Survive As The Brute's Wife

Alexandra walked out of the garden with her expression somber. Maximus didn’t think and resorted to killing the women for no apparent reason.

She hated herself too for not visiting the Harem earlier. She regretted her decision to not walk around the palace to know the people here. She was so engrossed with her marital life with Maximus, she forwent the thing she loved to do—meeting new people.

[I still can help them...]

Lydia told her that a group of women want to escape the Harem and be free, for a long time. Apparently, they already formulated a lot of plans to escape the Harem, but each time they try to escape, they couldn’t because they were tattled to Theodora by someone. Theodora rules the Harem with iron fists and no one could escape because her guards stop them.

Lydia, under the urge of her Lady—Lady Heathriff was sent to the Dowager to find out the mole amidst them. And she still couldn’t find that person, except she found out a lot about Theodora.

Lydia talked about the connections Theodora had with the shadow figure that would often appear. She also talked about the secret visits ord Zoros would make. For some reason, Theodora trusted her and that’s why Lydia was able to gather all this information.

Lydia was willing to testify against Theodora in exchange for helping the women get out of the Harem. Lydia was pleading(which was not necessary) to let the women—some of them so smart, they want to have business plans and the means to do that—out of this trap. They felt like getting trapped in the Harem is worse than death for them. Some women had other men they loved, and some just wanted out.

They had a feeling that they won’t get the love of the Brute, and now they have had the truth staring right at their face. Rather than living like a caged bird, they wanted out.

Alexandra asked Lydia to give her the names of the women who want to willingly leave the Harem. But Lydia politely refused to out the names of the women without their permission.

Lydia is smart, as Alexandra gathered. She was willing to test her to see if she is really going to help those women by holding back their names. Lydia was relieved that Alexandra accepted this bold request of hers.

Alexandra didn’t mind. All she cared about was the safe exit of the women who want to leave.

And then Lydia put forth another request. To help them as soon as possible. Because the woman who died recently in an "accident" did not die in an accident. And she was one of the women who wanted out. That woman was about to meet her secret lover by the gates, but was killed by one of the assassins sent by "a powerful one".