The intense pitch of darkness that surrounded Madeline right after she woke up, was enough to make her believe she was blind for a few seconds. She instinctively lifted her body into a sitting position, trying to focus her vision on the darkness, but nothing was visible in such a pure dark environment.
She was bound to be terrified.
Not because she was alone and by herself, but because the darkness brought memories of the countless times she's had to hide herself in the shadows.
"Where_where is this place?" She felt the solid floor with both her palms touching the ground.
It was cold and smooth like the floor of polished marbles. She couldn't guess what place would have a furnished floor like this, and with no lights? Not even a lamp? Or a candle?
Who brought her here??
*BANG!*
The deafening sound of a shooting gun made Madeline jolt away from where the ear splitting sound was coming from.
As horrifying as the idea was, it sounded like someone was being shot, and after the terrifying loud bang, the next thing she heard were wild roars of laughter, and no female could have voices as hoarse and masculine as the ones she was hearing.
"HAHAHA!!!! That scoundrel thought he was capable of winning the bet!" She heard someone say from the outside, followed by the sound of heavy boots walking around.
"He died after losing, what a shame. Make sure to check his pockets for extra money. Although, our new friend here will need a reward for making it into the gang, don't you think, boys?" A deeper accented voice spoke with humor, and the rest of his gang responded with a foolish laughter.
It was enough to make Madeline guess they were already drunk. Their manners of speaking were just simply idiotic to her.
Regardless, she silently crawled closer to what she imagined to be the door, leaning against it in an attempt to eavesdrop clearly.
"His reward? His reward! Right! Right!" He quickly cleared his throat and pointed to his fellow gang, "hey you! Go get the girl we kidnapped and bring her here. Tonight, we shall celebrate!"
"CHEERS!!" They clinked their glasses of beer in sheer victory.
Madeline's dark orbs alarmingly grew wider at the mention of the gang speaking about a girl, and who else could they have kidnapped if not her.
Did they get hold of the little girl as well?
The door suddenly bursts open, revealing a brownie, pudgy, looking man who stood at the entrance, staring down at the young lady who warily shifted deeper into the room.
Madeline released a soft gasp when the man stepped in further. A luminous white light immediately flooded the empty room they had locked her in, almost blinding her. She had to look away, blocking the light from meeting her face with her right hand.
"Guess what, the princess is awake." The pudgy looking man informed his gangs who were waiting for him to bring her over.
"Who….who are...Ah! Don't you dare touch me!!"
The man already lifted Madeline into his arms, taking her out of the room and bringing her to the rest of the gangs that were seated in an adorned beer parlor.
"Drop me down!" Madeline struggled with all her strength in the man's arms. He smelled of strong liquor, and just perceiving the nasty smell was making her nauseous. Her stomach churned with disgust.
"I said let go!" She ended up biting him, forcing a yelp out of his mouth and he dropped her down without a second thought.
Madeline's mind was racing when he finally dropped her, she quickly stood up to run away when her arm was roughly grabbed by one of them, limiting her movements.
She looked at the unattractive tall looking man that had grabbed her arm with no decency.
"Let me go!" She warned.
"Already feisty?" A smug smile curved his lips, revealing his ugly brown teeth. He slowly brought out a jack knife from his jacket pocket, showing it to Madeline so she could notice how sharp and sparkling the blade of the knife was.
"It's a good thing I know how to handle women of your type, I'll teach you how to behave in the presence of men!" He eyed her from top to bottom.
She was a very pretty lady!
"You're nothing but rotten kidnappers!" She snapped with her euphonious voice, "kidnapping innocent ladies for your own selfish benefits, where did you keep the rest of them?" She demanded despite her tight position.
Quietness unexpectedly enveloped the parlor. The four gangs exchanged blank looks, like they had no idea what she was talking about. All of a sudden, another laughter enveloped the room, startling Madeline who was on the verge of covering her ears.
"Oh! Do you really think we're the ones responsible for the missing people??" Another round of annoying laughter followed.
Madeline knew they were trying to make a fool out of her, but the sudden laughter died down almost immediately, and their faces turned serious in the blink of an eye.
It was hard to believe they were the same people laughing like madmen a few seconds ago.
"Listen here! You girl!"
Madeline's breath hitched when the man's knife threateningly found its way to her throat, waiting to slit her here and now if she dared to speak against his orders.
"You are going to listen to whatever we say, do whatever we ask you to do and stop when we say stop, or else, you'll end up like that fella over there." One of his gang helped him point towards the direction of the dead body lying on a couch.
A bullet had been screwed into the man's chest, his cloth stained with his own blood as he lay lifeless on the couch. It was a sight that gave Madeline an aghast expression.
"So you better..!!!..."
*BANG!!*
Another gunshot made Madeline freeze at her spot. She covered her ears in fright, wondering who else got shot again, but to her horror, it was the same man who was holding a knife to her throat.
She watched him sink to the ground with red blood trickling from his chest. His own eyes displayed the shock of having to die when he was meant to be celebrating. He never expected death, he didn't want to die and she saw it in his eyes.
"Let the lady go! She's ours!" A voice spoke behind her. Instantly, the rest of the gangs fled from the beer parlor, running in different directions to escape their doom, and before Madeline knew it, she was alone in the parlor.
Swirling around to see who had helped her, the situation only turned out worse when she recognized the people dressed in black to be her uncle's men.
They found her?!!
"Get the lady."
"No wait! Stop this!!" One of the men carried Madeline on his shoulder, taking her out of the beer parlor.
"I beg of you, just let me go!" She balled her hands into fist, hitting the man's back with it, but he didn't react to her cotton ball hits.
She was brought out of the alleyway, and onto the street. The passerby watched with pity as she was shoved into the seat of the carriage, the door slamming shut and the coachman started the carriage.
