His Half Blood Princess

9.

Now that I know who is sending me all those messages, all I have to do is know what she really wants before I can tell Lord Edwin Vincent about her and she will be reprimanded.

So before going out for breakfast, I sat down and wrote another note.

'What do you want?' before keeping it under the book I was currently reading. I am on my seventh book already.

Lord Edwin Vincent was nice as usual during breakfast as well as lunch, telling me about his favourite horse and carriage,

"Inventions happen when people become more lazy than they are," he had said, without including any other person like a friend or family, and I wondered if he had any, or if he ever went out of the house, as we only ever met in the dining room.

Maybe he spends his time in his office? The thought of the office had me feeling curious again. If it is just his office, then there is no harm in taking a look, right? It's not like I am going to steal anything in there. And just as faith would have it, I got my opportunity.

"I will be traveling into town today to take care of some things and I don't know when I will get back, but I trust you will be okay, right?" he said, looking at me with concern on his face.

"You are going there to see your family?" I asked the first thing that came into my mind, but Lord Edwin Vincent stared at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Sorry, it wasn't my place to ask you that," I looked down in shame.

"It's okay actually. It's time I told you a little something about me," he said, leaning back in his chair, and I looked up to see him staring at the wall ahead, his eyes looking empty, emotionless.

"Once upon a time, I was nobody who had no one and nothing. I grew up without ever knowing my parents or what they looked like. From the age of six, I had to struggle to get what to eat. I was the kid who grew up, never knowing the warmth of a home, or the taste of happiness." he started narrating. As much as I found it hard to believe that the man in front of me lived such a life, I also wished I could wipe away the look of sadness on his face as he told his story and I felt my heart break knowing there was nothing I was capable of doing.

"By the age of fourteen, I was the kid no one wanted to associate with because I had nothing to offer, I was poorer than the poor, I was shunned away from society," as he said that, I watched as the sad expression on his face got replaced with fierce determination on his face.

That must be why he wanted to help me, I thought, and for the first time I looked at him more than my saviour, but a man who needed saving himself. I listened intently and curiously with a heavy heart waiting to hear how someone who had lived such a life would become what he has become today.

"And here I am today, seventeen years later, with an office, several invitations to parties and with so many women wanting to take my last name and to give me an heir," he smirked as he said that. "I, Lord Edwin Vincent Anderson, with ten houses and a hundred horses and, servants all under my command!" he exclaimed taking me aback. Not just with how his voice raised an octave, but how the story went from being a mouse to a lion. It didn't make any sense, a huge chunk is definitely missing from his story.

"All these," he spread his arms and motioned to the place. "I had no one to share with,"

He said, extending his hand to my face and wiping a lone tear. I didn't even know it was there.

"Until you." he whispered and smiled at me, the corners of his eyes creasing.

"But how," I sniffled. "did you get through all that without ever giving up? And how did you become who you are today?"

"Belief Serena. I believed in myself and look where I am today," he said, getting up from his chair and taking his hat on the table which he put on his head before carrying his staff.

"Even you can become a princess one day." Lord Edwin Vincent winked playfully.

"Princess?" I chuckled in disbelief. "I am happy just being me."

"Well, it's going to happen, Serena, and when it does happen, it will happen naturally," he stated so sure of himself.

"See you soon Serena." he said, and walked out before I could say anything more.

I went back to my room, still thinking about Lord Edwin Vincent's story. One would think that after telling me his story I would stop being curious about him, but I only became more curious. He hadn't told me how he became rich.

Although it seems that Lord Edwin Vincent didn't like answering questions, I guess it was progress that he opened up to me about himself.

I sighed and slumped on my chair before picking my book from the table, ready to continue from where I stopped when a piece of paper slipped out of it.

I didn't expect a reply from Maria so soon.

I eagerly opened the folded white piece of paper as if I had anything to give to the blackmailer, but what I saw on the paper had me disappointed.

Nothing! It literally had NOTHING written on it.

I groaned in frustration before crumpling the piece of paper and throwing it out the open window.

Now how am I supposed to tell Lord Edwin Vincent someone is blackmailing me without anything to show as proof.

I slammed my forehead on the table in frustration before quickly raising my head, rubbing my forehead and wincing at the pain.

This Maria must be very smart, but I can definitely outsmart her.

She has shown that she wants nothing, but I could definitely show Lord Edwin Vincent that someone is sending me weird messages.

