The Demon’s Bride

Elise quickly moved to crouch in the ground. She didn't know if the wound was terrible but by the amount of blood that had soaked on the fabric, it was evident that the amount of blood wasn't a little.

Living in the town and in the village, Elise was well known to attend wounds. Her hands took out the handkerchief she had to press down to the woman's wound when from afar, a group of men came to stop before them. Noticing the people who had been chasing her caught up, the woman whimper, her hand clutching tight to the hem of Elise's skirt.

"Please step away from the woman, miss," said one of the man who was dressed in entirely black and one badge on his chest to indicate he was assigned to protect the peace in the land, who was employed by the Lord.

"N-No! No please, please, I don't know him, it wasn't my fault!" screamed the woman. She pushed herself closer to Elise and seeing the wound her frown grew tighter. If she wasn't wrong, the people who were chasing the woman are the guards of the land.

The men had chased the woman for an hour and they were running out of breath by the time they have caught up to the woman. Elise questioned in her mind if the woman was a criminal because only criminal was chased by the guards. But she can't find any explanation from her wound. Was the guards punishing the woman?

If that was the case, Elise thought to take a step away but her concern was on the woman's wounds and the woman had clutched to her skirt very tightly which prevent her from moving.

Seeing how Elise didn't move, the guard's eyes narrowed. "If you do not move, miss we will have to take you in with us." He directed his words to Elise as he threatened her to move regardless of the fact she had just passed by the road.

"It would be best if you learn manners to speak, Harley." The guard who had threatened Elise pulled his brows tensely, wondering who had dared to call his name when he saw Ian's face and immediately bowed to the ground, bending one knee to settle on the pavement.

"Milord! It is a blessing to be able to see you," Harley began for Ian to look at him unamused.

Ian raised his brows at the men who was now bowing to curtesy on the ground. His smile was vacant from his lips and he stared at the men with a taunting gaze that even though the men didn't look at his face, they could know how the lord was not in a good mood.

"Where do you think you are planning to bring my companion?" Ian didn't took well Harley's threaten. There should be no one in this world who could spoke to Elise in the tone he used. "Is it the dungeon or is it the scaffold? I see that with time one's sense dull out that they could not see who is standing here."

"My apologies milord for not seeing you here!" Harley didn't know what bad luck he had stroke today to be in the predicament.

"Tell me Harley, is it only me that you have offended or was there someone else?" He questioned and Harley broke a sweat on his question.

The man was smart to quickly turn his face at Elise, bending his neck low to the ground, "Please accept my apologies for offending you, milady."

Elise found how sudden the men's attitude change to be a startle. In front of the Lord, no one dared to go against him. They know to how to the ruler of the land where their foot landed on.

"What is it with this charade. I didn't think you were chosen to work as an official only to chase a single woman, did you?" This was spoiling Ian's mood. He was in a rather good mood to enjoy his own time with Elise to see this happening before his eyes. "What happened?" asked Ian, cutting the chatter fast.

Elise who heard Ian asked, lifted her face up over the men and when she stood up, she felt the woman's eyes that were on her watch her with a pleading expression. Tears dripping from the woman's eyes which had Elise to feel sympathy but she doubt the official would chase her if she hadn't done an offense. The wound, however, was it a part of punishment? Because from what she saw the wound was made from whip.

"This woman escaped from the jail milord," replied Harley quickly, he saw how Ian was displeased and didn't want to ruin the mood to a worse turn. "A few days ago she was found killing a man in the village, the magistrate hand her to us before the date of her execution but she tricked the guards and ran away from the jail."

"No!" yelled the woman at the men before she snapped her eyes to Elise. "Please believe me, milady! I didn't kill the man out of my will. H-He, that man he tried to kill me and I had to protect myself."

Elise wasn't a lady of a higher class but when the woman heard the official called Ian as the Lord, she knew she had to beg to the lady, who was the companion of the Lord. Seeing Elise, the woman could tell how the girl had a heart and wouldn't leave her who was in need of help.

"Lies." came the voice from behind the woman which surprised Elise as the voice sounded very deep and hoarse as if his throat was slashed and when her face lift up to see the person who spoke, the man's neck had indeed been slashed.

