Barron fumed not too quietly with his complaints going back and forth to see Lucas starting to leave and he then said, "Did you hear her speak something about the shadows?" the butler stopped walking, "Do you know what those shadows mean?""Arrival of death. I know," Lucas replied to step out of the room leaving Barron confused.
The fourth card of the Grim was confused. He didn"t understand this reaper, with what he had understood with the short time he had spent with the girl who often liked to talk, the butler had been working here for quite some time that made him question how the reaper had not been charged unless it was a rogue reaper who had not been punished yet.
Like the land of the living, the land of the dead had rules for the reapers. There was no off duty especially for the lower reapers who didn"t feel or hear anything. They did the job of bringing the soul to the gates in the land of the dead. Though Barron wasn"t in his form, he could smell the air of death that was approaching here. It was slowly settling around the house and the smell was something he was used to because it was what he did and belonged to.
What he didn"t understand was that it was clear with the amount of smell surrounding them that something bad was going to take place. The butler appeared to be hardly bothered with it when it was obvious that the reaper even though lower than him noticed something bad was going to happen.
Belle who went down the stairs, heading towards the dining room noticed it was just her and the maid who was busy setting the food on the table. Her parents were yet to arrive. Lucas, who came back shortly, took the napkin to spread it on Belle"s lap.
"I forgot to inform you about something, Miss Belle," said Lucas to her who turned her head to look at him.
"What is it?"
"We received an envelope from the dance cla.s.s. It spoke of how you attended only one cla.s.s and missed the rest of it," he relayed the message to her.
Belle had purposely not gone to the cla.s.s after knowing from her parents of how Mr. Wellington and Lady Olivia had cornered her family for money. The words of Hana Wilson rang in the back for her mind and she bit the side of her cheek. She had stood up for her family and the status she belonged to not knowing what had happened and what the public knew which she had been unaware of.
She didn"t want to be an insensitive child who would throw a tantrum to her parents. Her parents knew why she wasn"t going and they hadn"t asked her to go. She had spoken back to Hana without knowing she was in truth wasting money. Dancing was one of the etiquettes of their society that had to be learned which only the high cla.s.s could afford while the others who belonged to the middle and the lower cla.s.s couldn"t afford the fees nor the clothes and shoes that was required.
Belle had her own pride which made her rigid as she sat in the chair. She then heard Lucas say, "You might not feel like attending the cla.s.s but if you did that it wouldn"t be the girl I know."
Her gaze s.h.i.+fted from the empty plate in front of her to look at her butler who had picked up the gla.s.s made bottle to pour water into the gla.s.s that was next to her.
"You want me to go," Belle murmured and he gave her a nod.
"People will speak a lot, milady but you shouldn"t heed to it and it isn"t like you don"t have a house. Lady Olivia returned back the mansion papers and paid Mr. Wellington the asked amount of money, everything is settled."
If there was one person Belle didn"t want to let down it was Lucas and it wasn"t because of her newly discovered feelings for him. She had always looked up to him and she made sure to follow his word; it was just rare times where she didn"t listen to him that ended up with her writing hundreds of parchments as punishment which was for her own benefit.
"You avoiding people will make them think that you don"t have a backbone and when that is sensed by the others, people will corner and crush everything you know. You are stronger than most of the spineless women I have come across during my time of work here," he a.s.sured her smiling.
"Who are the spineless women?" Belle asked intrigued.
"I don"t think I need to mention them as you already are aware of it, Miss Belle," Lucas left her side to walk around the table to pour the gla.s.s of water in Mr. and Mrs. Adams" gla.s.ses.
Belle narrowed her eyes as she smiled looking at him, her eyes following him as he moved elegantly around the table. Her parents finally arrived in the room and they took their seats with Lucas who helped in pus.h.i.+ng Mrs. Adams" chair forward.
Belle was still smiling until her eyes fell on her mother who was surrounded by the black vapor. It wasn"t blazing but she could see the outline that had formed around her and her heart slipped from her chest.
"Are you alright, Belle?" her mother asked as the young vampiress had a look of shock on her face.
Belle looked into her mother"s eyes where the woman smiled. No no, this couldn"t be happening, thought Belle to herself. Something was not right. Her mother was perfectly healthy therefore there was no way something bad was going to happen.
Lucas, who noticed the way Belle was looking at her mother, saw the woman"s neck where the skin had spread around with the black and blue skin. By the girl"s reaction, he could tell that she was seeing the black vapor that was surrounding her mother but she was seeing it too early. There were still three days, thought Lucas to himself.
"Yes, mother," Belle answered with a sliver of fear and worry in her voice.
"You look like you saw a ghost," her mother chuckled to have the napkin being placed on her lap.
Belle bit her lip, unable to smile she parted her lips to ask, "Are you feeling alright, mama?" she asked her mother who tilted her head.
"I feel perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"
She told herself it must be nothing. After all, the black vapors often blazed around with not just an outline. Maybe it would go away, Belle reasoned with herself. She shook her head to her mother"s question.
"Just making sure, mama is okay," Belle smiled to see her mother smile but her mind was rattled at the thought of something happening to her mother.
After serving at the table, Lucas saw the maid named Lydia who entered the dining room with deserts. The deserts tonight had been made to make it look more alluring with fruits that were diced in a cup with sweet cream poured on to the top of it. Out of inkling, he pulled out his pocket watch for his eyes to narrow down at the dial and hand.
What was shown as three days earlier today had changed to three hours.