Raelyth approached Valerie. She had stopped twirling and now stood looking at the building several feet away. When Valerie noticed Raelyth's presence behind her, she asked without looking at him.
"Is this a castle or a mansion?"
"It's whatever you wish it to be, Moonflower," Raelyth said softly. "Let me take you to the garden." He outstretched his palm.
Valerie turned to fully face him, her initial nervousness and shyness forgotten. She placed her palm on his and felt him clasp it, leading her to the other side. They passed the coachman who was lifting her trunk out of the carriage boot. Suddenly, she took her hand away from Raelyth's.
"Oh, pardon me for forgetting my luggage." She made a move to leave his side and to help the coachman, but Raelyth stopped her by gently grabbing her wrist.
Valerie paused and stared up at him. "Do you usually lift your luggage yourself? If I remember correctly, I saw a few maidservants in your father's home."
"Oh..." She muttered. "Yes, I and Malorie usually lift our luggages ourselves. The maidservants pay us no heed, and father says it's for the best." Valerie did not want to antagonize her father before her husband-to-be. But then again, that was exactly what he was. An antagonist.
"Well, you are my wife here and not more your father's daughter. So you let the maidservants I employed do the work," he stated.
"Okay." Valerie nodded and held his hand properly as he directed them towards the garden. They reached the other side of the compound and stopped at a golden glowing gate. Valerie outstretched her other hand and pushed the gate open. Before she knew it, she had let go of Raelyth's hand and stepped inside.
Raelyth let her; he only walked at a slow pace behind her as she walked on the cobblestone pathway.
"The flowers are beautiful!" She gasped, looking both left and right at the beautiful beds of flowers blossoming on each side. "Are you going to teach me about them? I know nothing about flowers." She giggled when he came closer to her. Raelyth stood before her at his full height, then he reached out and caressed her hair, then drifted towards her cheek.
"I will teach you whatever you need to know, whenever you want to learn them," he said softly. They stared at each other before he slipped his hand into hers. He loved touching her; he loved the feel of her. "Come, I will show you where the moonflower is."
Valerie nodded as he pulled her towards the end of the massive garden. Her eyes made out a sitting spot and she jotted down in mind that it would be lovely to sit and read out in the sun smelling beautiful flowers.
"The moonflower, it is my favourite." Valerie's eyes landed on the bed of white flowers. They weren't roses; they were little blossoming white petals with a yellow bud.
"It is beautiful," she whispered, fighting the urge to crouch and touch and sniff them.
"They remind me of my mother," he stated, then turned to look at her. "And now you."
Valerie's chest tightened, but in a good way. It was lovely to know such a beautiful flower reminded him of her.
"We should go inside, have you meet all of the workers and get to know them as they would you," Raelyth pursued, finding her hands again and connecting his with hers. "We could come out later at dusk to drink wine and smell flowers." He chuckled at the end, which Valerie joined him in.
"That is lovely, Raelyth. I would love to accompany you for a fine glass of wine outside," Valerie agreed, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"I love the sound of my name on your lips. Tastes like prayer, and I don't even believe in God." Valerie gasped a little. They crossed the gate.
"Oh..." She said, as she didn't know what else to say.
Raelyth and Valerie walked to the big castle, as she'd like to call it. They climbed the staircase, and Valerie noticed the two guardsmen stationed by the front of the open double door. They bowed to Raelyth and Valerie even without knowing who she was, but as long as she was with their Grand Duke and their master, she was someone of high importance.
"I noticed something a while back," Valerie spoke up.
"What could that have been?" Raelyth asked. An elderly man of at most age fifty — and a vampire — approached them.
"Master Thalor." The man bowed, dressed in simple brown attire and black slacks with black boots, his hands clasped behind his waist.
"Lucas," Raelyth acknowledged, then turned to Valerie and gestured with his hand at the man. "Valerie, this is Lucas, the butler. Lucas, my wife!"
Valerie's cheeks pinked. Her heart tilted when he had just said "my wife." Not the Grand Duchess, not the daughter of the Southern Grand Duke, but my wife.
Lucas's eyes widened, then he bowed deeply immediately to Valerie. "Mrs. Thalor, forgive my insolent behaviour."
Valerie's ears singed. Mrs. Thalor... She liked the sound of that — a little too much. Her mind connected with reality and she responded,
"It is simply forgivable. You did not know who I was as of earlier."
Raelyth watched Valerie handle the whole case. He then turned to Lucas. "Call every employee into the meeting room. Where had Mario kept the luggage he arrived with?"
Lucas's eyes drifted to the foyer, and the soon-to-be married couple followed his gaze. "Drop it in the room next to mine," he ordered, then pulled Valerie close as they crossed the foyer to the grand spiral staircase that led many floors above one.
"It is really a beautiful mansion," Valerie said. She loved the railings of the staircase and the whole golden-brown interior of the building. Everything was just to her taste. "Do you own a library?"
"I do own a library, although the books there might not be what you read," Raelyth's response was cool as he walked her up the staircase to the fifth—the last—floor.
"Oh no!" Raelyth paused their movements, worried she had struck her foot on something. His eyes conveyed his words, and she giggled sheepishly, biting both lips into her mouth before responding, "Oh, I have completely forgotten to return Sir Taylor's books back. He is going to be so angry and may call the police on Father."
"For a book?" Confusion etched his words and marred his face. He resumed their walk.
"For a book," Valerie continued. "Sir Taylor does not play with his books. He only lends them out for a short or long period of time, depending on the amount of money you pay, but he never sells them to someone permanently. I don't know the reason that is." She sighed. "I hope when he comes for his books, Father will tell him I am married and he would totally understand."
"And if he does not?"
Valerie pursed her lips, thinking for a while before she shrugged. "I have no idea then."
Raelyth laughed. "Oh, this woman..."