Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 92: Prince For A Bodyguard

Chapter 92: Prince For A Bodyguard

Samantha had thought thoroughly about what to do in her situation as she walked past the courtyard that had two paths leading to the garden, and the other path leading to the entrance of the hallway, whilst she held the four romance books she had gotten from Lucy. In her pensive state, her green eyes caught sight of the creepers that wrapped around one of the pillars in the courtyard, and the mysterious sight of it had Samantha’s gentle eyebrows furrowing in bewilderment as she stopped in her gait to observe it.

"Where is it coming from?" She mumbled out loud before pursing her lips, her contemplative eyes following the creepers that twisted on the ground to the walls, leading to who knows where in the Palace.

The head maid had made mention of it being just decorations, but Samantha found it too realistic for it to be crafted by the hands of a human, but then without the mystic orb, nature in EmptyHollow was impossible to witness. Now that she thought about it, the head maiden’s words were the only thing that made accurate sense concerning the strange appearances of creepers and climbers.

Maybe it was gotten from another kingdom? She didn’t know.

"How is that even my business?" She shook the thought away.

Tossing the creepers somewhere at the back of her mind since she had other pressing issues in her life to be more concerned about, Samantha turned away from the sight and took the path that led her to the hallway of the main Palace.

Peeking out first to confirm if the path was clear and free, Samantha placed a hand to her racing heart before stepping out completely and taking hasty strides down the hallway before someone eventually spots her.

For the whole day, she has been avoiding a lot of people thanks to Lord Ivan’s unprecedented announcement, and what worried her most was her identity being revealed because of this. If the servants eventually come to know about this big announcement, another series of rumors will begin, the truth and the lies will become mixed, and then when one of these rumors eventually catches the Queen or Sir Abdiel’s attention, they might dig deeper into her background and her real identity will become exposed to everyone.

What will happen to her if the Palace figures out she was never really Samantha Woods as she claimed, but Samantha Dufort, the daughter of the Late King’s special advisor? Her life would be out on the line and they could dispose of her head on the ends of a spike as punishment!

The trepidation of what was going to happen at the royal court tomorrow worried her, and she couldn’t get her heart to stop drumming. The only way she could get her sorry-self out of this mess was by helping Lord Ivan find an ’actual bride’ - someone who he can share romantic feelings for if that is even possible, and what better way to understand these types of feelings if not by reading books?

"I heard a book a day keeps the dark clouds away." Came the familiar voice of Tobias that sounded like a daycall dream to Samantha’s ears. Upon hearing his voice utter something behind her, Samantha immediately came to an abrupt stop in her gait, as if she was a thief that had been caught trying to escape.

She needn’t turn around to know Alistair was with him cause she could hear the familiar voice humming pleasantly behind her, but then it scared the daylights out of her.

After sensing the young maiden wasn’t going to turn around, Alistair gladly went to stand in front of her, and when Samantha, who sensed the imposing presence of someone towering in front of her, slowly tilted her head up to meet his eyes. He was grinning at her, his dangerously sharp fangs were fully revealed to her gaze, sending cold shivers down her spine, and Samantha immediately dropped to her knees in front him.

"I promise I had no idea Lord Ivan was going to make that announcement, I have absolutely nothing to do with it and I know you trusted me to keep my end of the deal but please, don’t kill me!" She begged, knowing that was the only reason they would be here to see her, but to her surprise, Tobias grabbed her arm and effortlessly pulled her up to her feet again.

"Don’t do stuff like that, it’s embarrassing for me." He said to Samantha before looking at his evil brother. "Quit scaring her too, Alistair, it’s not something she can get used to if you have a gaze that wants to tear her into pieces."

"But come on, she’s adorable when frightened, and I can’t help it." Alistair tilted his head at Samantha before the smile on his lips dropped into one of amusement. "I tend to bask in the fear of mortals, and I can’t promise that I won’t relish yours when the time comes." His voice hinted at something humoring, but she knew he wasn’t lying either.

"You two won’t hurt...hurt me?" She shifted gazes between the two of them, and Tobias nodded before stepping back. Samantha’s heart held a bit of doubt, but when she noticed their gaze held no hostility towards her, she could finally breathe in peace, knowing that she was indeed safe.

