The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 64: Clingy Cassian (1)

Chapter 64: Clingy Cassian (1)

"You should get some rest first." Madeline carefully tried to help him lay down properly on the bed as his body was still weak from having to survive from that dangerous ordeal. "You’re injured enough as it is, you shouldn’t stress yourself by starting up a conversation, we can talk more once you get better."

"But..."

"I won’t speak to you if you don’t listen to me." With the tone of her voice sounding serious for the first time, Cassian was forced to lay back and not say a word. As much as he didn’t like the idea of keeping quiet, he found it pretty exciting to let a woman take charge of his decision, most especially when that woman turned out to be his own wife.

Just in time, Cassian could hear the door open amidst the darkness of his gaze. He knew it ought to be Inna and Orson cause he could hear their murmuring voices.

His eardrum had become a bit too sensitive which was very much unlike it, and he could easily hear things that were being said despite not standing close to them.

Another footstep approached his bedside, and the louder it became in his ear which was very unusual. Out of mere instinct, he whipped his head to the direction of the sound and one would easily mistake his actions for someone who could see.

The physician, who was afraid of telling them that the young man they had brought to his home for treatment might end up in a serious coma if he didn’t wake up, had miraculously opened his eyes.

That was what he had gone out to explain to Geoffrey so they could plan on taking him somewhere more developed for treatment, only to be interrupted by the two youngsters who informed him of the young man regaining consciousness. After that, Geoffrey took his leave without letting anyone know about it.

"How do you feel?"

"Blind." Cassian finally looked away after speaking a bit arrogantly to the middle-aged man. He felt unnecessarily annoyed that he had to explain this to a physician who should already be aware of what was going on with him. Afterall, he was the one who treated him back to health.

Waving a hand at the young lad’s face, the physician noticed Cassian’s unresponsiveness to the waving of his hand across the face, and his demeanor remained oddly calm. Normally, when someone even does that to his face, Cassian wouldn’t hesitate to slap that hand away, or even break it.

Orson admired the physician’s courage in daring to do something like that, and he nearly applauded him for taking the risk.

"Can you see my hand?" Asked the physician as he watched the young lad intently, studying his reaction, and Cassian shook his head to everyone’s dismay. "I can’t see it, all I see is a foreboding darkness that makes me uncomfortable."

His aura currently threw the Physician off-guard. He could sense his anger, but nevertheless, the physician had to do what he had been assigned to do.

Moving closer, the physician tried to inspect his eyes with a very small little torch. He had done so earlier and even noticed a bit of colorless paste that had been smeared into the young lad’s eyes while trying to wash off the blood on his face, but he was only starting to reason what sort of paste could he have added to his eyes.

"Did you by chance rub something that you weren’t supposed to on your face? Like a paste?" Questioned the physician. "I noticed a bit of colorless paste while washing your face earlier, and I have a feeling it has something to do with it." The physician tactfully analyzed as he joined each puzzle together, and Cassian remained silent for a few seconds whilst gathering the rest of his thoughts.

He nodded his head in response.

"Yeah."

"What sort of paste did you apply?" The physician turned his attention to the remaining three who quietly listened to what he had to say with a look of consternation dawning on their awestruck faces.

"There were traces of colorless paste on his face, and most of them I had spotted in his eyes." The physician calmly explained. "Such paste would be called slaked lime, and is very severe to humans once ingested." He broke it down for them. "This paste is very difficult to find since the source to make the paste with was equally rare, and I’m very surprised to see he has some of it on his face, which in turn, led to his blindness."

"That doesn’t sound mollifying." Inna looked at the physician with pure concern displaying in her brown eyes. "What... how do we treat him then? My brother won’t be blind forever will he?"

"Let us hope it is worth reversing. Just a minute." He stepped out of the room and returned later on with a paper, handing it to Madeline.

"Get him these, it is my first time dealing with such rare eye cases and I can only say you put your hope on the herbs I’ve written down for you."