In surprise, Elise's eyes widened while watching the ghost. However, she didn't say anything but look straight at the man, the way Master Ian had told her so the death wouldn't notice her could see them.

She drew her brows over seeing the man's condition. His clothes were draped in mud and all over him was his blood which reached up to his eyes and his neck was slashed. "Lies! You are lying! You killed me because I know your affair with your husband!" The man yelled and rage was over his face.

Elise slowly understood that the words said by the ghost was to the woman who was now clutching to her skirt. "You killed him for a reason, didn't you?" Elise asked the woman whose eyes turned wide at her and her sobbing stopped.

"You could cease acting, woman. What are you on, claiming that you are innocent when your words are nothing but lies?" came Ian's words and the woman's eyes turned wide at him, shifting from Elise to Ian.

As she was afraid, the woman wasn't brave enough to look the Lord's face until he had spoken. On the single words, the woman's face turn pale white. "You killed the man but it was for a reason, you didn't kill him unwillingly. Your heart tell it all." Elise who heard Ian's words looked at him who had spoken the words.

"My lord, you have mistaken, please believe me I-" the woman yelled when the official pulled her away from Elise, gaging the woman's mouth with a fabric before tying her hands.

"Bring her away directly to the scaffold as a reminder to everyone not to repeat the sin she did and Harley this shall never happen again next time," Ian said, his words were not demand but a strict order.

"Yes!" Harley exhaled in relief that he had passed a day with his neck still attached. "I will promise this will never happen again in your presence, please have a nice day, my lord."

Elise saw the officials left the place after Harley's promise and Elise noticed the ghost went to follow the woman was smiling wide upon hearing soon the woman would be dead. The thought send shivers to Elise's spine.

Seeing them gone Ian turned to open the door when his smile quirk after noticing how intently Elise had stared at him.

"Master Ian, how do you know the woman lied?" asked Elise. She wouldn't lie when she first saw the woman, sympathy came to her that almost blinded her to help the woman if it wasn't for the ghost's appearance. Was there a flaw in the woman's words that Ian took notice but she didn't? Or did Ian knew because of the ghosts too?

"I am the Lord, sweetheart, I know everything there is to know, only failing on new things that I have never seen or feel before. Didn't I say that her heartbeat tells what she was feeling? Each human have different heartbeat and it would change in moment of fear and lie. I could tell she was lying by the sound," explained Ian, his hand moving away from the door knob, letting the door which was pulled to close when he caught the expression flitting over Elise's face.

There was a surprise came over her face before Ian watch how she was trying to tone down her expression. "Does the heartbeat really express everything?" Was all her emotions she felt while talking to him turns like an open book where Ian could read and know what she was feeling?

Elise heartbeat raised this time she sounded a little fearful as she was afraid that all this time her feeling of love to Ian was readable.

Ian enjoyed seeing her frightened expression where there were a slight hazy glaze on her blue eyes. "Yes it does, fear, lies, happiness, and sadness. I can take a few emotions from it." There were no lies in Ian's words. Even without hearing Elise's heartbeat it was evident how deeply she feel love from him.

"What about love?" Elise's voice turned smaller when she questioned him.

"Curious are we," drawled Ian and his words increase her heartbeat, "I can't," Elise exhaled her breaths. She didn't want her feelings for Ian to be known by her heartbeat. "Why do you look relieved?"

Elise stared at his red eyes only to shift away from the overwhelming emotions she felt, "I don't feel relieved," she denied.

"But that's a lie, so you do feel relieved. What is it that your hiding Elise?" Ian provoked her by his words and his legs took one step closer toward her. His smile widening while looking at the adorable Elise, watching how her chest were having up and down with the lack of air she experience.

"I am not hiding anything," the second she replied, Elise realized that her uneven voice and her heartbeat once again betrayed her words.

"I don't like liars but I have to say I enjoy to see you lie," Ian's fingers slipped to the ribbon that fastened her cloak together, softly tugging it with almost no power for the ribbon to be pulled, just barely as if to play. "What is it about me unable to sense love from heartbeat which make you feel relieved? Is it related to your lies you have been making earlier?"