Conquering His Cold Heart

And he immediately raised his brows and asked while sounding somewhat worried, “Check up on Tilla? Did something… happen to her?”

“She tripped down and hurt herself,” Anastasia replied and heaved a sigh. Then she gestured her hand inside her bedchamber and asked again, “Why don’t you come in?”

Vincent didn’t need to hear anything more. He immediately followed the Queen into her bedchamber.

His eyes fell on Tilla who was sitting on a chair in front of the dressing table. She was looking down at her palm and rubbing something on it.

‘She hurt her hands?’ Vincent wondered, and couldn’t help but walk past the Queen. He stood in front of Tilla and asked her while looking at her palms, “What happened? Did you hurt yourself too badly?”

Tilla had already dropped her gown to cover her feet by now. And she was applying the ointment on her palm while hanging her head low.

When she heard Vincent’s voice, she looked at his boots and shook her head, “No, it’s not that bad.”

Vincent leaned down towards Tilla and rested his left hand on the armrest of the chair. He quickly grabbed one of her hands by her wrist and brought it closer to his eyes.

.....

Tilla wasn’t expecting him to do that in front of the Queen. So, she was a little startled and pushed her body as far as the backrest of the chair allowed her to.

Vincent looked at Tilla, who hadn’t made any eye contact with him yet, and then spoke in his low yet hoarse voice, “It looks bad to me.”

Tilla stiffened her hands as well as her shoulders and tried to pull her hand away from Vincent’s hold. However, when Vincent didn’t loosen his grip on her wrist, she gave up the struggle and then stuttered, “I will be f-f-fine once I apply the medicine. Please d-don’t worry about m-me.”

Vincent was already worried about her though. He sighed and looked at the jar that was sitting on Tilla’s lap. He looked at Tilla’s face and then asked her, “Is that the medicine?”

“Yes. But…” Tilla could already guess what Vincent would try to do next. So, she quickly tried to deny Vincent before he even voiced his intention, “I can apply the medicine on my own.”

While the two of them were busy with each other, Anastasia was standing in the middle of the room and wondering if she should leave them alone and head to the other room or finish what she had started. She hadn’t finished treating Tilla’s bruises yet. So, before leaving she at least wanted to make sure that Tilla would get her treatment.

And when Tilla and Vincent brought up the topic of medicine, she cleared her throat and said to Tilla with a subtle smile on her lips, “Tilla, if Lord Vincent wants to help you then you may allow him. I…”

She quickly ran towards the dressing table and picked up the notebook that Tilla had taken out of the drawer earlier. “I will be in the antechamber.”

Tilla turned her head and craned her neck to look at the Queen’s face. And she looked at Anastasia as if she was asking the latter to not abandon her.

However, Anastasia simply widened her smile and trotted out of the bedchamber, feeling happy thinking she was doing a favor to her friend.

Tilla, on the other hand, was looking at Anastasia as if she had been betrayed just now. Once Anastasia disappeared out of her sight, she released the breath that she was holding and frowned.

And she looked down at the jar that was still on her lap and tried to dip her finger in it.

But before she could do so, Vincent snatched the jar away.

In an attempt to grab that jar back, Tilla raised her hand while her eyes followed the jar.

Seeing how she was desperately looking at the jar and was trying to grab it, Vincent brought the jar right next to his face.

Tilla couldn’t help but slowly move her gaze from the jar of the ointment to the well-sculpted face that was smiling down at her.

“You finally looked at me,” Vincent said in a throaty whisper and smirked.

Tilla felt an unexplainable sensation in her heart when she saw that smirk. She quickly averted her gaze from Vincent’s face and then gulped. She lightly touched the wrist which Vincent had grabbed earlier with her thumb and asked, “Please, I need that back. I can’t idle around for longer. I have a lot of work to do.”

Vincent was not ready to comply with Tilla’s request though. He wasn’t ready to be pushed away by her until he asked a few questions to her. “Then be a doll and let me help you. I would have finished treating your bruises by now, had you not tried to deny my assistance.”

Tilla gripped her wrist tightly and then said in a rather firm voice, “I don’t need any assistance, Milord. I can do it myself. Besides, the bruises aren’t even that bad. So, you don’t have to worry about it.”

The subtle smile on Vincent’s face got washed away by Tilla’s words. ‘And I thought we were getting closer…’ he sighed quietly.

He was now even more determined to stay with Tilla until she opened up to him. He could clearly see that something was really bothering her, besides the bruises that she got somehow. And he wanted to know what it was.

“Tilla…” He pinched the jar between his index finger and thumb, and then rested that hand on the other armrest of the chair that Tilla was sitting on.

Although Tilla was looking down at her hands, she could see that Vincent’s face was now even closer than earlier. His face was hovering so close to her face that she could feel his cold breath hitting her forehead.

She tried pushing herself back again. But she only hurt her back even more and softly grunted.

Vincent sighed, seeing her wince in pain. And as if he wasn’t already close enough, he leaned further until his lips were sitting perfectly beside Tilla’s ear.

Then he mumbled in a low growling voice, “Clearly, you are beginning to avoid me again for a reason that is unbeknownst to me. I would like to know why before I go.”