Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 138: "Why do you wear gloves?" Part_1

Belle had thought Rohan was in a better condition when she saw how he had looked his usual self when she walked out of the castle. Apart from his pale-looking skin, he did not look as exhausted as he did when they woke up in bed that night.

However, the moment they got into the carriage and it started to move, she noticed that he did not come to sit close to her like he usually did in every carriage ride.

He sat at the far edge of the seat, his head leaning sideways as if he was looking at the night scenery as the carriage moved. It was she who moved closer to him and took his gloved hand into hers.

He turned his head and looked down at their hands she had interlocked on her lap and then looked at her face, their eyes locking for a heartbeat before he looked away with a small smile.

"Are you nervous about the hunt?" he asked her quietly as he tightened his fingers around hers.

"A little. Not as nervous as I thought I would be. What about you? I heard it’s going to be your first time being a part of it." She probed subtly to start a conversation that would lead to what she had been getting curious about after what Rav had said unknowingly when they had walked to that compartment.

’Even I never knew there was a dungeon like this. When the late king and queen were alive, they ordered the guards to put his lor—’ he had stopped himself short but she had a feeling he meant to say his lordship. Why would his parents put him in such a place?

She had not raised any questions with him about why he went down to that dungeon and locked himself today, as she could sense it wasn’t something he would just open up and tell her.

He had been acting strange since this morning, and she now regretted letting him go through the trouble of traveling to Aragonia in one night. Exhaustion could mess with one’s mind, but his went way past what normal exhaustion was like.

"Hmm," he hummed softly, and then sliding himself a little down the leather seat of the carriage, he leaned his head against her shoulder and continued to say, "It’s my first time, but I have nothing to be nervous about. It’s just a hunt."

He brought his other hand up and began to massage his forehead. "I just hope there won’t be too much noise. I can’t handle that shit as smoothly as when we attended the banquet."

Belle turned to look down at his head resting on her shoulder. The carriage jolted slightly, and she heard him groan low in his throat when his head bumped. His fingers restlessly began to massage his temple as though the jolt gave him a headache and his massaging would soothe it for him.

"Are you all right?" Belle asked in concern.

Rohan’s eyes remained closed as he continued to absently rub his forehead. Belle put her hand on his arm. He didn’t respond, but he stopped rubbing his temple and rested his large hand on hers.

He didn’t speak to her nor move. It was as though his mind had suddenly moved somewhere she couldn’t follow. His body was very much present, though, his hand heavy and strong against hers.

She had never once thought the rumors about his madness were remotely true—and how a man like Rohan would be considered unstable in any way—but his actions in the past hours after she had woken up... seemed to show her why the people around him would think him unstable and send him to the madhouse.

She knew she should be concerned and question his sanity, but Belle had no such worry. Instead, the only thing that worried her was his comfort, and how he would be uncomfortable if the noise in the castle turned out to hit him in this state of vulnerability.

She studied the sharp profile of his face, the high cheekbones, the perfect jawline. And unable to stop herself, she reached her hand out and touched his cheek and stroked her thumb against his cold skin.

Rohan’s eyes snapped open and he raised his head from her shoulder and looked at her. For one instant, he pinned her with his stare. Then his eyes slid sideways.

Belle reached her hand up this time and stroked his hair. He sat still under her touch, quivering faintly with tension like a wild animal trapped in a cage.

They sat this way, Belle lightly smoothing his hair until his body relaxed.

"How are you feeling? Tell me," she coaxed gently, wanting to get past the first wall he had only just let her into, wanting to reach the bigger one, the one behind which he kept himself guarded and his past buried, where the real Rohan lay hidden, perhaps even hurting. She wanted to help him, to know him the way she had known him intimately today in bed.

It was mostly her fault that he was in such fragile condition now. If she had not had someone like Jamie in her life, if he had not abducted her, and if Rohan had not cared about her enough to hear her words of not leaving him behind in that deserted part of the land, he would have been his usual self now, teasing and unnerving her instead of suffering from what seemed to be intense headaches and an unstable mind.

It was her fault, and she would do anything to help him feel better. Anything.

