Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 66: The library experience

Rav was in no place to stop the lady from doing whatever she wanted after Rohan had warned him to let her do as she pleases as long as it made her happy within the castle. It wasn’t every day that a man who never cared about anything but himself decided to suddenly care about another person and also try to make them happy, thus Rav would do his best to make certain he never displeased the lady in any way.

Belle walked to the basket and bent down and began to pull the carrots out of the soft soil. Rav also came to join her. "What is it you want to talk about, my lady?" he asked, as he could sense her gaze swaying to him every now and then as if she didn’t know where to begin with her words. He couldn’t help but also notice how well she was pulling out the carrots like she had done it many times before.

Rav had been a human before he was a vampire and he could tell the lady was not a spoiled pampered noble with how she spoke and also brought herself out here to help him when she could demand whatever she wanted from him without helping.

Belle chose her words carefully as she finally decided to go straight to the point. "The chamber I am staying in now, do you by any chance know the history of the prince who had lived in it in the past?" She couldn’t bring herself to forget about the words in the letter and Rohan’s half-sided story was in no way satisfying to her. She wanted a detailed story where she could see what made the parents suddenly decide to kill their child.

If Rav had a human heart, it would have stumbled over at that question, but his half-human and vampire heart merely ceased beating for a moment before it resumed its steady rhythm. "Why do you ask, my lady?"

Belle placed a bunch carrots in the basket and then said, "Lord Dagon told me the story of the prince who had been in the room in the past before the previous king and queen took the throne. I wasn’t satisfied with it and wanted to know more."

Rav paused in his action of pulling out a carrot and turned wide-eyed at the lady. "His lordship told you the story?" he asked, unable to believe that Rohan would share that story with anyone.

Belle blinked at the shock she glimpsed in his eyes before she nodded her head, "Yes. He told me. Do you also know the story?" she asked, hoping she would somehow get satisfying details from Rav unlike Rohan.

Rav seemed to be finding it hard to believe that Rohan had told her any part of that story not to mention the fact that he had told her enough to the point she was now curious about the rest. Just how serious was his master when he decided that this woman would be his wife for real? If he had told her any part of that story and she was still breathing until now, it meant he was dead serious!

Clearing his throat, Rav said, "What part did he tell you?"

Belle pursed her lips and retold him what Rohan had told her. "It feels incomplete to me."

Rav nodded his head. If only she knew that she had been told more than anyone could have been told by Rohan. "I also don’t know much about it, my lady. All I know was that the prince was known as the devil and was sent back to hell." He told her the truth. He never knew much about it.

Belle’s heart sank in disappointment and dissatisfaction. She had looked forward to meeting Rav as she believed he would know something but it turned out he also didn’t. She was about to continue helping him with the carrots when her eyes brightened. "Is there a library in the castle?" she asked.

Not knowing why she asked, Rav nodded his head in hesitation. "There is, why did you ask?"

"Where is it? I want to see it."

Rav led her to the library after washing their hands without questioning what she wanted to do there. He left her to herself by the door as he had more work to do outside in the yard. He told her if she needed anything he would send Farrah to her to assist her. Belle thanked him before he left. She had never been treated with this much attention, in Dawson household she was always a shadow who was forgotten and sent to do errands with no one wondering about her comfort or discomfort.

Turning to the double doors of the library, Belle reached out to the handle that happened to be two raven statues. Thankfully the library wasn’t in that ominous darkened corridor she had walked to days ago and saw an imaginary cloaked figure. She turned the knob and stepped in, but stopped in her tracks at the wonder she was met with.

This was unlike any library she had ever seen. It was so vast, she couldn’t even see where it ended. The ceilings were high, the windows taller, and every inch of the walls was lined with shelves overflowing with books. There were no racks in the middle, only the towering wall shelves. The room was dim, lit only by the soft light streaming through two open windows set high in one of the walls.

She stopped in the middle. Intimidated by the books not knowing where she would start to look for any one with the history of all the previous rulers of Nightbrook to find the one Rohan had claimed to read about the story. The books were too much, and if her knowledge about a royal library served her right, they must have been here for ages and through all the rulers of the land, which means if she looked carefully she might be lucky to find just the right one.

"You can do it, Belle. They are just books and you like reading." She muttered to herself as she walked to the first line of shelves to shuffle through the thick books.

An hour passed before she finally found one that said to have the history of Nightbrook, where she had to even climb the ladder to reach it. She walked back to the desk at the side of one of the walls and sat down to read through it if what she sought was in it.

The beginning was so boring and filled with unnecessary information that Belle began to yawn and tear up. It talked about the first ruler of Nightbrook and what had happened to them and their lives before they became the rulers. They ruled the land for hundreds of years before they decided to rest forever in their coffins to pass the throne to the next person.

Not coming close to the history she sought, she began to feel her head swaying and her eyelids getting heavier. Belle didn’t fight the sleep and dropped her head on the desk between the big open book. She didn’t even close her eyes for long when she heard the door of the library get banged open and she jolted awake and sleepily looked to the direction.

However, she frowned as she realized something. The sleep disappeared from her eyes immediately. The library had suddenly turned dark and the books and shelves on the walls were all gone, leaving the space vacant with nothing, even the desk she had been laying on was gone and she now stood before the open double doors as men in long black cloaks burst into the library in a rush that made her heart stumble in alarm.

What was going on? Who were these people? she wondered, stepping forward to question them. But as they passed by her without so much as a glance, as if they couldn’t see her standing there, her frown deepened.

"Where is he?" demanded one of the cloaked men as they marched toward the end of the room.

Belle hurried after them, trying to see who they were talking about and what they were doing, when she saw them dragging something—or more precisely, someone—tightly bound in chains that wrapped around the person’s body, imprisoning their limbs.

"Take your position and give me the dagger," came the cold voice of the man who had spoken the first time. Belle didn’t know what was happening but then she watched what they planned to do with the tied-up person who she couldn’t see the face as the room was too dark. What had he done to be chained up like that?

She went still in horror when the man took the dagger from one of the people holding down the chained person, and without hesitation the sharp dagger was plunged into the person’s chest and dragged down the flesh. There was a muffled scream that tore out of the person’s throat, the pain she heard and felt in that scream made her jerk awake panting, only to see Farrah’s face looming over her in concern.

"My lady, are you all right?" she asked as she set a tray of snacks and tea on the desk for Belle.

It took a while for Belle’s frantic heart to calm and for her to register where she was and that she had fallen asleep reading the history book that had bored her to sleep. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the library to see that the books were back and that there were no men in black cloak nor a chained person. What sort of a dream was that?

"Yes, I am fine..." she replied to the concerned girl before her.

"You scared me just now. I brought you some snacks, and Gwen has brought back your dress for tomorrow’s banquet at the palace! Would you like to try them on?" Farrah asked excitedly as if she were the one going to the banquet and the dresses were for her. She’d heard Lord Dagon had picked the color and design himself when he sent Gwen, and she couldn’t wait to see how they would look. However, Belle wasn’t as excited as the girl.

She reluctantly left the library where she had the urge to walk to the end of it to see if what she saw a while ago was a dream or reality. It felt so real like she was there. But the thought of the banquet brought another dread to her chest. If only she could turn back time and quietly told Rohan she did not want to attend when he asked her. This was why you never make decisions in a rush.