When she opened her eyes to look at the vampire brothers, they were staring at her in a strange manner before Alistair decided to ask.

"Come here, what did you do to my stone-heart cousin? Do you perhaps possess some kind of ancient history magic that changes people for a couple of minutes?" Alistair gently grabbed her chin with his hand as he studied her face, but in truth, he was really trying to see if he could detect any strange energy from this maiden that would make her deter from an ordinary human.

"Let her be you Moron." Tobias muttered in slight annoyance, already getting tired of having to tell his brother to keep his hands away from Ivan’s property, but when he noticed Samantha’s confused gaze, he proceeded to explain Alistair’s behavior.

"The thing is, Ivan already knew you wouldn’t be able to walk around freely in the Palace after his announcement that will make history, and since he won’t be around most of the time to keep you safe, he wants us to be your ’bodyguard’."

"My body what?" Samantha’s pupils dilated, and when she looked at Alistair, he nodded in agreement to his brother’s words. "He requests two Princes to become a maiden’s watchdog, I know the stress of being Tobias’s watchdog but that’s not even the problem. What did you do to Ivan that made him want to protect you so much? To the extent he came to us to seek help for ’YOUR’ protection, he would rather die than demand help from us if his life was in danger, but when it came to you ...."

"I..." Samantha had been left dumbfounded by the news to the point her brain could barely come up with anything coherent to say, so she did the only thing she knew how to do best, which was to apologize. "You do not have to do any of that, please forgive his lack of manners, it must have been disrespectful of him to request such."

"It’s not disrespectful if we agreed to it without force." Tobias added, "he needed our help, and we don’t mind offering him that."

"You two really care for Lord Ivan." Knowing this out of the blue, Samantha wondered why he asked her to distance herself from them if he was going to make them her protector. That man keeps getting her confused with each passing day.

"Here." She handed one of the books to Tobias, "read this in your free time." She said, and Tobias stared blankly at the book she gave him before receiving it. Samantha handed one to Alistair who received it out of curiosity.

"Books? I hate reading." He commented, but Samantha smiled before whispering. "It’s not any kind of book, but it will be a spoiler if I reveal it to you, have fun reading." Bowing at the two of them to signal her departure from this conversation, Samantha continued down the path while leaving Tobias and Alistair confused with the books in their hand.

"Isn’t this..?" Tobias’s crimson eyes widened after he opened the middle of the page to read, and he glanced at Tobias who gestured questioningly with his brows.

"What? What did you see?" He wanted to take a peek at Alistair’s book, but his brother shoved him aside. "Read your own."

—----

Stepping into the room, Samantha closed the door gently and turned around to find Ivan sitting on his bed as he went through the report Abdiel had given him this afternoon concerning the hunter. He had switched between the normal crimson eyes to the human eyes, and Samantha had to admit mentally that he did look great with glasses.

"What... are you doing?" She asked as she inched closer to have a look, whilst sitting on the ground while her curious eyes peered into the records. Ivan’s gaze subtly shifted to the maid whose green eyes lingered on what he was doing, and he uttered.

"You can read this?"

"For starters, I’m not a complete illiterate," Samantha corrected his mindset, feeling half-embarrassed that he still remembers everything she had said. "I was still a smart child before I stopped my education, and the Courtesan house had its own advantage since they couldn’t give out girls who couldn’t read and write, so yes, I can read very much as long as I don’t find the words difficult."

Ivan, whose eyes shimmered with interest under her self-worth, wanted to say something, but then he chose not to.

"Uhm.. Lord Ivan, I was hoping since you like to read, you should try out these novels." She carefully dropped the two sets of books beside him.

"What are these?" Curious, Ivan picked the top book and glanced at the alluring red cover before reading out the title. "Trapped in lace? Is this one of those amorous contents?" He questioned his little lamb.

"You know?! That saves me from explaining." Samantha sighed in relief before smiling at Ivan. "In order to open up your feelings I decided the best way for you to go about it is by reading these kinds of books."

"No." He refused.