"Just a mild headache," came his deep, lazy voice as he returned his head back to her shoulder to rest. "It’s nothing serious." He assured her nonchalantly. But in reality it was a kind of headache that would kill a human if they happened to suffer from it.

"What is causing the headache?" She stroked his forehead gently, touching and tracing her fingers against his brows.

He was silent for a moment before he said, "Noise. I can hear even the smallest sounds, the carriage wheels and the galloping horses, the distant town and forest."

"How does the noise affect you?" she asked again.

He was silent, like he wouldn’t answer her, his eyes staring ahead at the wall that separated them from the coachman, as if trying to find the right words to describe it.

"It rings in my brain louder than it is and makes me lose control of myself and who I am. To the vampires, it’s the first sign of madness. A vampire whose hearing turns against him... is to be sent to the madhouse before it gets worse and they start to kill. That was why the king made the musicians play the loud music the last time we were in the castle—to test my sanity," he told her.

Belle’s moving fingers in his hair momentarily paused as she asked, "What would have happened had you given away signs that you were affected by the sounds?"

He chuckled humorlessly. "Wasn’t it already obvious? I would be sent back to the asylum, of course. And this time, nothing else could bring me out of it again." The king was a clever man; he would get rid of him by sending him to the asylum, where he knew they had all the equipment to tame him and hold him for as long as they could unless they release him.

The pure blood vampires asylum was the worst of all.

Belle swallowed. This was bad. They were heading to the castle when it seemed the noise was affecting him much more than it had the last time. She was parting her mouth to speak when he turned his head to her with a sudden grin on his face.

"Don’t fret. I think I am overcoming the noise quite well lately. I did well in the banquet. Are you worried about me, my love?"

He leaned towards her, his warm breath touching her lips from the closeness, then he slid his arm around her waist. When she slowly nodded, he added, freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"I like it when you worry about me. But don’t be. I will be fine. I am the renowned Duke. I have always been fine. Nothing can break your husband again. Nothing."

He touched his lips to hers lightly, causing her breath to seize for a moment, and then suddenly turned his head into the crook of her neck and hugged her to him.

"Once we return from the hunt and back to our home, I will be fine completely. Just think of it like I am feeling under the weather now," he whispered into her ear. "Sick like the humans get."

"But I will need you to do me the favor of distracting me once there and we are surrounded by noise. Can you do that for me?"

He tightened his arms around her, but then Belle slowly pushed at his chest to move back, and he let go to have her look up at him with pursed lips.

"I have an idea to make it better. From what I know, it’s a season where there would be many people attending, just like the seasonal balls in Aragonia. There surely will be noise, and since it’s not a banquet, there will be no music to dance to for distraction," she said as she glanced down at the fluffy overcoat she wore, where the sleeve seemed to be stuffed with cotton wools and feathers.

It was one of the rare attires Rohan had gotten for her. It was pretty and soft.

Without hesitation, she used her teeth to tear at the fabric, causing Rohan to narrow his eyes at her at the action.

He did not question what she was doing and watched her tear and make a small cut on the expensive fabric. She used her two fingers to pull out the wool stuffed in the sleeve and then glanced up at him, her lower lip caught between her teeth in concentration.

She balled the wool in both hands and reached out to turn his head to the side, stuffing it into both his ears. Then she used her fingers to dishevel his well-made hair to cover the mischief in his ears from anyone sighting it.

"I think this will help in reducing the noise. Does it help?" she asked, raising her voice a little, as she had made sure to stuff it enough to block half his hearing.

Rohan listened for a moment, trying to double-check if it had worked—and to his astonishment, he couldn’t hear the distant noise of the night or the rising wind outside that had been causing him a headache. It had reduced the sharpness into dull sounds.

He stared at his wife with a smile on his lips. "It helps. I have never thought about this." He chuckled softly, and his eyes carried a tenderness she had never seen in his dark eyes.

He reached out to pat her head with his hand, then trailed it down to her cheek and cupped it.

"Thank you," he muttered, a word he had never sincerely used for anyone ever since he was born. This was the first time he had ever thanked anyone and meant it to the bottom of his empty heart.

And he watched as color rose to her cheeks, painting them pink as she nodded her head, "You are welcome."

She had no idea she was the very first person he had ever thanked.