Under the vampire Lord's protection Chapter 612: Round

The maids and butlers who had welcomed them earlier that day reformed their ranks, positioned before the manor's main entrance. Arabella, Silas, Ada, and Edgar lined up beside one another, ready for Persephone and her daughters to arrive.

Arthur and Rubius also stood there, positioned slightly ahead of everyone else as the estate's owners greeting their visitors.

Persephone entered through the doors first, with Katherine, Grace, and Allegra right behind her; the latter had switched back to a gown from the white cloth she wore in the caverns.

"On behalf of my grandson, Lord Arthur Sterlin, allow me to welcome you under this roof, ladies," Rubius bowed before the Lady, "May your stay with us be remembered fondly after your departure,"

"Thank you," The four women curtsied, "I hold the certainty that our days here will be most cosy. If we exclude the funeral, of course,"

Katherine and her sisters rushed forward without delay, clustering around Arabella and embracing her firmly.

"Will you lead our guests to their respective chambers?" Rubius turned to the staff, "The rest of you are dismissed,"

Three maids stayed behind, including Helena. Allegra trailed after them, while Persephone linked her arm with Edgar's and proceeded onward.

Grace halted in front of Arthur instead, clearing her throat, which puzzled Rubius until Arabella drew him aside.

"I would let those two be," she chuckled.

"Did she take a liking to him?" the old man asked, gaze fixed on Grace's flushed crimson face.

"I am not sure, but she sure does enjoy chatting his ears out,"

Rubius hissed as if beholding a horrific sight, "I suppose, vampire or otherwise, women are women across all species," he sighed.

Arabella departed from his side with a pout, rejoining her husband as she observed Grace seizing Arthur’s arm and diving straight into a lengthy speech.

"Not even in his own home can he be safe," Silas watched their forms climbing the stairs.

"Not you too!" she nudged him.

The vampire showed no reaction and trailed after her wherever she led him.

They arrived in the gardens. The rose hedges and flower beds failed to match the splendor of those at Eleazar manor.

The gardener exerted his utmost effort, yet despite greater years of practice than Edgar, his work fell short in comparison.

Beyond the gardens, the pair continued until they reached the burial grounds, where numerous Sterlings had been laid to rest before her father would join them.

Eleanor Burchard, for one, rested beside all the prior Eleazars who had met their ends.

Adjacent to her grave lay an empty plot, freshly dug and prepared to receive her husband's remains.

"Loving wife and mother" read her gravestone... No falsehood there. She had indeed been the most devoted and nurturing.

The gravepine tree embracing the stone appeared meticulously maintained, even after the years that let it thrive.

Arabella’s heart no longer pounded in her throat, yet her stomach kept swelling, deepening the vast emptiness gnawing within.

"Tomorrow, both of my parents will be underground for good," she whispered.

Rather than words, Silas’s hand encircled her arm, drawing her nearer to his side.

"It is so strange," more words slipped from her.

"I understand," he said.

"No, I mean... It is strange that I knew all along my mother would die first,"

Silas’s face stayed utterly blank, though his eyes shifted to her, silently urging explanation.

"I just knew...," she shrugged, stepping closer to the gravestone, "I knew her heart wouldn’t last very long. It couldn’t go on for as long as it should have like that," her hand caressed one of the cones hanging over Eleanor’s grave.

Those words stirred recollections of his final intimate talk with Rubius, the library discussion on the Sterling women’s curse.

They invariably perished far sooner than their husbands, fathers, or brothers...

"When you put the words in that order, it does make a lot of sense," he nodded.

"I hate that it does," Arabella knelt down, letting her fingers trace the carved letters on the stone, "I asked Edgar and grandfather if we could use some of the gravepines from Umbraria. I would have asked Arthur too but he... Well, you know,"

"I know," his diamonds tracked her hand’s movement.

After a minute of staring at those inscriptions, Arabella rose to her feet and rejoined Silas, "Anyway, they agreed,"

The breeze brushing her skin was neither overly warm nor excessively chilly... Much like Umbraria’s own. The weather mirrored it closely too.

The stars gleaming overhead were identical. The moon bathed all in its silvery glow as well.

The world spun onward exactly as it always should, no longer tilted under Reubon’s grip.

"The day she was buried was the first and last time I ever got to see her grave," her eyes lingered on the gray stone, "In fact, tonight is the first time I see that gravestone on it. So, I feel as though I cannot take my eyes off it,"

"Your father didn’t allow it," Silas half-asked, mirroring her gaze.

In response, she simply nodded.

"On the day of her funeral, I was to don a veil that fully covered my face. That was the only way he allowed me to attend my own mother’s funeral," she chuckled, "Can you believe that?"

To that, he offered no reply.

"I miss my mother," she nodded again, "But Lord do I not miss most of my days in this place!" she breathed.

Arabella gazed at the grave and the adjacent hole a bit longer before pivoting and striding back toward the manor.

Silas lingered a moment after her, then silently pursued her path.