“The horses are bought from Woville from Mr Ritcher’s farm. Our Lord prefers it that way,” the coachman said holding the reins of the horse as he spoke to Vivian who listened to him intently.
“I have never been to Woville,” Vivian spoke her thoughts to receive a startled look on the coachman, Joann’s face.
“You haven’t?” She shook her head. Since she could remember she didn’t recollect going anywhere out of Bonelake. She spent most of her time inside the Carmichael’s mansion with a limited amount of people, her world was small though it could have been large if her parents had never sent her away. Vivian who had been transformed from a high-quality pureblood to a mere human had no clue about where she exactly came from. The only person who knew of it had died with the secret leaving her in dark, “Well it isn’t much of a surprise, most of us don’t get to travel outside our lands unless we have the permission of our master or mistress,” with the rough friction between the humans and vampires who were at each other throats, men were placed as a checkpoint, letting only some of them pass by with their masters permission, “The closest town of Woville isn’t far from here. It would take you less than two days by carriage. Compared to Bonelake, it is much warmer. This time of the month is when the flowers bloom at the far edge of the rivers. You should go see it.”
“I heard about the flowers from Paul. He often visited Woville and Valeria due to work….” her words trailed remembering the man. Even with the amount of work which was shouldered by him, he managed to travel back and forth between the lands on Mr Carmichael’s orders.
A small doubt crept into her mind.
The councilmen, including the lord and Leonard, had declared the man to be guilty in terms of causing the death of the pureblooded vampires. It was told that he had mixed something in the pot which was infected to turn the vampires on each other.
The council had always been just, at least that’s what she heard from people. They never made a mistake but what if this time they had mistaken who the culprit was? Or what if Paul was the person who was behind everything that had transpired? What if he had taken the poisonous liquid during one of his travel? Yet, after so much of thought, Vivian couldn’t find a solid reason of why Paul would ever do something so ill.
“I hope one day I get to see it,” Vivian responded back with a polite smile. She was well aware of the fact that she or any of the Carmichael’s servant could leave the mansion for simple sightseeing. The master of the house would never allow that.
As if reading her mind, the Lord’s coachman said, “Lord Nicholas is a good man, you could ask him if you ever wanted to. I am sure a single day wouldn’t be much of a hassle.”
“Go where?”
Leonard walked towards them in slow steps, his dull eyes falling on her and then the coachman.
“Duke Leonard,” the coachman offered a deep bow to the blonde Duke who came to stand not just near them but right next to Vivian, “We were talking about Woville and how the Ms here hasn’t found the opportunity to travel,” gone was the friendly tone from the servant’s voice which was now replaced with a stiffer one.
“And what conclusion did you come up with?” Leonard stared at the man.
“Ah, I-” Vivian interrupted the man,
“Joann said if you send me over some work to Woville I should go visit the river nearby to the local town,” her eyes were cast down as she said it, twisting the conversation they had.
“Was that what you said…Joann, was it?” the Duke inquired the coachman who had begun to feel stressed out. The servant didn’t know what to answer. He was half distracted with the way the Duke stood right next to his maid which his Lord never did and also because of the uninvited glare that was directed towards him.
Vivian was conscious enough to know that Leonard might have overheard their conversation about skipping him and taking the Lord’s permission to leave the land of Bonelake. Though she doubted the Lord would allow it as he was a close friend of Leonard.
“Yes, Sir,” the coachman bowed his head again to affirm his answer to the Duke.
“That’s good to hear. Get my carriage ready, I would like to leave,” the coachman bowed for the third time not making eye contact with anyone as he left to get the Duke’s carriage in front of the mansion but not before pulling aside the lord’s carriage.
Seeing the man go on his way, both Leonard and Vivian turned to look at each other at the same time, dark red brooding eyes staring at the black ones in curiosity.
Seconds fleeted by and none spoke a word. After what had occurred inside the mansion with Lady Shirley, Vivian couldn’t help but wonder if Leonard had taken her here today just to witness the scene. Remembering his warm breath, she lowered her eyes unable to look into his eyes anymore. Shyness enveloped every feature of hers.
Suddenly she felt over conscious of his presence. Her lips felt dry and she parted them to wet it with her tongue. Her eyes were everywhere but on him. She could feel his eyes that continued to stare at her, turning her head into a mess until the Lord came through the main doors of the mansion.
“Leaving so soon?” asked the Lord.
“I need to go meet sister Isabelle. She has information on the dark witch,” dark witch? Vivian had heard about white and black witches but never had she heard about a dark witch.
“I see. Then you better hurry along, we wouldn’t want our dear priestess waiting,” as the carriage was pulled in front of them, the lord turned to look at Vivian with a smile playing on his lips which confused the human girl, “Ms Vivian, it was good to see you. I hope Leonard will bring you here again,” he tipped his head up slightly to receive a bow from her.
“The pleasure was all mine, milord,” she responded back.
Seeing Leonard already walk into the carriage, Vivian bowed again before following her master’s footsteps that led into the carriage.
On their way, Vivian who sat opposite to Leonard stared outside the window, keeping her eyes away from the man who seemed to be in an unreadable mood. She didn’t know what had caused his ill mood and internally she hoped it would go away as the atmosphere inside the carriage turned heavy.
“What did I say about not talking to anyone unnecessarily?” she heard Leonard speak from his seat.
With her brows furrowed together she responded back, “I didn’t, master Leonard,” his eyes narrowed.
“You didn’t? Was that the horse you were talking to before we left the mansion?”
Horse? Was he calling Lord Nicholas as a horse?
“Forgive me, master but calling the lord a horse is very rude,” Leonard gritted his teeth together at the girl’s oblviousness.
“The coachman,” the words passed through his mouth.
Oh! Vivian blushed at her folly. He was talking about the coachman whom she had forgotten but the same couldn’t be told about Leonard.
“When you told not to talk to people, I thought you meant not to talk to the guests,” she voiced her understanding, “I didn’t know the servants were included in it…” she trailed to receive no response from him, it made her wonder if he was angry at her and Vivian didn’t like Leo being mad at her.
Before she could apologize, she heard Leonard say,
“I am sorry for what happened today,” he referred to the wine spilling on her dress, “You don’t have to accompany me for the next tea parties. You are much suited in the mansion.”
Vivian felt her heart sink with his words. She must have embarrassed him in front of the crowd, her incapability had put her on a receiving end of the vampiress action. If she was an experienced maid she would have known to handle the situation better.
As if reading her mind, he said, “It wasn’t your fault. Women and men often tend to behave in such fashion. You don’t have to ponder about it.”
Nodding her head, she continued to look outside the small window.
Leonard saw her faze out as the trees passed one after another. The dress he had personally picked for her had been ruined and now she wore another dress which was borrowed from Lord Nicholas’ dressing room. Her cheeks looked flushed, the cold wind hitting her every time the breeze slipped into the half opened window.
Seeing her interact with Mr. Wells and other people who seemed slightly interested in her annoyed him. If he could, he would have wrung the vampire’s neck for even looking at her. He didn’t want anyone’s eyes on her. Though he didn’t have a claim on her, it didn’t mean he didn’t consider her to be his. She was his maid after all.
A piece of her hair came on her face, hindering her eyes to which she moved it behind her ears.
Right now she looked nothing less than an expensive painting which he didn’t want anyone to buy but only wanted himself to take home.
