Finishing the meal, Madeline dabbed the napkin on her lips gently before putting on the table. Now that dinner was complete, Madeline couldn’t wait to rush back to the room she was given to sleep. Far away with enough walls between them where they wouldn’t share the same space. The servant entered the room to clear the table and take the trolley back.
“I shall return to my room now if there’s nothing else to do-“
“Stay,” Calhoun poured water on her plan of going back to her room quickly, “It would be unfortunate if we didn’t share some time,” weren’t they doing that just now? Asked Madeline to herself.
“Okay,” she agreed.
“Don’t look so sullen, Madeline. Life in the castle isn’t as bad as you think it to be,” Madeline had to bite her tongue thinking about the death that took place in the courtroom but that didn’t mean Calhoun didn’t pick her body language, “Did the death intimidate you?” he asked her, his eyes looking at her challengingly.
“Isn’t death always intimidating?” she questioned him.
“If you have seen enough death and taken many lives, death is barely something to be considered. Once your hand is dipped deep and down in blood, there’s nothing to be intimidated about,” Calhoun answered her, his eyes lazily watching her and his lips parted, “When you’re dealing with court and your subjects, things like these are the most common.”
Didn’t she come under his subjects too? Asked Madeline to herself.
“Don’t be frightened. You are safe,” seeing the sharp canine that appeared from one side didn’t feel convincing at her, “You will get used to it.”
“What if I say I don’t want to get used to it?” asked Madeline, “You need to understand that this is not how I grew up…”
Calhoun tilted his head to the side and asked her, “You haven’t seen anyone be beheaded in the scaffold?” Madeline shook her head, “How did you miss it? If I am not wrong, every village and town has a hearing on what crimes have been committed. Depending on these actions are taken.”
“I had no interest in looking at people hang or to see them beheaded. With what I have heard, the punishments are always barbaric,” Madeline replied to his question, “There was a woman who had nothing to do with the brawl, but she was dragged into it, and she was set on fire.”
Before someone got killed, Madeline and Beth had always been ushered out of there by their parents though Beth used to sneak out to see how the proceedings went. She had heard people scream and cry in pain when it was their blood who stood on the scaffold, ready to be killed.
“People are caught doing some things they are not supposed to do, and there are some who get caught.”
“You agree that innocents are killed,” it was more of a question as she looked into his eyes that were staring back at her before a smile broke on his lips.
“One might think that person is innocent while the next person might not, we all see things in our point of view and the order of execution is run after trails of questions and votes on what is to be done. If it is labour, imprisonment or to be sent to death row,” he answered her questions, “But then there are some, that can be manipulated according to our own will.”
Madeline couldn’t help but wonder to herself on how many people this man would have sent on death row or how many deaths lied in his hands. The King who had offered her a room, clothes to wear and shared dinner, the same man had killed a person this noon.
“Thinking about Benedict? The man who was planning to invite you to his quarters,” Calhoun reminded who Benedict was, “Benedict was an efficient man when it came to working in the ministry of relations, but he wasn’t as smart as I thought him to be.”
“You killed him without a trial,” stated Madeline.
Calhoun chuckled, “People like that don’t need to be trialled, especially not when it concerns the King and his interests. You weren’t expecting me to slide it now, were you?” the smile on his face had fallen, and his red eyes looked at her, “I won’t tolerate any man talking to you in such tone or intention, or even looking at you. With today’s action, word will spread for everyone to steer clear away from you.”
He was giving her protection, but the irony was that there was no one to protect her from the Calhoun himself.
“As of what I heard, there has been no man trying to pursue you, but if he is, you should forget about the man you were planning to get engaged,” there was an underline threat in his words, “I guarantee to keep you safe with me but not another man.”
When she finally got to leave his room, bowing her head, she released a sigh of breath after reaching the room and closing the door behind her. She heard the footsteps go from the front of the door, which was of the maid who had led her back to the room.
Madeline changed her clothes and sat next to the window. Her head was leaning against the window as she wondered how the events in one day had turned everything upside down.
Away from the castle, in the vicinity of the village and at the rise of the sun, a person walked on the side of the road to reach the shop that made dresses.
An envelope was handed to the assistant that was addressed to the owner of the shop Mr. James Heathcliff.
