The Demon Who Loved Me

Chapter-3

It was Dany’s seventh night in the Hutter House. She sat at the far end of the table, a knife and fork held in her hands. She donned a napkin in her lap and was waiting for her step grandmother’s arrival. Normally, the prospect of taking supper with the overbearing old woman would have been enough to make Dany groan. The agony of last week’s suppers was still fresh in her mind. She remembered the pregnant silence crushing her and the occasional snarky comments of the baroness about Dany’s dressing and hairstyle. Dany was now sure that her grandmother hadn’t forgotten the past. She didn’t like having Dany in her house or making her feel comfortable.

But that night Dany was not thinking about her grandmother. The secret smile on her lips was caused by the day she spent in the garden. With Andrew. Reliving those moments was the only way she could finish this supper with sanity. She remembered her first day with him. Dany woke up to the sound of pebbles hitting her window. She rose up, her eyes darting to every corner in the room before figuring out that someone was hitting her window from the outside. With her hair tangled like a pigeon’s nest and the sheets wrapped around her for warmth, Dany padded towards the large window that faced the garden.

The first sight that wished her was the grey skies. She didn’t see a wisp of white cloud since setting her foot in this village. Then she looked down and saw him standing in the fog, his hand raised to throw another pebble at her window. The gesture seemed so romantic for Dany, who grew up adoring Romeo and Juliet. She opened the window and looked down.

“I want to remind you of our lesson today. It will break my heart if you forget.” He shouted from below. Dany’s eyes bugged out in alarm. What if someone listened to him? Wouldn’t he be in trouble?

“I wouldn’t dare to forget,” Dany shouted back, emboldened by his bravery. “I’ll die of boredom if I don’t have your lessons to look forward to.”

“Good,” He smiled in a way a servant was never supposed to smile, and in a blink, he disappeared into the mist like he was a part of it. Dany shook her head, smiling. She felt very energized. She couldn’t go to bed. She started getting ready for the day. When her lady’s maid arrived to wake her up, Dany was dressed and ready for her lessons.

Andrew had taught her a lot of things this past week. He first listed all the flowers he was growing in the garden and told her where he imported them from. He explained to her what special conditions each flower would require for growing well. Then he set on teaching her how to dig a hole to plant. He taught her how to identify weeds and separate them from the other plants.

But now, as Dany sat at the dining table, tapping the fork on the table as she ought to do when she was deep in thought, Dany only remembered how heat emanated from him when he was near her. She remembered how strange and delightful his hand felt on her hands when he had helped her in digging and planting. She remembered how his blue eyes shone with excitement when he was talking about his plants. But the times she adored the most were when they would take a break from their lessons and sit under a sycamore tree, talking about their lives.

She laughed with him, narrating her childhood adventures and listening to his. She cried on his shoulder, recounting all her happy memories with her parents and all the painful ones following their death. He was a perfect gentleman through all this. He was attentive. He listened to her with utmost sincerity and commented when it was appropriate. He was her sunshine in this gloomy residence at her grandmother’s house.

Sometimes she sat under the tree, watching him talk, and wondered how his lips would feel on her. A lady was not supposed to think thoughts about like that. Especially not about a servant. No matter how handsome, kind, and caring he was. No matter how superior he was to all those superfluous fools whose company she had to endure in London.

She used to think of herself as brave. But when it came to admitting her feeling for Andrew, even to herself, she had been a coward. She had not been honest, and that feeling was nagging at her. Honesty had always been given utmost importance in Tucker’s household. They had always been about communicating with each other. To let each other know about their feelings. But that had not been complete honesty, had it? She didn’t know about this house and the last living relation she had. Her parents didn’t take her opinion before banishing her future to that bossy woman, however hypothetically. The tapping on the table increased in sound and frequency as Dany’s thoughts had headed in a completely different direction- a direction which she was still not comfortable taking.

“What is that cacophony, girl?” She heard a harsh voice behind her. Dany whirled her head around to see the baroness’s face crunched in the familiar expression of disdain.

Good God, can’t the woman conjure up any other expression in her presence.

