Chapter 13: A Precarious Elixir
The satisfaction that clung to me after having stripped some of Kitten's barriers was long lived. After she fell asleep in my arms from the physical exertion, I untied her wrists and carried her in my arms. I placed her back in her corner of the room. The light from the furnace was beginning to die out but I could make out her features in the meager glow of light. I saw the marks that my rope had made and how it indented into her skin, I had taken off the white slip she wore and dressed her in something new from her chest of drawers that Egerton prepared that first day.
So much had change and yet so little had changed. I held a greater reverence for her in the way she persevered against me and her body. Knowing what she desired, but only breaking at the end point. Her strength made my eyes light with something that I had never felt before. I respected this woman, no matter how lowly I thought of her situation.
I turned around to leave the room but I stopped short when I saw the wine that had been spilt on my carpet. I stood looking at the deepening red against the stark white, and then turned back around. Lifting her from the ground, I walked to my bed and placed her on the sheets.
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The week that Blythe bled during the month was the week that my father was most on edge
The week that Blythe bled during the month was the week that my father was most on edge. Theo once told me if our father didn't have a woman's cunt for more than a fortnight, it would cause his heart to fail.
"Crogsworth, see to it that some whores are ready for the gala next month. I want this to be the biggest one yet." he said sipping on his whiskey and looking down at the mess of his desk. He frowned at his datebook and looked up at where I stood leaning against the door frame.
"Why haven't you left with Egerton to secure the newest batch, Micah?" His tone dipped with acrimony.
"There isn't going to be a new batch for the next couple of months" I said looking at him and speaking slow enough that he would understand my stand on this.
The stare he gave me as his facial expression slowly shifted into that of an angry bull caused both Crogsworth, Link and the attending parties of the meeting to excuse themselves and slowly shuffle out of the door. They were smart enough to know when it was not worth getting caught up in the crossfire of my father's wrath.
He spoke calmly to me, like a storm that was just on the brink of being colossal. "And why is that, son?"
I sighed and stepped inside to come closer to him. Shutting the door behind me, I walked nonchalantly in front of his table. He needed to understand my judgement on this so I planned on approaching the topic unhurriedly. "When Cherry and I attended the benefactor meeting a while ago, the counsellor advised us to hold off any upcoming raids due to the increasing amount of disappearances."
"And when, pray tell have we ever listened to what the bloody council has said?!" his voice now boomed. He gripped the whiskey glass tight in his fist and looked at me with raw mortification.
"When the company is in jeopardy." I say, my tone even and my eyes not once leaving his.
I saw it before it happened. He threw the whiskey glass across the room and it shattered against the closed door. The amber liquid inside spilled like blood from the breaking point down to the floor and bled through the carpet underneath. I didn't flinch even for a second.
My father's right eye twitched and his nostrils flared, "The company is always in jeopardy, Micah! We run a fucking illegal workshop, offering up cock and cunt by the pound. The company will never stop being in jeopardy!! Yet, we will never get caught because we will always be three steps ahead and puppeteering the public to our will. You are next in line, Micah - I will not condone this kind of foolishness!"
"Then trust me when I say that this is the fourth step, Father. Missing posters are as frequent as the daily damn newspaper, Birch and I visited a magistrate that told us the superior law had a mole somewhere in the city after a women of the court witnessed a kidnapping in the southern avenues. The pleasure districts are getting searched by the fucking day and you better believe, fat arsed Croggie has only so much power over the minds of desperate women and men who want to go home."
I saw the anger shift in my fathers eyes, and understanding slowly replace it. I knew exactly what to say to drive my message of authority home, "If she were alive, she would tell you the exact same and you know it."
My father's face flattened and all emotion swept off the ridges. He nodded softly before looking at the shattered glass on the floor. He then turned to the small framed portrait that he asked an artist to paint of my mother before the fever took her. It lay on his desk everyday and never once left it. Not even while he was fucking his whore or talking about capturing others. The thought sickened me because as much as I knew he grieved her everyday and mourned her loss more than any of us. His mind was infected with keeping her alive in ways that would insult her if she knew about them.
