At the sound of approaching footsteps, Joanna turned her body around and found Bianca coming closer to her. Soon she heard the senior maid pass the message to her once she stood two steps away before her.
"Master has arrived, my lady, and he is asking for your presence in the drawing room, as soon as you can manage," said Bianca in a polite tone after offering a bow, to which Joanna nodded.
"Thank you, Bianca. I will be there right away," Joanna replied with a smile, making her way towards the entrance of the garden with Bianca following behind her.
Before heading inside the mansion towards the drawing room, Joanna placed the basket, which was almost fully filled with various herbs that she had collected, on a wooden rack under the shade of the silver birch trees that were lining alongside the flagstone path near the entrance of the garden.
She then removed the dirty gloves from her hands and the hat from her head, and handed them over to Bianca. She walked away after delivering her thanks to the senior maid for her help.
With her bare hands, Joanna smoothened the hair on top of her head which became untidy as a result of her removing the hat from her head. Once she felt it was neat enough, she brushed and straightened her dress as if to remove dirt from it and to make it as neat as possible so that she would look presentable in front of her father.
Joanna then stepped inside the mansion through the back door while wiping the sweat away by dabbing her forehead, face, and neck with a silk handkerchief that she kept in her dress pocket before slipping it back into the initial place afterward. Her waist-length braided hair that rested behind her back swayed along with the way she walked.
As Joanna entered the drawing room, she saw her father seated on a couch that was positioned in the middle of the room while reading some documents with one leg over and across the other.
"Father. How is everything going?" Joanna greeted her father with a bright smile spreading across her face while striding toward where he was sitting. Leaning forward, she gave her father a light peck on his right cheek once she reached over him.
The Duke nodded after Joanna pulled away, straightening her posture. Looking up at his daughter, he responded, "Father is good. Have a seat first, Ann." At the words of her father, Joanna obeyed.
Taking a seat across from her father, she took a cup of warm tea, which had been prepared beforehand by the servant, on the table in front of her, whereas the Duke placed the documents that he just read on the table.
When the Duke looked at Joanna, he frowned as he saw her finish the tea in a fleeting moment. As Joanna placed the empty cup back on the table, the Duke sighed and said, "Don't forget to drink in the middle of your work especially when the sun is blazing like today, Ann." And upon her father's advice, Joanna gave a smile and a nod of agreement.
Duke John spoke again after receiving the response from his daughter, "As for the result of the audience with His Majesty…," the Duke took a halt for a couple of seconds while noticing an expectant expression spread across his daughter's face before resuming his words, "It is just like what Father advised you before." And he saw his daughter slumped against the couch after hearing the unpleasant news revealed by him.
"It is clear that His Majesty will carefully weigh every single matter that involves General von Rodega and Archess. It was also the same approach he took to respond to your marital issue. As predicted, he avoided making a hasty decision, regardless of the marriage law that was mentioned during the audience. Instead, he suggested you have another deep talk with the General regarding this matter," the Duke informed his daughter about the result of his meeting with the King.
Joanna, who felt like she had lost her soul, could only sit there while half listening to the information shared by her father and half thinking of what to do next.
It was two days ago that her father was scheduled to have an audience with King Ordoba de Montella regarding the subject of her marriage annulment.
She had asked her father if she would go to the capital with him to meet the King as it was actually her personal matter. But her father decided that he would have this audience himself. If His Majesty asked for her presence, it was the time when she could meet the King.
As the capital, where the King's castle was located, was a journey of around one and a half days from Barasca, the result of the audience with the King could only be relayed today by her father. And Joanna could not thank her father enough for helping her in this matter.
Although she already presumed that the King would not easily approve the annulment of her marriage with the General despite all the arguments that she had discussed with her father a few days ago, Joanna could not avoid the heavy feeling inside her heart.
She directed her focus back to her father when she heard him speak again.
"However, His Majesty didn't completely ignore this matter. He said that he is willing to open room for an audience for both of you and your husband once you two have agreed to annul this marriage. So, it depends on your husband now. If he agrees to the marriage annulment, then both of you can have an audience with His Majesty for the marriage to be annulled afterward," informed the Duke.
Capturing the anxious look displayed on Joanna's countenance, the Duke commented, "Didn't you say that the General wouldn't refuse to annul the marriage as he didn't have any reason to do so, Ann? Then, why don't you try to talk to him? You can write him a letter although talking directly face to face is a better option in order to make everything clear without offending any party."
Finding his daughter not opening her lips to respond to him as she had her eyes downcast while having the thumb and index finger of her right hand rubbed against each other repeatedly, the Duke knew from that familiar gesture alone that she was in deep contemplation at the moment.
"But if Father may suggest, if General von Rodega does refuse to have the marriage annulled because of his own reasons, why don't you give another chance at your marriage with him, Ann?" The Duke held back from expressing his further piece of advice when he saw Joanna lift her head in a dash at what she just heard from him.