Chương 11: Unfolding Strange Events-2

Edwina Stafford, the wife of the Marquee Williams stared at her daughter's governess with an intensity gaze, studying her with her crimson eyes.

"Milady?" Miss Florence called for the Marchioness attention, thinking she's been forgotten here, standing. Her legs have started to ache.

"I was looking at you, Miss Florence" the Marchioness let the governess know, "I am checking out what my daughter saw, to have taken a like of you, which I was still contemplating if that was a good idea"

The governess forced a smile, standing before her employer, she confessed, "I have no bad intentions toward your daughter, I was here only because of my job milady, and if you are doubtful I can quit right away"

Lady Edwina wave her hand, "don't go there, this will disappoint Dana. I wanted you to teach her everything what a girl at her age should know in two weeks, her sister will arrive during those time"

"That's my job" Miss Florence praised herself, Lady Edwina nod in acknowledgement, "that's good to know, an assurance only I want. You will get paid daily, starting from tomorrow with a bonus"

A moment of silent enveloped the room with no sound, the Marchioness looked a little worry as if something is troubling her mind.

Miss Florence noticed this, she pry, "it looks like something is bothering you milady"

Lady Edwina close her eyes and sighed heavily, then settled her gaze on the governess, "she was now a human amongst us, vampires. Weren't you curious?"

"I gained the tittle of governess, to educate not to questioned what's going on in a household, milady"

Miss Florence response brought a smile on Lady Edwina's face, "for a governess you sure have an interesting way to reply, Dana must have like you for this"

Miss Florence maintained a calm face, but one cannot detect the compulsion of the governess, she was always calm and her words were blunt.

When Lady Edwina got no respond, she interjected, "for how long do you taught in a household with you being blunt"

"I am a temporary governess, I taught for a certain time milady, I have no talent in sugarcoating, if I offended you I apologized for my responsive way" Miss Florence bowed, and Lady Edwina move her head away from the governess, she stood up from her seat and came to stand before the vampiress governess,

She noticed something, "your skin look more natural and humane, how much fresh blood do you consumed in a week?"

Miss Florence locked eyes with her employer, she replied, "four times milady"

Edwina hummed, "you seemed to earn much, I heard fresh bloods were costly, how do you afford them?"

Fresh bloods for vampires were termed, as blood gotten directly from human, consuming it from their neck... However it wasn't affordable unless you were ready to spent more golden coins.

"I usually bought them from an inn not too far from my place, I can introduce you if you crave for one" Miss Florence suggested, the Marchioness wave her hand uninterested,

"No thank you, I have enough of it here, however I-" the sound erupted from the wall clock hang on the parlour room cut the Marchioness and had both vampiress to turned their head at the wall. It clocked three pm.

"Time really move faster" said the Marchioness as she turned to look at the governess who did the same, "you should get going, here" she gave the governess a small pouch, the generous governess as expected, rejected the offer.

"I can't accept it, my payment start from tomorrow"

With a soft smile the Marchioness raised a brow, "you're so generous,you know?" she complimented, "all the same, consider this as a merit pay, from me"

Miss Florence heartily accepted the pouch which contained coins, silver or gold, she's unsure. She bowed thankfully and turned to walk out of the parlour room.

Lady Edwina gaze sharpened on the governess who walked out, with her leg tapping on the marbled floor, and hand crossed on her chest she mumbled, "I can swear there's something peculiar about this governess, and how did she maintained such a nice glowing skin unless she's hiding something, or, was it my imagination?" she questioned herself.

Meanwhile, the Marchioness had failed to noticed her own daughter's pale skin, and mostly it's vampires that possessed such skin tone.

Outside the room, the governess reached the manor entrance, she unhook her coat hang on the stand, while returning the bow the butler offered and walk out of the house with her coat held in her hand.

Miss Florence having went far from the manor, she stood alongside the road, waiting for a local carriage, that's when she overheard a low meowing, at first she thought it was just in her head but on the second sound she turned behind and saw a baby cat struggling to get out of a tumbleweed, "my God" she exclaimed and hastily run to the scene.

