The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 37: The Interrogation (2)

Chapter 37: The Interrogation (2)

Sitting on the single wooden bench in the cold confinement. Auriela’s eyes had reddened from having to cry over the death of her husband. She rested her back on the side of the wall while pushing her knee upward to comfort herself properly. Her clothes had been changed and the wounds on her skin were covered with a brown bandage.

Her facial expression looked grim, and she was no different from a desolate person.

Seeing her critical condition, Cassian understood why Orson decided to give her some days to recover from the incident. She was a total mess to begin with. She looked disheveled and appeared a lot older in a wholly different way. Not only that, the look in her eyes was distant, so distant that she didn’t even sense his presence when he stepped into the confinement.

Unlike Orson who had a soft heart, Cassian didn’t even bother to bat an eye at her, nor did he feel any sort of remorse for the woman. He’s seen too many people with such depressing expressions to still be affected by it. Most especially from those who have committed even larger offenses than hers.

Closing the door behind him, the sound of the door being locked startled Auriela who alarmingly glanced at where the loud sound came from. The fear in her eyes was visible, but it reduced a bit when she realized it was one of those disturbing officers wearing a mask.

Looking away from him, Auriela had no intention of speaking since she made it clear to everyone that she doesn’t want to see them. She doesn’t want to be bothered and wished they could leave her alone to think about what she has faced these past few years of her life.

Her brain was a jumbled mess, and it was difficult to think straight since her senses were no longer in their right places. Just how did she fall from grace to grass??

Taking a step forward, the sound of the person’s boot signified he was getting closer and closer to where she sat. There was a single table lying in the center of the room. He came to stand before it, staring straight into the eyes of Auriela who didn’t avert her angry gaze. The frustration in her eyes were visible, and from how swollen they were, he could tell she hadn’t slept a wink.

"The saying is true, there really is no sleep for the wicked." Commented Cassian as he drummed his fingers on the table, igniting Auriela’s frustration even further but she chose to ignore this strange masked official like she did with everyone else.

"Do you know what will happen to you once you die?" Uttered Cassian while drumming his fingers continuously on the table. "You will go to a place known as the purgatory. Ever heard of it? It’s a place where sinners like yourself shall suffer until your evil deeds are cleansed off you." He let out a low chuckle at the slight imagination.

"Meanwhile... the person responsible for killing your lovely husband and slaughtering your workers will continue to move around freely in Carmarthen. With no worries, no burden, no one having the aim to hunt him down. Whoever it is might be watching you very closely, laughing at your ridiculed situation with a bottle of beer and waiting for the appropriate time to finish the job by ending your pathetic life. I’m just saying, but I could be wrong too."

Hearing the masked man speak such words that brought images of what happened at her home, the fear in her eyes returned and she shook her head in refusal.

She knew how hard she strived to save herself from that person when it chased her up the stairs, but whoever it was suddenly turned its attention to her husband who had run down to the kitchen to grab a knife, and that gave her the opportunity to hide somewhere safe, and only after she heard the voice of Madeline did she step out to see her husband had been mercilessly killed.

"Anyway..." breaking Auriela from her train of thoughts, Cassian turned around to take his leave. "I’m not here to force you into saying what happened, and if that is what you’ve been thinking, then you thought wrong." He scoffed. "I’m not the one who they are after, so why should I bother about catching someone who did me no wrong?"

He waved it off as though she just helped him get rid of having to find someone. "It’s already getting suffocating in here and I need to take my leave. See you at the trial when your judgment will finally be carried out. It is a pity that what happened cannot really be helped, but you need time to recover and_"

"Why are you doing this?" Auriela’s angry hushed voice reached Cassian’s ears and he stopped in his tracks. He turned around to look at the woman who had finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Did you say something?"

"My husband is dead for goodness sake! And you’re really going to sit back and do nothing while the killer gets to leave his life freely? That isn’t how the law works!" Auriela angrily yelled at him.

"Well when a prisoner who has vital information about what happened but refuses to speak, then the law is not to blame for it, the person who didn’t speak is to blame for it, do you understand?"

"How can I speak when I don’t even know who the person is?" Auriela was about to stand up when the chain holding her hands to the wall instantly clanked, forcefully drawing her back and limiting her movements.

"Do that again and you’ll only hurt yourself." Cassian advised before moving to stand in front of the table that separated them. "Now tell me, how can you not have a clue about who this person was since he attacked you personally?"

"I...I don’t know." Auriela responded in a weak crying voice. "My husband and I, we were both aware of what Gregory planned on doing out of anger. We both knew if he visited the Duke’s mansion, then the secrets of what we did to the young Lord’s new wife would be revealed, so we made a plan to flee for a while until the matter settles and then come back." Auriela confessed while taking her seat on the wooden bench.

"We chose to escape during the afternoon when everyone would be away for work, and we won’t easily be spotted by our neighbors. We made one of our workers lock the door from the outside, so everyone would think we had left while we would leave through the back door, but what happened next.... what happened next was even worse than our nightmares." She looked at the masked man in front of her.

"Someone, somehow managed to break the locks and stepped into our house. At first, I considered it to be Gregory’s men who had come to break our house and get the money we took from Gregory, but when we went down the stairs to see who it was, just one living soul was standing in front of our living room." The same fear that vanished in her eyes instantly returned at the mere thought of this unknown person.

Cassian’s brows creased in contemplation, if it were to be Gregory who was responsible, he doubts the woman would be this afraid of him.

"Who is he? What did he look like?" Cassian questioned immediately but Auriela shook her head. "I don’t know, I swear, his face was hidden completely, I couldn’t even see his eyes."

Auriela continued to crack her brain. "He was dressed in all black with a red cloak. I couldn’t see his face since it was shielded by the darkness of the hoodie on his cloak. Roland was the one who dared to fight with him, he must have seen the face of the person under the red cloak but he’s dead now, so getting the full details isn’t something I can give."

"You mean to tell me a single person murdered the servants and your husband?" Cassian found that difficult to believe but Auriela nodded. "I only saw one person, but everything about his aura brought a sense of fear. Whoever it was had the intention of killing me and my husband. Not just as, but EVERYONE!" She yelled the last part out before breaking into tears while covering her face.

Her sobs were the only thing that resounded in the cell, and Cassian was kind enough to give her a few minutes to recover before questioning her further.

"Since you already knew, why did you accuse the Young Lords’ new wife for trying to kill your husband?" Questioned Cassian.

"Cause she’s my number one suspect." Auriela looked at him. "She’s my husband’s niece but she’s never liked us. That girl is evil and I am sure she’s responsible for everything that took place."

"And what if she isn’t?" Cassian quizzed. "You can’t suspect one person, can you? Does your husband have any other enemies aside from his niece?"

"Not any I know of." Auriela responded after thinking about it.

When he was done spending twenty more minutes asking her some necessary questions, Cassian said nothing else and moved away from the table.

"Thank you for cooperating, I shall see you another day."

"Wait, will you find the killer? Will you help my husband get revenge?" She questioned desperately, but Cassian said nothing else and only waved her off.

"I’ll answer that during our next meeting." And he exited her cell.