Chapter 512 - Vespucci Villa Ⅲ (1/2)
Cold, and feeling rather exhausted, Tiffany numbly waits for someone to come, but all the while staring at her blood-soaked hands and skirt. The loud shouts from behind her and the on-slewing footsteps do not cause her to glance up. It was not until she felt the grip of hands-on her arms that roughly shook her that she at long last looked up. It is the rather handsome middle-aged figure of Patrizio Vespucci. However, for some reason, she is unable to hear him and can only see his mouth moving rapidly with no sound emerging forth.
A hand suddenly shoves Patrizio Vespucci back causing him to fall onto his backside. Tiffany impassively turns her head around to see the worried expression of her father, Arnold Topsy. His usually groomed hair is in disarray including his fine mustache.
There is a worried look in Mr. Topsy's eyes as he gently pulls his only daughter into his arms and glares at the sprawled figure of Mr. Vespucci on the ground. ”My daughter is in shock, Mr. Vespucci, I will take her inside to warm her and see to it that she is cleaned. I would suggest that you, call the Auror's,” Mr. Topsy firmly declared, before carrying his daughter away.
The next part is a complete and utter blur as Tiffany can only recall being taken into the house and her mother's tear-streaked face. In some guest bedroom, she is cleaned up, before being dressed in warm, soft pajamas with a bathrobe around her to maintain some of her modesty. Before being laid into bed, and seeing dim figures entering and leaving the room, but unable to understand them as if they were speaking another language.
Blinking awake from like from a strange dream, Tiffany raises her head from the pillows under her head and feels the hand that had gently been stroking her head become still and pull away. Sitting up she glances at the figure at sitting her the bedside, her mama.
”Are you awake, my precious?” Croaked Helena Topsy, the mother of Tiffany.
”Mama?” Tiffany blinked in confusion. ”When did you get here?”
The pretty, petite strawberry blond-haired witch stares at her daughter with concern. Mrs. Topsy's lips tremble as she somehow manages to maintain her composure. ”I've been here all along, my precious, but you've been far away for a bit. The healer said you would slowly return to yourself within the next few hours.”
”Oh,” Tiffany said feeling rather foolish now.
Mrs. Topsy fidgets and pats the bedsheets smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles. The two females are silent before, Mrs. Topsy says, ”The Auror's have already left. They have collected the testimony from Emalia of what occurred, and the Auror's themselves have confirmed it. You won't be needing to recount that traumatic event again, my precious.”
”I see,” Tiffany dully said. ”In that case, why are we still at the Vespucci home?”
Mrs. Topsy glances away with some unknown emotion, before saying, ”Your father and Mr. Vespucci are formally negotiating the dissolving of the existing marriage contract between the two families.”
”Is that all?” Tiffany said with a frown. ”No, that can't be it. What are you not telling me, mama?”
Mrs. Topsy's lips press into a frown transforming her usual jovial face into a rather vexed one. ”Mr. Vespucci claims that you are a bride of Death, and that any man that attempts to take your hand in marriage will only result in his death.”
”What?!” Tiffany choked in anger. ”I'm not the one who was caught with my trousers around my ankles!”
”I know, my precious,” Mrs. Topsy smoothly said to placate her daughter. ”However, it will be much for difficult for there to be a marriage proposal in the future for you, my precious. The more superstitious families will refuse to bind their only sons to you. I am sorry, love, but I fear that the gossip will spread like the plague on the wind even unto the old continent. We'd have to arrange a marriage for you overseas on the new continent, but I can't bear to send you so far away, my precious.”
Tiffany wearily leans back against her pillow and closes her eyes for a moment. There is a pressure in her eyes as the tears well up behind her eyelids. She still dreamed of one-day having children of her own. And now even that was out of her reach.
Through blurry eyes, Tiffany says, ”In that case, might I ask for further education, Mama? I am quite good at Arithmancy and took second place in our year. Papa can't very well protest now, can he?”