The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 199: Blood On The Thorn

Chapter 199: Blood On The Thorn

Madeline’s breath hitched in her throat when he cornered her to the table. Her eyes sprang open in obvious bashfulness as he kept leaning forward, and Madeline, out of her own impulse, leaned back against the table with her forearm resting on it, her fingers grabbing the edge, and as though he sensed it, he took hold of her left hand, grabbing it by the wrist, and his gaze shifted to the delicate finger he just treated with ointment.

"Do you enjoy hurting yourself? Tch!" Cassian bit his tongue before he could say anything else that would make her feel uncomfortable.

He could see she was flustered, and then Amade’s words returned to his head, reminding him not to pressure Madeline into accepting his feelings, but then, he wished she would behave the exact way she did in his dream, maybe then, he would be more bold enough to confess his feelings without thinking of the odds.

Who knew a day like this would come when he acted like a coward.

Sighing disappointedly at himself, he released her hand and stopped looming over her as he pulled back. When the distance between them gradually expanded, Madeline could finally breathe, but her mind and heart raced as she pondered on his word, the seriousness in his tone, the silent longing that reflected in his Amber-brown eyes, what did all of that mean?

Her gaze shifted to the handsome lad as he placed both his hands at the edge of the table, his eyes fixed on the flower vase.

"I don’t want you to feel indebted to me." His tone turned soft, but Madeline could tell he was holding back a lot more emotion than what he was disclosing. "I’m doing this because I want to, so don’t remind me of how much you want to repay me for it, just... stay by my side, that is enough for me."

"Cassian..."

"Here we go." The change in his tone made Madeline keep quiet, and she figured he was referring to the flower vase as his eyes closely inspected it. "The dried stem, it has a drop of your blood on it." Cassian concluded, wanting to change the subject, and Madeline’s eyes widened at his analysis.

"It does? Show me."

Moving closer to take a look at where he spotted the blood, Madeline was oblivious to the fact that she would once again close the distance between them. Engrossed by Cas’s brief theory since she didn’t notice it herself, she bent her head a little to examine the dried stem of the flower, her eyes narrowing cryptically.

"Where is it? Show me where you--" She looked up to gain Cas’s attention, thinking he must have been distracted by something since he wasn’t responding to her, but to Madeline’s startlement, he was looking directly at her, as if frozen in a trance.

Taking notice of the close proximity of their faces, her eyes instinctively widened, and she immediately lowered her gaze back to the flower, getting flustered once again.

Unable to control the racing of her heart and what their closeness did to her, she tried to maneuver her way without making it obvious, but her plan to create a distance between the two of them went down the hill when Cassian’s arm moved behind her, only to trap her in that close proximity with him, giving her no chance to escape from what she had gotten herself into.

Madeline stiffened when he brought his face close to her neck, but she could tell his eyes were still locked on the flower, and she watched his elegant finger point at the reddish mark that coated the stem.

"There." He said, his warm breath caressing her neck. "Do you see it now?"

Madeline could swear she would pass out if he kept her locked within his hold like this. As much as everything he did had its effect on her, Madeline didn’t want to portray herself as someone who was weak, so she fought the desire inside of her and bent her head a bit to have a look, and this time, she took notice of her bloodstain on the dried-up stem.

"Do you think this has something to do with my blood?" Her voice came off as a whisper, her eyes frantically fixed on the flower.

Madeline involuntarily gasped when she felt him lean closer as he also took a closer look, and he whispered back. "What do you think?"

Taking the risk, she slowly turned her head to the side, tilting it up a bit to meet Cas’s intense stare, and a ripple of nervousness went through her, leaving an unfamiliar heat in its wake.

That face of his, she could tell it had been created for sin, the distraction it brought alone was already overwhelming, with the countenance of an exotic angel. His Amber-brown eyes that were shaded by long straight lashes mirrored her flustered reaction to their inseparable proximity, and all of a sudden, Madeline felt the corset of her dress had become too tight.

She returned her gaze back to the flower, spontaneously blinking away the dizziness that threatened to cloud her vision, and she didn’t dare grab the table this time, knowing Cassian would stop her once again due to her injured finger.

"I... I think.... I think that you may be right on this one." She breathed out, clearing away the building lump in her throat. "Yesterday, Ethan showed me his flower vase, and the rose he nurtured looked very unhealthy, so I tried to teach him a rhyme on how he needed to care for plants which we did. This morning, when we wanted to water it, we found the red rose had changed into a blooming white rose."

"Your rhymes bring flowers to life?" He asked, not sure if he grabbed what she was trying to insinuate, and Madeline barely knew what to believe anymore.

"I don’t know." She sighed, "I don’t want to jump into conclusions. We need to make it to Whitebrige city’s capital first, and I hope the inhabitants of Whitebrige will be generous enough to render us help. It would be much easier to find my Mother’s relatives if we knew someone there."

"Hey, don’t worry about it." Cassian’s soothing tone made her look at him again. "We’ll figure out what’s going on with you together, okay?"

Madeline could say nothing more but respond with the nod of her head, and finally, he pulled away, giving her the space she no longer craved for.

"Go and have your breakfast, we’ll be leaving today. We’ll need all your energy for the journey."

"Aren’t you coming?"

"I have something that I need to fix, I’ll come right after."

Giving him a thin smile, Madeline nodded her head before turning and leaving the room.