"What a rude girl to be saying that our Queen wanted to starve you," Rosamund added oil to the fire.
Lucy offered her an innocent look, "Well, grandmother punished me by ordering the maids not to give me any food. And I was left starving...Was that not what happened?" she asked.
Lady Samara's eyes were about to fall out from her sockets over her daughter's words, and she whispered, "What is wrong with you, Lucy?! Apologise right now!"
"It seems like the lack of food in your body has only turned you rude and misbehaving. If you are so eager to run your mouth and defy me, then I would like to tell you this," said Morganna, "From today onwards, you shall not step out of the castle. You will not be allowed to attend any soirees, nor will you be allowed to go out for your 'air', you shall no-"
Calhoun, who sat at the table, didn't bother to participate in the discussion, and he suddenly stretched his hand towards Lucy. The young vampiress' attention broke away from her grandmother, and Queen Morganna's mouth was left hung open by seeing she was interrupted.
King Laurence wasn't present yet in the dining room yet as he was busy in the royal courtroom.
"What?" questioned Lady Samara, startled.
"Pepper," came the nonchalant words from Calhoun, "I wanted pepper. The roasted chicken tastes well with pepper."
Everyone at the table was left dumbfounded looking at Calhoun, who waited for someone to pass the pepper vial. Lucy leaned forward, reaching for the small pepper vial, and she handed it to Calhoun, who sat across the table from where she sat.
With the room filled with vampires, everyone could hear the pepper shaking in the little glass vial as Calhoun sprinkled it over his roasted chicken in his plate.
"What do you think you are doing, boy?" demanded Rosamund as she could see her mother turning more angry with every passing second.
Calhoun raised his head, his lazy red eyes looking up at the woman who had spoken to him, "Excuse me?" he asked as if he hadn't heard the first time she had spoken.
"It's pepper, not an ingredient to be poured all over your plate by making so much of sound," Rosamund remarked, her eyebrows furrowing by hearing the continuous sound in the dining room.
With King Laurence's absence from the dining room, the other royal members didn't hold back themselves from subtly showing Calhoun his place. Letting him know how he didn't belong here but outside the castle.
Queen Morganna softly harrumphed without looking at Calhoun. She commented, "Do not blame him, Rosa. The low, ordinary people from the villages, especially from the streets, how would they know table manners. He's not to be blamed but his upbringing by that woman." Morgana wanted to provoke Calhoun so that he would fall for her trap. She would show her son Laurence what a grave mistake he had made. "Let's not blame him. We can only expect this as he was brought up by a whore who spread her legs to every single man in the village."
Calhoun's blood ran cold, and his hold on the vial of glass tightened. He knew this was going to happen once he would start to live in the castle, but reality hurt more than the imagination. His mother's image had been tarnished, and with the way it looked, the people here didn't care about his mother, including his power-hungry father.
Rosamund and Lady Samara chuckled at Queen Morganna's words, but Lucy didn't find it funny. The young vampiress had no clue about what was just spoken, and her eyes slowly drifted to look at Calhoun, who stared at the surface of the table.
Theodore, who stood near the wall, his eyes subtly narrowed at the low blow caused by the Queen's words, and he could only hope Calhoun would not attack the Queen right now. Calhoun's shoulders had turned tense, and he hadn't responded a word.
Morganna smugly smiled at the boy who had blindly thought he could survive in the castle. Within a week, she would throw him out of here so that in the future, he would never show his face at the castle ever again.
"We should forgive people who come from the streets because they know nothing, but it does make me question why they even bother entering a place where they don't belong to. Pity that people don't understand," Morganna clicked her tongue before picking the cutlery from either side of her plate.
Lady Samara wasn't happy with her husband's decision, but knowing how her in-laws felt about it, it put the woman back in a good mood. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, she decided to take part in the conversation,
"How much do you think they earn, my Queen? Is it worth the coins?" asked Lady Samara.
Something flipped in Calhoun's mind, and he sat back against the chair before turning the cap of the vial that covered the pepper bottle with small holes in it. The cap would have been easily opened, but Calhoun took his sweet time turning the cap so that it made an annoying sound in the room.
The people in the room flinched at the sound that Calhoun was deliberately making, and when he did open the top, he tried to dip his finger inside the pepper bottle.
"What do you think you are doing?!" asked Lady Samara in horror. A low life's hand was being dipped into the bottle, and now they would have to ask the maid to clean and refill the vial glass again.
Calhoun raised his eyebrows, "I? You didn't want me making noise, so I decided I would sprinkle the pepper with my fingers," he then offered her a sweet and polite smile that spread across his lips.
"How dare you! Are you trying to instigate something?!" demanded Lady Samara.
"Calm down, Samara," Queen Morganna pacified her daughter-in-law while looking at Calhoun.