Bambi and the Duke

[Important Note. Please read1:

This book is ending on Oct 1st and the next book in the series 'Young master Damien's pet', chapters have been started to be uploaded. I would love it if you guys would add the story and start supporting the book with your continued read. You can vote for the new book from Oct 1st until then continue to shower your power stones to this book. 

Due to the end of BAD by almost this month-end, there will be NO privilege. I will be removing it which would mean you will get all the chapters from privilege to be unlocked as your regular chapters. To know when it will be released, go to 'About this book', in the info tab you will be able to see 'Purchase privilege to get...' click on it and you will be able to see the time left for it to expire.

The SS for this chapter HAS BEEN set before so even if I add one whole extra chapter to the existing content, it would still have the previous Spirit stone that was set. I know some of you don't read the author's note. Hence I am writing here to communicate with you guys. Also because the author's note cannot fit in this much content.

WN is going to combine the ranking of books, therefore, getting into top 20 is going to be difficult from this point. Don't forget to log in to the app every day to vote for the book, it only takes a couple of taps. We are currently in rank #23

I will be writing another book too- 'The graveyard shift' which you can add to your library. Be ready to binge read BAD soon. 

Thank you for hearing me out~]

Leonard moved away from Vivian, his hand reaching down to the lower cupboard where he pulled it. Running his fingers over some of them while looking at their dates, Vivian wondered if he was taking out the proof of what he had just said now. 

"Here it is," he said, picking up the bundle of the letters, he untied them and picked one out of it. Opening the envelope, he didn't hand it over to her but instead he read it out loud, "To dear Leonard," he started to turn to speak to her, "I noticed you often switching my name to Leo and Leonard and back to Leo. What was that about?" he asked her.

Vivian gave an awkward smile to him, "Well, that was just something to switch up so that they didn't look mundane," she laughed to let out a sigh of breath when he turned his eyes back at the letter. The reason wasn't to switch anything up but because there were times when she came to realize their difference in status. Unlike other maids, Vivian had been educated by Leo himself which she later carried on to learn during his absence to make him proud. His praise was rare, and being the only true friend who was close to her age, the need to get his praises was everything for little Vivi. 

At times it didn't matter that she addressed him Leo but sometimes it would go to read as 'young master Leo' which was quite obvious to Leonard that something was running in her head. 

She heard him continue to read the letter.

"I hope you are doing well since your last visit. Paul said spring is here but I don't see any flowers blooming due to the dampened weather," to read the letter by herself was one thing but having him read it out loud caused a faint blush on her cheeks, "But I noticed there has been less rain comparing to the other weeks and month. As we servants are given a day off every six months, and I hadn't used it for anything. Mr Killian who is the tailor of the family wanted assistance in buying the woollen threads with other needles and object that I decided to volunteer my time on it. He will be teaching me on how to knit and design clothes and maybe I can turn to a tailor assistant in the future. Won't that be nice?I am hoping to help him this weekend. Mr Killian has been nice enough to offer me work today. He said I have potential and I can make some good penny. I shall write to you again by the end of this week to let you know what happened. Sending a lot of faith, Vivian," concluded Leonard.

"I don't think there's anything in there that states of replacing you," said Vivian clearing her throat. 

"Is that so? You planned to leave the Carmichael's household to work for the man. Don't tell me it isn't what you wanted in the future," Leo's eyes slightly narrowed down to hers as he picked the very next letter from where he had picked, "I was planning to come to meet you but by the time I had reached and received the letter a week had already passed and I had another letter waiting from you," he said waving another letter in his hand. 

Vivian already knew the contents of it as she still remembered the disappointment she had felt. As if skipping most of the contents in the letter which he opened, Leo read only a part of it, "Unfortunately I couldn't work for the man as he said he found another assistant and he will be moving to the next city which would be difficult to commute back and forth."

"It wasn't that I planned to leave the mansion back then but I thought it would be wonderful to have a work which would be better than being a maid," Vivian sighed. Though her feelings hadn't blossomed for Leonard at that point of time and was rather a bud, the bud had grown far too attached to him. She wished to be at his level. Leonard was the person whom she looked up to since her childhood, it wasn't Paul it wasn't Martha but Leonard who she wanted approval from, "It was only that time did I come to realize and understand how different our lives were. When I couldn't meet you at the time I wanted to."

"Nicholas wasn't welcoming any strangers when you spoke about meeting me and we were going to travel to Wovile which made it difficult to reply," replied Leonard, his eyes tender on her face as he saw her looking forward. She nodded her head ever so lightly.

"I know. I received your letter from Wovile. Your letter made me happy, happy that you thought of me during your journey," a smile came upon her lips, "I wanted to be up to your status to match it but then an assistant tailor wasn't much of status, was it?"

He shook his head but a smile playing on his lips, "But it is good to know you aimed to be something more than just a maid. To be ambitious is good though," he frowned, "If you put my education to use would be much applaudable than where it wouldn't be needed."

