The Mad Princess and the Dying Prince novel Chapter 45

Seeing the pouches sparked a memory. These were the gifts poor young Lucia had prepared for House Beaumont.

The girl had known she wouldn't be welcomed in the Royal Capital. She knew there was a darker reason she had been abandoned in the countryside for ten years. But, isolated and powerless, she had only wanted to make peace with them for the time being.

Her plan had been to establish a foothold first, and uncover the truth of the past later.

So, she had prepared a gift for every family member.

But having been treated like a pack mule and suffering endlessly in the country, she obviously couldn't afford anything valuable.

The pouches were sewn from scraps of fabric she had saved for months. Some contained hand-carved wooden flowers. Three others contained small stones.

She had found the beautiful, polished stones in a riverbed near the mountains, intending to give them to the three young masters of House Beaumont.

However, now that Lucia was in control, she had no intention of giving them away.

The family didn't deserve such heartfelt offerings.

Lucia poured the stones onto the table. Her eyes were immediately drawn to two small, round stones the color of deep moss.

Surprisingly, these two stones pulsed with a raw, natural life force.

What was the purpose of this energy?

Simply put, if dropped into a trough, the water would remain pure and full of life. If buried beneath a wilted crop, the soil would burst with blooming greenery!

And right now, she desperately needed that natural energy to speed up the recovery of her magic.

Lucia hadn't expected to find such a treasure among the rags.

This triggered another memory.

A few years ago, when the Countryside Beaumonts tried to steal her only pendant, poor young Lucia had buried it in a hole by the river.

When she was abruptly dragged back to the capital, she had feared she wouldn't be able to protect the pendant from the lords of the manor, so she had left it hidden in the dirt.

Without even the cabbage.

They were blatantly humiliating her mistress!

Celia approached with a basin of fresh water and sighed. "My lady, I asked the steward for fine salt so you could wash your mouth. He handed me this."

She held out a small wooden vial filled with gritty, yellowish salt crystals.

In the Prince's Estate, they used soft bristles dipped in pure white salt for cleansing teeth. It was the standard for any decent household in the capital, even if the quality varied slightly. But coarse, yellowed salt like this was only used by the most destitute commoners.

House Beaumont was deliberately degrading Lucia in every possible way.

"Lady Beaumont claims that Lord Beaumont is an honest official with modest wages. She said it is difficult to feed so many mouths, so they must use whatever is cheapest and save on food and clothing. She asked that you not take offense."

Remembering Lady Beaumont's smug, mocking expression as she delivered the message made Celia want to grind her teeth.

Lucia stood up and looked at Bonnie. "Do you know how to make a woven bracelet? Thread these stones for me."