"Thank you so much." Madeline gladly received the note from the physician. "I’ll strictly follow the herbs you have written down and make sure he receives every one of it. Thank you for your kindness." She bowed her head respectfully, which came as a surprise to the physician since no one with a high status would bring themselves so low to show him this much respect.

"You’re very welcome." He smiled in return.

On their way back to the upper East quarters, Cassian’s eyes were once again blindfolded with a neat black handkerchief.

Madeline had requested it for two reasons. The first one was to shield his eyes and make sure nothing stings him while he’s in the process of recovering, and the second reason was to save herself from the magnetic stares that never fails to entrap her from just a single glance.

She still wondered how he remained unmarried till she showed up.

Looking at the young lad, Madeline noticed he had fallen asleep since he had made himself comfortable in the seat of the carriage. Due to the slight bumps on the way, his head ended up resting on her shoulders all through the ride, and Madeline tried to control the rating of her heart beat to be at a normal rate.

Unbeknownst to her, the young lad who was currently resting his head on her shoulder, slowly curved his lips into a slight smile that was barely noticeable.

Safely reaching the Duke’s mansion and riding in through the gate. Amade stopped the carriage while Madeline and Inna carefully supported Cassian down from the carriage. He was still feeling heavily sleepy and he ended up leaning on Madeline most of the time, which was quite difficult for the lady who wasn’t strong enough to hold his weight all by herself.

Amade had offered to help but the young lad stubbornly refused to go with anyone else. He only wanted Madeline to hold him and that was one thing the young lady didn’t want to accept, but had to after he kept complaining he wanted to sleep.

He was slim-built, yet he weighed the size of an ox!

Taking him into the mansion, as usual, Frederick was at the entrance to welcome them, but that warm smile on his friendly lips disappeared after seeing the young Lord who appeared to be in bad shape, and his eyes nearly fell from their sockets.

"Lord Cassian?!!" Without knowing how, Frederick soon found himself standing in front of them. The young lad was being supported by his wife who had placed his arm around her shoulders, and her own hand wrapping his waist to support him in his standing.

"What happened to...."

"Is mother at home?" Questioned Inna who wasn’t ready to start dishing out what happened, and Frederick nodded. "Yes, she must be upstairs in her room."

"Sleep..." Cassian murmured to Madeline who was standing beside Inna, and when Frederick offered to help as well, Cassian had refused to go with anyone, and Madeline was tempted to drop him on the ground and walk away when his clingy actions were starting to silently frustrate her.

Why was he refusing to let anyone else touch him??

"I’ll get him settled first." Madeline offered a reassuring smile to the worried Frederick before taking the young lad up the stairs. What she didn’t notice was the slight smile that appeared on his lips, and when she eventually stole a peek at him, his face had turned somber.

Making it to their room, Madeline opened the door and made her way towards the bed. She dropped Cassian on it before stretching her back to get rid of the dull ache she felt from having to carry him all the way from downstairs.

He didn’t move any further, and Madeline concluded that he had finally fallen asleep. Releasing a sigh, she kindly helped him lie properly on the bed and took his shoes off.

"You owe me a treat for this special treatment." She uttered promisingly to the sleeping Cassian when she was done getting him settled.

She looked at his face that had little cuts, but his charms were still difficult to hide. Staring at his baby pink lips only reminded her of the kiss they shared, and she shook her head to push that unwelcomed thought aside.

"What will I do with you?"

When Madeline was about to sink on the bed beside him, a knock on the door made her pause in her movements, and she instantly felt like crying. She wanted to rest as well, but who could be disturbing them when only Frederick is aware of their presence??

Fighting the temptation of laying back in bed and ignoring the door, Madeline adjusted herself properly before going to the door and opening it.

"Yes...!" Her pupils dilated seeing no one else but the Duke himself standing before her door.

"D..Duke Richard?"