37. The sinister citadel of Morpeth

When we arrived at the citadel of Morpeth, a peaceful place strongly rooted in the Christian religion where the people were humble, we could also see some nobles walking through the streets, nobles who were mostly owners of the local lands like the Moretti they were. Our carriage stopped in front of a shopping center where there was a row of stores where I needed to buy the things I needed.

"If we're quick, we can get back to Moretti Castle before night falls." I told Lucca, who was on my side, and he nodded in agreement. We had talked about Atwood and the danger of leaving him unsupervised on such a dangerous night as this. Lucca was feeling guilty for having left the castle alone now, with the danger of the villagers' children venturing into the Moretti vineyards, lands that will be very dangerous tonight because a dangerous monster will be loose.

"I think we better go back to the castle," I had said at that moment when Lucca told me about the second werewolf in the castle, and I was feeling apprehensive and afraid of what could happen to those innocent children. "We have to go back to you to be able to stop Atwood before he commits any barbarity against those children." Lucca sighed and shook his head.

"No, I think it's more convenient for us to go to Morpeth at once; you do your shopping, and then the coachman will take us home as quickly as he can. You don't need to worry so much; I have everything under control." He stroked my hand to reassure me, and I sighed, comforted by his words.

So, now that I was out of the carriage, I raised my head to the sky, seeing the position of the sun. It was still around 2 in the afternoon. I would spend about an hour shopping, and then we would return before the night began. My husband was accompanying me as we walked through the streets of Morpeth. When we entered the first dress shop, the attendant smiled kindly at me and then frowned when he saw who I was with. It was normal for Lucca Moretti, with such an imposing posture, to cause some discomfort in men, perhaps for this reason, this man was unhappy after seeing my husband.

"Welcome to my humble boutique," the attendant began, extending his hand to Lucca first in a gesture of greeting. "Good to see you, sir. Moretti: I see that today you decided to bring your beautiful wife here, she finally decided to leave that old castle to come and see the city." He laughed loudly, but neither Lucca nor I accompanied him in that grotesque laugh, the man's smile broke. "Anyway, what brings you here?"

"My wife intends to buy some new dresses." Lucca was curt when he responded, it was clear how low on patience he was today. The merchant nodded sycophantically and said.

"Of course, of course. Shall I call Betty to help you, ma'am?" He wanted to know my name.

"Moretti, Crystal Moretti, my lord." I responded promptly without stuttering, and the man raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised at my readiness to accept my husband.

"Oh yes… very well." He turned and called Betty, who was a woman about my age and had a friendly smile. "Take Mrs. Moretti to appreciate our most beautiful dresses that we have here in the store, and try to treat her with as much respect as possible, after all, we don't want to take on the curse of the Moretti family too, do we?" He laughed again, and I noticed Lucca worried about his self-control. I didn't know what the inhabitants of Morpeth thought about the haunted castle, but I knew that Lucca didn't like people speaking ill of what was his, and considering how nervous he was today, this man had better not provoke him today because otherwise Lucca would get out of control.

"You can go, I'm fine." He spoke softly to me, squeezing my hand lightly to make sure he was controlling himself. I smiled a little and let Betty lead me to the dresses.

"Your husband is very handsome, madam. You are lucky to be married to him." Betty praised me, and I felt out of place, as it was the first time a human or person I saw praised my husband. I ended up smiling in gratitude.

"True, to this day, I wonder if I'm living in a dream." We both laughed about it, and then she started showing me the dresses they had in the windows.

Since my vain lady Crystal practically lived in boutiques, shopping almost every day and since I had to go wherever she went, I ended up learning to recognize quality dresses. So, although these dresses were beautiful, they still didn't hold a candle to the sophisticated London dresses for aristocratic women, but it wasn't like these dresses were any problem for me.

I was choosing some dresses that I ended up liking, but one of them wasn't in my size, so Betty offered to go check the store's stock to see if they had my size. When I was alone in that part of the store, I could hear the voices of my husband's male and the owner of the store talking animatedly, but it didn't seem like there was any apparent danger. Suddenly I felt my arm being pulled by an old woman with a wrinkled face. She was looking at me with wide eyes and a sinister expression.

"You have to get out of that castle as quickly as possible before that castle swallows you whole." She hissed at me, her practically toothless mouth spewing saliva into my face. I got scared and broke away from her. What was this woman talking about?

"What are you talking about? Let me go!"

"You will be buried with that castle when that cursed place collapses!" She was scaring me so much that Betty, who realized that this woman was bothering me, approached with the dress she had gone to get in her hands.

"Mrs. Hopkins, are you lost again? Please come with me." The nice girl pushed the sinister woman away from me and then looked at me with an apologetic look. "She hasn't been in her mental faculties, I'm sorry." She said this before taking the woman, who was still babbling incoherently, away from me.

At that same moment, while I was still scared by the sudden dialogue with the old woman, I heard a loud thump and glass and wood breaking, accompanied by a scream of pain. The sound came from the reception area of the store, where Lucca was talking to the owner of the store. When I went there, what I feared most was happening: Lucca was on top of the man while beating him with deadly punches.