"Where is Roh—Lord Dagon?" she asked the girl as she turned away after pulling the curtains and smiled at her. Belle did not want to use his na in front of the servants. She would only use his na when they were alone, like he had permitted her.
Farrah bowed her head curtly and replied, "He went out this morning with Sir Rav. They haven’t returned since then. I heard there had been a case of rogue vampires attacking the small human town next to the Grimvale Forest, and His Lordship was sent to look into it by His Majesty."
Grimvale was the forest now connected to the castle, and after it was a town that mostly had human inhabitants and a few vampires, Farrah explained to Belle.
Belle nodded her head in understanding, sowhat surprised that Nightbrook had a human town in it, as she had believed until now that all the humans here were only slaves. Rohan had gone there to inspect the damage done by the rogues, who were now becoming rampant in Nightbrook. The vampires had their problems other than what the humans in Aragonia had thought. Everyone thought they lived lavishly without any problems and only knew to feed and lay in their dark coffins.
As a Duke, Rohan needed to attend to his work after he had neglected it for three days taking care of her. Her father was also a Duke, and he rarely had ti. But then she couldn’t also help but think Farrah was good at spying—or was it gossip? She seed to hear and see things that she shouldn’t know.
If only she could obtain such skills to get the answers she was sent here for. She would have recruited the girl into her plans to find the night creatures’ weakness—if she hadn’t been warned not to trust anyone in Nightbrook. At this point, she did not want to think about that botherso mission. Too many things were bothering her mind, and if she did not get answers soon, she might begin seeking them herself.
Evening ca, and she still ate her dinner in her room as her husband was not back yet. Why the hell was she even expecting him? Belle wondered in irritation. She should be happy he wasn’t here to bother her, but instead, she was looking forward to seeing him. Why? Was it because he hadn’t answered her questions about his back?
Frustrated with herself, she began to change her day dress into a nightdress without Farrah’s help when her sleeve caught on her earring. Grimacing, she pulled it gently, and the diamond teardrop earring fell off and rolled away toward a corner beside the fireplace. Rubbing her stinging ear and pulling on her nightdress, Belle went on her knees to search for the earring.
She reached up and picked up the candle holder atop the fireplace and brought it down to the dark corner. The wall in that part seed to have broken, and the earring had rolled into the small hole in the wall. Biting the inside of her cheek, Belle contemplated putting her fingers into the dark hole to take the earring. It was diamond, which Rohan had gotten; she couldn’t leave it there.
Bending, she carefully put her two fingers into it to search and pull out the earring, but instead of the cold stone of the little diamond, her fingers touched sothing coarse. Frowning, she pulled it out between her two fingers and saw that it was a folded old parchnt that had turned brownish with yellowish edges, and her earring was hooked to its side.
Removing the earring, she stood up and brought the parchnt with her to the chair next to the fireplace. Curiosity led her to unfold it to see what it was. She knew she shouldn’t go touching things in this peninsular castle, but the parchnt had hooked to her earring. It was only natural that she should open it.
Wetting her lips, she dusted the parchnt and brought it closer to the light she had put on the table. There was writing on it, but it had begun to fade; however, she could see it clearly enough to read what was written on it in clean, neat, old handwriting.
"Today is the day they plan to kill ," she read, frowning. "I heard them talking about it, but surprisingly... I do not fear death as much as I feared living. I live in hell each day. I wonder what the real hell will be like, as they said I belong there. My only regret is that I never got to live before I die."
Belle read the words written on the parchnt aloud and felt her hand trembling. Who had written this? She wondered, staring at the letter and rereading it again as if the identity of the person who had written it would be revealed in it. The writing style was so old, which ant it had been there for decades, if not more, but what she did not understand was how it was in that hole.
She turned the letter back and forth in her hand, but there was no written na or identity. Did soone who was about to be killed send it to a person here? Criminals in the dungeon were always allowed to write their last letter and send it to their family before an execution. Could soone have sent this from the dungeon?
Then who was the person? She reread the words again and felt her heart go out to the person who had written it. "My only regret is that I never got to live before I die." She could strangely feel the person’s pain as she read it, and she stupidly felt the back of her eyes burn.
Surprised at the intensity of her emotions for a letter she was sure the owner had been killed by now, Belle jerked up to her feet to stop rereading the words. It made completely no sense that her heart felt like it was being squeezed as she read the words. It could belong to a servant who lived in this chamber in the past.
When she was first brought to the castle and was being led here, she had thought the chamber she would be given would be an airless attic as it was on the top floor where the chambers there were ant to be storage, but she had been surprised that the chamber was beautiful. One thing she had noticed was that it had been newly refurbished, which ant in the past it could have belonged to a servant because none of the royals would have been put up here.
She couldn’t help but wonder who had lived in this room in the past and hid the letter in that hole...
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