The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 50: A Seductive Cacodemon (1)

Chapter 50: A Seductive Cacodemon (1)

Continuing their earlier walk down the less quiet street. Madeline remained as silent as a nun as she walked beside the handsome Lord who as usual, found comfort with the weather. After their brief little moment in the Alleyway, Madeline suddenly felt like a teenager who was meeting her crush for the first time.

She couldn’t even spare him a glance no more since he had chosen to disorient her heart and her mind with his actions. She was tempted to place a hand to her forehead, wanting to feel that particular area he had kissed, but was afraid that the young lad would catch her daydreaming over a mere kiss on the forehead.

But Madeline didn’t consider such actions mere, but rare.

When Cassian willingly agreed to her proposal, she didn’t think much of it since she never expected to be treated lovingly by the one person everyone considered to bring nothing except trouble, but his name definitely didn’t align with his personality.

Since they both had their reasons for this marriage, Madeline wasn’t interested in falling in love with him, or so she thought. People of his class are free to have a Mistress, and Madeline already accepted her fate of becoming one if Cassian eventually finds a woman he loves, but if he keeps treating her so nicely, then she doubts she’ll be able to stand and watch him treat another woman in the same manner of affection.

"Incase you’re wondering..." His deep alluring voice drew Madeline’s distant gaze back to him. "I do treat you differently than I treat other women." He smiled vaguely as though he had been reading her mind all this time. "To be honest, I had to learn to treat women as women cause I was extremely supercilious. If Inna ever tells you our history together, you’ll hate me."

"I suppose I would." Madeline didn’t hesitate to concur. "I always heard about the mischievous young Lord back in the upper west quarters. Your name used to be carried everywhere even though we have never crossed paths, a chaosmaker, a devil’s spawn, a seductive cacodemon, you had pretty interesting nicknames."

"The good old times." He let out a faint chuckle at the remembrance of the devastating nicknames he got. He didn’t blame them for spreading such callous names about him, afterall, that was the first task he was assigned to play by the King.

Act like the hero in a villain’s disguise.

"If you eventually meet someone who you love in the future, then that lady should consider herself lucky." Madeline said to him with all honesty, but that only earned her a confused frown from the man himself. She had only said it as a compliment, but the young lad doesn’t appear to be happy with such a compliment.

"Someone I love?"

She nodded, and he stopped walking. "Do you think I have the intention of remarrying again?"

"Don’t you?" Madeline also stopped walking to look at him with her brows raised.

Does he not wish to marry someone who won’t be a burden to him?

"I’m not going to abandon you, Maddie." He wasn’t smiling as he uttered these words to her. "Yes, we have our reasons, but our marriage is not based on a contract either. Till death do us part, remember? If you’re thinking about the lucky girl who I might fall in love with, then why don’t you consider becoming that lucky girl?" That beguiling smile curved his lips once again.

Madeline’s heart thudded lightly in her chest, and she said nothing and continued to walk ahead of him. "Tell me about your abilities." She changed the topic. "When did you learn to start seeing ghosts?"

They stopped walking after making it to the middle of a stoned bridge. A river flowed underneath and Madeline rested her back against one of the pillars, patiently waiting for the young lad to finally explain to her what happened to him.

The bridge was empty of any other presence, making it the best place for the two couples to finally indulge in the main conversation they had prolonged till now.

"Seeing ghosts..." Cassian exhaled through his lips before staring out at the sea that stretched far and wide ahead. "I started seeing ghosts at the age of ten." He began, arms crossed. "It was out of something that I did which I shouldn’t have, like going into a place where I was told thousands of times to keep away from." He clicked his tongue as the terrible incident flashed before his very own eyes.

"After that day, I started seeing all kinds of spirits. I was a child and well..." he tensed a bit with his shoulders lifted. "My reaction towards their approach made people think I had gone insane. Everyone except those you see me hanging with thought otherwise. It took a while to recover from it, but when I saw no one was ready to believe me, I kept it to myself, and faced it alone."

As he narrated it all for Madeline, she sensed the feeling of sadness, the pain of facing such harsh tribulation all alone until it no longer felt like pain to him. It must have been difficult having to interact with ghosts in the presence of humans, and Madeline had the urge of reassuring him that he doesn’t have to feel alone anymore.

"The reason you can see ghosts has something to do with the incident you faced as a child. The accident that led to your trauma." He looked at Madeline. "You must have been surprised to not have found yourself dead like your parents, am I right?"

Madeline said nothing for a few seconds, using the silence to understand him clearly before nodding her head in agreement.

