“Lady Madeline, would you like to try this wine?” asked the voice of a lady who stood next to her, holding a glass of wine in her hand.
“No, I am fine, thank you for asking,” replied Madeline, her eyes looked at the blue liquid which had left some memories of the ride in the carriage with Calhoun. It was best not to drink anything that was not supervised by Calhoun, but he wasn’t here in this room.
Madeline wondered where he was.
“You don’t speak much do you, milady?” asked Lady Euphemia, “If you are going to take the Queen’s position, you should start mingling more so that you would be able to form relationship else people are going to think that you are a mum doll,” Madeline detected the envy in her voice.
“I believe everyone is familiar with the fact that it is not the queen who goes to people but the people who come to her,” said Madeline, a constant smile on her lips that had started to ache her cheeks now.
The women who stood around laughed. If Madeline was not promised to be the King’s wife, people would have looked down upon her.
“Lady Madeline is a humble woman,” came a familiar voice and Madeline turned to see it was Lady Catherine. The young vampiress made her way to stand next to Madeline, and she locked her hand around the human’s arm as if she had known Madeline for years.
“Lady Catherine, you speak of Lady Madeline as if you know her for months now. Has the King perhaps been hiding her and letting only some of his close acquaintances know about her existence?” asked another lady who was a human.
The vampires smiled, “Lady Madeline’s aunt lives in the same town that I live. It is how we are acquainted with each other.” Madeline noticed how Lady Catherine, who had been giving her the cold shoulder all these days had suddenly turned friendly towards her. Specifically, after the soiree, they had last met each other, “She has a very good heart. It is why the King chose her to be his wife. Any praises to her would be less.”
“You should be careful about what you say, Lady Catherine. The last time I heard, your mother was keen to get you married to the King,” said Lady Euphemia, trying to dig and brew some drama.
Catherine threw her head back, letting out a hearty laugh, “Oh, Lady Euphemia, don’t worry about that. Actually, I have some news to share with you lovely ladies,” the women keenly waited for her to speak, “I will be getting married soon.”
“Oh my..! Who is the lucky man?”
“Have you picked the day?” asked another lady.
Madeline turned to look at Catherine, a question on her face, but in the back of her mind, she knew the answer. “It is James Heathcliff, the man you saw me with. All of us are very excited about it,” saying this Lady Catherine turned to meet Madeline’s eyes who offered her a smile,
“Congratulations Lady Catherine,” said Madeline.
If Madeline was back in her home, she might have heard it from her sister or mother about it. Being in the castle, she didn’t receive any news. It took her some time to absorb the news that they were getting married. Was she sad that James was moving forward with his life? No, she didn’t think so, thought Madeline to herself. She was the one who had asked him to move forward, not to wait because she was with the King now.
A part of the reason why she was trying to come to terms with the current life was because of what happened the day she had fallen from the high tower. She didn’t have an answer for it until now, but Calhoun saved her, and it meant something to her.
If James and Catherine were going to marry, it also meant that they liked each other enough to go ahead with it, thought Madeline to herself. It had been awkward that day when she had entered James’ shop.
She felt her heart was slowly settling down and it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would.
Madeline spoke to the women there for some more time before excusing herself out of the room. Walking to the balcony, she placed her hands on the railings and sighed.
“Bored?”
Madeline turned around to catch Calhoun who stood behind her.
“How long do we need to stay here?” asked Madeline.
“We can leave right now,” answered Calhoun. He walked towards her, standing next to her.
It had been not even five seconds since she had come to stand here and Calhoun had come to meet her. It made her question if Calhoun always had his eyes on her, but then he wasn’t even in the same room she was sitting in.
“Something bothering you?” asked Calhoun, noticing how her eyebrows had drawn together. Madeline shook her head. She didn’t want to bring up James’ name, not when he was going to get married to Lady Catherine.
Did Calhoun know about this? That Catherine and James were going to get married?
Madeline, who was staring at Calhoun, looked away from him. It had been four days since they had visited her family, but her family were yet to visit the castle. The gown would take more than two weeks; therefore, there would be no need to visit the shop anytime soon. There was a possibility that James would be asked to come to the castle with the dress.
While Madeline was looking ahead, Calhoun came to walk behind her. Placing both his hands on either side of her on the railings that had her alarmed, “W-what are you doing?” There were people, and this was someone else’s mansion!
“I thought it had been quite some time since I had you in my arms,” came Calhoun’s words next to her ears, “Madeline,” he hummed her name.
Madeline unable to resist, turned around to meet him face to face. Sure they were going to get married, but he didn’t have to display it out in the open, not that she was ready for it in private either, thought Madeline to herself.
She stared at his red eyes, seeing how they were turning dark, and realised what was going on, “How long has it been since you last consumed blood?” she asked him.
“Three minutes ago. It was low-quality blood,” he replied while stepping closer to her. Somewhere from the corner of her eyes, Madeline noticed some of the guests who were watching at her and Calhoun in the balcony, “I need to drink from you,” he stated before stepping close, his head leaning towards her neck and sniffing her neck.
Madeline had stepped out for some fresh air, and not for Calhoun to drink her blood. Since the time in the castle’s dining room, Calhoun had not taken her blood, and she was thankful about it, but this was not a place to be drinking her blood.
Noticing Madeline’s hesitation, Calhoun said, “We can go to one of the rooms. I doubt Mr. Reeves would mind it.”
“You are the King, why would he,” Madeline whispered, her eyes stared at the coat that he wore.
“Isn’t that great,” chimed Calhoun, “You smell exquisite.”
“I smell the same as usual,” she quickly said, placing her hands on his chest and pushed him to keep a distance. Calhoun had never behaved this way openly with her in public before; therefore, she didn’t know what had him behaving like this now.
Calhoun moved his hands from the railings to place it on her waist.
Her face turned red, and she tried not to look at the curious eyes that were watching them from behind, “Calhoun…” she called his name to have his eyes snap to look at her. Slowly she was learning, knowing what caught his attention, “There are a lot of people.”
“You said that already,” stated Calhoun, there was no smile on his lips and it had made her tense. His hand moved up to tuck her hair back before it trailed to caress her neck, “If anyone has a problem, that is not my problem,” he said. Madeline wanted to bang her head. It might not have affected him, but it would to her, “One bite shouldn’t matter.”
“No!”
Her no sounded like a yes to Calhoun’s ears as he pressed her to him, “No? No, one bite doesn’t matter?” Madeline shook her head.
“You can take my blood once we reach the castle,” she whispered, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the people. This was going to turn to another gossip and Madeline could only hope she wouldn’t come to hear about it.
Calhoun stared at her, “On the bed?”
“On the couch.”
The grin was back on his face, “I can barely wait,” he said, running his tongue over his teeth, “Let’s not waste the precious time here.” Taking her hand in his, he tugged her to walk with him. Calhoun didn’t bother to say to anyone that they were going to leave.
Somewhere Madeline was worried that the guests heard what they spoke. She didn’t look at the people and continued to walk with Calhoun, who took her out of the mansion, in the carriage, to head to the castle.
