Redstone: Sanctuaries
Chapter 13: Intimacy

Blake smiled looking at the bracelet he was carrying. All of them consist of molars glued together with some sort of clear glue, forming a rigid ring of bracelets. From afar, it looks at first glance like an ordinary bead bracelet.

A few minutes ago, as soon as Blake showed his bracelet, a waiter came and whispered something into Jose's ear. Whatever the news was, it clearly made the marquis happy as his smile widened and his black eyeballs flashed like children got new toys. Jose leaves, but asks Blake and Lucy to wait for him as he will only be away for a while.

Now there is only Lucy and Blake in the spacious guest room. Plush pastry dishes and hot tea were served at the guest table, but Blake was not interested. He walked around the room, looking at every corner of the decor.

"Why didn't you ever tell me this was all his trap?" ask Lucy from where she is sitting. He also did not touch the dishes on the table.

"I wasn't sure" Blake said. "And he wasn't fooling around, he could indeed read if someone was lying to him."

"You mean?"

"I was just bragging" Blake said in a low whisper. He just circled the room not to play around, this room is not soundproof. Blake turned back to the sitting room, choosing the single sofa that had been occupied by Jose. "I didn't kill anyone, but I know he did send people to spy on us. He is known as the only clean-handed Argent. I thought if I provoked him with death, he'd falter." Blake shrugged his shoulders. "From his reaction, he knew I was lying."

"I'm dizzy" Lucy admitted. "Can you speak human language?"

Blake grimacing. "The point is, I'm right but I don't have any proof. So I tried to provoke him to help myself, but he didn't react. He needs my help, that's true too. But he didn't want to just ask her for it because it would make him lose face."

"Because he kidnapped Devon?"

"Therefore he's trying to trap us with rumors of a golden ducat" Blake corrected. "But about Devon, he doesn't know. You yourself heard that he wasn't lying, right?"

Lucy squeaks. "I don't trust him anymore. He can manipulate answers."

Blake was happy to hear that. She'd rather Lucy hate Jose. "At least he told us things we didn't know about your abilities before. I never thought I'd get there."

Lucy nodded softly, her thin cheeks blushing slightly. "I don't think you're really looking for Devon."

Blake stroked the arm of the sofa, observing its velvety texture. "Where possible," he murmured. He doesn't understand where Lucy's worries come from. The girl was with him for a very long time, seeing him easily break off the relationship, leaving behind useless comrades, killing people in the internal circle. They were seven, now there are three. "I'm just being careful" he said.

"Then what does this have to do with the Ghost Relic? He ... arrested the smuggler?"

Blake shook. He was still wearing his pet hat, which cast a shadow onto half of the face, making his expression illegible. "Devon stole one dangerous relic."

***

"Mary's in her room?" Jose asked without looking.

"Right, sir," Weston, his personal servant, confirmed. The man walked a quick step behind Jose, following him to the east wing of the house where the master bedrooms were.

Jose could see some low-level female servants waiting at the door of Maria's room, which meant his wife was bathing inside. Jose walked in without knocking while Weston waited outside.

The ladies in the room bowed when they saw her coming in. Jose shook his hands, asking them to leave. His feet stepped into the bathroom inside the room, passing by a shocked Susan.

"The lady hasn't finished her bath yet, sir."

"I knew. Go ahead." Jose's past.

"Jose?" call Mary astonished. The brunette head looked up from between the curtains that covered her bathtub. "Want to take a shower together? The water's still hot."

"That's a very tempting invitation, but my guests are still waiting." Jose stood some distance away, focusing entirely on scented candles that were deliberately lit in many places. Maria does love to light therapy scented candles while bathing. "I was going to take you out on a smuggler's hunt, but our prey canceled it."

"No. There was another interesting thing that came, still related to the Ghost Relic that was popular. I got the tail, and Blake Krucher seemed like he was going to give me information, so I'm—"

Mary scrunched harder, playing the water in her bathtub in small chips. "You want to hang out with him, right?"

Jose nodded. "Maybe I won't be home in a few days."

"You remember we had to attend Madam Amelie's dinner, right?"

"Sure, I'll be home in time." Jose nodded slowly. Cheeks heating. "Can you stop that?" her door. "I forgot to say anything else."

"What?" reply Maria wonder. "Stop what? I don't understand what you mean." He took a soft breath from behind the curtain. The light of the candle lit up the silhouette of his body clearly.

"You breathe like that! You were on purpose, right?"

His wife giggled, then sighed again. "Now I can't breathe, can I?"

Jose turns the eyeballs, knowing that the woman was deliberately teasing him for revenge. He walked over, flipping the bath curtain to touch Mary. Instead of a kiss, all he received was a big splash of water. Jose jumped back, but got hit. He nodded slowly while rubbing his wet face.

"Enak just want to get close," Maria laughed amusedly. He pulled his bathrobe and jumped out of the bathtub. "So hug your job!"

Thanks to the water, Jose remembered what else he wanted to say. "We're invited to the palace in three months, the invitation is in my study."

"For what?" Maria tied up her bathrobe and grabbed a towel to dry Jose's face. "A party or an official meeting? Wait ... us? I was invited too?"

"Yes." Yeah." Jose smiled a little, the kind of smile that Maria was very familiar with. Her husband always smiled like that whenever they would get into trouble. "Maybe we'll be slaughtered there."

Jose's appointment as a marquis drew criticism from many nobles. The marquis is the leader of the border region, therefore the chosen ones are generally warlords. The one who can lead the soldiers. A person who clearly has military, political, or economic abilities.

Jose doesn't have any of that.

Maria heard rumors that there was a faction of nobles who petitioned to renounce the title of Jose.

"Your Majesty won't help, so I can only rely on myself tomorrow." Jose took a breath. He hugged Mary's waist, landed his forehead on the woman's forehead, closing his eyes. "If there's no big result I can show you in three months, we'll obviously be wiped out."

Of course the point is to be socially eliminated, Maria knows that. He rubbed Jose's arm gently. The problems at Redstone are too many to decide where to finish. One problem is related to another problem. While trying to build, Jose will be faced with thugs and rebellious gangs. While trying to tackle the problem of smuggling, corruption and bureaucratic rot get in the way. If trying to overcome deep-rooted corruption, Jose is scuttered with various slanders and attacked personally. Over the past year, Jose has tried his hardest to build things, but always failed. Maria knew there was a certain party who deliberately scuttle them from behind the shadows.

"Sorry," Jose murmured softly, feeling foolish for even complaining to his wife. Mary had the same heavy burden because she was always faced with insinuations and enmities veiled behind the sweet words of the noble daughters.

"Sorry for what?" Maria relaxed, rubbing the towel she carried onto Jose's face. "If you're sorry for leaving me so often, make up for dating dong."

"Oh, definitely." Jose laughs. He kissed Mary on the forehead, lingering on the fragrance of the wet brown hair. "To where? Just pick whichever place you like."

"Since we're off hunting tonight, you're gonna have to find another hunt."

A smile rose warmly on Jose's lips. "Easy!"

***