"Where's Lord Kenric?" Annalise asked as she finished the tea and refused the pastry that Sera offered her. She wasn't in the mood to eat anything at the moment. Her mind was all over the place and she was still quite nervous about meeting the rest of her husbands to pay attention to food.
"Are you looking for me?" The familiar voice of Lord Kenric greeted Annalise from behind her and as she turned to look at the man she found him standing at the bottom step of the porch.
Her eyes settled on his tall frame and she found that he looked even more ethereal in the daylight. His white shirt and black trousers did nothing to hide his well-built body and his loose hair that was reaching below his shoulders only made him look more appealing to the eyes.
Annalise hurriedly shook her head to pull herself out of her thoughts that had started running astray as she bowed to greet the Lord.
"My Lord." She greeted politely and noticed as Sera took her leave after greeting Lord Kenric.
"My Lady, I'll return to help the servants clean your room. Have a nice morning." Sera wished both of them before she picked up the tray with the kettle and cup in it before walking inside the castle.
Annalise returned her attention and noticed that he was still waiting for her response. Walking down the steps, she approached her husband as she spoke, "My Lord..."
"Drop the formalities. Just call me Kenric." Kenric interrupted her as he didn't like the formal way she was using to address him.
Annalise was silent as she couldn't just make herself call him by his name all of a sudden. She pursed her lips as she noticed that the Lord was again waiting for her response.
Taking in a deep breath, she put on a small smile on her life as she looked up at the Lord and spoke, "Kenric..." Her voice came out in a whisper but it was still loud enough for both of them to hear it.
"Perfect," Kenric responded with a dry throat as he couldn't move his gaze away from the woman standing in front of her.
He thought that after spending a few hours away from her, he would get his things together and won't act like a fool when meeting her again. But looking at the current situation, he definitely fooled himself.
He wondered if Annalise was really just a Seelie descendant or a succubus in reality as she kept enchanting him every time they met.
"I'm guessing that Sera has already informed you about our decision of keeping only four of the servants here. Are you okay with it?" Kenric asked when the woman didn't speak after a long silence of a couple of moments.
It was quite ironic that he was asking for her opinion because even if she wanted to keep more, or all of her servants with her in the castle, that was outright impossible.
The three of them, Kenric, Valerius, and Damien, were used to the seclusion that the castle provided them from the rest of the world. And they wanted it to stay that way.
They only decided to take in a few servants because of Annalise. But even for her, they couldn't and would not allow an army of servants and guards inside the castle. She needed to do with just the four servants that he had decided to keep.
That's why he was surprised that he asked for her opinion. What he was going to do if she asked to keep more of them?
But just as usual, he was completely wrong about her. When she finally responded to his question, she once again surprised him.
"Thank you for your worry, but I'm happy with the ones you have chosen," Annalise replied simply as she bowed to show her appreciation.
Kenric just nodded his head in response because he wasn't sure what to say or do more. For the very first time in his life, he was feeling awkward in front of someone. He cursed Valerius and Damien in his mind for always putting him forward to take care of things related to her. He wasn't the only one married to her after all.
"My Lord... Kenric..." Annalise corrected herself when she noticed the look that her husband gave her. "... Can I ask something?"
"Sure." Kenric was curious to know what she wanted to ask about.
"Why the castle is... in this state?" Annalise asked as her eyes wandered around her surroundings. As she was now standing outside the huge castle building, she could see that it was completely covered with moss and vines from top to bottom. There seemed to be four or five stories in the castle. She wondered if the other floors were in a similar condition as the ground and first floor.
Kenric let out a small sigh as he too looked at the building where he had been living for the past five hundred years. "This place has always been like this, even before the three of us came to stay here. At first, we tried to fix this place a couple of times but it always resulted in a failure. It was like this place itself didn't want to get fixed."
Annalise was surprised by the discovery. It only made her more curious about the famous Cursed Castle. Many people thought that the name of this castle was related to the three Dark Lords who resided in it but she remembered her mother once told her that the name of the Cursed Castle had nothing to do with the three Lords.
"Do you know the story of this castle?" She asked Kenric and found the man looking at her. As their gaze collided, she hurriedly looked away as she didn't want to get captivated by him all over again.
"I do. But just a little bit. If you want to know about this castle and its story, I'm not the right person for this job. You should ask Valerius. He will be able to answer all your questions." Kenric suggested.