Bride To His Darkness-Chapter 339: Like A Flower

Rising from his seat to stand one step away from her, Lucy hardly knew how to fix her gaze on things that weren’t him. If he was someone who was more than familiar with signs, he would have noticed the green lights she kept flashing him every now and then, but from his urbane advances, it was more than clear, to her disappointment, that he lacked the knowledge concerning matters like this.

If it were someone else in Duncan’s place, she wouldn’t have been able to pull a stunt like this, rather, she wouldn’t have dared to take such a step. It was clearly stated that a servant cannot, in any way, have any form of romantic relationship with someone of royalty, and due to that absurd logic, she never once made any advancement towards Duncan in the past, lest she avoided becoming anyone’s concubine. But after witnessing Ivan and Samantha’s relationship, she had come to the conclusion that she could also achieve a little bit of happiness, as long as the other person feels exactly the same, so that’s exactly what she was going to do.

She’s going to win His Majesty, Duncan’s heart.

"Lucienne."

"Your Majesty?" She tilted her head up to meet his gaze, composing herself after being snapped back to the situation at hand, but in her mind, she was drooling over how sweet her name sounded on his cherry red lips. Somehow, selfishly, she was glad he had this illness that made people stay away from him, or else, he would have been married by now, and she wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to even stand in front of him, talk more of becoming his aid.

"What indecent thoughts are you having?" The vampire frowned after taking note of the way she gazed at him.

"Nothing." Lucy answered after averting her bashful gaze, and she cleared her throat before diverting his mind to their earlier discussion. "Please be rest assured, I haven’t forgotten our agreement, and I will keep to my end of the deal. But if I have to be completely honest, there is one thing that troubles my thoughts."

"And what could that possibly be?"

"If I have to come with you on this journey, there will be questions concerning my identity, like who am I? Which brothel was I picked from? But let’s drop that aside, what I mean to say is I have no intention of disclosing myself to those people. I know I’m in no position to dictate my options but I won’t agree to this if I have to reveal myself to everyone. How about assigning me as someone significant when we get there with a new name? For example, maybe a member of your court, I could be a guest! Your personal companion, anything significant will do fine. You know, I won’t mind if you consider making me act as your wife, and I’m just trying to let you know of my options, so you won’t feel hesitant to ask."

"Becoming my... wife?" Duncan blinked at her bold request, "you don’t mind if I choose to make you my Ignara?"

"Ignara...?" Lucy’s face flushed at his inquiry, and the meaning behind that word instinctively jogged her memories. Ignara was the language the men in her hometown used whenever they wanted to refer to their wives. No doubt, she was jealous of how fluent he spoke her hometown’s language, and she, who was born and sold from there, wasn’t even that good at speaking it, but thankfully, she was able to understand the meaning when someone else speaks it.

’Does he honestly want me to give an answer?’ Lucy stayed cautious as he waited, and no matter how deep her feelings were for Duncan, she knew she wouldn’t be able to say the answer directly.

"Your Majesty, I made more than one suggestion, but making me your Ignara has caught your attention out of all of them. Should I be suspicious?" Lucy played innocent, as if it wasn’t her idea from the beginning, but Duncan knew better. He fell right into her trap, but he knew they were two sides to this woman, whilst she reminded him of a flower.

Hibiscus flower.

"You’re really something else." He murmured cryptically, leaning his face closer to Lucy as though he wanted to get a good look at her. Their proximity forced Lucy to take a step back, against her own will of course, and she noticed the slight curve of his lips. If it was a smile or not, she couldn’t really tell, but she had to admit, it was rather tempting.

"You’re dismissed for now." He waved her off and took his seat, ending their conversation without giving her a response. Lucy pouted at how easily he told her to leave, and he was back to writing a few words on the parchment in front of him. Whenever he surrendered to his work, Lucy knew her next words would fall on deaf ears.

