She played slow and steadily, her fingers moving and pressing the keys across the grand piano. Eyes looking up and down, from the piano sheet that was placed in front. It was a small piece but her fingers were trying to be everywhere on the board as small tones of music emerged from the instrument.
“That is all for now,” she said with a sheepish look.
“Your fingers are too stiff,” he responded, his eyes on her fingers, “You need to relax them. Look at my fingers,” and she did, seeing him take only the left section of the keys. His movements were like water flowing in the river. If possible Heidi could listen to him play all day and night but the man didn’t let her enjoy him playing music, “Stanley has the habit of starting things which is difficult. Let’s teach you something simpler. Follow my fingers.”
After half an hour, lord Nicholas let her be as he played with the keys randomly.
“Thank you for that night,” Heidi blurted out that came out all wrong, giving a completely different meaning.
“Which one are we talking about?” a grin formed on his lips with the words that were spoken.
She cleared her throat, “I-I meant the day I was sick.”
“Did you now. And here I thought I didn’t remember something I wanted to,” he teased her, seeing her getting more flustered, not meeting his eyes to look at the white keys, “What’s the matter? You’ve turned less talkative,” he observed.
If it were before, Heidi would have something to retort like a child. She would have been angry on him for taking her from her bed to only put her on his lap. She didn’t understand him though. with a personality which she couldn’t decipher. But then that wasn’t the issue here, the issue was her brewing feelings for him. She realized it was hard for her to stay mad or to be irritated with him. Since the past few days she enjoyed those little, short moments unconsciously. She had to control her heartbeat when he was around knowing well that a pure blooded vampire had a very good ear when it came to listening things.
“Heidi?” he called her name breaking her away from her thoughts. His hand ran through the strand of her straight hair at the side of her head, “You look pretty,” he complimented her before playing the piano like he hadn’t said anything at all.
No matter how much she wanted to hide it now, she couldn’t. She was glad that the music flowing in the room was camouflaging her beating heart. It was a perfectly normal to react to someone you liked, thought Heidi to herself but this wasn’t normal. The bitter reality was that she was marrying a man who was the cousin of whom she had feelings for. She was going to be Lord Nicholas’ family once she would be married to Warren. And as the thought sank into her head so did her heart. Even though she liked the lord that didn’t mean he had the same thoughts. She knew to expect from him was to wait for hell to freeze and it was impossible. Reading into his actions would do her no good. The lord liked to tease her time to time and that was that and there was nothing more to it.
With the days that came, Heidi made sure to hold her heart still and not let it waver when the lord was around. If it was possible she even tried avoiding him thinking it was a best option until her feelings settled down and came back to reality. While she was attentive where Warren was concerned, she ignored the lord. Knowing it was right thing to do, she even tried visiting Venetia whom she wasn’t fond of, raising Nicholas’ eyebrows at the news.
Nicholas on the other hand had never felt so obviously ignored. In the beginning he had thought it was her passing moods at something he had said but it didn’t seem like so. He was so used to having her attention where he wanted that suddenly he felt things weren’t going his way and it irked him even though he wouldn’t admit it to his ownself. He enjoyed their little banter but suddenly she had become obedient, not retaliating at anything he said. She stalled and avoided him careful and politely but he was a shrewd man not to notice it. Sitting now in his study, he chuckled. It was good that she was different. This way it made things only interesting to him, he thought to himself.
One day when Warren, Venetia, Lord Nicholas and Heidi were on their way after visiting a town, Toby, Lord Nicholas’ pet crow cawed while sitting above the carriage. Nicholas face marred a deep frown as he heard the crow caw.
“Turn around the carriage to the Meyers mansion,” he ordered the coachman suddenly.
“What happened?” Warren asked.
“There’s been an incident,” Nicholas spoke stiffly without further elaborating on it.
Heidi wasn’t sure with what the ‘incident’ the lord had spoken about was but it seemed that something serious had taken place. Lettice was a dear friend of hers and she was worried for her. When they reached the Meyers mansion, it seemed like a small amount of crowd had formed. Stepping out and following Warren and the lord, she got inside the Meyers mansion. Neither was Mr. Meyers or his wife to be seen around. The head butler as if awaiting their arrival led them through the hall and the corridors to stop at a room where few guardsmen stood outside the door.
When they entered the room, Heidi gasped bringing her hand up to cover her nose and mouth in shock. A woman laid on the ground in her own pool of blood, face which was smashed to an unrecognizable state. The person’s stomach was stabbed multiple times due to which the flesh inside the body could be seen clearly. It rose the bile in Heidi’s throat. Blood had been splattered over the wall, a vase was broken, the shards of glass reflecting the setting sun.
Was the woman Lettice? thought Heidi in horror, her hands shaking. But hearing someone sob in the room she found Rhys holding his wife in his arms and rubbing her back gently.