Chapter 359: The land of the dead_Part 2
A few hours ago, during the night, Belle had slept with a content heart in her husband’s arms until she drifted into unwanted dreams in her sleep. She had found herself living the life of Isabelle again, this time her heart still filled with happiness and not resentment, only love for Deven.
"You look beautiful, my lady," Deven Marchant commented as he took in the sight of the young woman sitting beside him in Greenpark on a bench under the shade.
A pink color bloomed on her cheeks at his comment, and she shyly looked down at her lap where she was fingering the flower design on her dress. "You look handsome yourself, my lord. I... I can’t believe you want to marry me. The Marquis and her Lady came to see my Ma and Pa yesterday and they talked about it..."
She had liked him, loved him even, since the first time she had set her eyes on him in the ballroom and when he danced with her, but she had never thought a man like him would notice her and want her as a wife among all the women of Aragonia who had secretly fancied him. Many of her friends were his secret admirers, but he picked her out of all when she didn’t believe she was anywhere better than them.
Deven reached out his hand and placed it upon hers on her lap, making her jump in surprise at the sudden touch. She quickly looked around guiltily to see if anyone was watching them. "My lord..." She tried to pull her hand out, but he tightened his hold as he reassured her.
"You have nothing to feel shy about, Isabelle. We will be getting married, and I can hold your hand. You have caught my eyes for years, even before I set eyes on you in the ballroom. I have dreamed of a life with you. Think it foolish, but I see myself having many kids with you and growing old together." He intertwined their fingers and looked at her flushed face.
"Whenever I look into your eyes, you make me happy. You have lovely eyes and the most beautiful hair, Isabelle. Can... I kiss you?"
Isabelle turned red like a tomato at that unexpected question. "My chaperone... what if she comes back—"
"She won’t. I sent her away with my carriage to go and buy whatever she wanted in the market, so we can have our time alone to get reacquainted with each other," Deven said, letting his eyes fall to her lips longingly. "But it’s fine if you don’t want to kiss me. All women do that with the man they are marrying. I understand you are not like what I imagined, and—"
"I want to. I mean... you can kiss me," Isabelle said almost quickly, not wanting him to find her boring and less appealing because she refused him a kiss. Though she had been taught by her mother not to even hold hands with a man she wasn’t married to, let alone allow him a kiss, she believed it was fine, and she wanted him to really, really love her like she loved him.
Deven looked around the park, where the people had cleared away and no carriage was passing by at that moment, before he leaned in and kissed her.
"I like it..." she whispered after he pulled back from the kiss that made her heart feel like it would fly out of her chest from fluttering so wildly.
He smiled proudly. "I knew you would. But there are more ways to kiss than to press lips together, you know. You will like that one better, but I will only give it to you if you promise to meet me whenever I call you. I will send for my carriage to pick you up at the back of your residence," he told her.
Isabelle didn’t believe that was right, sneaking out to meet him, but she didn’t voice out the thought for the fear that she would push him away from her. She agreed to sneak out to meet him the next day.
She had been so scared, but she soon found pleasure in it too when she did it the first time, making her parents believe she was napping in her room.
True to his word, he was a good kisser. His kisses stirred something inside her that she wanted to quench. Yet whenever she moved closer to him for more, he would pull back.
"Not yet, my lovely dove. Let’s not spoil the fun for our wedding night. For now, we will just be kissing and touching, hmm?"
"But—" Isabelle began to say, but he hushed her with his finger pressed gently against her lips.
"Shh, not now. There’s more we can do, but wait for me to return from my trip. I might teach you. Our wedding is only a few days after my return."
Isabelle didn’t want him to leave. He had told her about his travel plan yesterday when they met and she didn’t like it. She had started to enjoy this part of their life, where she always sneaked out to meet him and he kissed and touched her. She knew she would miss him so much if he leaves for two weeks. "Do you have to leave?" she asked quietly.
Deven nodded his head without hesitation. "Yes, I have to. It’s important to Father that I go and look through the lands he wants to buy in Barbara and pay for it if it’s worth it. We want to expand our family legacy in many lands."
"You can do that after our wedding. You promised to help me choose a gown and be with me. Even Mama agreed you should come along. Please don’t go, I want you to stay," she pleaded, tears glistening in her hazel eyes.
"I can’t, Isabelle. It’s very important I go. The land is in demand, and my father might lose it if I don’t go early. Don’t worry, I will make it up to you when I come back. I will buy you a beautiful present." He promised.
Isabelle didn’t like that he wouldn’t stay back for her. She could let go of everything just to spend a few hours with him, even go behind her parents’ back to meet him, but he couldn’t do this one thing for her when he had promised that he would be by her side during picking a style for their wedding dress. She moved away from his side where she had been sitting, angry.
"Go ahead and leave your wife-to-be alone. You might not find me to be the same when you return. Goodbye, Deven." She turned and ran away from him, crying in anger and longing for him at the same time.
Just like how it always happened when Belle experienced Isabelle’s life, everything suddenly changed, and she was back in that dark room where she was raging and slamming against the door, screaming.
"HE’S A LIAR! HE’S LYING TO ALL OF YOU!!" she screamed with a hoarse voice. "I WILL KILL HIM! HE LIED! SOMEBODY LISTEN TO ME! I AM NOT CRAZY!!"
"Every person who’s crazy will never admit they are. Let her be in that room until she comes to terms with the fact of what she has done," said the doctor outside the room, speaking to her parents. "If there is no improvement in her in a few days of my treatment, we will be forced to take her to the asylum soon and admit her to proper treatment for people in her condition."
"I WON’T GO TO THE ASYLUM! I WILL KILL YOU FOR SUGGESTING THAT!" she shouted, banging her shoulders against the door with force. The door, already weakened by her constant hits, ripped away from its hinges, and she ran out of the room, taking her parents and the people standing just beyond the broken door by surprise.
Before anyone saw it coming, she leaped on the doctor, and with all the force in her, sank her teeth into his neck. She yanked with her strength until she ripped through his flesh and blood began to gush out. She didn’t care about the horrified screams around her and prepared to bite him in another place to end his life when she was forcefully struck with something heavy from behind. The blow landed on her head, knocking her out cold.
Belle gasped awake, breathing hard with a racing heart and a dull pain at the back of her head, as if she had truly been struck. She turned, expecting to feel the softness of the mattress and her husband’s arm, but instead she noticed the fog hovering above her head and the hard surface beneath her body.
It dawned on Belle immediately that she wasn’t in the land of the living when she saw the still, oversized moon hanging in the clear night sky. She had been transported into the land of the dead!