"It's almost 10pm, take her straight to the church, she'll get dressed there." One of Roland's men gave the orders, and the coachman nodded before riding off.
Please drop a review on what you think about the novel, I'm highly interested in knowing your thoughts <3
"Where is that incompetent son of yours, Elaine?" Duke Richard coldly threw a question at Lady Elaine once they were alone in her adorned spacious room.
Since his arrival this morning, he hasn't laid eyes on that unprincipled, contemptible son of hers. He knew just like everyone else why today's meeting was crucial, and something told him that the ignorant rascal had missed it willingly to spite him.
Who knows what sort of mischief he's gone out to display again. Like that wasn't enough trouble, rumors of his son paying constant visits to the upper west quarters were starting to reach his ears, and it aggravated him.
Socializing with those of the lower standards brings ruin to his name, and if he keeps up visiting such damned places, he'll have to take the situation into his own hands.
However, Lady Elaine wasn't bothered about what her son was up to, she always hated the way her husband referred to Cassian as 'her son', like he never had a hand in bringing him to this world.
It wasn't the first time he's made such an unacceptable statement and it continuously made her blood boil.
Whenever Cassian was at fault, he became only her son and not his.
She stood up from the bed she was sitting on, looking straight into the eyes of Richard without batting an eye. The atmosphere in the room was suffocating, she wasn't in the mood to see her husband talk more of having a conversation with him, but then, she had to answer to him since she was nothing more but his mistress.
"He is 'our son' Richard, ours!" She corrected, "our son hasn't been spotted after attending the masquerade ball he went on your behalf, you should be worried about your child's safety like every normal father would, but I'm not surprised thoughts like that never come to your mind, after all you trust the duchess more than me."
"Don't bring Juliana into our personal problems Elaine," he warned in a not so quiet tone, pointing an accusing finger at her, "it's your fault that the rascal of a son has refused to attend the meeting tonight. Look at Juliana and her sons, Abbot's wife was even present to dutifully welcome me, but not that son of yours. It is obvious that you never did a good job instilling good manners on him."
"Before speaking to me about how to train our child, first accept that you're also at fault when it comes to our son's current behavior." She countered back with a pained voice. She might be unfortunate enough to end up as his mistress, but she wasn't going to let him put the heavy load of blame on her, when clearly they are both at fault.
"When was the last time you bothered to spend quality time with your children, you were never around during their birthdays~ do you even know their birthdays, Mr blame it all? If you weren't going to love your children equally, then why make me bring them into this world Richard? So you can ignore their presence?"
"When I asked you to get rid of the pregnancy, you didn't listen to me, so you have no right to blame me for something that would have been fixed if you weren't stubborn enough to just go ahead with the plan." He snapped with no remorse in his angry gaze, meeting Elaine's frozen stare like what he just said to her had shattered her from within.
"I would never get rid of my children, Richard, and you know that. I'd rather have myself killed than to think of something so despicable. I'm more disappointed that you had the audacity to say that to me." To say she was shocked was an understatement, but she forced herself to keep speaking.
"The first time you uttered these same repulsive words to me, I thought you said it out of helplessness since your wedding to Juliana had been fixed, but now I see that you only pretended to love me to have your way with me, is that it?"
Her Amber-brown eyes were watery when she looked at him with disbelief, shaking her head in disappointment that she ended up with a man like him. Richard was never like this, this wasn't the loving man whom she fell in love with all those years ago.
"I'm not going to explain myself to you!" Those hurtful words slipped from his mouth, "I owe you no explanation Elaine, and don't think you can talk me out of punishing that son of yours after what he has done today."
"Touch my son and you will know what a mother is capable of doing Richard, don't test me."
He's hurt her enough as it is, she wouldn't let him inflict the same pain on her son or any of her children.
Her son hasn't stayed out for a whole day before, she was extremely worried about his whereabouts, and if he doesn't return home by tomorrow morning, she'll have to go look for him herself again, at least to confirm he's alright.
She brushed past Richard, heading for the door, but suddenly stopped and looked at the Duke over her shoulders.
"I'd appreciate it if you excuse me, I need to go check on my daughter since you've made the decision that you won't be performing any fatherly duties on my children, go and spend quality time with Juliana and her family, and leave me to mine."
She quickly wiped the tears that were threatening to escape from her eyes. Despite her age, she appeared young and decent like someone in her mid-thirties. She would be labeled as a beautiful woman if she wasn't looking like a broken lady trying to strengthen herself for her children.
After regaining herself, she stepped out of the room, but to her quick surprise, Inna was standing at a corner close to the stairway. Her expression was somber when she noticed her mother's pale appearance, and she roughly made a mental note of what happened.
"Are you and father fighting again?" She asked in a meek tone, clutching one of the stuffed animals her older brother had got for her as a present.
"Not at all," Elaine denied, smiling warmly as she walked up to her daughter, "your father and I were just having a conversation. We're both worried about your brother's absence, so it's a bit difficult for us at the moment."
Inna didn't fully believe her mother, but wisely switched the topic, "I'm done with my piano lessons for the day, by tomorrow, I'll rehearse dance steps with Fredrick so I can be perfect during the dance test I'm having this Saturday."
"I remember, and if you do well, your brother and I will get you the shoes you've been asking for."
Inna's naive pretty face finally beamed as she walked down the stairs with her mother, "really?!"
"Yes, so work hard. For now, let me deal with your brother once he returns."
"Brother values his face, mother, and so do I, so please hit him anywhere else apart from there." Inna jokingly added.
She was fully aware of the troubles that awaited her brother the minute he showed up at that door. She just hoped he won't be tortured too much so he can attend her dance classes.
Who is at fault? ;-;
Creation is hard, cheer me up! VOTE for me!
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