Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 192: Most perplexing

From a corner where his figure remained inconspicuous, Silas would from time to time, check on Arabella while she was out in the gardens.

She followed Edgar and Ada around, doing her very best to copy their actions, but what the vampire had been conflicted about the most was the fact that the young woman did smile in Edgar’s presence. She laughed too and seemed genuinely happy just being there.

Silas made his way across the hallway leading to her room. After all, how could he hope to ever achieve the same results Edgar did without spending more time with her, or at least try to?

Stopping a few feet away from the door, he extended an ear beyond the walls separating them only to gather a shaky and brittle voice from it, one Silas immediately recognized as Arabella’s.

Through her cries, the words were forced out, "I am sorry, Ada. I am sorry for putting you through all of this," she whispered.

A pang of anguish pinched at his chest upon hearing those utterances, taking in how she kept on apologizing to everyone for simply existing...

Although it was what came next that stunned him a bit, "You told me once that you considered me a friend. Say, does that still stand? Do you still see me as such?"

A friend, she said. Not that the concept of friendship was unheard of by him but was still foreign to he who never had the chance of building one with anybody that wasn’t close family and even then, it was never as sturdy as the vampire imagined it was.

It did explain Ada’s behavior and distress when Arabella had been abducted. However, Silas still wondered whether such amity could stand after only a few weeks from meeting. Perhaps it was just Arabella’s nature that enabled her to consider people that were kind to her as friends. That seemed very likely.

As ashamed as he was to keep eavesdropping on them, Silas was unable to tune their conversation out. Especially not at that part.

Right after Arabella’s fervent confirmation, came the response that officially perplexed him, "Then this right here is what good friends are meant for,"

Ada’s voice never once wavered throughout her sentence. Steady, strong and void of any discernible hesitation. There were no doubts to be had, it wasn’t Arabella’s imagination, but the maid believed in their friendship as well.

Friends... That word rang somewhat hollow to him. What did it mean to be friends with someone when they shared no blood relations? Who in his life, among all of the faces he’d encountered could he consider a friend?

What are good friends truly meant for? Silas hadn’t gotten to hear that part.

As the idea tossed and turned in his mind, something new came along to disrupt the speed at which his train of thought traveled.

Well, it wasn’t new per se as Ada’s voice was no stranger. It, more so, was the fashion it’d reached his ears in.

Smoother than its nature, it did not glide with the air but bent it to its will instead. Her pitch rising and falling with such control, it was hard to picture that same voice coming out of Ada. At first, she did nothing but hum the loveliest of melodies before the words followed, sweeping his mind along for a ride he never signed up to take.

They spoke of someone or something beautiful that carried the weight of many if not all. Within the first sentence, memories of the long since forgotten piece of music in Umbraria struck Silas.

"Motherland" was a song that humans chanted before battles during the great wars. Soldiers hollered it in the trenches and battlefield whereas women sang it behind closed doors for the sole delight of noblemen that never once stooped to pick up a sword.

Silas listened until the singing was over and only occasional sniveling remained. Soon after that, the voice of rustling fabric followed the same path as the song towards the vampire.

"Come now, let’s get you out of that dress for the night," Ada whispered so carefully, as though fearing the words would shatter the young woman.

There was more shuffling and fabric shifting until there was none anymore. By then, Silas understood that Arabella had gotten into bed, thus leaving him no other choice but to walk back on his steps with the prospect of speaking to her at another time.

But he hadn’t traveled far when Ada exited the room and spotted him in the hallway. The maid immediately froze after the little gasp that escaped her.

She only curtsied when Silas turned around to face her, "Master! Miss Arabella has just gotten into bed, but if you’d like to speak with her I ca-"

The vampire raised a hand to cut her off. His diamonds studied the maid, going from the highest hair on her head down to the toes sheltered beneath her shoes.

Ada’s mouth opened and closed multiple times under his scrutiny, but never once allowed the slightest peep.

Her heart, on the other hand, spoke its usual language, beating wildly with no signs of slowing down.

"Katherine won’t be keeping an eye on her tonight," he finally broke the deafening silence between them, "Allegra is quite occupied and therefore won’t be able to focus on surveilling her state. I’d like you to stay the night with her,"

"Of course!" she squeaked.

"Tomorrow morning, I will be coming by. Let her know so that she will be ready,"

The heavy glare his eyes forced on her released her when he turned around to leave, but something seemed to overpower Ada’s better judgement in that instant as she called for his attention again.

"Master!" ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"What is it you still need?"

"I...," although the confidence that had overcome her quickly abandoned her. Mouth agape, there was nothing but the sound of her heartbeats to fill the void.

When nothing came of it, Silas simply resumed walking away and never once looked back.

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