Chapter 38: The Slap

Chapter 38: The Slap
Seraphine was still smiling.

"Going somewhere?" she said.

Olivia looked at the woman blocking the doorway. Then at the basket of fruits in her hands. Then back at Seraphine.

"I have duties, my Lady," she said.

"You keep saying that." Seraphine stepped into the storage room and let the door swing partially closed behind her. The smile was still there but it had changed into something with edges. "I have been patient with you. I have given you the opportunity to make a sensible decision quietly and with your dignity intact. You have chosen to walk away from me every single time."

"Because you have nothing to say that concerns me, my Lady," Olivia said.

Seraphine's eyes narrowed.

"You have until morning," she said. "Request the transfer yourself. Tell Jean you want a different posting. Tell her anything you like. But by morning you are out of the Alpha's private service or I will have you removed in a way that will follow you for the rest of your life."

Olivia looked at her steadily.

She is bluffing, Lisa said inside her. She cannot actually…

"She might not be bluffing, Lisa," Olivia said quietly.

Seraphine blinked. "What?"

"My Lady." Olivia set the basket down. "I hear everything you are saying. I have heard it every time. And I want to be honest with you because I think you deserve honesty." She met Seraphine's eyes without flinching. "I am not afraid of you."

The room went very still.

"I beg your pardon," Seraphine said softly.

"I am not afraid of you," Olivia said again. "You are powerful and well-born and everything I am not. All of that is true. But fear is something I left behind a long time ago. I have survived things that would have broken you and I say that with no unkindness." She picked up her basket. "So if you are waiting for me to tremble, my Lady, you are going to be waiting a very long time."

For one moment Seraphine said nothing at all.

Then she raised her hand and slapped Olivia across the face.

The sound cracked through the small storage room like a branch snapping.

Olivia's head turned with the force of it.

OH… Lisa started.

Olivia turned her face back.

And slapped Seraphine straight back.

Same force. Same cheek. Clean and precise and without a single moment of hesitation.

Seraphine stumbled back a step, her hand flying to her face, her eyes wide with the shock of someone who had never once in their life been hit back.

YES! Lisa screamed inside her. THAT IS IT! DO IT AGAIN…

"Lisa!" Olivia said sharply.

"What is going on here?"

Both women turned.

Harris stood in the doorway. His eyes moved from Seraphine's red cheek to Olivia's and back again. His expression was very controlled. Too controlled.

"My Lord…" Seraphine began.

"Not here," Harris said. "Come with me."

He took Seraphine by the arm and walked her to the small alcove near the east staircase where the lamps burned low and no one was passing.

He let go of her arm and looked at her.

"I asked you to leave it with me," he said.

"And you have done nothing," Seraphine said. "Time is not on my side and I do not like the way the Alpha looks at her." She sighed sharply. "She is a distraction. I cannot entertain that. Not when everyone already knows the Alpha belongs with me."

"I said I was handling it."

"You are delaying it." Her voice was sharp. "I want her gone by morning. If you will not do it then I will, and I will not be gentle about it."

Harris looked at her for a long moment.

"You slapped the Alpha's maidservant," he said. "In his own palace."

"She slapped me back…"

"Because you slapped her first." He tilted his head. "Do you understand what the Alpha does to people who touch what belongs to him?"

"She does not belong to him," Seraphine said. "She is a servant."

"Then stop treating her like a threat." His voice dropped very low. "Do not go near her again. If you touch her a second time I will personally make sure Josh never looks your way. Whether Olivia is in the picture or not, Josh will not choose you. I have that kind of influence and you know I do."

Something moved across Seraphine's face. Calculation. Then something colder.

"You are protecting her," she said. "Why?"

"I am protecting you," Harris said. "From doing something that cannot be undone."

Seraphine straightened her dress, lifted her chin, and walked away without another word.

Harris watched her go. Then he turned back toward the storage room.

++++

Olivia had returned the basket to the kitchen and came back for the juicer when Harris appeared in the doorway. Her cheek was still faintly red.

She looked up. "My Lord."

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She blinked. It was clearly not the question she had expected. "Yes. I am fine."

Harris looked at her cheek. Something moved across his face that he did not manage to hide in time.

"You should put something cold on that," he said.

"Thank you for your concern, my Lord," Olivia said. "But it is nothing compared to what I have endured before."

Harris knew that. More than she realised.

"The past is the past," he said quietly. "This is the present. And Josh will notice."

"It is nothing, my Lord," Olivia insisted.

He stepped back to let her pass. She walked by him then stopped and turned back.

"My Lord," she said carefully. "Why did you…" She stopped. Looked at him. Decided something. "Never mind. Thank you."

She walked back to the kitchen.

Harris stood alone in the corridor and listened to her footsteps fade. His wolf was doing that thing again. He pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose and said nothing to it.

++++

Debby found Jean in the upper hallway just before supper.

"Mother Jean," she said quietly. "Something happened this afternoon that I think you should know about."

Jean looked at her. "Speak."

"Lady Seraphine," Debby said. "And Olivia."

She told her everything.

++++

Josh was in his study when Jean knocked and entered. She stood with her hands folded and told him everything Debby had told her. The corridor confrontations. The storage room. The slap.

She did not embellish. She did not soften it.

Josh listened without interrupting.

When Jean finished the room was very quiet.

"Thank you, Jean," he said.

She bowed and left.

Josh sat alone. He picked up his pen. Set it down. Looked at the wall.

Then he called for his beta.

"Dan."

"Your majesty."

"Tell Lord Adler I would like a word with him this evening." A pause. "Not Lady Seraphine. Her father."

Dan looked at him for just a moment.

"Yes, your majesty," he said.