The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 157: Silent Feud (2)

Chapter 157: Silent Feud (2)

"Does that explain why he treated you so unfairly?" Asked Cassian as his eyes remained on her face, subconsciously monitoring her expression, and Madeline bit the skin in her cheek before nodding slowly, her lashes fluttering lightly at the vague remembrance of Roland’s disdain look whenever he saw her.

"I’m not sure," she answered softly. "But that is the only reason that fits the hatred he has for me, save for his wife who I think has her own personal issues with me. Maybe because she was left to take care of someone else’s child when she couldn’t have one of her own. You know, people will always talk, so I’m guessing that made me an easy target for her to vent all her frustrations and anger on, I can barely remember the worst of days."

Madeline felt grateful for that, being locked all hours of the day and having to view the world from a window? It almost feels like everything that happened was a nightmare that no longer existed. Her only wish was having her parents by her side again. She always reminisced on how their reaction would be if she ever got the chance to introduce Cassian as her husband to them.

If they were still alive, would they love him?

Madeline was snapped out of her daze when Cassian sat up, and he looked at the half-flushed woman who appeared lost some seconds ago.

"When your father married your mother those years ago, Roland never visited or came to see either of you, only because he doesn’t like the woman your father married?" No matter how he tried to formulate the sentence, Cassian still felt there was an actual valid point missing in that statement, and Madeline nodded, her slim brows knitting cryptically.

"My father never spoke much about uncle Roland to me, but they always exchanged letters - letters my father never seemed happy to write. I was too young to understand what was brewing between them, but if my memory recall this perfectly, he said something about Roland not being familiar with the other towns outside the borders of Carmarthen, and since my mother wasn’t a subject of Carmarthen at that time, Roland was against the marriage and wasn’t ready to form an alliance with a strange Town’s family."

"Hold on." Cassian paused Madeline after grabbing that point he knew was missing in that statement, and he snapped his fingers. "Roland was against your parents’ marriage because your mother wasn’t an indigene at that time?"

"That’s what I was told by my father." She nodded.

"Did he tell you where your mother came from? Where did he meet her? Rather, how did they cross paths?"

"Not to be offended but you sound way too interested in my parents’ love life." Madeline, who was trying to hold in her laughter due to his expression, could no longer keep it in when he kept staring and talking like an adventurer who had figured out something interesting and was determined to get to the route of it.

Cassian could only blink in bafflement when she laughed at what he said, wondering what was funny, and he frowned.

"Heeeey, I’m being serious here." He tried to get the young woman to stop laughing at him and make her aware of how necessary this conversation was for the both of them.

"Look, Maddie, that light that came out of you. It’s not normal, and there’s a ninety-nine percent chance that your family has something to do with it." He voiced out his thought, and it succeeded in gaining Madeline’s attention as she looked at him, still trying to make sense of his words.

"What?"

"You just said your uncle Roland was against the marriage union between your parents. From a detective’s point of view, I’d give it that your uncle Roland knew something, which explains why he wasn’t agreeing to the marriage cause think about it, your parents died, forgive me for having to remind you about that." He sincerely apologized before continuing, "then your uncle Roland was next, but why did it spare his wife? During the time I spent investigating her, she didn’t seem to be aware of what was going on, and another hint, she didn’t die, the killer let her be. Do you follow?"

"I....I think I do." Madeline’s expression was contorted into a subtle frown. "Do tell if I’m wrong in this. What you’re implying is; the one presence I keep seeing in my dream, I mean the one responsible for the accident that led to my parents death, are you saying the same person is responsible for Roland’s death?"

"Hypothetically. It’s not confirmed yet." He uttered before taking his time to explain what happened at the Luncheon meeting to Madeline, the body of a victim that was possessed by a Fiend, what it said about the enchantress, the awakening, and the Fae, equally telling her about Whitebrige city’s capital.

"King Alaric said he’s found that part of Town outside the borders of Carmarthen to be strange, like secretly strange. No bad news has been heard after he confirmed the information from his spies, but there’s a relatively high chance that they are facing what we are facing." Cassian clicked his tongue, running his finger into his hair.

"Did your mother’s family ever come to pay you a visit? Let’s forget Roland’s situation for now. Your mother should have relatives and the rest of those families, have you seen one of them or....."

"No." Madeline shook her head, her voice coming off in a low tone as she was starting to think along with Cassian. "I...I have never seen anyone from my mother’s side, but during the night of our accident, she wanted to take me somewhere, she said I would be in safe hands, but....we never made it there."

She looked at Cassian, "do you think my mother could be the enchantress or Fae or whatever. I mean, do you believe she’s from Whitebrige city’s capital?"

Cassian shrugged. "Well, there’s only one way to find out."

"Are you saying..?" As though she already guessed his plan, Madeline shook her head in disapproval. "No, I think we should make proper planning before deciding. We don’t know anyone there, what if something goes wrong? Or what if we find ourselves in trouble? Did you think about that?"

"What we have to do is simple, first we get a stick." He got to his feet, trying to act out what his plan was by grabbing an imaginary stick in his hand.

"And then what?" Madeline, who was interested in what he had to say, watched her husband act out his plan.

"You grip it tightly, so tight, and if we get into trouble, you just swing your stick at whoever causes you trouble," he swung the imaginary stick, so hard that Madeline had to duck to avoid being hit by the imaginary stick he deliberately swung her way.

"You hit them so hard till you forget--"

"So you want to hit me?" Her eyes widened, and then narrowed into a glaring slit, throwing Cassian off guard as he stopped with his demonstration.

"Hit you?"

"Do I cause you trouble?"

"When did I say that?"

"You swung the stick at me, I know you did it on purpose you.... You..." to get back at him, the foul-tempered Madeline grabbed a pillow.

"Hey hey hey, what are you doing?" Cassian already retreated to the door, secretly opening it, "we are talking about something important....hey Maddie." He instantly ran out of the room when the incoming pillow was thrown in his direction.

"Get back here." Madeline went after him.