Chapter 197 Time with the dead

Music Recommendation: An Interesting Proposal- John Powell

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Eve’s body slid against the piano room’s door, and she sat down on the ground with horror in her eyes. With seconds that passed, she couldn’t look away from Lady Camille’s body, and her heartbeat increased.

“I killed her… I killed,” Eve whispered to herself.

Never did she think about killing anyone apart from the person who had killed her mother. No, she didn’t want to kill him but punish him for taking her mother away from her. Earlier, when Lady Camille entered the room, she had expected no more than heated words before the vampiress would leave her alone. But who knew that the vampiress would die.

Blood started seeping out of Lady Camille’s wound, spreading on the left side of her body and the floor.

The more the realisation sunk into her mind on what she did, the worse her breathing turned, and it came out ragged as she started to panic. A vampire drinking blood from a lower being wasn’t uncommon, especially when the lower being was working under a vampire family. But for a lower-status person killing someone who was a Marquee’s sister would never be acceptable… More importantly, her friend’s aunt.

Eve tried to regulate her breathing, while her mind had stopped functioning. She couldn’t think with the dead body in front of her. She didn’t know how many minutes had passed.

And while Eve was locked in the piano room, at the front of the mansion, Marceline got down from her carriage and walked towards the entrance. The butler quickly appeared in the hallways, bowing and coming to stand behind the vampiress.

“Welcome back, milady,” Alfie greeted the young vampiress, who raised her hands so the butler could take off her coat.

Marceline slightly turned her head to the side and questioned,

“Who is the guest who came to visit us now?”

“No one, milady,” Alfie quickly replied, as he successfully removed her coat.

Marceline turned her body to the butler and questioned, “Then whose carriage is parked outside our mansion? Next to the gates.”

Alfie turned slightly confused because the Moriartys weren’t entertaining any guests right now.

“Is it the human’s carriage that is waiting to pick her up? The governess,” Marceline added when the butler looked at her with a confused expression. She rolled her eyes.

“I am not sure, milady. Would you want me to go out and check whose it is?” Alfie asked the vampiress, but the lady waved her hand.

Marceline replied, “Not needed.”

For a moment, she wondered if the Duke’s carriage was waiting upon Eve. That wasn’t possible though, because she knew how Noah’s carriage looked. When her carriage had neared her house gates, she had only caught sight of the vehicle, while not bothering to look at the coachman standing next to the carriage.

Marceline said, “I am going to my room to rest. Bring me blood tea, and make it hot or I will show what hot means,” she looked down upon the lowly vampire with a hint of glare in her eyes.

The pleasant expression on Alfie’s face didn’t change. He bowed, “Of course, milady. It will be to your preferred taste.”

Marceline stared outside the mansion for a moment, before she walked away from the hallways towards her room with the sharp sound of her shoes clicking against the floor.

In the piano room, Eve couldn’t look away from Lady Camille’s face, where the dead woman’s eyes stared at the room’s ceiling, while her parted lips were covered with her mermaid blood.

Eve pulled her bloody hand away from her neck, where the bleeding had stopped. Looking away from the body, she stared at her hand, which slightly trembled. For a woman of her nature, who had shown compassion and kindness, taking away someone’s life even in defence overwhelmed her.

How was she going to fix this?

What if someon—

From outside the room, someone turned the doorknob. Eve quickly turned to look at the door and found the door that was locked by Lady Camille. Who knew that the vampiress had closed the door to hide her dead body in the future.

“The door is locked,” Eve heard a female’s voice, believing it to be a maid.

“Is Miss Allie and the governess still inside?” Eve heard another maid ask, who stood near the door. The maid then whispered, “Let us not disturb them.”

“Alfie told me to go get this room cleaned as the governess always leaves by this time. I also saw Miss Allie earlier walking away from this place,” said the first maid. The doorknob shook again, and Eve stood up from where she had been sitting, coming to stand in front of the door.

“Let us come back later. Maybe the governess is still inside,” said the maid. Eve, who had moved closer to the door, placed her ear on the door. She heard the sound of footsteps recede.

Eve contemplated opening the door and running as fast as she could from here without looking back. But how far would she be able to run before being caught by the officials for murder? Marquee Hooke would not see that she had done it out of defence but as murder.

With the murder fresh and the door closed, the scent of blood hadn’t slipped out of the room. But it was only a matter of time before the smell of blood and death would be noticed coming from this room.

After ten minutes passed, the doorknob turned again, and every shake had Eve’s mind slip into panic again. The doorknob moved relentlessly before a voice came from the other side,

“Who is in there?”

Allie had come to pick up the knitting needles and the woollen thread so that she could continue knitting in the gallery of her room, while watching the sunset.

“Hello?” The small voice of the young vampiress came from the other side of the door, and Eve took a deep breath so that she wouldn’t pass out under pressure.

Eve wondered how long it would take until Vincent would return to the mansion. He was the only one she could turn to, and if someone else found out about what she had done, she would be sent to somewhere worse than the dungeon she had last visited.

What if Vincent didn’t come home soon? Would she have to hide here until then?

But then the maids would appear again to clean the room.

Sweat started forming on Eve’s skin from the tension and situation she had put under. And when the sweat slid down her skin, touching the wound on her skin, she flinched.

Eve wondered if a little girl like Allie would understand if she explained the situation of what happened.

Maybe she could use some help in keeping the corridor clear so that no one would come to walk near this room. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing she could think of.

On the other side of the door, the little vampiress frowned before getting near the door and placing her ear on the door. She then sat on her knees, lying her head on the ground before trying to look through the little gap below the door. She wondered if her governess was still talking to the angry lady.

Eve closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before parting her lips to speak,

“What do you think you are doing by sitting on the ground?” Lady Annalise questioned Allie with slight irritation, who had just appeared in the corridor and had stopped after seeing her daughter sitting on the ground like some lowly being.

Hearing Lady Annalise’s voice, Eve’s words stuck in her throat and she immediately closed her mouth. Her hands turned cold.

Little Allie quickly got up as if she wasn’t sitting on the ground a second ago and fixed her dress before turning to her mother. She wondered if she should tell her mother that the lady who had supper with them was earlier fighting with her governess.

Though young, the little vampiress could tell that in the scene she had stumbled upon earlier, her governess didn’t look happy about it. Allie wanted to help her governess, but she couldn’t hear any sound inside the room.

“I keep hoping that your brother’s words are true and the human is teaching you some decent manners. But instead of improving it, it appears as if it is going downhill,” Lady Annalise looked displeased.

Allie looked at her mother with an apologetic look and then said, “Mother, the lady who came to eat with us, she is—”

“Why isn’t your hair combed?” Lady Annalise frowned, looking at her daughter’s unkempt hair and Allie looked down. The little girl had been too busy wanting to continue knitting her scarf. The little girl’s thoughts about her governess slipped out of her mind, when she heard her mother say, “We will be leaving for Mr. Garner’s mansion in ten minutes.”

The Lady of the mansion looked around the place before catching sight of a maid and called the servant, “Help Allie comb her hair and tie the front with a braid quickly. Bring her to the carriage.”

Soon Allie was taken away from the front of the piano room.

Lady Annalise, who was about to leave, her eyes fell on the closed door, not knowing there were two people behind the door. Looking away from it, vampiress walked away from the corridor.