Chapter 36The rest of the night was a sleepless one for everyone that had heard the commotion. Derek's brother, Daniel was careful not to touch Nancy's back when he carried her to the bed. She was placed flat on her stomach, it was a good thing the belt had not gone around to her stomach or her breasts, only one stroke had wound round neck, leaving a now swollen welt that was streaked with the now purple coloured blood on the surface. Derek watched from a distance, she was passed out cold on the bed. If she was dead, he could not tell. But the satisfaction he expected to feel was not there, there was no joy or happiness at what he had just done either, he could almost feel the guilt drumming in his heart. His own heart beat was accelerating by the minute as he watched them fuss over her. Had he not said he wanted her dead? He had told her that, and now she was lying there… dead or unconscious. But he felt nothing close to satisfaction. He watched on as Lucille, Daniels wife began t
Chapter 37Laurel walked furiously out of the castle, she stopped to wait for Kristen at the gate."How did it go?" Kristen asked curiously."You would not believe he is telling me to be his Luna! If he was going to get someone to marry him, I am not one. He should go look for someone else" Laurel said angrily."How about the cure?" Kristen asked, unsure of what her sister was talking about."The cure? That was his excuse for me marrying him. He wants me to marry him in exchange for the cure" Laurel could still not believe she had heard Earl tell her that. "That sounds funny, Laurel, I just hope you are joking," Kristen laughed, waving her hands in the air."Oh! You think I am trying to make a joke out of this, right?" Laurel raised her brows at her."You really mean it? He asked to marry you?" Kristen asked in surprise."He did!" Laurel gathered her long dress around her, it was becoming more difficult for her to wear it these days, especially when everything seems to be turning aga
Chapter 37The next few days in the house saw the end of the feast for the guest and the beginning of chaos for the inhabitants. For some reason, Nancy's fever only increased by the day, leaving Derek in a confused state of anger and guilt. Since she passed out that night, it was two days already and she had not woken up, even the sores on her back were beginning to close but the fever only burned stronger as the scalds disappeared on the open wound, almost like it was closing on the outside and opening on the inside. Derek spent the two days pacing his parlor, racing his horses in the morning or drinking himself to stupor. What manner of anger had possessed him to the point of beating a woman almost to death was something he was struggling to understand. He was not known to be so temperamental, especially not with women. But there were not many women around him, his mother knew him well and so there was never a need for him to be offended by her. Lucille, Daniel's wife rarely spent a
Chapter 39Derek raced outside with a speed he could not comprehend, he snatched Night Walker, his stallion from the stable boy without another glance and urged the horse towards the road with a single pull at its reins. As if understanding its master’s mood, the horse took off with a matching speed . His mood was now worse than it had been before, this time panic and anger filled him like a cursed meal. Who would dare poison her? Who wanted her dead and right under his nose? It was not far fetched that his family thought he would do such a thing, had he given them reason to think otherwise? No, but that was not totally his fault and they wouldn't blame him but they should have known that being the simple man that he was, he wouldn't go through all that trouble just to get rid of his rebellious wife. Thinking about it now, Derek realized he didn't even want her gone, not dead anyway. She has been half dead for two days already, thanks to him and it already felt like his life lacked a
Chapter 40That night, Derek was careful not to disturb Nancy on the bed, he had woken up sometime that night unable to sleep. But he couldn't leave her side until she regained consciousness, he had promised that. So he spent the remaining of the evening reading in the room or glaring at Victory who wouldn't leave the room too. It was almost like the cat was aware that its owner was in danger because it kept crying and scratching at anything and anyone who came into the room.For the first time, Derek did not look at the cat with resentment, he realized he could even use its company as a distraction for his own thoughts. At intervals, the cat would stop and sit beside Nancy's bed, just staring blankly at her unconscious form and waiting for any form of movement. And after each effort to shout the consciousness into Nancy, the cat would begin screaming and screeching. He did not try to stop it, maybe the sound of the cat's cries might wake Nancy up since it was the only thing she held d
Chapter 41On the evening of the fourth day, Nancy stirred from her unconsciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to adjust it to the blinding light in the room, but the light was too much so she shut her eyes immediately. And then she heard the faint voices of people around her. And then she tried to move, to tell them how much her throat burned with dryness but the sharp pain in her neck had her lying back. She tried again, but that was when she realized that she was lying on her stomach, and surely that was odd. In the next instant she realized that her entire body was stiff, especially her back which felt like it was on fire.Pain swamped her, and she hissed out her breath, trying hard to breath slowly without gasping. She heard the room go still for an instant before someone ran to her side, and then another person followed. She heard them gasp in relief and felt someone take her hand. She couldn't even feel the touch, it almost felt like her entire body had shut down. Na
Chapter 42A good number of people were delighted that Nancy was awake, she learnt that the next day when Derek's parents pulled up in front of the house. It was like a welcome ceremony for her, a big dinner to be held that evening in the big hall. The same hall she had been prohibited from entering earlier, the same hall where she had almost been gang raped by those three men who had the time had only cared about the bear in their hands and the hard on between their legs. Nancy was not very happy with the big reception held for her, she was even surprised that they had gone through the trouble to come and see her. Left for her, she would have preferred to lie down and sleep the rest of the day away since her strength was still itchy from all that inactivity of her lungs and organs. But she couldn't reject the invitation when Derek showed up in the room that evening to inform her of the impending dinner in her honor. The way he said it told her there was no room for argument and that
Chapter 43Much to Nancy's dismay that evening, each of the members of the Lincoln's family pulled up at the house in coach. The first coach carried the elders; Douglas and Marylyn Lincoln. The second coach carried Daniel Lincoln, his wife, Lucille Lincoln and their daughter, Kylie. They all trooped into the dinning, early as usual. Each one taking a moment to observe the interior of the house since it was their first time there, except for Daniel and his wife of course.Derek was already dressed by the time his parents arrived but his wife wasn't. She had spent the thirty minutes he had given her sulking, he knew she was doing it deliberately just to delay her appearance at the table so he ignored her completely, taking the time to adorn himself to his satisfaction. His own mood had improved greatly since she woke up from her coma, and he intended to keep it that way. Trying as much as possible to avoid any deep altercation with Nancy."We will all be waiting for you downstairs, Coff