Lady Lydia!
A call of her name jolted Lydia awake from the unexpected sleep she'd fallen into, she rushed to where the sound came from and found a door, she pushed it open and it revealed a veranda with bricks and wood creating a protective edge around it, the balcony, the night is cold and unapologetically harsh, the woods were not even lit, not bothering to take in the look of the place she placed her hand on the patio and looked down attentively, her eyes caught a movement and she squints to get a better view.
Her eyes made out a man dressed in a black slack and shirt kneeling, his hands without both wrists, bleeding, his hand had been cut off from the wrist, her eyes widened in shock. There were two more men standing in a predatory stance around the kneeling one, he looked to be begging and in pain. She looked away from the man to focus on the assailant only to be shocked to her bones at who the people were.
It was Theodore and Hound standing, they were the assailants, had he rushed out earlier to go hurt someone?
The victim she couldn't decipher must have been the one to call out her name.
Did he know her?
Theodore was talking to him and laughing, she couldn't hear whatever he was saying but she could make out his shoulders shaking and the tilt in his head, her heart was pounding like its safety in her body was threatened and it was trying to escape. The man must be begging now because he looked down for a while, if the man knew her then she needed to intervene and maybe save his life, but just as she made that decision, Theodore took a sword from Hound and with one powerful swing, the victim's head came rolling down, she gasped her eyes shaking.
What just happened?, She didn't know where to look, she felt like she just witnessed what she shouldn't have and now she it can't be unseen.
Theodore just killed someone in his mansion! Someone who knew her at that.
She backed into the room shaking her head as she sat back down on the bed, wishing she'd fall asleep and all this would be a dream.
Meanwhile, Theodore's mansion grounds
"She's not going to take this well" Hound commented
"I know, but this is also part of her life now" Theodore replied, dropping the sword on the now-dead body, his blood glowed on the ground
"If she confronts you…" Hound started to say
"She won't" Theodore interrupted Hound's words
Hound nodded in feigned agreement "Ask Conan for advice" he said
Theodore scoffed lightly with a shake of his head "Clean this up, his confidence stood interesting" he noted with a small smile. Witches, They always have to mess with him.
He ambled back into the mansion with an air of nonchalance but his brows were furrowed, this was not how he envisioned her first night here to go but here they were. He entered a room downstairs to rid himself of his previous clothes, as he takes a bath and got ready to face his new bride, he went through the details of what just took place, he'd been so eager for action but he watched Lydia nervous and slightly confused, then he knew he wouldn't be doing any seducing today.
Earlier.
Lord Theodore's mansion's dungeon
"What is your name?" Theodore had asked the man Hound had brought home before the union with his wife
"My name is Will" he answered cockily, proud of his name perceptibly.
"Why were you following that lady in the fair nights ago?" straight to the point he'd asked the stalker 'Will', whose eyes narrowed to a slit before relaxing carelessly.
"The girls paid me to bring the lady to the Lord's mansion" Will shrugged, his blue hair glistening under the hazy night, morning was getting closer
"But you weren't going to do that were you?" he confronted
"Of course not, I'm not an idiot, even if I was paid a hundred crits I wouldn't come to the Lord's mansion, besides, she was too pretty to go to waste just like that" he sassed, he had been blindfolded before drugged and dragged to this destination but he seems so relaxed for someone who is clueless of his location, he's either confident of some unknown power or he's only stupid.
"Yeah?" Theodore's eyebrows raised in question
"I was gonna keep her, you bloody bastard" Will spat, literally as a few saliva came flying down Theodore's face making the lord stand straight as he was bent over questioning Will before, who was sitting on the floor.
"Have you ever been to the lord's mansion?" Theodore inquired, circling Will in slow strides.
"No I haven't and never will" Will confessed strongly
Theodore chuckled darkly "Why's that"
"Private! You piece of shit" Will cursed agitatedly.
"Well you're going to die in front of the mansion today, Will" Theodore promised
"What? You're taking me there?" he looks scared now, his eyes wide.
"You're here already" Theodore confirmed his eyes cold.
"Who are you?" Will's eyes are widening now, petrified.
"You've been so sure you're getting out of here" The lord shook his head in disappointment and mock sadness.
"What… who… I" Will stammered,glancing back and forth.
"What are you?" Theodore asked instead as he came to stop in front of Will looking him in the eye.
"I'm a witch" he spat.
"So that's where the stupid bravado comes from" Theodore nodded in understanding
"You should let me go, I'm dangerous and I have people" he pleaded with arrogance
"Stretch your hands, now" he ordered and as though compelled, Will involuntarily stretched his hands, giving Theodore the perfect opportunity to slice off his hands from the wrist.
"Ahhhhhh… Argh… you… shit shit shit" Theodore knows about witches and how they need their hands for everything and only a selected few can use their minds to get work done, and this one doesn't, because if he does he wouldn't be taking such minor jobs.
"Now let's go to where I shall kill you, up!" he barked but Will seemed to be in too much agony to comprehend any order which irritated Theodore.
"Hound, help the idiot" Theodore ordered Hound gesturing towards the witch who was trying to use magic anyhow he could, but without his wrists, he's useless even to himself.
"You…you're Lord Theodore" he was struck with realization as he spat the words through clenched teeth. Hound went on to help him out of the room.
"You knew well to avoid me all along, but you still touched what belonged to me" Theodore growled.
"I didn't… I didn't touch her" he scrambled backwards, his eyes wide with fear
"But you did. Only it wasn't physical" Theodore accused making Will more frantic, calling out his powers and looking around, it was getting close to dusk.
He cannot perform and he's been losing so much blood he feels himself struggling to stay conscious, Hound dragged him to the front of the mansion.
"Please spare me.., lady Lydia!" Will suddenly called out to Lydia. he remembered her name because for a day he had been obsessed with her, the idea of owning her, and the news about her becoming lord Theodore's bride had spread, he could only assume she was the one and maybe she could save him.
Two young ladies had met him a day before the fair at his usual pub, telling him how they'd been directed by the pub owner that he could do any dirty work, he'd laughed because that wasn't true but had however listened to what the job was only to find out it was to kidnap a fine lady from the fair the next day and deliver her to the Lords mansion, he had been so close to getting her when apparently the lord himself interrupted him, he'd been out of town since that night only to be caught by this Hound boy today the minute he steps back inside the city.
He glances at Hound, his eyes brimming with hate, the boy is stronger than he looks and probably not a boy at all.
Now he's facing his supposedly doom.
"I should give you more credit. You just made your death a swift one instead of the torture I had planned" Theodore nodded as he bit the inside of his lips.
She didn't come out after a moment of silence, so Will thought his assumption had been wrong and she wasn't in the mansion
"My people will know what happened to me" he warned Theodore, extracting a laugh from the lord.
"What happened to you is an honour" Theodore expressed
He took the sword that hound had stretched to him and swung it down the idiot's neck, his head came rolling down, the satisfaction he should have felt never came because now he had Lydia to explain to about what happened to before she would have a heart attack and die. He heard her gasp.
This scene shouldn't have been such gore but she is different.
He married a sheltered noblewoman.
Now in a tee and a slack, he strutted upstairs and into their bedroom, forgetting to take a deep breath he stepped inside only for his breath to be taken away by the view ahead of him.