She bend and placed down her coat and the pouch which was given to her, beside her. Miss Florence hand went to help the little kitten, but seemed to have scared the cat that kept meowing louder, struggling to get out of the tumbleweed that has thorn on it, that continues to pierced it skin, realizing her mistake, "easy, easy there, I was trying to help you out of the tumbleweed, trust me and relax" as if the kitten understood, it stopped moving and Miss Florence smiled in victory,

"Now that's all I need" her hand went inside the tumbleweed, the thorn scratching her skin but she careless and helped the kitten out of the tumbleweed, "my God, you're bleeding"

"To RIVERTON TOWN! RIVERTON TOWN!! Miss!" a carriage man riding his carriage, shout calling for rider, and called out when he saw the governess who was tending to a wounded kitten.

Miss Florence was quick to be on her feet while, hurriedly packed her belongings from the ground, she hug the kitten in her arms, and mumbled to the injured kitten, "seems I had to take you with me" and the kitten snuggle in her arms, it head peeking out from her arms. The kitten as if possessed, grinned while looking at the bush with shrewd gaze.

Miss Florence help herself to mount the carriage, she sat and politely bow to the people inside with a slight smile.

Meanwhile, unnoticeable, there was someone standing behind a tree while looking at the unfolding scene between the governess and the kitten, turned and walked away, the cloak worn by the person trail behind and disappeared with the person going deeper into the forest.

____

It was raining heavily, and the sky as if angered, thundered, causing the clouds to cry more rain.

Sobbing of a girl in the dark lonely forest emitted, the girl who sat under a tree, her head buried inside her thigh, and her brown hair that were soaked with the falling rain started to turn white and scales started appearing on her arms, whilst she continued to sob unaware.

Suddenly she arch her back against the tree, her chin went upward revealing Dana's face, her eyes glowered in blue with black slit in them, and a shrill cry escaped her mouth, exposing her split snake tongue, swinging inside.

With a gasp, Dana jolted up from her bed, panting as the dream she just had kept replaying in her head.

The Marchioness who was crouching in front of the furnace adjusting the wood in the room, jerked her head when she heard Dana's panting.

Lady Edwina hastened to her daughter whose uneven breathing filled the room, she poured water from a jug on the drawer and hand it to Dana, who was quick to snatch it and gulp it down.

When Dana came alive and her breathing became even, recognition dawned on her, she lifted her head to her side and saw her mother whose face was grimace.

Lady Edwina worriedly asked, "dream?" and Dana head bob, "good or bad?" Lady Edwina took the empty cup from her hand and put it back to where it was before.

Dana sighed, "I don't know, I can't really comprehend, mother"

Lady Edwina, hand went to wipe the sweat on Dana's forehead, she removed some strands of hair that stuck to her forehead and pushed them back, while whispered, "the dream must have scared you, darling" she caresses her daughter's face with her thumb, affectionately, her red eyes inside the caramel eyes of Dana, and inquired, "are you all right?"

Dana hummed in response and lean on her mother's touch, she murmur, "why are you here?"

"To check on you, the night suddenly turned chilly, I came here with your father, he left the room before you woke"

"Thank you, for loving me" Dana muttered with a smile feeling thankful, Lady Edwina's face softened she rub her daughter's hand, and said, "I was doing my duty. Here, cover yourself" she removed her shawl and wrapped it around Dana.

"You are now a human, vampires have high resistance when it comes to cold than human" the Marchioness elaborated when noticed her daughter's curious face.

Lady Edwina placed a pillow against the Bedrest, "have your back lean on it, you will be very much comfortable"

Dana comply to her vampiress mother and move back, she leaned against the pillow, and look at her mother, who asked, "comfortable?" and Dana nods in response.

The dream she had minutes ago flashed on her face, she try getting it off her head and instead asked, "mother, do you know of a place called Peaceton town?"

"Peaceton town? It been a while I heard of it, the place now is abandoned without any living soul there, for many decades now"

Dana after hearing her mother, she asked, "what happened? Why did people left the place?"

Lady Edwina smiled, was her daughter this curious or she became one after losing her memories, she didn't say her thought and rather answered, "when people were ignorance, and got driven by fear they create something which was not true, have you heard about the legendary snake story?"

