The next afternoon, once Charlotte finished her task of the day, she took to the library as soon as she could. She was eager to find out what all she could learn about Lady Bennett before her next meeting with Lord Hunt. Her hope was that she would be able to find out enough about her that it would open the door to getting to know him a little better. Lord Hunt didn't want to answer terribly personal questions, but maybe she could find a way around that to get little bits of information like this from him. The castle's library was immense. This was something she realized after coming in through the doors. During their tour, they had briefly walked past the doors to the library and so she hadn't had a chance to gauge how large it was. Now that she was standing in it, she wondered just how long he had been building his collection of books. If he was as old as she was guessing he might be, then she supposed he had several hundred years to build his collection. It was one of the things

At the end of her chores, Charlotte sat in her room and stared at the set of keys that Lord Hunt had given her. It was a peculiar thing to give to someone knowing that they were trying to uncover your past. While he had admitted that he found her to be interesting, he hadn't given a straight answer whether or not this was just a game for him or if he was testing to see how far she was willing to go. She didn't have enough answers about his intentions to determine that or not. Finally deciding that she would go ahead and take the bait that he laid out for her, she snatched up the set of keys. There were only two other rooms that she was not permitted to enter on the property. Lord Hunt's personal study and his bedroom. Charlotte hardly believed he would give her the liberty to enter his room, but she was willing to say that one of the keys on the ring went to his study. Exactly what she would find there, she didn't know. Lord Hunt's study was on the other side of the castle from whe

Charlotte could hardly believe the words that came out of her mouth. She pleaded with Lord Hunt not to leave as he indicated that he should. The want to have him stay left her with a mix of feelings. It was true that she wanted to know about him and thus get to know him better. Already, he had indicated he found her to be interesting and although he had not elaborated on what he meant by that too much, it was enough that he treated her differently than the others. That much she had figured out. Up until this point, she had figured the cause of that was because he wanted to see how far he could push her. While Charlotte still believed that on some level, there was something different in the words he spoke to her just before he chose to take a bite out of her shoulder. She now began to wonder if he wasn't intrigued by her in the same way she was by him. The desire to get to know her better being there, there was still something stopping him from doing it. His bites leaving her with t

Lord Hunt's gardens were much larger than she had originally imagined. The only section of them she had seen was the pathway from the castle and the center fountain. Beyond that, there was so much more. Just past the fountain were rows of rose bushes that were all kept perfectly pruned and healthy. Every bloom, carefully taken care of. Then, there were a handful of other pathways that branched out from the fountain which led to different sections of the gardens. As it turned out, the castle gardens sat at the center of the castle grounds, in an enclosed courtyard of its own. Every section housed a different type of flower variation and each section was separated off by a wall of rose bushes. It was incredible that someone had gone to such great and careful detail to construct such a place. Any flower lover would be in absolute paradise to take a long walk through arrays of different vibrant colors and aromas. All of which supported a combination of creeping plants which trailed down

The next afternoon, Charlotte arrived late to the meeting in the entrance hall. She could hardly sleep in the new room that Lord Hunt gave her. It was on the opposite side of the castle and a little closer to his own personal room. It was identical to the last one that she had, except that the color variation of the room was a little different than the last. Not that she minded, she just felt bad that he had to do away with an entire room of decor and furniture for her sake. Even worse, he had promised to replace her entire wardrobe since most of her clothes had been ruined.The other servants were unusually quiet while they waited for Lord Hunt to appear for their daily assignments. The only one who didn't seem uncertain about what had happened the night before was Samuel. He stood a little in front of where Charlotte was huddled near the back of the group, looking smug as ever. She wished there was a way she could prove he had been the one to target her. But she wasn't sure what goo