"Watch out for the glass on your way out." he said, but I had already turned to leave and had my hand on the door.
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I walked to the kitchen and asked Radella to give me a jar of some of the homemade honey she had brought from the farmers market
I walked to the kitchen and asked Radella to give me a jar of some of the homemade honey she had brought from the farmers market. I saw the look in her eye when I sat and looked around the pantry. I had only been in this part of the kitchen a handful of times. Likewise, with the servants quarters.
Radella disappeared behind a door leading into the cooling pantry and I looked around, watching the cooks and servants go about their work. I glanced at Radella's workspace and saw the little heart shaped leaf with a small "e" at the bottom, that looked to be etched in. When Radella approached where I was sitting, she noticed me looking at the leaf.
I turned to look at the fear in her eyes, she kept silent and looked at the ground. She passed me the honey jar with a small "Sir". She was older than me, yet she looked as innocent and naive as a young adolescent. I guess love does that to a person.
"Be careful, Radella." I sighed before leaving the kitchen and headed up the grand staircase.
Kitten had been looking at my books inquisitively when I entered the room, she gasped when she heard the door startle open and looked at me with wide doe eyes. She looked guilty and immediately fell to her knees, her head down. I looked at the bed where she slept on and saw that she had made it up, removing any trace of her from it.
"S-Sorry Master" she whispered to the floor.
I frowned, "For what?"
She gently raised her head to look at me and glanced down to my hand where I held the honey jar. She swallowed and did not answer. I saw the slight uncertainty still in her eyes and checked to see if her wrists had healed from the earlier pressure.
"Do you know how to read?" I asked to my surprise, moving toward where she knelt on the floor. I sat down in front of her and crossed my legs together. Her breathing increased and I reveled in the pure knowledge of what my proximity did to her. She nodded and I placed the honey jar in front of her.
She looked at the honey jar, dubious to my intentions. I chuckled under my breath and she instantly looked up at my face, and then down to my mouth where the sound came out from. "It's honey," I spoke "Something sweet to swallow."
Her eyes lit up and she reached for the jar, something passed her eyes when she looked down at the container. She looked up to me nervously, then she turned the lid. The smell of sweetened honeycomb filled the air between us and I heard her small stomach make a sound of want. She dipped her finger in the thick nectar and brought it to her lips. I watched as she sucked the honey from her finger and heat shot through my body.
She closed her eyes and savored the sweetness. When she opened her eyes she tilted the jar towards me, offering in her eyes. I smirked. Only she would share a confection with her captor. I shook my head and reached for her hand where her stick and wet finger raised. I dunked that same finger in the honey and brought it up to my mouth. I licked the nectar from her finger and groaned softly at the velvet feel of the honey stick to my tongue. I trailed my tongue across her soft skin and her eyes shuttered.
I'd swallow poison if it tasted like her.
It went like this for a couple of minutes, both of us feeding the other honey. She kept quiet and we were nearly halfway done with the jar when I decided to ask her, "What did you do before.. out there?"
She looked down at the ground and then back up at me, I saw the contemplation ice her eyes and I had already prepared myself for no reply. Yet, she surprised me - her voice supple "I used to work in a bakery."
I didn't know if it was the truth, but I took her small compliance anyway. "Did you enjoy it?" I was torturing both of us yet I couldn't, didn't know how to stop the words from escaping my mouth. she looked distant but she nodded.
"Tell me your name." I tried once more.
She looked up and for the first time since she got to the manor, I saw a soft smile touch her lips. She shook her head and got back to dipping her own fingers in the honey and tasting it. I knew why she wouldn't give me her name, I didn't have her trust yet. But, it was more than that.
It was the one thing she owned that I didn't.
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