The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 364: The past (2)

"My engagement was important to my family. To my father and at the time, I didn’t realise how important it was to Travis. He was making his own plans for how my husband could be of use to him. I was too busy trying to force myself to love someone and convince myself that the marriage was something I wanted to think about Travis," said Beatrice.

"I was aware of the life my family gave me. How expensive it must have been to spoil me so I thought it was only fair that I repay them by getting married to whomever they picked. A little after my engagement was announced, I met your father. He was doing work with Nicolas. Just starting as a knight. You should have seen how wonderful he looked then," Beatrice said, smiling, feeling like a young girl in love again.

"Your father didn’t speak much at first. He told me he didn’t want to offend the lady of a good house. I like to think it was fate for us to be together because we would keep running into each other often. He once found me at my lowest when I did not want to go through with the marriage and thought of telling my father."

Beatrice continued to say, "Your father gave me advice and from then on, I found myself seeking him out to talk. I enjoyed spending time with him secretly, away from my family and eventually came to love him. That made me more worried about my marriage and I made the mistake of confiding to Travis, not knowing the plans he had."

"Travis laughed, not believing that I was seriously considering picking your father over a man who shared my status. When I didn’t laugh along with him like it was a joke, I saw that look he used to give our tutors. He grabbed my shoulders and sometimes I think he wanted to grab my neck. I have always been scared easily because I wasn’t used to violence so it wasn’t hard for him to make me fear him."

"The way Travis toyed with our tutors was nothing like what he did in secret. That was when I found out about his love for shooting arrows at servants or throwing any weapon he could get his hands on. The day was the first time Travis threatened me. Warned me not to meet with River anymore and to get used to the fact I was going to marry who my father picked."

It was at that time Beatrice learned how family meant nothing to some people when money and status were involved. She knew Travis wasn’t the kindest person in the world to people outside their family, but she was his sister. His only sibling.

They mostly spent time together only when a tutor was around or spent time with their parents a as family because they had different interests, but to Beatrice, they were close enough to not want to hurt each other.

"I told him that it was my life and I would bear the consequences of my decision. Travis laughed and said he had ways to make me change my mind. That I should change my mind then and there before he made my life hell. I didn’t give him an answer and walked away. There isn’t a day I regret more than confiding in my brother," Beatrice said, always thinking of it as her most foolish moment.

Beatrice never thought she would be on the receiving end of her brother’s anger. They were siblings after all. He was her older brother so she thought if there would have been anyone to help her, it would have been him since her mother would just follow her father’s lead. Travis had some influence in their home so she thought he could change her father’s mind.

He had always told her that like him, she could get whatever she wanted as long as she asked.

Travis was already married to a woman whose wealth benefitted their business. How much more money could her family need for her to have to get married?

"Travis never told our parents about River though there were times he taunted me at dinner by mentioning knights. He would lock me in dark rooms when my parents were away, but there was one time he did it when they were home and acted like it was a mistake. Firing arrows at me or using portraits of me that he would have sent to my room to show where the arrows pierced them."

"Even commenting that if I wanted to sleep with a man far beneath me, I only had to ask him so I could get out of the phase of wanting a knight. I don’t like to think of what he was planning with that. He never really physically hurt me. He mostly scared me so much that I started to panic when I heard his name because I feared what he would do to force me to stop liking River. I should have stood up to him then," Beatrice said, falling back into feeling like a coward. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Rafael stopped walking as his mother’s eyes filled with tears. "He picked on someone he knew would be too scared to fight back. You don’t need to dwell on the fact you didn’t say something to him. Forgive me, but how is it possible your parents didn’t notice what was happening? You don’t speak poorly of them."

"Honestly, it is because I don’t think about them at all. I only tell you about Travis because he bothers us. I think that my parents might have noticed that something was happening between me and Travis. My father knew everything happening in our home. There was no way he could have not realised Travis was torturing me though Travis did it when they were not around. I thought my father grew to fear his son," Beatrice answered.

Their father had spoiled Travis so much and never corrected his actions and in the end, he could no longer control his son.

"Travis had scared me so much that I didn’t think for a second to go to my parents for help. I thought they would share his anger that I had fallen for River. Your father was the only person to acknowledge that something was wrong with me and before Travis could start harming me, we ran away. I share your father’s regret that we didn’t get rid of Travis first and then run away," Beatrice said, feeling apologetic to Rafael.

He was having to be bothered by Travis because she and River had not settled their problem from years ago.

As much as Beatrice would love to get back at Travis for how he made her feel mentally, she couldn’t find it in herself to be violent and that upset her. Her fighting with Travis would only lead to her getting hurt since Travis was skilled in using any weapon he got his hands on or just using his hands.

This was why she worried about River or Rafael crossing paths with Tracis though they were good at fighting because Travis was not to be underestimated.

"Recently, I’ve been trying to keep myself calm when I hear his name so I don’t worry about you or your father. I can’t allow Travis to mess with my head anymore so you don’t need to hide that he has reached out to you."

"I want to at least be strong enough to not panic anymore," Beatrice said, slowly but surely healing from her past. There was more she hadn’t told Rafael, but it was because she didn’t want to go too deep into the past. "Just to be safe for a day you or River are not around, I thought about letting Annalise teach me how to use a knife."

"I’m sure she would love that. She already desires to kill Travis. If you don’t mind, we should go down to the training yard before Annalise picks up a sword and starts scaring my knights," Rafael said because of the yelling he heard coming from the yard.