[h3]The Following Morning[/h3]

It was around 10am when Victoria finally arose from her deep slumber. Apparently Gerald had checked in on her whilst she slept. She woke up feeling a little sore. She had used muscles that previous evening that she’d not used before in the throes of passion. Her side also hurt from the bite, which was typical. She managed to score some numbing cream from the herbalists days earlier and proceeded to apply it to the skin. She hissed as the salve burned her slightly. There was a knock at her door. 

“Who is it?” She asked as she quickly covered her bite mark. 

“It’s only me, dear.” Her mother called from the other side. She sighed with relief. “Come in.” She told her as Diana opened the door and slipped through, glancing at the Saints outside the door. She shut the door promptly and rushed toward her daughter. “Make yourself presentable, Victoria. Lord Spencer is apparently on his way.” 

Victoria sighed. “Great…” She made no attempt to rush as her mother helped her get into a corset and tighten it for her. She then picked out a nice velvety purple dress and laid it out for her on the bed. “You know he probably killed father, right?” She asked her mother with folded arms as she watched her locate a brush.

“We don’t know that…” Diana sighed.

“It’s obvious! He got rid of father so that he could marry me and get our family’s wealth! We may as well just hand it all over!” Victoria protested. Diana took her hands gently. “Listen…he said if we do as they say, no harm will come to us.”

Victoria blinked at her. “Are you really that naïve, mother?”

Diana shook her head. “If we give him what he wants, then maybe he’ll leave us alone.”

“I doubt that. Maybe he’ll leave [i]you[/i] alone… but it’s [i]my[/i] blood he wants…it’s all they ever want..” the Lady Crest gazed sadly at the floor as her mother ensued to brush her long brunette locks. Diana helped her put on her dress once her hair had been partially tied back in a bow.

Then she could hear the front door bell ring. It was opened by Sebastian, the head butler, as always but the Saints just let the Lord waltz in unannounced. “Here we go..” Victoria sighed as she followed her mother out of her room. They descended the stairs to the sight of Spencer sat on the sofa, making himself very at home as the maids poured him some tea, somewhat with shaky balance as they could hear the tea pot rattle against the cup. “Let me handle him…go find Gerald..” She whispered to Diana, although there want much point whispering in front of a vampire as they had superior hearing. 

“Ah there she is. My future blushing bride. Have you reconsidered my proposal?” Spencer probed the Lady Crest as she came to sit opposite him. She held her hands neatly in her lap. She held her chin high. “Yes. I have reconsidered. I’ll sign it.” 

[i]‘Not that you’ll live long enough to enforce it…’[/i]

“Excellent! I knew you would come to your senses...” Lord Spencer presented her with the pre-nuptial agreement paper and a quill pen. She took the pen in hand but before she put pen to paper, he suddenly grabbed her wrist. She gasped as he was suddenly next to her looking rather angry. “Care to explain why I can [i]smell[/i] that Hygrace scum all over you?” He growled.

She gulped, she hadn’t thought about how strong he would be able to smell Vail on her skin. With his unannounced arrival, she didn’t have time to bathe. Wat a rookie error. “I…bumped into him at the market yesterday.” She attempted to think of a legitimate reason that she would be close to him. 

“The Saints reported that you did not leave the house yesterday…my dear.” He leaned into her slowly, she could feel his hot breath on her face. Obviously they were in league with him, they were giving him regular updates on her. She didn’t know how to get out of this. She clenched her other fist, reaching for the concealed silver dagger under her skirt. He suddenly ripped her dress from her collar. He saw the scar on her collar bone from Vail’s tooth. Spencer growled loudly. “He has [i]fed[/i] on you!” He stood up and shouted in a rage as Victoria cringed. She could have pleaded that Vail put her under a trance, blamed it all on him. But it wasn’t true and she wasn’t going to throw him under the carriage. It would only make Spencer want to kill him and his entire family all the more.

“It’s not his fault! I made him do it! I wanted him.” Victoria stood and bravely told Spencer. He turned slowly toward her, some of his black strands of hair covering his brown eyes. “You…harlet!” He back handed her across the face so hard she fell back onto the floor. She reached for the dagger but he grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up, she kicked her legs and he threw her across the room, which she landed against the wall and slid down to the floor and lost consciousness. The Saints watched until Gerald stormed in and then shot at Spencer, which the vampire was hit in the arm, his blood red eyes shot toward him. “Control yourself demon!” Gerald boomed as Spencer panted.

“HOW DARE ANYONE FEED ON MY BRIDE! We had an [i]agreement[/i] Alabaster!” Spencer shouted at Gerald. He nodded. “I know, I know. I didn’t know about him..”

“Victoria!” Diana screamed and ran to her daughter’s side. “You monster!” She shouted at Spencer.