Despite her dislike for the woman, Dany stood up, obeying the societal rules.

“Didn’t your parents instill basic manners in you?” She raised her nose into the air in that annoyingly noble manner. “Of course, I wouldn’t expect any less from that lineage.”

Dany felt the blood rushing in her head until she saw red. She could bear any insult directed towards her. But insulting her dead parents was just too much. Dany clutched the chair to stop herself from lunging at the older woman.

“Pardon me, Lady Hutter. I will never repeat this kind of behavior again.” She said, feeling helpless. Lady Hutter moved towards her place at the head of the table. She sat down, lay the napkin in her lap, and started eating. Dany also started eating, taking the cue. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, the baroness had spoken:

“I’ll expect you on your best behavior tomorrow night, Danielle. We are going to have a very special guest.”

“Oh,” Dany said, raising her eyes to meet Lady Hutter’s eyes. “May I know who that guest is?”

“Of course,” Lady Hutter said, without her usual hostility. She seemed to be in a good mood when she was talking about this mysterious special guest. “This guest had more to do with you, actually.”

“Oh,” Dany said again, now visibly confused. “I don’t understand.”

“Since the baron had passed away, God rest his soul, and since we don’t have any heirs, this estate is going to be entailed. And tomorrow’s guest is the new owner of our estate and its properties. His kindness is the reason we are still living here.”

“Who is he?” Dany asked, unable to contain her curiosity. She had never given a thought to it. But yes, they couldn’t hold on to this property without a male heir.

“He is the Duke of Ednan, Arthur Huckley. He is the king’s second cousin and fourth in line to the throne.”

Dany could only hear with her eyes wide. Lady Hutter’s face wore a cunning smile when she spoke the next words.

“And I am hoping to secure his grace’s kindness in a stronger way.”

“And how are you planning to do that?” Dany questioned, cutting the steak with her knife.

“Oh, in a traditional way. A way in which he doesn’t have any other way but let us stay here. And you will cooperate with me in my plans. Actually, your role is going to be of paramount importance to what I have planned for the duke.”

Dany stopped cutting. Her stomach churned as she sensed the danger lurking in the next words of the baroness. She might not be well-versed with the ways of noble life, but she had common sense, and that sense told her her grandmother’s intentions even before she even articulated it.

“I promised your hand in marriage to him.”

Although she expected this, hearing the words still felt like a blow to Dany’s stomach. The fork fell from her hands, clattering to the floor. She raised her eyes and looked at her grandmother disbelievingly.

“No, you didn’t,” She said, her voice no more than a whisper. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

“I did,” The baroness said drily, not acknowledging how her granddaughter’s face had become as pale as the snow. “And you ought to thank me for that. A girl like you couldn’t even dream about marrying the duke if I had not made this promise to the duke’s father on his deathbed. We would have been out of this manor if not for me.”

Danny stood up from her chair, unable to listen to her grandmother’s words. How dare she? Taking her life into her hands, arranging her marriage to someone she didn’t even see, and then act all high and mighty like she had done a sacrifice for her.

“You...you have no right to arrange my marriage without my permission. I don’t even know you, let alone the husband you have secured for me. I am not marrying any duke.”

“You will!” The baroness said, her voice raising to match Dany’s. “There is no further discussion and I will not take this disrespect kindly. One more act like this and you will regret it for the rest of her life.”

With a look of defiance, she had never given to anyone in her life, Dany turned on her heels and marched out of the dining room, up the stairs and into her bedroom. She slammed the door shut and fell on her bed, shaking with rage she had never known in her life. She was livid. She wanted to clutch her step grandmother’s weak neck and snap it. She wanted to shut the woman’s mouth permanently. She clutched the sheets tightly, her nails digging into the mattress, feeling like it was the baroness’ wrinkled skin her nails were digging into.

She was in this state of great fury when she heard a creaking sound in her room. Dany raised up, looking around her room. And then she saw her window sliding open by a hand on the windowsill. She raised her hands to her face, the first note of terrified scream rising in her voice.