His eyes bore into mine the moment he turned around upon feeling my presence next to him. For moments, he stared at me and me at him, before a slow smile spread on his lips. He bowed in front of me.

"Very reassuring to see you made home safely, Ms. Black."

"And why are you so concerned about my wellbeing Mr. uh...."

In that moment I realized for the first time that, I was not even aware of the man's last name.

"Just Vincent is fine Ms. Black. As opposed to the popular idea in your head, I do care for your safety and wellbeing, but more than me Genevieve cares."

I was hit with anger and some feeling unknown hard in my gut. I did not like it at all how he said Genevieve's name; his tongue rolled out her name, his silky voice making it sound heavenly. I did not like it all; I hated it, but why? I had no idea.

My eyes narrowed as I looked him squarely in the eyes.

"How did you know I was here? Who told you I was here? Why are you here?"

"Slow down road runner, you missed the turn to the welcoming nice talk."

He flashed me an all so attractive grin that I wanted to wipe off his face, or I would be left there staring at it and forget all the questions I needed him to answer for me. Shaking my head to get rid of my straying thoughts, I addressed him.

"Vincent, I asked you something, and I would very much like you to answer it."

"Now that you put it this way, well, Ms. Black after you left your friend's residence, she wrote to me a letter in which she expressed her never ending concern for your wellbeing, and also denoted that she was certain you had a strong desire for revenge still in your mind or else you would not have headed home against your father's explicit orders. To ease her worries, I came here to see you with my own two eyes, and inform her that you had a safe passage and are at your father's castle, untouched."

"Why will Genevieve ask you for help, and why will you provide her with it?"

"I am sorry to interrupt your interrogation, but I really do need to leave now."

"What? You cannot leave without answering me."

"If you will excuse me, Ms. Black, I believe I have a letter to write and dispatch as quick as humanly possible, to Genevieve. She was quite worried about you, and, I would like to ease that worry rather sooner than later."

Oh! So she was Genevieve and I was Ms. Black. It for some reason stung. Just as I was forming a snappy reply to throw at his retreating form, he turned back.

"Oh and Ms. Black please keep your craziness caged. We would not want the capital city to face the horrors of a revenge crazed lunatic."

He winked at me, before turning back around and continuing with his strides towards the gates of the castle.

In the least, I was enraged. How dare he walk into my own house, call me crazy, and wink on top of it. When I am mad, I tend to touch the boundaries of the territory marked crazy. I broke into a run after Vincent and pulled out the sword from the sheath he wore on a belt around his waist. It all happened a bit too fast for the understanding of the bystanders; Francis and a couple of Vincent's armed companions. Over a course of few moments Vincent had flipped around and was facing me, while his sword rested in my hand as I pressed the sharp edge of it on to his neck and looked him in the eyes squarely, with rage bubbling in my orbs.

"You do not walk into my house and call me a LUNATIC, and expect to walk away just like that," I yelled at him throwing the last words loudest at him.

"Mind if I say, I just did that."

A mischievous smile played upon his inviting and very kissable lips, angering me all the more; I pressed the pointy end of sword into his neck a little deeper. A tiny spot of crimson red appeared on his smooth, perfectly sun kissed, golden skin. It should have scared him, or at least would have scared any sane person, but he did not even budge a little or show any other common signs of fear; as about the uncommon signs of fear, it kills me to admit that but I am ignorant to what they are, so I cannot say if he displayed some or not.

"Oh my legs are shivering and my hands trembling with thy fear. I am about to wet my pants, Oh Ms. Black you scare me so much."

He laughed a very masculine laugh, while taunting me with his eyes. Rage washed over me, I would not take someone disrespecting me in my own house. With a swift movement, I hit his temple with the hilt of the sword, a bit too hard. His skin tore as an impact, and thin but steady trails of blood gushed down his ear onto his cheek, jaw, neck and finally onto his shirt and got soaked into the clothing.

"Ow! My, my you pack hell of a blow Ms. Black."

"Shut up Vinc! Come inside with me, I will bandage you."

With every drop of blood trickling down Vincent's forehead, more guilt gnawed at my insides, my intention was not to hurt him so badly. Grabbing his arm, I practically dragged him inside towards my room. Eyeing all the blood flowing down the side of his face, all my anger vanished into the thin air. Pushing him onto the bed, I ordered Francis to fetch me water and bandages quickly. While Francis was gone, I pulled the sheets off the bed, balled them up and placed them on Vincent's wound, applying mild pressure to stop the blood flow, while still trying to be careful enough to not inflict any more pain on him. Francis came back soon with a bowl of lukewarm water and some bandages. Dipping a piece of cloth into water I used it to wash off all the blood beginning to clot and dry on Vincent's face, and proceeded onto bandaging the wound.

All the while I worked on him he sat still; without a word, just staring at me. Meeting his gaze was my biggest mistake; the depth of his stare got me to lose the chain of my thoughts, I stared back at him wordlessly. Lord knows how long we had played the staring game, silently, before he spoke, still keeping his eyes locked on to mine.

"You are an utterly passionate person, Eleanor. You feel everything, care about everything, and you allow your emotions to get you to experience the sides of life people mostly are afraid to explore on account of the fear of getting hurt. It is a very brave trait to have in this treacherous, hate filled world, and I admire you for being the person you are."

It was not what I expected to hear from Vincent, especially not in the very situation. I was shocked to begin with. I opened my mouth to say something, but he placed his index finger on my lips in order to stop me from doing so.

"Listen to me first Eleanor. You may think that I do not really care for you, but, I do, and it is care beyond the bounds of the promise I made to Andre. I wish more people in this world would be like you, but, you need to change about some things too. Your emotions rule you. It took me all but a few minutes to rile you up, and you were entirely consumed by your anger. The moment your anger faded away you were faced with guilt. The guilt swimming in your eyes was clear as sun on a summer day. Yes, I did instigate you on purpose, because I needed to prove my point to you, or else you would not even have batted an eye to a word I would say next. Your yearning for revenge is fueled by your rage, but once this rage exits your system you will suffer through seas of guilt, and I do not wish that upon you at all. I wish that you lead a happy and safe life. I am not and will never ask you to make peace with the fact that Andre's killers will not be punished, because they will be punished. I just ask you to give up the intention of taking up the office of the angel of death and delivering them their punishment personally."

I stared at him, absolutely clueless to what I should say. He got off the bed, picked up his sword which now lay in its sheath belt on the bed, and put the belt on as well as his jacket. All dressed, he stepped closer to me and looked at me with the same depth as some moments before. Using the back of his fingers he caressed my cheek as he spoke. His touch; so tender felt so good against my skin.

"Be wise, Eleanor, and take care of yourself please. Your life is precious, do not throw it away. Your life is of great worth."

...to some people he had added so softly that I almost did not catch what he had said.

He planted a feather light kiss on my forehead and walked out of my room, leaving my mind in a whirl.