And with that purpose in mind, I opened the drawer where I had kept all the other messages which had all the same writing but was dumbfounded when I found none of them.

I went through all the drawers in the room thinking that maybe I had misplaced them but found not a single sign of them, I was even more shocked when I found out that my mother's letter was also missing.

I would understand taking the other papers to cover her tracks, but why take my mother's letter too? How could someone be so cruel?

I am so going to find her and tell her a piece of my mind, threaten to out her to her boss's and get my mother's letter back.

With that in mind, I angrily walked to my door ready to go meet her, but as soon as I put my hand on the door handle, a thought occurred to me.

'What if she denies it?' Then I would appear stupid.

'Aren't you stupid already? You threw out your only piece of evidence' my subconscious taunted. If only there is a way I could strangle my stupid subconscious.

I went back to the window and looked through it but was unable to see anything except the wall that surrounded the villa and beyond it was the forest. Hopefully the piece of paper didn't fly over the wall.

With a new purpose in mind, I walked out of my room and went down the stairs and as I stood in front of the the door that would take me outside, I am reminded that for the two weeks I had stayed here, I had never once attempted to go outside of the villa, maybe because I stayed inside all the time back at home?

I opened the big door to the compound and was greeted with fresh air and the warmth of the sun.

Instead of heading straight to the place where the piece of paper would probably be, I took my time to appreciate the surroundings.

But as I walked by, passing from the garden where the gardeners worked up to the stables where the horses were kept, I noticed something weird.

All the servants and gardeners stopped what they were doing and gave me weird looks as I passed by them, making me feel uncomfortable to the point that I couldn't appreciate the flowers and horses the way I wanted to.

"Poor girl." one of the servants whispered as I walked by them, probably unaware that I could hear them clearly.

"I have no pity for them," another sneered. "This is what happens when you act without thinking..."

"Miss Green," Lord Edwin Vincent's butler, Gerald, as I heard him call all the time, rushed to my side and the servants went back to work.

"Is everything alright? What are you doing here? You should have asked one of the maids if you needed something." the butler asked hastily, looking around us as if scared something might happen.

"I am fine, I just need to find a piece of paper I threw through the window." I told him.

"Why don't you go back inside and I will search it for you."

"No I don't have to go back inside but you can help me find it."

I said and after a few seconds of hesitation he finally agreed and went ahead to search for it.

I went over to where my room window was and looked around the place but there was no sign of the paper.

"It must have flown over the window then" I thought, and started heading towards the gates and from where two men were guarding it.

"Miss Green, Miss Green!" the butler called and, before I knew it he was standing in front of me, blocking my way.

"Did you find the paper?" I asked.

"No, I checked everywhere and asked all the servants but no one saw your paper."

"It must have flown outside then." I said and side stepped him but he came and blocked my way again and I gave him a questioning look.

"Why don't you go back to your room and I will search for you?"

"No, I can look for it myself." I insisted, side stepping him and kept walking towards the gate and the butler followed behind me.

"Miss Green, please listen, you can't go outside." Gerald kept trying to stop me.

"Why can't I?" I stopped walking and turned to him abruptly, already getting annoyed with his pestering.

"I uh, I, you, the," the man scratched his neck as he searched for the words to say and when I saw that he had nothing to say, I started walking towards the gates again.

"Miss Green, please don't go there," he said, walking by my side. " There are dangerous animals out there."

"Lord Edwin Vincent told me himself that there are no animals outside. Unless you think he is lying?" I quirked an eyebrow looking at the man and his shoulders slumped in surrender.

I smirked and walked over to the gates ready to step outside and, but when I reached the gates, the two men standing on guard who had stern faces blocked my way to the gates.

"I just need to go out for a few minutes," I said when they stood there unmoving.

"His grace gave orders that you not to set foot outside the villa," one of the men said stoically.

"What do you mean I am not allowed to go out?" I asked, confused and unsure how to feel about it, but the guards neither responded nor budged.

*

"Stupid guards, stupid orders," I muttered to myself on my way back to my room.

"stupid servants, stupid villa. hmph." I huffed.

But why would Lord Edwin Vincent give orders not to allow me outside? It is for my own safety, right? I thought as I opened the door to my room, but what I saw had me gasping in surprise.

She looked up abruptly and her brown eyes widened in shock as my mother's letter along with another piece of paper fell to her feet.

"You?"