Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 116: Look for him

It was two days to the hunt that Belle finally gave up pretending not to care about her husband and his whereabouts. She had had enough of sleepless nights and constant wondering if he was having enough fun while leaving her alone. He did not come at night; Kuhn had kept her company and saw to it that she would sleep without any nightmares.

Whenever she started to feel herself getting pulled into one, she was jolted awake by his wooden hand creeping to her shoulder and shaking her, and God help her, she almost had a heart attack one night when she woke up to his dark, hooded face.

Though she understood nothing the creature said, they had become closer than she could expect after the day it delivered her letter to Jamie.

However, she still wasn’t certain if Jamie had gotten it, as he hadn’t replied—not that she expected him to, but she would have been glad to know if he had departed from Nightbrook, and Kuhn could not speak words she understood to tell her if he had.

She had made herself believe that he had left, and she had wished him a safe journey from the walls of her chamber and locked his memories in a safe place. Now, she had to face her own feelings about a man who couldn’t love her back.

Belle sat on the wingback chair next to the burning fireplace, where an occasional cracking sound of the logs burning and sparking into amber emitted, a book on her lap, but she couldn’t even focus on the words or anything she wanted to learn in it about the history she had for so long tried to search for.

She hadn’t given up wanting to know about the prince who had once lived in this chamber, but due to training and things that had been happening, she had kept it aside and only come back to it—but then she couldn’t focus anymore.

Cordelia had decided to put an end to their training—thank riddance—as in two days they would all go to the royal castle for the hunting game that would happen the day after, which, even if she was nervous about it, she couldn’t even dwell about it.

Whenever she heard the steady, masculine footsteps and the floor creaking softly, she always held her breath, expecting it to be Rohan, but she always got hit by disappointment when it turned out to be Rav. She had even stopped expecting her husband at this point and tried to take her mind off him as much as she could, but that too was an impossible feat.

She had been astounded to see how much her body had changed in front of the mirror after going through a month of training. Her body had become so toned and in shape she had kept going back to the mirror to see it in her nightdress last night, admiring it and looking forward to showing it off to someone who probably did not care at this rate, since he had not bothered for a week to show himself to her.

This was what she had expected in their marriage at first—a husband who kept his wife and did not care about her. That was the normal thing between arranged marriages.

But that was then. If he had left her like this the first few weeks she was brought here, perhaps she wouldn’t have become so foolishly used to his presence and so hopelessly lost her heart to him—the wrong person who could not return the feelings. She was doomed, and she had known it, and still let it happen.

Now, having no training and no one to talk to or to unnerve her, she could no longer keep on pretending that whatever he did was absolutely none of her business.

She had the right to walk around the castle and know how many other women he kept in it. Belle stood up from her seat and put the book aside, then looked towards Kuhn, who was obediently and silently sitting on the bed, keeping her company the whole time.

"You wouldn’t mind walking me to where he has been spending his days in this part of the castle, would you?" she asked. She wasn’t familiar with the castle yet, and thanks to Kuhn, she had not wandered off into it to tour, as he had left a bad feeling on her after that day he scared her to near death in the corridor.

Without a word, Kuhn got up from where he had been sitting and grunted for her to follow him, and Belle, as quietly as she could, followed behind him.

It was nearing evening, the sky heavy with the promise of rain. Thick, gray clouds loomed above, casting gloomy shadows throughout the castle and inside it. They walked down the stairs and along the corridor on the second floor, their footsteps echoing in faint creaks against the floorboards.

Belle had no idea what she would do if she found any one of the whores—or even Rohan—with them. She knew he was in the castle because yesterday some of the council members had come by to meet him, and they had been in the study room for long, having a meeting. When the men left and she watched them from the parlor room, she had hoped to catch a glimpse of Rohan, but he had not walked them out.

He probably went back to his whores. The thought stung more than she wanted it to, and not wanting someone rubbing it in her face, Belle had not shown it in front of Cordelia.

Was she making a mistake going to look for him? Should she just go back to her chamber and continue to live her life pretending it didn’t sting? She would probably see him at the hunting game in two days, but was that enough—just seeing him and not having to talk like they used to and be like they once were?

No, she did not want that. She wanted more, more than any woman in her place should ask for in a man like Rohan. Whatever she would see or catch him doing with his whores might break her, but then not seeing him would break her more.

"I have never been to this side of the castle. We should have held a lamp. It’s quite dark," Belle commented from behind Kuhn, who was leading her to the innermost part she had never dared to think about going. And from how unlit and dusty it looked, she could tell no one would come this way. How could his whores live in a place like this? Did he keep them in dirt and darkness? she wondered, coming to a stop when Kuhn also stopped.

"Are we there?" she questioned, but the creature shook his head, and a creaking, wood-like sound came from his neck at the shake.

Belle was about to ask why he stopped when he reached for an unlit lamp on the wall. He carefully turned and gave it to her to hold, and the moment she did, the creature touched its finger to the thread inside the lamp, and it suddenly came on without having to light it with fire.

Belle’s eyes rounded, stunned and surprised. "You have powers?"

Kuhn merely stared without replying and resumed walking forward, as if knowing she would follow, and Belle did, hurriedly, still finding it quite hard to believe it had used some kind of magic to turn on the lamp that now illuminated the dim corridor.

If only he could speak a language she understood, Belle knew she would have learned a lot of things about him and why he was sticking to Rohan. What was their connection, and what brought them together?

If only she and Rohan could see the creature while they were not dead, something must have made it so. Rohan did not seem like he would ever tell her, as he had not bothered to even get very personal when they talked, which was why she had given up asking him about things. He was a master at changing topics when it began to lead to his personal matters and past.

But Kuhn... he seemed interesting and seemed to hold many secrets—only she couldn’t understand them now. Many times, she had questioned the creature, and he had gladly replied to her with words she didn’t understand. And many times, just to pretend she was having a conversation with a real person, she would continue to speak and nod to his every word. There were times she had overheard servants whispering while they worked in the courtyard that she had also started to lose her mind like her husband.

She did not care about what they said, and it did not stop her from having the creature as company and trying to ask him things about her husband.

Now, she was getting more intrigued by him and what connection was between him and Rohan and... her.