Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 36: Broke his plant

Cordelia led her to the backyard, where Belle finally found something utterly unexpected. It was a garden indeed, but it was anything but dead, in fact, one she did not believe was possible in a place like this dark castle.

The grass in the garden was not only greener than any grass she’d ever seen, but it looked soft and made her wonder what it would feel like under her bare feet if she took her expensive, uncomfortable shoes off to walk on it. There were many well-groomed trees with plants, but she noticed many of the trees were apple trees with large, red, enticing apples on the branches. If she wasn’t so full already, her mouth would have watered from the sight of them, and many were laying on the ground with no one picking them up, or perhaps no one was allowed to, as the owner of the garden probably didn’t permit it.

"It’s beautiful here," she remarked as she looked around her in wonderment.

Under one of the biggest apple trees in the middle of the garden were many brown pots of plants that were yet to grow, but a few had sprouted and were waiting to be transferred and planted in the ground. On another side, there were little orange trees with ripe-looking oranges on their branches, making them bend. There were also sunflowers that had not bloomed well due to the lack of sun in the lands, along with different plants she had never seen before—not even in Aragonia, where her mother, an expert in plants, loved to order their servants to gather seeds and plant them in her backyard gardens.

Unlike any other garden she’d seen before, this one contained more fruits than flowers and decorative plants. However, many of the fruits were so ripe that they had begun to turn rotten on the ground, untouched. But what she did not understand was why it was called a Dead Garden. This was anything but dead!

To be honest, this was the first beautiful, bright thing she’d set her eyes on since yesterday, as everything else in the castle had been gloomy.

"It’s cousin Rohan’s garden, and no one but me and him has the right to step into it, not even the servants. It was like his secret keep since he was a boy, and he took absolute pride in gardening and planting all the trees you see here himself," Cordelia said with her chin held high in the air. "He wouldn’t have let you in had I not brought you here because anyone who ventured into it ended up dead or never seen again."

With how Cordelia spoke, one would think she used to walk into the garden whenever she wanted, while in truth, Rohan had only allowed her into it once in all the years they had known each other, and that too was because he wanted her to water his plants for him and transfer them from the pot to the ground.

Cordelia had ended up getting her expensive dress dirty and covered with mud. Rohan had made her dig the holes for the plants just because she had told him that she liked him and looked forward to their marriage. She had dressed to impress him, only for him to make her work like a servant. But now that she thought of it, it was a privilege to be invited into the garden, and she tried to boast about that privilege to the human, hoping Rohan would come down and see her in his garden so she could lie that the human had gone in when she had tried to stop her.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to see Rohan strangle her fragile neck and wring it like clothes? That would be interesting, and she would make sure to waste time in this garden until he came down to find them so she could put the blame on the useless human who had been getting under her skin even without doing anything. She hated humans, if not for their blood.

Belle, however, could not believe a man like Rohan would plant and garden himself, as the place looked like a mini paradise with beautiful trees—a stark contrast to the man himself. She could not imagine him digging the ground, planting seeds, and watering his plants, and she suddenly realized she would give anything to see him do that rather than have that craziness in his eyes that sent shivers down her spine. When he planted these trees, did his dead eyes come to life, or did he do it with that look in his eyes?

"Won’t he mind that we are in the garden since you said he doesn’t welcome anyone?" Belle questioned as she noticed that the servants and slaves had stopped just outside where the garden began in the yard, without following them to venture into it further.

Cordelia waved her hand in front of her face like she was swatting at a disturbing fly. "Of course, he wouldn’t mind for as long as I am here. Didn’t I tell you he lets me in whenever I want? You can touch anything you want and explore it." She smiled encouragingly, knowing Rohan didn’t like it when anyone touched his plants or even ate from any of his apples and exotic fruits.

There was a time when he was still a prince and an event had been going on inside the castle. Some young lads had ventured into the garden and eaten from his apples as they looked red and enticing, not knowing he was relaxing under one of the trees. He had made sure those lads choked on the apples to their deaths, and their bodies had been found later with hollowed hearts. It had been reported that the lads were attacked by rogues to cover the cause of their death, but Cordelia and her family knew the king and queen did not want to ruin their son’s reputation before he took the throne. They were that loving to him.

"You must be so close to him if he allows you to venture in here when he has forbidden everyone," Belle commented as she walked toward a certain plant growing out of one of the array of pots under the big apple trees. She tried not to step on the rotten apples on the ground as she walked to it. It was black in color, including its leaves, and she couldn’t help but want to look it up close as she’d never seen a black plant before. Was it because it was in the shadows?

Cordelia stood behind as she watched the human approach the plant under the tree in the pot, and then she replied, "We are close because we were once supposed to be married until he was taken to the asylum. I guess you can say I am special to him."

Belle paused in her attempt to carry the pot of the plant away from the shadows of the tree to see if the plant was indeed black or if it was the light that made it appear that way when the words of the vampiress fell on her ears. She mistakenly dropped the pot at the surprise she got from those words. She could have sworn she had not raised it up enough to break if she dropped it, but it indeed broke, and the sand inside it spilled out, causing Cordelia to gasp in shock.

"Oh, no! That plant has been there for many years and has not grown out until recently. It’s one of cousin Rohan’s most important plants, and he cared for it like one would a treasure. How could you drop it?!" exclaimed Cordelia as she watched the broken plant that had been there since the day she had first come into this garden years ago.

Her cousin had so excitedly explained the rarity of the plant to her and how important it was to him when it would grow. She had not known if he had meant his words as he likes to say things that makes no sense to her, but he had said the seed was from the land of the dead, whatever that meant, and must be planted in the land of the living for something he needed to achieve when it grows.

Cordelia thought, but not in panic—rather, in happiness. The more important the plant, the more trouble the human would be in.

She had ruined one of Rohan’s most important treasures and would pay the price for it with her life!