Belle was a nervous wreck internally but she didn"t show it out. She had thought he would try scaring her and then would back away for her to change by herself but having that thought in her mind, she had now been removed of all her clothes except for the s.h.i.+ft as well as the stockings. With her back facing Lucas, she looked at her bed, unable to see what Lucas was doing or if he was looking at her with the expressionless look on his face. The linen wasn"t thick but not thin either, it was light enough to be worn like an undergarment with nothing inside it. She was bare and the breezy wind that was in the room reached her skin to have a s.h.i.+ver run down her back.
Belle was turning embarra.s.sed with every pa.s.sing second as it was the last piece of cloth that covered her body.
Was Lucas seriously going to bathe her today? She didn"t know if she was supposed to feel shy or hurt by the fact that he didn"t mind undressing and taking her to wash her.
Lucas didn"t stop.
When he placed his lean fingers that were covered in black gloves on her waist, nudging the flimsy s.h.i.+ft that was off white in color up her waist, Belle"s heart hitched and she let out a nervous breath to hear Lucas say right behind her,
"Women are like flowers, Miss Belle," she could feel his breath on the side of her face, speaking next to her ear, "Some flowers that grow in the wild, some in the lake or pond. The women you so much wanted to know, they are the flowers that grow in the pond and you should already know what kind of a place the pond is. It is easily available that makes it lose its value. But I believe you aren"t one."
She didn"t know if it was his words or his voice he spoke in that raised gooseb.u.mps on her skin but her body s.h.i.+vered, her knees feeling weak, "You are not that flower from that pond so don"t compare yourself over filth like that. You are a flower your parents have sheltered and hidden unlike them."
"But-"
His grip on her waist tightened, "Don"t test me, Miss Belle. You have placed me on a pedestal I might not deserve and I don"t think I am the person you have thought of me. Haven"t you heard the term of a wolf in sheep"s clothing?" he spoke in a voice that scared her which was low and threatening. His hands moved further up and she gulped, "Hopefully, you will weigh the words you speak next time," and he finally let go of her waist to leave the room by closing the door of her room.
Her knees finally gave away and she fell on the ground with her upper half taking the support of the bed. Her breath came out to be shallow, not knowing she had been holding her breath for a while now.
If Lucas wanted to scare her, he had successfully done it.
Belle was too shaken to move and she had never been this scared by Lucas. Until the very end, she had believed he wouldn"t do it and he had gone far enough to prove his point. After taking a bath, she got herself clothed and took Mr. Fluffs with her who was facing the wall.
These days it felt like Lucas didn"t like her stuffed rabbit anymore the way he looked and treated it. She didn"t even know why he had turned the toy to face the wall.
"Finally away from the wall," commented Barron, "I knew I could count on you," said the reaper who was taken to sit with Belle on her lap.
Barron noticed how Belle had turned quiet again, running her hand against his rabbit head which he was getting used to. Though the reaper had not seen a thing, he had heard every bit of it along with the threat that was pa.s.sed to the girl as a warning.
"I met the Edmonds today, Mr. Fluffs. Someone my mother wanted to set me up with," Belle said running her finger down the rabbit"s long ears, adjusting them symmetrically.
"Doesn"t look like you liked the man," Barron said looking at her sullen look.
"Carson is a nice man but," there it was thought Barron to himself, "I don"t feel that excitement, the rus.h.i.+ng of blood in my cheeks or the breathlessness as I feel when I am around Lucas."
"That is because he is a reaper you dummy vampire," the reaper rolled its non-existent eyes.
"I don"t know what to do. It is like what I tried today backfired and here I am cooped in the room not wanting to see him," she was embarra.s.sed. Having never been undressed in such fas.h.i.+on where she had felt his fingers touching her skin as he discarded the piece of clothing she wore one after another...would he had continued to remove the rest and bathed her too?
Her face suddenly turned red at the thought of it and she looked away from the rabbit.
Barron looked at Belle to mutter, "Thinking something dirty. Pond he said, he is the pond," Barron glared at nothing in particular, "Only if I knew how to get out of this thing," the reaper was sure by now his name would be out on the rogue list for being absent for many days in the land of the dead.
It wouldn"t be just the disappearance but also his lack of commitment to the work that would be recorded by the people in authority.
And Barron was not wrong.
The land of the dead was a reflection mirror of the land of the living, the world almost similar but only darker and uglier. The tall buildings looked old and dull with not a single person in sight but there were posters being placed on the walls.
A creature walked staggeringly with parchment in its hands to come to the wall that was broken and moss covering around the wall. It put the parchment on the wall along with the rest of the creatures that were pasted. Apart from the reapers who belonged to the Grims, Barron was the new addition in the wanted list.