4. He stalks me from every corner

'You will come to see who I truly am.'

I couldn't understand the things my groom was saying while having a nagging apprehension in my chest at those words of his. Nothing really happened after I woke up from that disturbing dream. Lucca swore to me that I had really witnessed that moment in my nightmare, but I couldn't believe it because I wasn't a person who believed in the paranormal. He must have just been trying to scare me, which wasn't a nice thing to do given that he was my groom, and we were soon to be married.

When I say briefly, the wedding would take place that very night in the castle's private chapel. I didn't know anyone at all in that place, and I didn't know who was coming to my wedding. Although the Allens were the bride's parents, they weren't going to show up for their own daughter's wedding; they were just happy with the dowry they had received from the Moretti and that's why they forced their daughter to go immediately to Northumberland to marry the earl's son without even bothering to find out about the background of this family. It was as if they wanted to get rid of Crystal as soon as possible.

I knew very well that Crystal's stepmother hated her and wanted to do anything to get rid of her. I had no doubt that she convinced Mr. Allen to receive the Moretti's exorbitant dowry and hand his daughter over to the unknown, and Crystal's father, being a cowardly and manipulable man as he was, accepted that treacherous deal, the deal that landed me in this godforsaken place.

Furthermore, I was also thinking about what had happened to Crystal, since now she was no longer living at the Allen house; she probably moved in with her lover, that selfish lawyer who would make her suffer. I tried to warn her that Ansel Hughes only cared about himself and not her, but Crystal was totally in love with him and was even willing to exchange a promising marriage with the son of a rich earl who had a whole domain of land to stay with that lawyer who was only going to make her suffer.

Poor Crystal, as I myself had witnessed several times when I saw Ansel curling up with some prostitutes in London taverns, was not a reliable man; the only thing he wanted from her was to take all the money that Crystal could give him. Ansel was like a scavenging wolf wearing the skin of a handsome and charismatic prince. Poor Crystal, but seeing my reality now, I wouldn't say that if Crystal agreed to come to Northumberland to marry Lucca Moretti it would be a better choice. Apart from the amazing place that was that castle, Count Edoardo looked like a crazy man, and his son looked crazy and disturbed at the same time. The only certainty I had was that Crystal and I were lost.

"Do you want me to wear this dress to the wedding?" I asked in amazement; the earl had on yet another dress that was once white, but was now worn and tattered. He had brought the dress to my room, saying it was my wedding dress.

"Yes, my dear. This dress belonged to my late great-grandmother, who passed it on to my grandmother at the time of her wedding, who in turn passed it on to my mother. My mother also offered this dress to my wife when she wanted to marry me, and now it's your turn to wear it to marry my son. It's like the Moretti tradition; you must accept it." He gave his long explanation, and I just sighed and went to pick up the old dress with a dismayed air. The fabric of the dress was almost falling apart in my hands, just like that one old castle. The man smiled at me with that weird smile of his. "I love the way you never question things." He praised me and was already leaving the room, but I called him.

"My lord, I will not have maids. .?" I asked a bit apprehensively; it was more than an outrage that a mere subordinate like me was demanding maids, but I was no longer the simple Lea Sunfish; I was a woman born and raised in the London bourgeoisie, and it was mandatory that the bourgeois had created to serve them any time, and then in that castle I had not seen a single living soul but the earl, his son, and the coachman (if that scrawny man was alive at all).

"Ah yes, you need servants. Wait a little longer; the Three Sisters will come to serve you." The earl left after speaking, his hands still clasped behind his back.

I sighed heavily, leaving the tattered dress on the bed next to me as I sat down, looking at that old piece and thinking about the women who had worn it on their wedding day. Were they happy when they got married? I wanted so much to know if they were happy to marry a son of this strange family. How much strangeness had they already witnessed in their lives living with the Moretti? Would I, by any chance, be happy in Lucca's company? While I was sunk in my own daydreams, I failed to notice the yellow-eyed creature that stared at me from the window, gazes as heavy as the world...

At that moment, the door opened, and three women entered, but they were not normal women: one was too old, another was too beautiful, and the last one was too young; they didn't walk underfoot; they floated inches off the ground; their expressions were in a limbo between perturbation and serenity. When they spoke, they sounded ethereal, both angelic and demonic.

"Hello." The eldest started.

"We are your handmaidens." The one in the middle continued.

"And we will serve you until the last day of your life." The last one ended on a somber note.