"I thought of being a governess at one point in time but I doubt I was eligible to it," she admitted it to him, "It was when Jerome offered me work at his mansion did I think about moving."

"I am glad you didn't and I came before it. How come I didn't hear about it in the last letters of yours?" 

Vivian gave him a wide smile, "I wanted to surprise you with the news," and now that she thought about it, she was happy that he came before she decided to move. Moving from one household to another wasn't easy though. They always needed approvals from the owners as they pretty much owned the servants. And even if Vivian was brought in by Martha due to her work and experience one wouldn't let go of the servant. 

"Your surprise would have made me really furious," he said giving her a pointed look before placing the letter back in the brown envelope and putting it back in the drawer to push it completely, "Do you know how worried I was when I heard about that tailor?"

"I can imagine it now," she felt him pick her hands which rested on the bed.

"You were this little butterfly which I was trying hard not wanting to scare away yet to keep an eye while you fluttered around. No man likes to share his woman, Vivian. Not in the slightest idea as it would only drive them mad," her heart made a somersault in her chest as he said those to her, "You have been one of my most precious things to hold very dear to my heart. Maybe the only thing."

"I was always here," she whispered as the air started to slip out of her chest. She closed her eyes when he kissed her lips into a toe-curling one which was sweeter than the berries he and she had plucked when they were young secretly. 

"You were here but I was here to watch you grown. We spent our time writing letters to each other since we were children like lovers in love which was innocent. But when a man comes off to be at an age where he realizes the love he feels, the person would like to keep their lover close by. To see and perceive what is in front of you. To run their hands over the covers and the ridges," his hand ran down from her cheek to her neck as he pulled her for another kiss, "It sometimes gets unbearable and when you find letters like those, you don't know how much I wanted to come back here and punish you for unknowingly straying away from me."

"I would have never strayed away from you, Leo. I would have possibly become a tailor and come to meet you where ever you were as an excuse," Vivian smiled, saying it between the kisses on her lips and cheeks which went down to kiss her neck.

"True that was one of the possibilities or the other being I would have to corner the deer until you realized the situation we were already caught up in," he bit into her skin making her flinch in the pain and pleasure bite which was kissed down to soothe her skin. 

Making her back lay flat down on the bed, Leonard started to pull out the lace of her dress one after another before he pushed it down. Discarding his own clothes, he kissed back her lips as their bodies entangled around each other playfully. It had been a while since they had gone to bed together like this, spending their time loving each other as Vivian had more than often fallen asleep once her head hit the pillow. 

Leo kissed her neck, peppering little kisses which tickled her bringing out a bubble of laughter through her lips, "It tickles," she complained to have him bite right at the little soul bond that he had created a few weeks ago, "Ah!" 

He pulled back to ask, "Did that hurt?" she shook her head.

"Not much," she whispered as they stared into each other's eyes. 

"I love you, Vivi," he said before claiming her body and she cried in pleasure with every move that hit the sweet spots from inside. She clutched on to him, her hands wound around his neck and her head buried in between his neck and shoulders.

"Leo!" she cried out his name when he came, her eyes dizzying out before she came back to him but Leo wasn't done loving her. Like a predator who wasn't done with its meal, Leo began to prowl over her body until the time of midnight leaving Vivian with incoherent words from her mouth. 

Vivian's naked body was pressed against Leonard's naked body with only a blanket that covered both of them on the bed. The night was cold due to the snow falling from the sky onto the lands of Bonelake and the fireplace lit brighter in the room to keep them warm. In sleep, she sought his body for the warmth, snuggling her face in his chest. With a contented sigh escaping from her lips that he could hear she continued to sleep while he ran his hand gently down her hair which spilt on the pillow and the bed.

After confessing in the church, Vivian had been doing much better in the state of mind. Her smile was unbridled and her thoughts playful like it used to be before. He had hidden away the letters by keeping them safe and he didn't mind Vivian finding those letters which he felt precious enough to save them. She was his wife so it didn't matter where she went searching whatever belongings of his. 

His letters, thought Leonard to himself. It was possible that his letters were burnt as anyone else finding it, especially that someone being his uncle Sullivan at that point of time wouldn't have gone down well with it. That's why it was understandable that his letters weren't saved and one side he was happy about it. God only knew what would happen if it fell in wrong hands at that time. 

"Leo..." he heard Vivian utter his name in her sleep. Pulling the blanket over her and him, he pulled her closer into his arms.

"Don't worry, Bambi. Whatever troubles you, we'll find a solution and fix it. You don't have to fight it alone," he whispered ever so softly. 

Sister Isabelle had told her not to worry about her dreams as they didn't hold any grave significance but that didn't stop him from thinking about it. The woman had been nice enough to ease his wife's heart but the look on her face before they left the church told him something else.