The Crown's Obsession

Music Recommendation: The Burnt Orange Heresy Theme- Craig Armstrong

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In the village where Lucy and Madeline had gone to visit to meet the tailor, in the same place, there were two more people who once were related to the royal family of Devon but were now shunned.

The once very proud and arrogant daughter of the former Queen Morganna, Rosamund Wilmot, now stood behind a vegetable shop with her face covered so that nobody would recognize her. Gone were the expensive clothes on her body and the jewels that used to adorn around her neck and ears, the rings on her fingers had disappeared, and her palms were now dirty and empty.

Her daughter Sophie sat behind her, her arms crossed while she didn't bother to stand next to her. She wore a dirty dress that had stains and was torn at the ends.

The shop was located in the village's marketplace filled with a stench of stale meat and food. Sophie covered her nose so that she wouldn't smell the foul air around them.

After a while, Sophie came to stand next to her mother. "Mother, how long are we going to live like this?" she whispered.

This was not the lifestyle she had been looking forward to. She hadn't even done anything, but she was stuck with her mother in poverty. She had wished for the stars, and instead, she had received dirt.

Rosamund barely had an expression on her face. The mansion and the little money she had saved had been burnt in flames right in front of her eyes.

Sophie looked at her mother, "Let me go and talk to Calhoun. I am sure he will forgive us," if not her mother, at least her, thought Sophie in her mind.

"If you cannot help me here, then the least you can do is sit in the corner and not speak," Rosamund glared at her daughter.

"I didn't do anything! Why am I being punished! You and Markus tried to frame Calhoun, I am the innocent one here who had nothing to do with it," retorted Sophie, and when a man appeared in front of the shop, looking at the vegetables, Sophie turned quiet.

But the man didn't pick anything to buy from them. Instead, he stood looking at the vegetables before his eyes fell on Sophie, "Are you in need of money?" asked the man.

Sophie stared at the man who didn't look like a person who was of good status, but money had been scarce, and she didn't have a decent meal for the last few weeks.

Several weeks had passed since she and her mother had turned homeless. No money, no status, their lives had been ruined since that human had entered the castle. Madeline...Sophie despised the human with every single fibre of her body.

"How much do you have with you?" asked Sophie, lifting her chin.

"It depends on how much you can offer me," and the man looked at her eyes before his gaze travelled down to look at her chest and her whole body.

Sophie glared at the man who appeared to be in his late forties. "I will f.u.c.k.i.n.g gauge your eyes. Who do you think you are talking to?" she asked.

"Who am I?" the man laughed, staring at the younger vampiress, "I am the person who owns this stall that you and this woman decided to sell vegetables. Get out of this place unless you want me to call the guards."

"Sophie apologize to him!" Rosamund glared at her daughter.

With the King, who had closed the doors for them and had ordered people not to help, Rosamund didn't know where to go. Not to forget, the devil, after he had burnt down her mansion, had dragged her husband somewhere that she had no clue about.

Hearing this, Sophie frowned before gritting her teeth. "He was looking at me rudely!"

"It is not how you speak to people. We need this place, how do you think we are going to afford living?!" questioned Rosamund.

Sophie huffed, "I am your daughter, and you are letting the man to look at me-"

"You can vacate the place right this instant," demanded the man, crossing his hands across his chest while waiting for Rosamund and her daughter to start moving. "Quick! I don't have time for people like you!" Saying this, he pushed one of the wooden baskets that had tomatoes in it. The fruit rolled on the ground.

Rosamund had no place to go! Somehow, the people who were remotely willing to help her had helped her with this shop, but now this man claimed to be the owner of it. She didn't know if it was a trap that had been set up for her.

Her lips trembled as it was hard to push away the pride that she had carried for years in her. She was no peasant's daughter from the streets or the alleys selling vegetables, and it was humiliating! She was the late King Lauren's sister and Queen Morganna's daughter!

Rosamund tried to keep a calm composure and said, "We were told this was our shop. That it can be used by us. I have the papers for it," she said, looking around the shop before finding the parchment that she had been given a few days ago. "Here it is."

The man took it in his hand, observing it before he said, "Are you trying to act smart with me? These are false papers!" he yelled loud enough for the passersby to look at them.

The man threw the parchments on the ground, and he snapped his fingers, "Get out of the shop. This one belongs to me. Move!"

He pulled Rosamund out of the shop while she tried to stop him, "Wait! I know the person who gave these papers to me, the person's relative used to work in the royal court of the Hawthrone's castle. Let me bring him-"

But Rosamund didn't get to finish her words as she pushed out of the small shop.

Seeing this, Sophie turned angry, and she glared at the man's audacity, "How dare you push my mother! You won't be spared!" she went to hit him, but the man caught hold of her hand before twisting her arm.

For a human, this man seemed stronger, and Sophie realized he wasn't a human but a demon. Lately, news had been circulating in all the lands about the existence of the demons in the living world.

"Let me go!" Sophie screamed, and when she elbowed his stomach, her action didn't sit well with the man.

He only twisted her arm further, and right at the time when she faced him, his hand struck hard on her face, making her stumble into her mother's arms.

"Get out of here! If I see you lurking around my shop again, claiming it to be yours I will call the village guards and lock you both in the dungeons," the man glared at Rosamund and Sophie.

Even though scenes like these weren't uncommon in the market, it was still entertaining to watch, and the people who were in the market stared at the mother-daughter duo, whispering and muttering within themselves.

Rosamund had lost her son and her husband. She had lost her status and name, and right now, she was a nobody in this vast land that thrived. The only person she had was her daughter, and she tried to look at Sophie's face.

"I told you to keep a low profile!" whispered Rosamund while scolding Sophie, who had a split lip where blood oozed out of it.