted the lord.

Allen didn't look at Grace, he read the document directly, it was all bad things, and the adults frowned.

Disastrous torrential rains in several northern provinces destroyed almost all late-harvested crops and washed away stacks of wheat that would be used to feed cattle and sheep in the winter.Nearly half of the farmers have worked hard for more than half a year, but what awaits them is another winter of starvation.

"The harvest of the land is not good, and the income of the lords has dropped, so they will definitely try to raise taxes. This will undoubtedly make things worse for the farmers who are already starving. And the grain harvests in the countryside have been failing year after year, and the price of bread in the cities will inevitably rise sharply. This winter is going to be tougher than usual. We promised at the beginning of our reforms that we would make people better off, and a 'Queen of the Commoners' won't do enough if we are to preserve the reputation of reformers. A few parades and a How long will the joy of a wedding last? When the townspeople starve to empty plates on Christmas Eve, they will turn to us and blame us for extravagant weddings."

Allen compared the wedding and the relief fund, which is more worth spending, and his tone was calm, just talking about official business.Grace felt her heart being rubbed by him.

The meeting went on for a while, and the adults were partially persuaded by Alan and decided to allocate some relief funds, but the wedding should be well organized, and it would be best to build a new golden carriage.

Grace knew they hadn't settled their accounts.There is simply not that much money.But he didn't have the strength to speak.

As soon as the meeting ended, Alan left the meeting room first.

Grace felt tired, he hadn't fully recovered from his illness, and sat for a while before getting up.While he was resting, the minister of ceremonies kept telling him how wide the skirt he wore on the wedding day and how many pleats he had to have at least.Grace finally stood up, not rested, but annoyed beyond endurance by him.

He walked alone in the corridor, never feeling so lonely like this moment, the road before and after has no end.

Suddenly, a big hand protruded from the wall and covered his mouth from behind.At the same time, he was dragged through a door with the same wallpaper as the wall.The door was closed in a blink of an eye, and it was completely dark.

Grace's heart was beating fast, thinking that she had encountered an assassination.After he came to the capital, he had heard many such stories. Nobles were quietly killed by enemies hiding in the cloakroom, and the stench of the corpse was only discovered through the crack of the door.

He was completely wrapped in his arms, and only his hands could move a little under his body.Seeing nothing, he could only fumble around in his trousers, but couldn't find anything but the trousers.Soon, even this hand was held, but it was a very gentle movement.Grace's heart skipped a beat, and she instantly calmed down.

"Grace," Allen whispered behind his ear, "don't be afraid, it's me."