Heidi stood not far behind Lord Nicholas, her eyes bigger and wider seeing the two horses being brought out of the stables. Hearing the hooves of the horses stop in front of them, she looked up at them, one which is brown and the other white in color. She wasn’t sure of riding the horse and had tried avoiding it which was of no use. Was there no way out to it? Thought Heidi to herself. Not that she had anything against the horses but after falling down in the past and have the horses raise its leg while she and her sister were in front of it was one of the scariest thing she had experienced.

  Lord Nicholas stepped forward to pick the white horse, gently stroking its mane. Turning behind he found the woman to be standing there nervously, face as pale as white. When her eyes met his, she gave him a nervous smile.

  “I am not sure about this,” he heard her.

  “Consider this as part of ‘Educating Heidi’. I did as you requested for. Now it is time you fulfill your end of the promise,” he smiled at her.

  She nodded her head, taking a deep breath and going over to the brown horse with careful steps. Not only did the Lord comply with her request of asking Eveline Moate to stop with the handwriting lessons but had removed her from the job as Heidi’s educator. Instead, Stanley had taken Ms. Moate’s place in continuing Heidi’s lessons.

  “Are you trying to scare the horse?” Nicholas asked seeing her crooking her fingers which were ready to dip into the mane like the flour that had to be turned into dough, “There. That’s much better,” he said seeing her fingers match his actions.

  Unexpectedly that day, the Lord didn’t ask her to mount the horse right away. Instead, the Lord and her took the horses on small walks around the open fields, behind the mansion. One of the stable man stood at a distance just in case if one of the horses tried getting away. Heidi made sure to hold the horse’s rein tightly in her hand. It would be a twenty minutes walk before the horses would be fetched by the stable man. She was relieved that the Lord unlike his usual self had taken time in letting her accustomed with the horse she was to ride.

  After a few days, the day finally arrived where Heidi had to sit on top of the horse so that she could learn to ride.

  “I think the horse is too big for me, milord,” she said looking at the saddle and the place where she had to keep her footing to get on.

  “The horse is just fine. Get on it now. I don’t have all day to teach you when there are other things that need to be attended,” Lord Nicholas gave her a pointed look. While Heidi looked at the horse, then the saddle wondering how to get her feet on without making a fool of herself, Lord Nicholas stood there with gleeful smile.

  “Master,” the butler spoke, standing behind his lord, “You said you wouldn’t bully Ms. Curtis.”


  “Did I now?” Nicholas murmured.

  “Yes, master. Is it because she is Mr. Lawson’s future bride that you treat her so?” the butler asked curious.

  “I wonder……” Heidi held the horse with one of her hand for support and the other which rested on the saddle. Finally when she did mount on the horse successfully, she had big smile of achievement.

  “She did it!” the butler clapped both his hands.

  “I did tell you, the horse was fine,” the Lord spoke aloud to Heidi whose smile had begun to falter after the horse took two steps forward and one step back.

  “Master if I may say. Ms. Curtis looks like a cat who had a bucket of cold water thrown at,” the butler commented seeing her entire body tense.

  Lord Nicholas noted that his butler was indeed right. He himself got on his horse and then went to where she was, taking one of the reins of her horse which was long enough for him to hold on to. He then guided them forward so that they could take a slow walk. It took Heidi minutes before she was used to sitting on the brown horse. The Lord didn’t speak much and he instead let her ride quietly until she was comfortable which she was thankful about.

  On one evening, Heidi received a letter from her family. It was from her father. The letter didn’t contain much. It said that he would like to have her home for few days for Hallow, to spend some time before she would be married into the Lawson’s family. She was overjoyed by the letter and read it several times before she had memorized the words. Never in her life had her father spent time with her, he had always been a busy man. And now to think that her father would ask for her time, did he perhaps miss her absence? She smiled at the mere thought before worry fell over her features. Was she allowed to go? The council had asked her to stay at the Rune’s mansion but there were still few more days left before she was allowed to go back to her house. Biting her lip she paced her room front and back. It was only after some time did she remember what the Lord had said to her.

  Hurrying out of her room with the letter, she went to look for the Lord and Warren who had returned back. By asking one of the maids, she found out that they were lounging in the drawing room and she made her way to where they were. Knocking on the door, she heard Warren ask her to come in.

  Nicholas and Warren had only begun their day by asking the maids to serve them with their actual food source, which was blood. The vampires enjoyed having blood from the humans directly without it being transferred from one container to another before it reached their lips. Warren had only finished taking enough amount of blood from one of the maids who was sitting now next to him. The maid’s neck had two pierced holes at the side, who got up after Warren dismissed her. On the other side, Nicholas still had his fangs stuck into another maids wrist, eyes closed as he continued to suck out the blood.

  May be she should have waited until the next morning, she thought as her eyes strayed away from them for a few seconds to realize she had interrupted their meal time.

  “What brings you here at this hour?” Warren asked her. It was past dinner and they hadn’t expected her to show up in the drawing room for the day.

  “I-uh, received a letter from my family,” she began and then gave the letter to Warren.

  “Is everything well?” he asked her concerned and she nodded her head.

  “It is. Actually my family would like me to be home for this Hollow as it is going to be the last one before I get married. I was wondering if I could go visit for few days,” she said.

  While Warren read the letter, Heidi’s eyes glanced towards the lord who now looked at her, hands still clutching on the maids wrist close to his mouth. His eyes were darker, almost black with the lack of light in the room.

  “And how may days do you intend to be away?” Lord Nicholas asked.

  “A week……?” she asked unsure and saw him wave his hand at the maids, leaving only him, Warren and her in the room alone.