"This is something that happens at a near-death experience." He explained. "It sounds impossible, and very rare, but it is the truth. I suspected you could see Ghost’s after knowing about your incident, but still had to confirm if I was right or not, and I was."

"How do you know all this?" Madeline was still puzzled. If her near-death experience would lead her to see ghosts like he just said, why is she only seeing them now?

"Research." Came his quipped reply. "My study room is filled with tons of history books and other books I’m likely to read, you know..to waste time. You can have a look at them in case you need more answers."

He shrugged it off. "I’ve come across many ghosts in my life. The moment they sense someone can see them, they turn to you for help, either the good or the bad. I ignored them for a few months till they started lingering around my home. It was the worst day of my life back then, and so I decided to form an alliance with them. I helped them and they helped me in return."

"What does that mean?" Madeline moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. The soft breeze whistling against both their ears and fluttering their hairs. The atmosphere contradicted the seriousness in their conversation.

"When people die, and their bodies are long buried," Cassian proceeded to explain. "We wish to see them rest peacefully, but not all of them are willing to rest until they’ve accomplished what they couldn’t, but as a ghost, and that’s when I come in. I help them achieve their determined goal, and they help me solve a few puzzles during a crime case."

"So you mean they’re gone now?"

He nodded. "As for Lily, she’s a confused ghost. The ones I’ve met had tongues that were sharper than swords, but Lily barely says anything to me." He uttered cryptically, his subtle words drifting off with the wind.

Madeline was about to question further when a voice interrupted her first.

"Lord Cassian! What a surprise to see you out in the open today! Anything special!"

Turning to look at who had interrupted their conversation, a thick black haired man was approaching where they stood. He wore a long narrow black waistcoat, richly embroidered with silver thread and signifying his greatness with each step he took.

Cassian’s visage dulled almost immediately when the youthful looking man came to stand before him. His compelling brown eyes shifted from Cassian to Madeline, and then back to Cassian.

"It is a bit sad you never asked for me." Complained the man who was visibly starting to irritate Cassian.

"I only ask for those on my important list, what do you want?" Cassian went straight to the point, knowing fully well that the dark haired man named Klaus wasn’t here for a chit-chat.

"How about another day? We can talk over a few drinks." Requested Klaus who finally turned away from Cassian and flashes a saucy smile at Madeline.

"And you must be the wife of this stubborn man," he joked. "It is an honor to meet you, I ran into you at such a good time of the day, here’s a flower to compliment your beauty." From the bouquet of flowers he held, Klaus took out a beautiful healthy rose from it and handed it to Madeline who smiled brightly.

"Thank you." She accepted the flower he gave her, and he touched his hat while giving a bow. "My pleasure."

Looking at Cassian who was giving him death beams, Klaus smiled harmlessly before his eyes flashed arrogantly. "Don’t forget our little drink, we’ll probably have a lot to catch up on." His lips pulled to the side, and he left.

Cassian’s eyes darkened slowly, but the mental image of him tearing Klaus into pieces was disrupted by Madeline’s cheering voice.

"He seems nice, is he one of your friends too?" Inquired Madeline. Cassian was about to respond before his eyes fell on the flower Klaus had given her.

"Can I see that for a sec."

"Hmn?" Madeline innocently blinked at him, wondering why he wanted to see the flowers the strange nice man had given her.

Clueless about his reasons, she handed it to him with a smile.

"Isn’t it beautiful?! It’s so_Cassian! No! My flower! What did you do???" To her gaze, the young lad threw the flower into the river below, and Madeline watched with saddened eyes as her gorgeous rose flower sank into the depths of the river.

"My flower!" She glared at Cassian. "You threw my flower away!"

"I’ll get you a new one, let’s go."

"But I want that one, he gave it to me so nicely." Even though it had sank, Madeline still kept her gaze on the river as though waiting for the flower to magically jump out.

It made hot boiling steams hover against Cassian’s head. "It’s just a flower." Not only that, a flower given to her by someone he naturally disliked.

"Don’t talk to me." She sulked, unwilling to move away from the edge of the bridge, and Cassian proceeded to carry the woman on his shoulder since she was being unnecessarily stubborn.

"Stop stop! Cas! Fine I’ll come with you, drop me down." Madeline’s face flushed in embarrassment at the idea of having people see them like this, but Cassian wickedly threatened to drop her into the river below if she continued to argue.

"Do you know what stubborn ladies like you deserve? Punishment." His lips curved devilishly to the side when she finally kept quiet, and he carried her away with the aim to punish her for misbehaving.