Conquering His Cold Heart

82 Bold Woman

Back in the Kilerth Castle, Vincent was pacing back and forth inside the King’s study room.

“Where the hell is Caspian? I thought he would be here by now.” Vincent looked at the door of the study and mumbled again, “Ever since he got married, I can see that he is neglecting his work. I better give him an earful when he comes here.”

“Are you waiting for His Majesty, Milord?” The guard who heard Vincent asked from the door.

“Yes, where is he?” Vincent asked.

And the guard replied, “His Majesty went out of the castle early in the morning. I’m not sure when he will return.”

Vincent gave a nod and thought of waiting for a little longer. And he sat on one of the chairs in the room.

However, he soon got bored while waiting for his friend to return from wherever he had been to.

It had been almost an hour since he had arrived there at the castle. However, there was still no sign of Caspian anywhere.

“And it looks like Zenon is also not here,” Vincent mumbled after heaving a sigh for the umpteenth time. “I better stretch my legs until they arrive.”

.....

He abruptly got up from the chair and started to walk slowly and aimlessly.

As he did that, he suddenly recalled the incident that had happened yesterday morning. He subconsciously rubbed his neck where Tilla had stabbed him with the shard of the mop.

He shook his head to push that memory aside and thought to himself, ‘I hope I won’t accidentally bump into Tilla. I think it’s better not to cross paths with her for a few days. She might come at me with whatever she is holding.’

As he recalled how scared she looked at one moment, and how she had attacked him as though she was an assassin at the next moment, he couldn’t help but smirk.

He gently massaged his lower lip with his index finger. And he kept on thinking about Tilla, ‘I wonder if she received any kind of training while she was in Orsenia. It’s impressive if she did that to me without any kind of formal training.’

While he was lost in his thoughts, it looked like his legs decided to betray him because they took him right to the same garden where Tilla was watering the flowers.

“Oh, hell no!” Vincent abruptly stopped on the path and cursed out loud when he saw Tilla’s face.

And in doing so, he successfully managed to grab Tilla’s attention as well.

He could see Tilla’s jaw visibly getting tensed. And he could swear that she had also tightened her grip on the watering can.

Vincent nervously laughed and awkwardly waved his hand at Tilla. “Er... Hey! I almost didn’t see you there, Tilla.”

Tilla forced a smile on her face and gave a bow that looked like a nod rather than a bow. And she replied with bitterness, “Greetings, Milord. And I almost thought that you were a hungry dog who was barking for food.”

Vincent had never been this insulted in his life, apart from the time when he was slapped by Anastasia with her shoe.

But he still laughed that insult off as he didn’t want to create any more trouble for himself.

“Like master, like maid...” he mumbled inaudibly. And then he approached closer to Tilla.

Tilla was trying to act brave in front of Vincent. She wanted to show him that she wasn’t a pushover. She wanted to prove that she wasn’t someone he could walk all over on.

However, when Vincent started to walk towards her while smiling like a psychopath, her heart did a backflip in her chest. She instantly turned around and tried to play it cool by continuing to water the plants. She quietly wished that Vincent would walk past her.

But Vincent stood right next to Tilla instead of walking by. He could clearly see her hands trembling slightly.

He smirked again and thought, ‘So she does get scared. But she does like to play pretend, huh?’

“Do you mind if I have a word with you?” Vincent held his arms behind his back and whimsically questioned Tilla.

Tilla was afraid that he would threaten her again. So she tried to turn him down. “I’m afraid I cannot do that at the moment, Milord. As you can see, I am quite busy right now.”

Vincent laughed and then stood while facing Tilla. “Oh, don’t be so mean, Tilla. I can see that your hands are busy. But I’m sure you can lend me your ears.”

Tilla simply ignored Vincent and kept on watering the plants.

Vincent slightly leaned to the side and looked at Tilla’s face. He saw sweat beads forming on her forehead when it wasn’t even midday yet. And he could hear her heart beating faster than what was normal.

He suddenly felt sorry for that poor handmaid.

So he straightened his back and said in all seriousness, “Tilla, I didn’t mean a word that I said yesterday in that dungeon. I was simply trying to tease you a bit. But I think I overdid it.”

“I thought you were going to kill me!” Tilla glared at Vincent and almost screamed at the lord.

Vincent took a step back from Tilla. He didn’t want that watering can in Tilla’s hand to be slammed on his head.

And he defended himself, “I wasn’t going to kill you, Tilla. Why would I even do that? I was just thinking of teasing you a little and-”

“Teasing me?” Tilla cut Vincent off in the middle and looked at him with a hint of anger and hatred in her eyes. “With all due respect, Milord, you wouldn’t have seen what you did to me as a mere joke if you were in my shoes. That was called tormenting. You threatened me!”

Vincent couldn’t deny the fact that what he said and did might indeed have looked like an actual threat to Tilla.

“Okay, I was trying to scare you a little because you were saying that you would release those prisoners. But after that, I wanted to make you aware of what kind of humans were kept down there in the dungeon. But you didn’t give me a chance to do that. You stabbed me in the neck and ran away before I could clarify myself.”

“Oh!” Tilla scoffed and sarcastically replied, “I am sorry that I defended myself against a vampire because he was saying that he would eat me up. I am sorry that I didn’t let you see me suffer for a little longer and take pleasure from it. I’m sorry for running away from a predator, Milord.”

Vincent felt a small prick in his heart from those sharp words from Tilla. And he was also a little intrigued by Tilla’s boldness.

Tilla was the first human to ever dare to stab him and raise her voice in front of him. Even when she was angry at him, and she was scolding him, Vincent couldn’t help but look at her with appreciation.

“Why are you smiling? Did I say something funny?” Tilla frowned at Vincent.

In her mind, she was imagining inserting her fingers in his mouth and tearing his mouth for laughing at her when she was being serious.

Vincent, on the other hand, hadn’t even realized that he was smiling.

He didn’t want Tilla to think any less of him. So he quickly cleared his throat and apologized to Tilla from the bottom of his heart, “I am really sorry that I made you feel that way. I give you my word that I will never take the jokes that far from now on.”

He looked Tilla in the eyes and asked with all sincerity, “Will you forgive me for what I did yesterday? That was very foolish of me. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you, but I happened to do just that. I will never do that again.”

Tilla wasn’t expecting Vincent to behave like a gentleman and own his mistake. And what more? He was even asking for her forgiveness!

She kept on looking at him, wondering if he really meant what he said or if he was planning to play another prank on her.

Before Vincent got to hear the reply from Tilla, the two of them were suddenly disturbed by Martha’s worried voice.

“Tilla! There you are! Oh!” Martha bowed to Vincent when she noticed that he was standing right there. And she said in a polite voice, “Tilla, Her Majesty was looking for you. I suggest you go to her right away.”

Tilla glanced at the tray that Martha was carrying. It had a bowl of water and some clean cotton towels on it.

Tilla instantly felt goosebumps running down her whole body. She could already guess what might have happened to the Queen.

However, she still asked Martha, hoping that that water bowl and clothes were for somebody else and not for Anastasia, “What happened to Her Majesty?”