Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Veiled
"I'm surprised you feel nothing concerning Bella's disappearance."
"Not now, Miss Henrietta."
She went on with the dishes, moving from one sink to another while Henrietta stood watching her with a disdainful look.
"She's gone for days now, Amanda and considering that you would have been in that mess instead, you should be sorry for the poor girl."
"What! You kidding me. First I should be sorrowful... now she saved me?
I never asked for such saving grace, do you not understand? I never asked for her to step in. She practically spoiled my plans and you want me to feel sorry... whatever happened to senses, I fear yours must have been swallowed by this excess fat you call body."
"Did you just say that to me?"
"I did. Did my tongue fall off?"she shot back and stumped away.
It wasn't long before Henrietta realized what she was saying all along. The initial sadness was immediately drowned by the mirth and laughter that enveloped her, and so loud and strange it was that as she rolled on the floor like a brown ball of joy, the servants in the household were astonished and it badly irritated Amanda in the laundry room where she was hiding beside the washing machine, and she broke down crying.
"Okay that's enough now. Get up, I need a walk outside."
"Oh love, I will be sure to make it merry for you," Henrietta said, getting up and followed the younger woman in olive coat.
"I hear the party didn't go well this time. I was thinking of sending a letter to the Lunar to apologize for the children's behaviour. What do you think, Henrietta?"
She smiled and her cheeks broadened. Taking the woman's hand, she looked into her eyes," not now, you just returned Mary. You can't make that trip for now."
"Have you heard anything about her?"
"No...sent words to her granny. She hasn't been at home and even in school. The search parties said nothing came up. If we haven't found a body yet, I'm certain she's alive somewhere. Bella is a fighter, she will come home."
"Nicholas blames himself for what happened. He keeps saying, he shouldn't have accompanied me to Hagwith in the first place, and no doubt, he would have done better than sit aloof watching everything like his father did.
You know, he is still saying she's not human."
"She will be eighteen soon. We will know by then."
*********
"Who's that?"
"Our new teacher."
"Teacher? What happened to Mrs. Glams?"
"She was reported dead four days ago... you know, the morning after the dance at the Chamberlain's. No one knows how but she was found cold outside."
"Could it have been the wolves?"
"No, they wouldn't. Even though you got on the Luna's bad side, they wouldn't still do that, and not even her would. From what I know about the empire, she isn't the Alpha's mate. Marcus has been without mate for as long as he walked the earth but he every now and then, he crowns a Luna. And most of them have died by the Beta's hand. She would lose her head if she attempted that."
"You know so much about them, Nikki, yet she is still alive after attempting to kill me."
"Bella, I will be honest with you. You shouldn't have intervened. She doesn't deserve it. I bet you she wouldn't mind if you rot in hell,"the girl said adjusting her roundish eye glasses.
"Not entirely wrong but I just couldn't watch her bleed for a mistake."
"Mistake, you say? Bella, when are you ever going to learn? Amanda is not some clumsy little school girl that you take her for. I may not be certain, but why on earth did it have to be the alpha in the first place? Adopting the same method the current Luna used to get herself latched onto the alpha ten years ago. Who knows If she was waiting for Marcus to come up and save her. I don't blame Shanty for picking the foul at a glance."
Tucking aside her straying silver strands, she recalled the look in Amanda's eyes that evening when she defended her, and her thoughts wandered off.
"Could it be she blames me for ruining her plan instead," she thought , right before they entered the classroom room and meeting her presence, her classmates suddenly started jeering at her and Nikki.
"Quiet!"
The voice was like a rushing water, calm, yet the aura was both compelling and adorable to her. She stood nailed to the ground, dazed and locked onto his eyes.
"Bella, you have to sit...Bella," Nikki called gently but she didn't respond, neither did she move.
From his short silver hair to the contours of his face. The thick brows curving at the edges with two parallel lines running across the right side, and settling on the sea of tranquility exuded by his gentle gaze, down to his lips which twitch a little.
"Haven't you seen enough already?"
"Ohhh! Sorry, I was ...lost."
At that, the class came alive again with the girls mimicking her response.
"I was...lost."
"Lost... like lust!"the students roared, mocking her.
"Enough!"he thundered and it died down instantly.
Throughout the entire day, his eyes roamed her body without anyone observing. And she couldn't look up and meet his eyes, so she bent, concentrating on her test.
Meeting her beating chest, the rise and fall of her twin peaks, closely bound by the low V-neckline. Her bare neck, sharp and pulsating at the side, the dance of a blood filled vessel.
Walking around the class in the first period, he slightly brushed her skin while examining Nikki's work.
"Hmmm"he acknowledged, but being so near to her, Bella was slowly getting excited and hot in between with her body which heated up each time their skin brushed.
He swallowed constantly, his eyes trailing the outlines of her body, even while attending to other students. He looked up intermittently, with her heartbeat resounding with his in poignant harmony.
Coming up to the height where she couldn't take the fleeing heartbeat and nervousness that overwhelmed her, she grew impatient, about leaving and then, the bell came through and she felt so relieved.
"Bella Westfalls, stay behind,"she heard him say and her breath hitched, heart raced with growing anticipation of what could happen.
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