Chapter 388: Mapless
The chirping and shrill giggles wouldn’t stop no matter how hard Silas tried to tune them out, but all in all, his wife seemed happy which was all that mattered to him.
The words inked upon the last letter prince Cedric had sent for her attention would have kept him up at night had he been capable of sleep.
Like a barnacle stuck to a ship, she had described him as. At that she was a lot more than right.
Even worse was to realize that the prince and Arabella had only met once, according to her, and that was all it took for him to get all tangled up in her webs.
It was frightening to wonder what he would have done had he gotten the chance to know and fall in love with her.
"What’s gotten your shoulders to tense up so much?" Persephone’s voice caused his head to turn her way.
"Correspondence," was all that he said.
"Was it all it took?" one of her eyebrows rose as she came to stand by him.
"It was a letter from the Lustrisian crown prince," he pushed a sigh.
"Well, in that case, it’s... Understandable," his mother’s eyes glided along his shoulders and skipped over to Arabella through the balcony window, "She seems to be doing well, considering,"
"She doesn’t know about it," strain riddled his voice even more than it did before.
"Why not? Does the letter not concern her?" her gaze snapped back onto her son.
"The letter was addressed to her," he practically hissed.
"Then how come...?"
"I ordered that all letters addressed to her come by me first," the vampire spoke quickly to maintain the steadiness of his voice.
"Silas...,"
Her expression alone told him how disapproving she was of his decision. No words were needed.
"It’s for her own good," he avoided her gaze as though it carried an ailement.
"That does not sound good," she shook her head.
"Mother, please, I made the mistake of forwarding a previous letter of his to her and damn near broke her,"
"You don’t need to beg. I am done interfering between you two, but you better not get used to doing this... Whatever you think you are doing, it isn’t right. It can become a nasty habit. One day it’ll do more than break her," she paused momentarily before her eyebrows knitted again, "What does he want again anyway? Didn’t he mail us a letter yesterday already?"
"He hopes," Silas gritted his teeth subtly, "That her size hasn’t changed since living under our roof. He wishes to bring yet another gift with him,"
"Does he think we are starving her or something? That is insulting!" she spat, "Not only do I have a hole in my stomach about these gifts of his, but two letters in the span of two days! Now, that isn’t a record per se but still, I see why she fled his hold,"
"Didn’t father used to send you a letter every day before your union?"
"Emeric never stopped writing me letter even after our union, but that is very different!" Persephone cleared her throat and straightened her stance, "It was something we had agreed upon together," once again, something seemed to be stuck in her throat, preventing her from speaking without coughing it out of the way, "Speaking of gifts, have you-"
"Not now, not here, mother. There are eyes and ears everywhere," he cut her off at once.
"How did today go?" she completely shifted topics.
"About as well as it usually does,"
"How did she react?"
Inside the room where the girls paraded their new gowns in front of the mirror, Arabella seemed the happiest.
Their voices came a tad muffled through the closed balcony. Not that it mattered much to a vampire.
"Better than I expected her to,"
Upon inhaling deeply, the Lady shared her next thought, "What about the tributes? I hear there’s been a disturbance,"
"Two perished on the way here," Silas turned to face the gardens that moved like a shadow under the moonlight.
"I assume you’ve-"
"Yes, I have reported it to the syndicate. That is not for us to deal with," his tone colder than before, the message was clear; he wished not to discuss that subject.
"Right, well, we will see how her idea pans out tomorrow,"
Unlike him, Persephone’s gaze was still soldered on Arabella who helped Ada adjust her gown with a smile on her face.
Since Persephone showed no sign of leaving, it was Silas that walked away to find a new corner where killing time would be more bearable until his wife joined him again.
A million little and big things swirling his mind, the man resorted to his recent conversation with Arabella; to be selfish.
Despite everything on his plate, all he could think about was her lips around his cock.
The way it turned the entire world blank in his eyes and ears was just as sublime as it was frightening.
Hadn’t she said that her training had started at the age of fourteen?
That thought left the most bitter of tastes in his mouth, but what was done was done... There was no magic that could turn back time.
There was no undoing it, there was only accepting.
He wouldn’t be a monster for reaping the fruit of such training, would he?
All of that and his desire to use her body clashed in his head, leaving him mentally stranded somewhere unrecognizable and completely mapless.
Not to count what was to come and threaten her smile. Lord knew what sort of twisted games the crown prince was bringing along.
What ate his inner walls the most was keeping the secret from Arabella.
Seeing the way she almost broke down after his first letter didn’t help, but Persephone was also right.
Keeping things from her wouldn’t serve as a shield in the long run. Things do build and pile up. Such a future frightened him to the core.
"Silas?" Arabella stood behind him.
"Are you finally done?" his diamonds darted around as if to check for another presence around them before smiling.
"Yes," she nodded, "Estrid suggested a south eastern design for this ball. Although, I am still going for green and gold. That is for sure,"