"Yes, the governess told me about it, she said Louisa cursed her lover and cursed herself without being aware"

Lady Edwina nodded, "that's right, it happened when the book came out, some people even claimed they saw the snake killing people, before you know a lot of people left their houses out of fear, that's how the existence of the town became nonentity"

"Miss Florence mentioned something about the curse to not be uttered, as that's why the elders writer's altered the book, why?" asked Dana with her eyes sparkling to know exactly why, because the governess seemed to hide something from her.

The Marchioness wasn't sure why her daughter was interested in the forgotten storytime, she inquired, "why are you so absorb in the book?" as far as she can recall, Dana wasn't this curious, and somewhat historical book doesn't fascinate her, but why now?.

"I don't know, I just wanted to know more about this story, is that a bad thing?" Dana pry, thinking she might be doing something wrong, however, even if her mother could say yes, Dana don't think she will back away from knowing more about the story.

Lady Edwina shake her head, "no, Judas Benjamin. One of elders writer, he wrote in one of his book that 'the appearance of deity signifies fortune, the deity who offered to share a certain book, which was unaware by the humans, witches and vampires, however ignited the hunger for greed' what do you think he meant by saying this?"

Dana blinked, not expecting her mother to questioned her, lady Edwina smiled when she saw the confusion marred her daughter's face, she said, "before getting married to your father, I live with my grandfather, he love reading Judas Benjamin books until he came across this legendary snake story, I was a kid then but smart enough to know what's going on. Not many people knew what happened to the young maiden Louisa and the family of the duke Warren untill the existence of this book. Nevertheless, the book left Grandfather being the curious cat, how did Judas Benjamin knew about the whole story, perhaps something's fishy, so he went into search for Judas Benjamin for half a decade,

"Surprisingly Judas Benjamin himself visited my grandfather, grandfather was very happy, so he probed more on the book, that's how he came to learn that the story is originated from a deity that knew whole about the story, and he was the first writer of the story, he shared it with some five vampires elders writer's, among them was Judas Benjamin"

"I knew it! There's more to Louisa's story, did that mean the deity who took Damian away was the first writer? Amazing! But mother, what did he say about the curse?"

"The elders went through the book containing the story of the cursed vampire and the human snake, as it appears if one were to read the book, it was certain to resulted in an unfortunate events, so discovering this, the elders writer's interpolate the story," the more Lady Edwina expressed the story, the more Dana becoming thirsty to know more.

A moment of silence envelopes the room, Lady Edwina continued to stare at her daughter who seemed to be in her own thoughts, she interrupted by saying, "are you curious about something?"

This brought Dana's attention back to her mother, she pursed her lips in worried, then sighed and move her lips, "I saw a photo of me and someone, it was inside the drawer" she pointed at the drawer, the Marchioness eyes glanced at the drawer,

"That's your sister, Daisy" she look back to her daughter,

Dana bit her lips afraid of what she was going to ask, "are we... I mean are we like..." she trailed in fear to complete her word,

".... Good to each other?" Lady Edwina finished off the last word, and Dana lower and raised her head.

"I am sorry to relay this to you..." The Marchioness began, "however, you sisters were never in good terms, you are always at each other's throats and it scares me to the core, when you are kids I thought it was just small jealousy that happens between sisters, it was too late when I realized you really despised each other. I remembered after every bickering between you two had, you locked yourself in your room and cry" Lady Edwina sighed roughly and continued,

"Afterwards, your sister got married to the duke of Northbliss, I thought you will missed each other in the absence of other, as it goes by, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I was fooling myself with stupid imaginations, because you both seemed to be happy away from each other, and none asked about how the other was doing, it worries me" the expression on her mother's face had Dana realized how she and Daisy loathed each other.

Who knew Liza will be her one same enemy, both in her past life and here, but here in this life it seems like they showed how they despised each other's presence. God! What's her purpose of being here then.

Dana get scared on what's going to happen in the future, she hope to never come across her, unfortunately, her greatest fear came true, when she heard her mother spoke, "she will be here in the next two weeks"

Dana's eyes went round in dismay, while, in that moment occuring to her, that she's never going to escaped the karma of nature.