Conquering His Cold Heart

Olive almost had a heart attack when she saw the King walking inside the room. She swiftly picked up the empty tray and bowed her head low so as not to show her face. While the King’s attention was focused on his wife, she sneaked out of the room like a mouse.

The alluring voice of Caspian prompted Anastasia to look at him before she could take a sip of her tea.

Anastasia shook her head and replied to Caspian with a sweet smile, “No, I’m just having tea. How could I eat first when we are going to have dinner together?”

“We are?” Caspian raised his brows in surprise because he didn’t know how she got that idea. He squinted his eyes and was dismissive, “But I’m not sure if that is a good idea. You might lose your appetite if you eat with me.”

Now Anastasia was confused by what he had meant when he said they were going to have their first night before he left earlier. “Er... then what did you mean by our first-”

“Why are you drinking from that cup?” Caspian interjected in between as his eyes fell on the plain cup that Anastasia was holding very close to her mouth. “That cup is supposed to be for the servants.”

“Oh, it’s okay. Maybe that new maid got confused.” Anastasia brought the cup close to her lips again but Caspian immediately stole the cup from her hand.

And he said sternly, “You shouldn’t be so forgiving, Anna! A day is more than enough to memorize such simple things.” It didn’t register in Caspian’s mind that Anastasia was referring to that maid as ‘new’ because she was not her personal maid.

.....

He tapped his nail on the cup and gave his wife some advice, “If you keep on forgiving them saying this is a small mistake then they will get bolder and bolder by the day. You need to keep them under control.”

Anastasia gave him a puppy-eyed look and pouted, “Can’t we control them later? I just want to drink the tea. It smelled so good.”

Caspian felt bad for having lectured his wife when she was enjoying her food. He wanted to give the cup back to her but the tea was now already cold because of his hand.

“I’m sorry! But this is already cold.” Caspian put that cup on the floor so that she wouldn’t drink it and said, “Let me ask that maid to bring hot tea and in the proper cup.”

Caspian went outside and saw the maid at the end of the corridor. She was running for some reason so he shouted, “Hey, you! New maid!”

“Oh, no!” Olive abruptly came to a halt. She was now scared to her core. She thought that Anastasia was already dead and she was going to be incarcerated or killed or something worse for her action.

But she heard him order in a normal voice, “Why don’t you come here for a moment?”

Caspian went back inside and sat beside Anastasia while facing her. She was enthusiastically scraping the leftover cream from the bowl and was licking the spoon. And his mind wandered wildly in no time.

But he was quickly pulled out of his wild imagination when Anastasia turned to see him all of a sudden and boasted, “I saw a vampire running today. Though all I saw was a blur.”

“You did? Where?” Caspian asked in a deep whisper while gazing at the cream that was stuck on her lower lip.

Anastasia pointed the spoon out of the window and replied like an excited toddler, “From there. Someone crossed the wall.”

Olive lightly knocked on the open door and asked in a very scarcely audible voice, “Your Majesty, how may I be of your service?” Though she would have loved to run away rather than returning back to Anastasia’s room, she wanted to buy herself some time by not raising suspicion.

She noticed the cup on the floor and wondered if Anastasia took some sips or not. ‘If she did then I better run for my life. The King already saw my face!’

Caspian turned towards the door and he narrowed his eyes at the maid. He could hear the hammering of her heart and could see the terrified look on her face. But he dismissed it thinking that she was nervous because she was new.

He gave a cold glare to her and ordered in a tyrannical way, “Bring a cup of hot tea for Her Majesty. And serve it in the proper cup. Does a King need to remind a maid how to do her job properly?”

Seeing her still standing there while hanging her head low, he shouted at that maid, “Stop standing there and go!”

Olive was startled by that sudden growl from the King and she ended up dropping the tray that she was clasping over her chest. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I will bring the tea right away.” she abruptly picked up the tray from the floor and ran.

Caspian was visibly disappointed at that maid. “Isn’t she a bother to you?” he asked Anastasia and complained to her, “I already dislike her. She is way too clumsy and dirty.” He sneered in disgust while recalling the light purple stain that he saw on her white stomacher.

“I just met her this once. It is hard to tell with just one meeting,” Anastasia replied very obliviously.

“What do you mean you just met her this once? Isn’t she the one who is assigned to you?” Caspian was now a tiny bit suspicious of that maid’s clumsy behavior.

Anastasia shook her head while placing the bowl on the table. “She was the one who was taking care of Tilla. I wanted to ask her why she served me food instead of my personal maids but it felt a bit rude to do so.”

“Anna!” Caspian instantly fisted over his mouth and speechlessly stared at his na?ve wife.

“You shouldn’t-” He was about to scold her for being so innocent but then he remembered something that Anastasia mentioned just a while ago. “Wait! Did you say that you saw a vampire jumping the wall?”

Anastasia nodded, somewhat scared by his hardening face.

“When?” he jumped up on his feet and asked with a sense of urgency.

“Maybe about an hour ago,” Anastasia replied not knowing why Caspian was panicking all of a sudden.

“What was the color of the blur? Do you remember?” Now, for some reason, Anastasia felt as though Caspian was seriously interrogating her.

“Black...” Anastasia furrowed her brows and asked, “Is something wrong? Why are you so worried?”

But Caspian buried his face in his palm and closed his eyes instead of answering Anastasia’s questions. His mind had already gone into detective mode. ‘Black cloth... A servant went outside when it is not the day for collection, neither taxes nor blood. That clumsy maid was not her personal maid. Purple stain...’

He abruptly opened his eyes and glared at the empty bowl, ‘Poison!’