Hearing the words Lady Rosamund uttered right now, Madeline didn’t know what to reply to it. It was because the thought had never crossed her mind as she had never thought about turning herself into a vampire. Most of the people in her village and her family were not too comfortable to be in the presence of night creatures. Madeline had come to believe, that was the reason why her parents had not packed their trunks to come and stay with her early.
The King of Devon was a vampire, and the castle though filled with humans and vampires, there were some vampires who could feed on humans, sucking their blood.
Madeline wasn’t sure she wanted to turn herself into a vampire because she never wished to turn into one.
Seeing the silence fill in the room, Lady Lucy was the one who spoke, “There are still days to think about it. Lady Madeline would be ready after that. It isn’t like she’s getting old right away,” the half-sister of the King smiled.
Lady Rosamund was pleased to see Madeline’s expression of shock on her face, “You are right, Lucy. No need to worry about it now. It is just something to think about,” the older vampiress smiled, bringing the teacup to her lips to take a sip.
“If brother Calhoun has decided to marry you, I don’t think he will turn you to a mistress,” Lucy assured Madeline, but that wasn’t what Madeline was worried about. Somewhere deep down, she wanted to continue living the way she was, without having to change herself. She didn’t want to turn to a vampire, no matter what benefits it had because with advantages came cons.
“It was just a possible situation, Lucy dear,” Lady Rosamund stated, “Things like that have happened in the past. Now that Madeline is going to be a family, we should look out for each other. It would be best to prepare her mind.”
Sophie, who was sitting quietly, finally spoke, “Maybe we should ask brother Calhoun, I am sure he would love to have the queen turn to a vampire and who can save herself. At least that would stop the blames to fall on others.” The young vampiress was still angry and hurt over what happened in the forest when Madeline was attacked. It wasn’t her fault, but the King had threatened her.
Madeline was not naive to not to pick at the taunting words, and she bowed her head at Sophie.
“I am sorry for what happened, Lady Sophie. I hope your neck is feeling better,” said Madeline, offering her sympathy.
Sophie was about to remark back in spite when Lady Rosamund interrupted her to say, “It wasn’t your fault, Madeline. You shouldn’t apologize to Sophie.” The words from her mother struck deep in Sophie, who had a look of shock on her face. Was her mother siding with the human? “There are so many people who would like to have the crown. You being the easiest target, your life will continue to be in danger. It is only the beginning.”
Madeline heard the apparent warning that Lady Rosamund gave to her. She offered the lady a smile that had Lady Rosamund narrow her eyes, “I will trust that everyone close to the King will protect the crown and has only the best interest with the crown. Once I will be the Queen, I will make sure of it. It is not like the King’s relatives are having an eye on the throne now, is it?”
The three ladies’ attention completely fell on Madeline. Sophie’s eyes widened, and Lady Rosamund’s eyes narrowed down at the human’s words, “What do you mean, Lady Madeline?” questioned Lady Rosamund, not liking Madeline’s tone.
“I don’t think anyone has to worry about anything, when the relatives are not eyeing on the crown. It is because I heard the closest enemies are always found near to the crown, but it is good that it isn’t the case here,” answered Madeline, and she smiled in the end.
“Lady Madeline is right,” Lucy agreed, “We have such good people in the family, it is only the outsiders. Brother Calhoun would never let anything bad happen to you or to any one of us. Not unless someone does something bad.”
Lady Rosamund, unable to hold her tongue, said, “I wonder about that sometimes. Your father was such a good King. Look what happened to him and your mother,” the woman clicked her tongue, “There was so much security, yet the minister got the access to murder them. Who would give such insights to him?”
Madeline’s eyes quickly darted to look at Lady Lucy whose smile fell from her face. Calhoun had told her that he was the one who had killed the previous King and the Queen, but Lady Lucy didn’t know about it. She was left in the dark on who the actual killer was.
“The minister had acquired it himself. He was helping the Warrings,” answered Lucy, “Minister Merden had called father out in the undercrofts. It seems that he only had the intention to kill father, but mother had come out, looking for father and she…” the vampiress’ voice trailed to a whisper. It was evident that Lady Lucy felt pain at the loss of her parents.
Madeline wondered what would happen if Lucy came to know the truth. That the King whom she adored killed her parents. That the half-brother whom she called as her own was the one to steal the people she loved and cause pain in her life.
“I wonder why the Warrings even got the minister to do something like that, when it was them who offered the treaty of peace for the next two years,” Lady Rosamund continued, “It is strange that they killed the King when it would not benefit them.”
This left Lady Lucy in some thought as she sat there in silence.
The topic had moved from one corner to another, leaving Madeline to ponder on how far Lady Rosamund would try to go, to share the throne through her daughter.
At the same time, Madeline had to be careful with her tongue. With her sister Beth, who was now dreaming of being with Lady Rosamund’s son, Markus Wilmot, she wondered how things would go down from here. Did the lady know about her son’s interest? Asked Madeline to herself.
She remembered the first time they met, where the older vampiress had shown a strong disinterest and disregard towards Madeline as she came from the village.
Would she accept Beth to be her daughter-in-law? Only time would tell how the events would roll out in the next few hours.
After spending some more time in the tearoom, the ladies finally left, and Madeline went to check on her family. Wanting to make sure they were alright, she asked the maids who were assigned to her, to help her family if they needed anything.
Finally, during the time of supper, everyone arrived to take a seat at the table in the dining room. The first ones to come were the Harris’ family and then it was the Wilmot’s.
“Sophie told me that we had guests,” said Lady Rosamund looking at the humans who were sitting on the other side of the table from her. Calhoun who sat at the head of the table, replied,
“I asked the Harris’ family to come and stay in the castle so that they can actively take part in the wedding preparations. Meet Madeline’s family, Mr. and Mrs. Harris, and their elder daughter Elizabeth.”
“How nice to see you all here,” Lady Rosamund put up a welcoming smile on her face, “I was hoping to meet the family. I am Rosamund Wilmot, and this is my daughter Sophie.”
“This here is my half-sister. Lucy Greville,” Calhoun introduced her to everyone.
Mr. and Mrs. Harris smiled at the vampire family. They felt like they had heard the last name before. It sounded too familiar and Mrs. Harris, couldn’t help but ask,
“Are you by chance related to Markus Wilmot?”
Lady Rosamund had a look of surprise on her face, “Yes. He is my son. Do you know him?” the older vampiress asked with an oblivious look on her face as if she didn’t know her son had spoken to this lowly family.
Beth had a look of shock on her face, and Sophie’s expression wasn’t too far away from it, staring at each other in realization.
The older daughter of Harris was in pain, and she had been feeling sick since the time the mutt had bitten her hand. The pain was unbearable, that had moved from her wrist to her arm. At first, she had decided not to step out of the room as it was more comfortable than the bed back in their house that had turned hard by overusing it.
Since it was the first day in the castle, she didn’t want to miss supper. Now that she was here in the castle, she wanted to make full use of this opportunity, to show how beautiful and smart she was. That she was the better choice. In pain, she had made her way to the dining room only to come face to face in front of the vampiress who had belittled her.
To make it worse, during the introduction, she found out that the proud vampiress was not only the King’s cousin, that she was Markus Wilmot’s blood sister.
If she wanted Markus to continue pursuing her, Beth couldn’t get on the wrong side of his family. Sophie continued to glare while Beth tried to school down her expression of shock and finally offered the vampiress a sweet smile like she was the kindest and sweetest person in this room.