Bowing her head one last time at the difficult vampire, she exited the tent. When her presence was no longer within his vicinity, Duncan’s features softened into an unknown smile.

—---

"Any luck?" Ivan waited outside the larger tent, and he asked the commander in charge of the guards who had gone to Carmela’s fortress to retrieve her body. As expected, they shook their heads solemnly. They had been digging through shattered stones till the blue sky turned a twilight shade, but none of the guards could recover her body, as there was no body to recover in the first place.

"She’s still out there, I had a feeling she wouldn’t die so easily." Ivan clicked his tongue, his frustration slowly building as he wondered where she could have gone to seek shelter. He wasn’t wrong in his earlier assumptions, fire no longer held any sort of effect on her, but then again, what if there was a chance of her becoming immortal?

"Coven members." The voice of Madeline made Ivan look in her direction to see her approaching the tent. She came to stand beside him, and the guards lowered their heads in a respectable bow in her presence.

"Coven members?"

She nodded, "Marius had assigned me to kill the twelve councils whom I suppose supported Carmela’s rule, but behind their trustworthy facade, they had a feeling those councils wouldn’t cooperate if they disclosed the treachery behind the making of her potion, so to avoid exposing their plan, I was made to do the dirty work. While they stayed clean, we’ll probably be blamed and viewed as the real enemy by the people from the south.... Most especially me, as I was the one who killed them."

Samantha brushed the disturbing scene aside, "if Carmela’s still alive, then I say we find out from the townspeople if she has other coven members, or other allies that visit the Palace often. Send your guards to investigate this and I’ll introduce you to someone who I believe will give us more than enough information."

"You know someone?" Ivan’s piqued curiosity did not go unnoticed, and Samantha only smiled while folding her arms.

"Should we begin the investigation?" Asked the commander, and it was Samantha who responded this time around.

"You can start the investigation tomorrow. The day is almost over so use the time you have to eat well and recharge yourself." She kindheartedly suggested, and as tempting as her offer was to them, the guards knew they could not react unless their Majesty approves of it.

"You heard the Lady, get some rest." He said to the guards whose shoulders dropped in relief. Their exhaustion was understandable, and if it wasn’t for their Queen, they knew their workaholic King would keep them working their ass out till daybreak.

As the twilight sky changed its shade to a dark blue blanketed with stars, night approached, and a fire flickered in the center of a clearing, surrounded by tents. Everyone was dressed in their simple and decent night garments, the glow of the fire enhancing the visuals of those that had gathered. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Madeline held an ornate wooden bowl, and she fed the nuts she had roasted to her son who enjoyed them. Cassian simply watched the two of them, and he rolled his eyes at some point when jealousy began to kick in. His wife has been so busy tending to their son after they found him, that he suddenly felt invisible in her gaze now. He appreciated her efforts when it came to looking after their son but he couldn’t remember the last time when it was just the two of them.

Even at night, she always made that little wife-snatcher sleep in-between the two of them, expressing how she was afraid of leaving him by himself. He couldn’t say no to the woman, and he dared not try it either.

"Hey." Cassian collected the bowl from Madeline, "I know you roasted them for Ali but consider your lonely husband here too sometimes. He stole you away from me, at least save me some of this."

Alain’s eyes shifted to his father, and that look of indifference in his gaze made Cassian see himself in him for more than a minute.

"Did you know, before you came along, I was her baby?"

"Aren’t you too old to be a baby, father?" He blinked innocently, but the way he had said it, as if he didn’t agree with his father’s word made Madeline and the rest chuckle out, unable to suppress it, and Cassian nearly shed tears at the thought of being called ’old’ by his own son.

"I’m not old." He murmured, stuffing a mouthful of nuts into his mouth, and Madeline couldn’t help but pet her depressed husband.

"If you’re my mother’s baby, then I also want a baby." Alain quietly said, refusing to be the only one left out, and his subtle words gained the attention of his parents.

"I want a baby sister now." He requested.

New novel chapters are published on fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com