When she returned back, she could hear the four woman including her future mother-in-law speaking to each other in not so hushed tone.
"You must be careful with woman like that. Girls of that cla.s.s will squeeze every drop of money. Did you see the way she was about to argue?" laughed one of them.
"What can I say, it is a bad luck. I never expected to get my only son married to a pathetic human with no background."
"Why not break it off then?"
"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d nephew of mine did put us in a spot. And I would if it weren"t for the money and council offered by the council," Venetia gave them a tired smile, "I will have to put up with such thing until the time comes."
"It must be difficult for you. But don"t worry, you can always show where her place belongs," the woman laughed.
"Oh, I already know that."
The women changed topic, seeing Heidi enter, giving her false smiles which weren"t meant. Things got worse when the vampire women began ignoring the poor girl, engrossing with words by themselves while leaving her by herself. It was suffocating to no ends. She now understood how Lettice felt in between these kind of people. Warren hadn"t arrived back and Heidi couldn"t bear the awkwardness anymore with the snotty women anymore. Finally when she had to leave, Venetia gave her the aristocratic smile and waves like she couldn"t wait to see her again. But that that didn"t stop the woman"s friends from taking a dig into her low background with words.
Venetia was a woman who didn"t approve of anyone disobeying her under her roof. Even if she had sent her own personnel carriage so that the girl could reach back the Rune"s mansion, that didn"t mean she had sent the right carriage. It was an old carriage which would break before she would even reach. That would teach the girl a lesson, thought the vampiress.
The carriage as expected, broke its wheel due to which it had to be stopped to replace another wheel. Heidi stood outside the carriage, her arms folded due to the night air, looking at the coachman try to fix it. The carriage had been stopped in the middle of nowhere and the time being night and dark, it worried her. Thinking that this is what the future was going to be made her realize that her life would never change. She would never be needed by anyone, came the thought in her mind. Never have a place to belong to and this made her question about G.o.d"s play.
"Oh!" Hearing the coachman exclaim, she leaned forward to see what happened.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Lady Curtis, the wheel isn"t getting fixed. The men misplaced the wheel of the other cart," she couldn"t believe that her luck had turned bad, "I will go get help, please wait here," the half vampire said bowing to her politely.
"Wait! Sir?" she called seeing him walk towards the road they had come from, "Kind Sir?" she called again to receive no response except for the hooting from the owls that had perched themselves on the trees. "Oh G.o.d," she said worried, looking around the tall, dark trees she was surrounded in.
There was not a single soul or carriage, no houses because this was a forest. Not knowing when the coachman would be back she decided to walk instead of wait for the man. Angrily she stomped her way through the path of the forest, not worrying about the danger that lingered behind the shadows. Along her path as she walked, the only ones that accompanied her was the wind that occasionally blew, the crickets that were in the gra.s.sy ground and the owls that hooted once in a while.
Hearing the sound of horse"s hooves from a far distance, she didn"t turn back and instead continued to walk on her own.
"Are you planning to walk all the way to the mansion?"
Heidi didn"t answer lord Nicholas" question. She felt emotionally drained and somewhere hurt. Standing alone in the forest had only added fuel to the lonely soul.
"You do know that you are walking in the wrong direction."
Lord Nicholas had been in the mansion getting few paper work done when his bird, Toby had come to deliver a message before Warren had come stumbling into the mansion, saying the carriage Heidi was travelling in had broken down and she was nowhere to be found now. Both he and Warren had set out in search for the girl. Having Toby as his pet, it was easier to spot the girl in the forest who had deviated from the actual path.
"I don"t care. Leave me alone," she muttered, taking quick steps while the lord slowed the horse to match her pace.
"Come on, Heidi. This is no time to play games, night has already come. Don"t be a child," he sighed with a tiresome voice.
"I don"t want to go back right now!" she screamed. When the girl turned around he saw angry tears falling down her cheeks.
Realizing something must have happened at his aunt"s mansion for her to burst out, he carefully gauged her expression.
"Alright." He continued to walk with her, him on his white horse and Heidi walking on the ground in absolute silence. Seeing that she had calmed down after few minutes, he called her name for attention.
"Heidi?"
"Hmm," was the only response he received and she then turned to her side to look at him.
"Come with me," he coaxed her and before she could refuse him, he said, "I will take you to a place which might fascinate you."
Hearing this she stopped in her tracks, and even in the dark he could see the rim of her eyes had swollen. He was curious to know what had happened that made her cry, not that he would let the matter go without knowing.
"We won"t go to the mansion right away. You have my word on it," he gave his hand for her to take. After a little amount of thought she placed her small hand in his and he grabbed her so that she could sit in front of him, on the horse.
Heidi wasn"t sure where he was taking her but when they finally reached a place filled with big black rocks, she turned to look at him. She knew it. He had brought her here to murder her like he had described he would long ago. It was only when he made her follow him around the large rocks did she see something she had never witnessed before. There was fog like water that covered the ground. The smoky fog lightned up the land. Someplaces were dark while some place were lightened up.. The fog somewhere between grey and blue, which diffused and swirled into the black stones near them.
Wanting to have a closer look at it, she took two steps forward to only be stopped by the lord holding her arm, "Any more closer and you don"t know if you"ll return back," he warned her
Wanting to have a closer look at it, she took two steps forward to only be stopped by the lord holding her arm, "Any more closer and you don"t know if you"ll return back," he warned her.
"What is this place?" Heidi asked him curious, seeing a small smoke coming up towards them to only evaporate.
"This, milday is a lake," he replied casually, "It is known as the lake of bones."