Chapter 140 Chapter 140
Violet
I didn’t have a clear memory of how I left the summit or when I reached Ironcrest manor. I also didnt recall exactly who put me to bed.
But I would like to believe it was Elijah.
And even with my eyes closed, I could still feel him around myself. The dream was warm and golden, and in it I did not have to think about anything at all.
I was back on the rooftop or somewhere like it, somewhere the cold and the noise of the evening couldn't reach me. And Elijah was there as well, looking at me the way he had wanted to ravage me and did just that.
In the dream I relived the kisses, the scorching heat sizzling between us and the way he growled when I took him in my mouth. I relived the delicious torture he put me through until a knock sounded on the door. My brain mentally tried to hold on to the dream, to the memory but it began to slip away like sand the more I tried to contain it.
The knock returned again, insistent this time.
I groaned and turned away, pulling the silk sheet up to my chin, and squeezed my eyes shut.
The knock came again. Three careful, unhurried raps.
"Go away, Cassie" I said, and my voice came out rough and frayed in a way that embarrassed me.
There was a pause and I thought she had left but then a familiar voice which definitely didn’t belong to Cassie reached me.
"I beg your pardon, miss, but Lady Aurelia has requested your company for morning tea. She asked me to convey that she very much hopes you are available."
I scoffed.
How polite of her to hope I’d be available as if I wasn’t trapped in this freaking manor she proudly called home.
Dread began to settle in my heart which was merrily recalling the heated night before.
I groaned and managed to pull myself up in a sitting position.
There was no way I could say no to Lady Aurelia.
I smiled at the maid who was still at the door, waiting for an answer.
"Tell her—" I started, and then stopped, because I already knew, with a hollow and tired certainty, that there was no version of this where I sent the maid back with my regrets and Lady Aurelia simply accepted them
"Tell her I will be down shortly," I finished, and hated how easily the surrender came out.
As if I was pulled out of a dreamy fantasy, I recalled my past meeting with Lady Aurelia, her bitter tea and even bitter plan of turning her son into the monster he so proudly claimed to be.
I heard the footsteps retreat down the corridor, and then lay there for another few seconds with my eyes closed, doing nothing, before I made myself step in the bathroom.
She hadn’t asked me to be there right away, just if I was available, right? I was going to take my sweet time by taking a relaxing bath.
I slipped out of my clothes, which I didn’t remember putting on and gently lowered myself into the warm water to try and think of the answers to the questions she was most definitely going to ask me. I needed to be able to walk into that room and hold my own, or at least to hold the appearance of holding my own, which with Lady Aurelia amounted to approximately the same thing.
The problem was that my thoughts kept going to Elijah, and I kept having to drag them back.
And the hot water made me hiss as I fully submerged myself into the tub, my eyes slowly drifting down to the numerous bite marks on my body that I didn’t remember getting.
After I couldn’t just stew in thoughts anymore, I dressed carefully and looked at myself in the mirror for a long, assessing moment. I looked tired. I looked like someone who had slept in fragments and dreamed about things she shouldn't dream about and woken up into something considerably colder.
The corridors were still hushed when I made my way down through them, the household staff going about their day as I followed the route to Lady Aurelia's sitting room, forcing my legs to not bolt in the opposite direction.
By the time I reached the door and a maid opened it for me from inside, I had put on a smile.
She was seated in a plush and ornate chair like last time, one woman working at her already flawless hair while another painted her nails. Lady Aurelia sat before her dressing mirror and she met my eyes in the glass with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
"My dear Violet," she started. "I was beginning to wonder if you had lost your way in the manor given how late you are.”
I said absolutely nothing to that so she added, Please, sit — there is tea."
I didn’t want her fucking tea. But instead of saying that, I sat in the chair and accepted the cup that a maid held in front of me, and looked down at the pale, slightly murky surface of the liquid.
Just the sight of the tea turned my mouth sour even if I hadn’t even tasted it yet.
I wrapped both hands around it.
After a moment she tilted her chin while still admiring herself and said out loud, "I have always found it remarkable, you know — beauty, the particular kind that genuinely disarms people. The kind that makes otherwise rational men do rather irrational things without ever quite identifying the moment the process began."
For goodness sake, I had been here for a total of sixty second only and she had started talking in that mysterious, broody tone of hers that grated on my nerves.
She allowed a small, private smile to cross her mouth. "It is, when one considers it honestly, one of the most efficient forces in existence. Entire wars have been fought just for a beautiful face that wont even stay the same forever.”
I wasn’t sure if she was complimenting or dissing me.
I kept my face neutral and my hands steady and said nothing, because I was fairly certain I was not yet being invited to speak.
Her eyes found mine in the mirror. "That will be all," she said and then every maid in the room set down whatever she was holding, straightened, and left the room in an instant, the last one closing the door on her way out.
Lady Aurelia rose from her chair, adjusted one sleeve, and then turned to look at me directly for the first time since I'd entered.
"Drink your tea, dear," she said, gesturing toward my cup, and settled herself into the chair opposite me.
I lifted the cup and drank, because refusing would have required an explanation I didn't have, and frankly, I was dying to leave already.
Lady Aurelia watched this with what appeared to be quiet amusement. "I imagine last evening was rather tiring"
Excuse me?