Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 51: Suicide In The Palace

Chapter 51: Suicide In The Palace

[Music recommendation: Ocean Eyes by Unsecret String Quartet & Unsecret]

"I sent you off early so why are your eyelids drooping? Hmmn? Did you defy my orders? What time did you sleep?" Lord Ivan took another imposing step forward towards the confused Samantha who instinctively took a step back. He raised a brow questioningly, and Samantha eyed him puzzledly, unable to understand why he was glaring at her with such stoic countenance.

"What did I do this time?"

"You look like a ghost that got kicked out of the underworld for scaring other ghosts." And that was the heartless derision that left Samantha staring with her mouth agape, and she snorted out loud at his perpetual arrogance.

"Hah!" The young woman, presently dressed as a man, could not hide her disbelief, and she internally scowled at the Prince. As if he’s any better - her panda eyes, sleepless nights, they were all connected to him, and yet, he still has the effrontery to mock her? Even if he has that right it was still cruel to misuse it. The early morning aggression hadn’t been dismissed from her system, and she would have retorted sharply if the rest Princes weren’t gazing at the two of them as if waiting to hear her comeback.

To hell with all of them!!

Holding back her sly tongue, she grumbled to herself and quietly walked past Ivan with her head lulled forward. Ivan watched her make her way to Herbert who greeted her good morning with a smile, and he cursed silently when she returned the smile with a small bow.

The journey back to the Palace was anything but exciting for Samantha, and she couldn’t count how many times she dozed off on Herbert’s back. She had slept so little and woken up early that her eyelids found it difficult to stay open during the ride.

Ivan, who kept stealing glances behind him to check and make sure his little lamb hadn’t slept off and falling off the horse, tsked with a tinge of annoyance when he found her resting her head on Herbert’s back.

"And I told that stubborn lamb to sleep early." he muttered, half-annoyed with himself for not following her to her tent and making sure she slept. He wondered if she ate the dish he told Herbert to keep for her? One worry after the other.

"Lord Ivan." Abdiel’s gravelly voice brought the young prince’s attention to him, and he moved his horse closer to Ivan before handing him a brown parchment filled with the records of all the illegal slave establishments he had looked into in EmptyHollow.

"It arrived two days ago, but I decided to give it to you after the hunt since you lack patience." Abdiel briefly explained before pointing at the recorded names of the slave establishment he found. "Each slave establishment commonly concerns themselves with a specific gender. The name at the top specializes in handling male slaves, the second one is loaded with female slaves."

Ivan’s valuative gaze skimmed through the two names, and he guessed the second slave establishment was where his little lamb was sent to on that night. Closing the parchment, he nodded cryptically to Abdiel’s report.

"Who is the one in charge of this illegal establishment?" A hint of sarcasm was laced in his tone.

"He goes by the name Boudolin."

"If it isn’t too much trouble I would like you to send a few guards to the slave establishment. I’m looking for a young man named Maurice, and he needs to be brought to the Palace immediately." Ivan’s firm decision had his Uncle’s brows knitting questioningly.

"What happens when we find the slave?"

"Kill all the members who created the slave establishment and return the slaves to their respective homes. As for the second slave establishment, I’ll handle it myself." Ending the discussion, Ivan trotted forward, leaving Abdiel behind to ponder on his unpredictable insights.

Abdiel’s whimsical gaze followed Ivan who moved ahead of everyone, and a look of slight approval displayed on his aging face.

When they made it back to the Palace, the gates opened to let them in, and their horses trotted forward with Ivan entering first. Samantha, who was fully awake by now suddenly preferred the forest to this dark gloomy Palace. A bit unnatural to everyone, a few servants were standing outside the main entrance that led to the vestibule, whispering unheard words to one another.

"What is happening?" Samantha worriedly whispered to Herbert who was as clueless as everyone. When their horses stopped, the confused Samantha took notice of the servants who were trying to hold back their tears at the sight of Lord Ivan and the rest, but their red-rimmed eyes failed to hide the pang of sorrow and shock that visibly displayed in them.

Ivan dismounted from his horse when he heard running footsteps coming from the vestibule, and when he turned to see who it was, he was surprised to see Claire standing there, her eyes filled to the brim with tears.

"Ivan." Coming down the stone stairs with hurried steps, Claire headed towards Ivan and suddenly embraced him in a way that left her younger brother staring goggle-eyed. Her cries muffled against his shirt as he too was dumbfounded and momentarily confused by this reaction.

"What the hell is going on?" His gaze shifted to the servants who had their heads lowered in front of him, but he could still hear soft sniffling. Agathe showed up next as though she had been following Claire, and she too was not exempted.

"Claire..." finding it totally uncomfortable, he gently pulled her away from him and asked. "What happened?"

"Ivan.." she met his gaze, "Gran_ Grandmother, she’s - she’s___" Claire’s voice trembled as she covered her mouth with her palm, unable to summon the courage to say it, and Ivan, whose gaze was laced with apprehension shook his head, as though he knew what she wanted to say, but didn’t want to believe it.

"No." And he moved past Claire, hurrying into the entrance as he made his way to the central part of the Palace. Alistair and Tobias quickly followed behind while Abdiel listened to Claire who hugged her uncle for comfort, but when she finally spilled it, his expression dropped gravely.

Samantha, who was still clueless about everything, was led into the Palace by Herbert who ordered her to return to her post until summoned. When they parted ways, Samantha used the opportunity she had to ask a servant what was happening, and she gasped in shock when the servant whispered it into her ear.

Barging into his Grandmother’s room, Ivan’s face turned white when he spotted his Grandmother, hanging in the air with a rope tied to her neck. There was brown stool that had tumbled under her feet, giving off the image that she had committed suicide.

"Grandmother??" Ivan’s eyes momentarily widened, and he took a subconscious step back. Alistair and Tobias stepped in right after Ivan, and both of them had the same pale reaction on their faces at the sight of their Grandmother, who was now.... DEAD??

"Come, let’s get her down." Tobias, who regained himself from the after-shock moved forward to get her down from where she hung, whilst the still-shocked Alistair assisted him.

Ivan, who stared at the lifeless look on his beloved Grandmother’s face, could hear voices in his head - Painful crying voices, voices filled with endless regrets, voices that won’t leave him alone. Clasping both his palms to his ears to stop the voices, his eyes spun, and it felt like he was revisiting the past all over again.