The front side of Madeline’s legs were already wet with water because of the wavering water that was produced by the hand movements of Calhoun in the bath. The water spilt out that was filled until the brim of the bath. She saw him wait for her to move. She finally uncrossed her legs to place her legs in the water that was quick to soak.
Calhoun was pleased and satisfied with Madeline’s compliance. He didn’t need her words to know that she was slowly accepting him. Her actions spoke louder than anything and Calhoun didn’t miss any of it.
He continued with what he was speaking, “It doesn’t hold just for the night creatures but also others. Sometimes visible to the naked eye while sometimes you get it through internal physical features. My mother’s father has wings like mine.”
“Has?” asked Madeline. Did that mean he was still alive?
“Did you think I didn’t have any close relatives? That Lucy was the only one and then the Wilmots?” laughed Calhoun looking at the startled look on her face.
“Why isn’t he living here with you then?” It was a normalcy to have family members live together. At least that is what Madeline liked to believe.
Calhoun who had kept some distance between them so that he could have a better look at her, now stepped forward. One-step and then the next.
“I haven’t met him until now. My mother told he was hibernating, somewhere alone in the cold caves of the coffin rooms,” replied Calhoun. He stepped even more closer, his head tilted up to look at her, “I don’t know where he is.”
“Have you never thought about looking for him?”
Calhoun shook his head, “No.”
When he didn’t say anything, Madeline wondered why not, “You said…she killed herself.”
Calhoun’s eyes narrowed at her words. There were the words he had been waiting for her to tell. Having lived in the village and having met people from the bottom to end up at the top, Calhoun had the ability to make use of his gut feeling.
“What did you hear?” Calhoun asked her directly.
Madeline felt her heart flip at his question where he didn’t bother to beat around the bush. As if he already knew what she wanted to ask, “D-did you kill your mother?” she held her breath waiting for him to answer and heard,
“Yes.”
Though her hands were not dipped in the water, she felt it turn colder than her feet, “Why?” her question came out in a whisper, “Why did you lie to me.”
“I don’t think you would take it kindly if I said I killed her myself,” came the unfiltered words from him and she gulped, “Do you want to go back to your room?”
Madeline tried to understand him; it was why she was here with him. She wouldn’t be here, dipping her legs in the water until her knee in the past. She shook her head, “I will listen to your reason.” She hoped there was a reason behind his action. Madeline doubted if she would be able to live with a man who had killed his mother mercilessly for no reason.
Calhoun wondered which one of his relatives was the one who mentioned about his mother with Madeline.
“My mother’s health was deteriorating, and later it only turned worse in time. There was too much pain. She tried meeting my father, but she wasn’t the same person by appearance, and it had been years since she had visited the castle, for people to remember her. It is usually the Queen who is remembered and not the mistresses that the King had. Unless the mistress kills the Queen or replaces her position by some means,” Calhoun broke his gaze from her to look behind her with a distant look on his face.
“I don’t know what happened to her exactly, but it seems like someone fed her with something. During her last days and hours of her death, she looked nothing less to a corpse. Just bones as she stopped eating or drinking,” and Calhoun’s gaze returned to fall on Madeline, “Sometimes quick death is easier than seeing them suffer. In the future, as days pass by, you will need to know that there’s something more than just court duties or the annoying pests who hover around the castle.”
Madeline was left speechless, and her hands that were on top of her knees caught hold of the dress. She wondered if it was because of the pain, that had Calhoun’s mother’s health start to deteriorate.
“In those terms, yes, I killed her,” concluded Calhoun. Though he stared at her right now, Madeline could not keep up with his gaze, and she looked at the water.
“D-do you have any portrait of her painted in the gallery?” inquired Madeline as the walls didn’t hold any reference to Calhoun’s mother. She searched for possible portraits displayed on the walls of the castle, but she had found none.
“Hm,” he nodded his head, “There are a few of them.”
Madeline’s eyes brightened at his words, curious to see his mother.
At the same time, she frowned at the thought that the royal family had not bothered to come to see the woman, but they had made sure to keep tabs on what she and her son were doing. She wondered if that was how life in the castle was, where once you stepped in here, it was hard to get away from it.
“What else did you receive in this generation skip ability?” she asked him.
He said, “Some of the rare abilities. The place from where my mother came, it is different compared to what you will find here, or you have found so far. Somewhere far and behind the secluded mountains. You can see that my eyes are darker than the rest. Some of us are different.”
Madeline noticed how his words were subtle, but he was telling the truth, “Is there something else you have tried to hide?” she asked him, “You cannot lie to me.”
“What a demanding wife I am going to have,” Calhoun teased her, “I will try not to.” It wasn’t a promise, but it was something, and Madeline was willing to take it for now.
Calhoun himself realised something about Madeline. A generation skip. It was possible that her parents knew nothing about it neither did her elder sister, Elizabeth. The only person who would have received the curse or gift was Madeline.
“Are your grandparents still alive?” asked Calhoun and Madeline frowned.
“They are not dead,” not yet at least. Madeline loved them and didn’t want anything bad happen to them.
He nodded his head and said, “I will have Theodore send out some extra invitation cards so that your parents can make use of it. For the people whom they want to invite.”
With the pace everything was going around her, Madeline thought that Calhoun was taking charge of what to be done and what not to be done—not involving her family with anything related to their wedding that was going to take place soon. But hearing this from him, Madeline gave him a nod.
“Thank you,” she thanked him and noticed he got closer to her.
“Do you have any wishes?” asked Calhoun. Madeline didn’t know if it was due to the water around them, but his eyes looked much more alive and red.
“Wishes?” she repeated back his words.
“Yes, wishes,” his voice lowered down, like a whisper of a secret which he would make it come true if she were to tell him right now.
Calhoun asked her because he remembered when Lucy was getting married, her mother didn’t ask her but went ahead with the preparation. Of course, Lucy never told him. He had found out about it through Theodore, who had stepped down and hid his feelings for the princess. Back then, Calhoun had not bothered himself with little details like that because there were other important things he was focused on.
Madeline wondered what she wished to do at her wedding. Like many other young girls, she had wanted to find someone who loved her, and she would love back. It didn’t matter to her if she wore a cheap wedding dress that wasn’t made of silk.
“Don’t kill anyone on that day or before it,” Madeline said, and Calhoun nodded. He had expected her to say something related to her clothes or wanting to have jewels or the place where she dreamt of having her wedding.
“I didn’t think if I will be killing someone, but interesting that you wish for something so odd. Let’s hope no one does something stupid.”
