“Simple questions like those should have known answers, milady,” replied Theodore. “But please do let me know if there’s anything important if you would like me to answer to.”
Lucy sent him a glare from where she was sitting on her horse. The audacity of this man to be replying to her as if it was nothing.
“I have lost interest in asking the questions now,” said Lucy. “I don’t think any of us have spotted any stag around here. We should probably go back where the others are. I should have gone with Samuel.”
Theodore watched Lucy while she and Sophie Wilmot were trotting in front of him in the forest. His eyes had left hers only when she was looking at him. His ears had tuned themselves to her heart beat while listening to every word that came out of her lips.
It wasn’t often that they spent so much time together in the same place where he could hear her speak. Both she and him were tired of listening to Sophie’s whining. He hadn’t stepped into the guilt trap that Lucy had placed for him in the question, but he had stepped away from it as if it was nothing. No matter how much Lucy looked at him with hate, Theodore had never felt bad about it. He knew she had a right to be angry at him, and he didn’t mind that.
Lucy’s black hair had small braidings from the two sides of her head before it was let down at the back after being pinned. She carried arrows behind her back and the bow in her hand. Her eyes refusing to meet him as if she didn’t want to stay in the same place where he was.
When they finally met with Rosamund and Samuel, Theodore looked around, wondering where Calhoun and Madeline were.
“Oh, looks like Samuel caught the animal first!” Sophie exclaimed, looking at the animal that was tied with ropes.
“And looks like you guys didn’t find any stag,” commented Rosamund to her daughter. “I told you it was pointless to go looking for it.”
With most of them here, Lucy unmounted from her horse and jumped on the ground.
Soon the others followed her action, and Lucy, who was about to take a left turn, came to stand in front of Theodore.
“So much space in the forest,” and I don’t know if it is you or me who gravitates around each other, thought Theodore in his mind.
Lucy felt her heart stutter on having Theodore this closely standing in front of her. Staring at him, she took a step back to be welcomed into Samuel’s arms.
“How was your hunt?” asked Samuel, and Lucy turned around to meet her husband’s gaze while Theodore looked away to pat his horse.
While they decided to stay at the same place, waiting for Calhoun and Madeline to return, Theodore didn’t look at Lucy again as Samuel liked to intervene every time they were near each other. Somewhere it made him smile that the low life was scared of his wife changing her feelings.
Theodore heard the distant galloping of the horse, and he noticed it was Calhoun and Madeline. But something seemed off as Calhoun’s eyes had narrowed, and when he pulled the reins of the horse, he got Madeline and himself down before walking towards them.
On seeing him, others turned around, but Calhoun went straight at Sophie and caught hold of her neck to startle everyone.
“B-brother C-Calhoun,” Sophie stuttered.
“Were you the one who shot the arrow?” demanded Calhoun with his eyes narrowed at her.
“I-I, we were only hunting the s-stag,” Sophie looked scared.
“Brother Calhoun, I don’t think that Sophie mea-” Lucy tried to defend, but one glare from Calhoun had her stop from saying another word.
Calhoun said to Lucy, “If I wasn’t with her, you would have turned dead today. I don’t care if it was by mistake, but I would rather have you to stay aware of where the Queen walks and is present. Do you understand that?” his voice dropped low to a threat, “I will rip every single part of your body. Limb to limb,” and he finally released Sophie.
On hearing this, Theodore frowned, and he caught sight of the arrow that indeed belonged to Sophie, but he was with her and Lucy the entire time. With the way Sophie had used her arrows, there was no way she could have aimed at Madeline. He looked at Rosamund, who was holding her daughter and speaking to the King, and his eyes then fell on Samuel, who stood next to Lucy with a grim expression.
If it wasn’t Sophie, it was either Rosamund or Samuel, thought Theodore to himself. And considering the history Rosamund shared with Calhoun, his doubts fell on the older vampiress.
Calhoun didn’t want to discuss more on the subject as he was outraged, and he declared, “The hunting session has been dismissed. Madeline and I will be heading back to the castle.”
“Come, Lucy. We should get back too. We don’t know if there are other people around,” Samuel said to Lucy, and she nodded her head.
On returning to the castle, Lucy went to see her cousin sister, who was in fits of tears that rolled down her eyes. Lucy consoled Sophie, wondering if someone had got hold of Sophie’s arrow that she had been meaninglessly aiming at earlier in the forest.
Sophie sniffed and sobbed while her mother, Rosamund, had gone to speak to the King to convince him there was no hand of Sophie in what just happened in the forest today. Once Lucy had put Sophie to sleep, she started to walk towards her own room.
When she opened the doors to her room, she felt her heart slip out of her chest, but she tried to keep an impassive look on her face. Samuel had wrapped his hand around a maid’s waist whilst he sucked her blood from her neck.
On seeing Lucy arrive in the room, Samuel dismissed the maid, and he licked his lips. He asked,
“How is Sophie doing right now?”
“She’s resting now. She should be alright with some rest,” replied Lucy.
Her heart was a little rattled that someone had tried to kill Madeline. The attacker could have killed anyone today, and Madeline was lucky to have Calhoun next to her. For assurance, she went and sat next to Samuel, but he stood up from the bed.
“I will be going to the royal court now. Make sure you rest too,” said Samuel before leaving her without any word of comfort.
Lucy’s hands that were on her lap clenched her skirt. She didn’t know if she was imagining things, but there were times where she had seen Samuel hold the maids intimately as he drank their blood. She wondered if she was imagining things, which was why she felt she was being neglected.
The same day when Lucy had gone to take a walk around the corridors of the castle, she came to find out that there was no royal court meeting being held and that Samuel possibly had lied to her. But why?
