The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 138: A Slap In The Face (2)

Chapter 138: A Slap In The Face (2)

Madeline and Catherine exchanged glances before looking at the two startled men who puzzledly remained rooted to their spot. Struck by their presence, Madeline barely knew how to explain the scenario they just witnessed, hoping they don’t misinterpret her actions as discourtesy, but as she opened her mouth to speak, nothing could come out of it, leading her to close her mouth in dismay, facepalming at the awkwardness that now filled the rigid air.

How was she going to start proving her actions to the two of them when she herself was literally confused? She barely knew, but her worries decreased a bit when Cassian beckoned her over, and with her head lowered, she walked up to him until he shielded the two of them under the protection of his umbrella. Madeline watched as he took off his waist coat and draped it gently on her shoulder to help reduce the cold she was starting to feel.

"Are you alright?" He asked, and Madeline blinked in surprise, stunned that he wasn’t angry at her actions, instead, he sounded concerned about her, making a faint smile grace her lips as she nodded before returning her wary gaze to Catherine, who was still in shock from the slap she just received until Orson approached her with a stern gaze.

"What is wrong with you?" A bit aggravated by his sister’s actions, he felt embarrassed and couldn’t help lashing at her. "The families are already having a tough time as it is, don’t add to it with your drama this morning, save it for another day and behave yourself like the daughter of a Marquees before you land in trouble."

"But she slapped me!" Catherine tried to defend herself regardless, pointing an accusing finger at Madeline as though she was the attacker. "She’s the reason why Jeremy died, she’s responsible for everything that’s happening here, and you’re still defending her??"

"You say she’s responsible, how is she responsible? You sound brave to blame her for it, which means you have something effective enough to prove it, am I right?" Orson questioned. "Give me enough reason why I should believe that she’s responsible for the accusation being thrown at her?" At his strict questions, Catherine’s senses returned as the color on her face blanched, and she was left standing mute as no words could justify her accusations.

There’s no way she could bring herself into revealing how it all started with the bottle and the kidnapping. Orson would hate her for it, and she doesn’t want to be hated by her brother, and most especially by Cassian. It was embarrassing enough that he witnessed her being slapped by his own wife, yet he only showed loving concern to the wretch that hit her on the face.

Catherine could see this as nothing but a double slap as she dejectedly kept quiet.

The disappointment in Orson’s eyes wavered when he bowed his head in apology at Madeline, aware of what had happened before she raised her hand at Catherine. "Forgive my sister’s unruly actions, I will be sure to caution her myself. I plead on her behalf that you forgive her for this."

Madeline remained mute, she could barely think of an appropriate response to give Orson considering his apologies until Cassian, who had been quiet all through, looked at his wife while ignoring the rest of the things happening. "Let’s go, you’ll catch a cold if you remain in this wet clothes."

Taking his wife away, Madeline’s gaze lingered on Catherine for a while before looking away and following Cassian. After they had left, Orson tried knocking some sense into his sister who had been acting unlike herself since the death of Jeremy, but if she was going to continue with this attitude of hers, he certainly won’t keep quiet about it.

"Do you really want to lose your limbs all because of some little beef you have with Madeline? If I wasn’t here to caution you, forget we’re in a graveyard to pay respect to the dead, Cas would bury you alive for laying a hand on his wife, regardless of our friendship. I’m telling you this because I know him."

"But Cassian is..."

"I’ve heard enough." Orson silenced his sister. "If there’s something bothering you that doesn’t relate to your wedding with Cassian being canceled, then say it! Stop trying to accuse innocent people or I won’t save you from Cassian the next time you try this."

"I’m your sister, you should be standing up for me!"

"That’s why you’re alive, come with me." Holding her wrist, Orson took her away, heading towards the graveyards exit.

As they walked past the rows of gravestone with the raindrops starting to slow down, Madeline was still very disturbed regarding how Catherine reacted at the sight of her. It was the first time she noticed the hatred Catherine had for her, and she was still speechless and shocked to see herself being treated in that manner, and for reasons that are clearly unknown to her.

How is she responsible for Jeremy’s death?

"Don’t think about it." Cassian said to his wife, jolting her back to the present as her eyes shifted to the handsome lad who was walking beside her. "Catherine is merely looking for opportunities to bad-mouth your name and she went too far by trying to harm you today. She was lucky Orson was there to speak to her, cause I on the other hand had other ways to make her behave." He hissed out, and Madeline could hear the anger in his calm tone despite his restraint to keep it hidden.

She felt sincerely touched that he didn’t react and let Orson handle it, and even more touched because he didn’t blame her for hitting Catherine even if it wasn’t deliberate.

"I didn’t mean to raise my hand at her." Madeline tried to explain, but Cassian shook his head in disapproval. "You know what I think?" He smiled proudly while looking down at her and meeting her eyes. "You did well, you should have rewarded her with one more slap so she would keep in mind that my wife isn’t someone to be messed with."

Madeline’s heart felt light after hearing him say that, and she looked away from his heating gaze, adjusting his coat properly on her shoulder while hiding her slight blush.

"Jeremy’s death still feels unreal to me." Madeline changed the subject, folding her arms. "You know, this is why I didn’t want you to get involved with Jeremy’s situation in the first place. If you secretly tortured him like how you intended to get revenge, you’d be blamed for his death, and then I would feel guilty for not stopping you when I had the chance. I’m relieved I listened to the advice of my heart."

Cassian didn’t fail to notice the calmness of her heartbeat as though she was truly relieved, but one thing she didn’t know was Jeremy would have still died in his hands if someone else didn’t do it.

Suddenly, her brows knitted. "But I thought of something." She looked at Cassian cryptically. "When a person dies, the soul leaves the body when it can no longer function, which means Jeremy’s soul must be somewhere around even before he was buried, but even when he was being buried here three days ago, there wasn’t any sign of his ghosts."

Madeline found it bothersome, "If it wasn’t suicide, Jeremy’s ghost would definitely be available since I doubt he’d be at rest after having someone kill him, but his ghost is nowhere to be seen, or did you see it the day you went to the bureau? Since he died there, you must have spotted his ghost wandering around, am I right?"

"No, I did not see." Cassian answered, seriously acknowledging his wife’s words as it made sense, and Madeline’s worry gradually grew. "But I read in those books you gave me, there was a word that was closely related to this, about a disappearing ghost returning as a fiend once a sacrifice is made."

Madeline stopped walking as her eyes widened slightly, and she looked at Cassian who equally stopped walking. "Do you think Jeremy’s death is ordinary?"

Wanting to continue on her steps, Madeline suddenly felt her leg being grabbed by something on the ground, making her trip forward.

"Ah! Cas!" She let out a short panicked yelp, but luckily for her, she had Cassian by her side who swiftly caught her on time before she could fall to the ground. He secured her properly, making sure she was steady on her feet without releasing her.

"What happened?" With visible worries, he looked at where she had tripped, wondering if her foot got in contact with a stone, but there was nothing there when Madeline also looked over her shoulders to see what exactly had made her trip.

"I...I don’t know." Madeline responded above a breath, "I thought something grabbed my foot."