462 Out of coffin
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1
—
When the following day arrived, Eve and Vincent left their room and made their way down. As they climbed down the stairs, the housekeeper stood at the end of the stairs with a troubled expression.
“Why do you look like the cat has caused trouble in the kitchen?” Vincent remarked, and his words weren’t far from what had occurred.
“Good morning, Master Vincent and Lady Genevieve,” Carla offered her deepest bow to the couple, before she raised her head and informed, “There has been a little situation since last night. I don’t know how to tell you about it. This morning when I went to fix the table inside the chamber that you said, I found the table and the coffin broken.”
And as calm as Carla appeared, Eve noticed the hint of worry in the old housekeeper’s eyes.
“The servants claim that they weren’t the one who broke it. They know better than to enter the chamber that is solely for the family,” Carla further said, that had Vincent slightly narrow his eyes, and he asked with a bright smile,
“Are you insinuating that Eve or I were the ones who pushed it?”
“I would never dare it, Master Vincent,” the housekeeper quickly answered. She said, “I fear that maybe the coachman’s words were true. About the werewolf he saw last night.” She also knew it wasn’t the newlywed couple because the young master was aware of the gravity of the situation and the kind of people who slept in the underground chamber inside the coffins.
Carla had been left with the responsibility of taking care of the mansion and the coffins in the chamber, but last night it had broken under her watch.
It took Eve and Vincent less than a second to question whether the ‘werewolf’ had caused the mishap in the underground chamber.
Vincent asked, “Hopefully you were able to place the coffin and the person back to its original place?”
Sharp sound of shoes clicking against the marble floor was heard from a distance. The housekeeper’s back stiffened, and her face slightly paled.
Eve realised the reason the housekeeper looked troubled wasn’t that the coffin was broken. But it was because someone out of the three sleeping Moriarty family members had woken up from their coffins.
The answer to the question of who had woken up wasn’t far as the sound of the shoes got louder and louder with every passing second before the person showed up in front of them.
“The pain of being betrayed by the people you trust is the deepest. One would think that they would be able to keep me away from my family, but it was only time before I woke up.”
There stood Vincent’s grandmother Lady Ravette Moriarty. Her stern face held wrinkles because of her age, and her grey-black hair was partitioned in the middle, that was tied into a bun. Her downturned eyes looked small, while she slightly glowered at the people in front of her.
“Looks like grandmother is awake,” Vincent remarked, before offering her a bright smile.
Eve didn’t understand how this woman had woken up. After all, if she remembered correctly, it took more than just breaking the coffin. One had to pull out the wooden stake pierced through the people’s chest. Unless… it was there only for show, she thought to herself. Or someone helped her…
“Grandmother Ravette, what a pleasant surprise to see you awake,” Vincent greeted the old woman.
The old vampiress stared at Vincent with a hint of grimace on her face. She said,
“Silver hair that belonged to the human my son married. You must be my grandson.” She walked towards where they stood, every step of the woman carried a weight that increased the heaviness in the atmosphere. The housekeeper quickly moved away to keep a good distance between them, while her eyes were trained on the marble floor.
“Vincent, you have grown into a fine pureblooded vampire. How handsome and those dark eyes.” The woman opened her arms and hugged her grandson. “Still not a hugger?” she hummed as they pulled away.
“I don’t remember you being a hugger yourself,” Vincent remarked with a smile. “How was your sleep? Any good dreams that you would like to share with us?”
“As pleasant as it was, it is good to see that your grandfather has been put in the coffin after what he did to me,” Lady Ravette responded with a slight smile that appeared on only one corner of her lips. Her eyes then shifted to look at Eve, her red eyes examining Eve from head to toe.
“This is my wife, Genevieve. The love of my life,” Vincent introduced Eve to his grandmother. “Eve this is Ravette Moriarty. My paternal grandmother.”
“Another human? It seems like the men in our family for some reason end up falling for humans,” Lady Ravette responded with the same smile, noticing Eve offer a bow. She said, “Though it is a man’s responsibility to protect his woman and his family, I hope she knows how to protect herself?”
“Better than she appears to be,” Vincent assured his grandmother.
“Why don’t you step aside, so that I can take a better look at her myself, Vincent,” Lady Ravette pulled out her gloves from her hands.
Vincent didn’t leave Eve’s side and said, “Isn’t it a bit too early to be getting into the fun part when we have so much to catch up to? I don’t think you would like to be put back to sleep, when you have only woken up.”
“Then is that a no?” Lady Ravette questioned, raising one of her eyebrows and she asked Eve, “What do you say, Genevieve? Sparring with each other is a tradition that has been passed down through generations. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you,” but the smile on the woman’s lips said otherwise, and she continued, “Not unless I feel you are unworthy of my grandson.”