Tristanne climbed in behind her, hauling her up, pulling out rope to secure the woman’s hands and feet and depositing her on one of the seats.
All the while, the Cowntess sputtered and called Haid names.
Haid was gaping at Sefoni’s bosom, slack-jawed, and his eyes were cloudy. It reminded Sefoni of when they were on the cainlach together, but they weren’t together now, and she didn’t like it. She wanted to cover herself.
“Give me your jacket,” she snapped at Haid.
“Oh,” said Haid, climbing into the carriage as Tristanne climbed out. “That’s a brilliant idea.” He shrugged out of it and handed it over.
She pulled it on, but it wouldn’t button over her bosom, because she was apparently broader than Haid was in this part of her body. “Blazes,” she muttered, trying to hold it closed.
“Why would you kidnap me?” said the Cowntess. “For ransom? Are you daft?”
Haid sat down next to Sefoni. He laid his head on her shoulder. “Her voice. It’s so grating.” He sounded sleepy and intoxicated. There was a lilt to his voice that was unlike him. Sefoni didn’t like it.
The carriage took off.
“I have ale for you,” said Sefoni to Haid. “If you want to sleep off the iubilia.”
“Mmm…” Haid’s head slid down into her lap. “Seems like overkill. I’m going to fall asleep anyway.”
The Cowntess’s mouth twisted. She struggled at her bonds.
Sefoni sneered at her. “Give me an excuse to burn you. I really want to burn you.”
The Cowntess blanched, and Sefoni felt something rise in her at the sight of it. Maybe it was because of Haid right now, obviously incapacitated and out of his head, and how that worried her, or maybe it was just because she hated the Cowntess, or maybe it was some other thing, some separate aspect of herself that had been slumbering for all this time, but… well, she couldn’t say she disliked being feared.
In her lap, Haid snickered. “Oh, Yvain, your face. I can’t help it. It’s comical.”
“Stop it.” Sefoni poked him.
He twisted his head to look up at her. “Have I made you angry? It’s about time. I can think of twenty things I’ve done that should have made you angry, and now—”
“Drink the blazing ale if you can’t keep your mouth shut,” she said to him.
He groaned and settled his head back into her lap, using her thigh as a pillow.
The Cowntess surveyed them. “You two look cozy.”
“I don’t want you to speak either,” said Sefoni to the woman.
“It’s not the picture you painted, then, either of you,” said the Cowntess. “You deceived me and I fell for it. I’m an idiot. Of course, there are no ‘performance’ issues. Look at your tits, for the sake of the blazes.”
“Got her with child, in fact,” said Haid, snickering again.
“Shut. Up.” Sefoni poked him again. “I will pour the ale down your throat, Haid Vortinen, and don’t think I won’t.”
“Truly?” said the Cowntess.
“I’ll burn your tongue from your mouth,” said Sefoni.
“Oh, love,” said Haid. “Don’t do that. Not yet, if you don’t mind.”
Sefoni glared at him.
“I have to say, I like it when you’re angry,” he said, his voice dipping down into his deeper register, which usually stirred things within her, but now only made her feel horrified.
The carriage came to a stop.
Sefoni knew this was because they were at the point where Tristanne and Mairli got off and handed the reins over to one of Haid’s drivers, who was going to take them the rest of the way, to Haid’s country estate. Pairce and Cadon, in another carriage with all the luggage, would be following behind them.
But the Cowntess seemed to think that they were going to get out, and she looked towards the doors, waiting for them to open.
“You’re magnificent,” Haid slurred.
“Haid…” Sefoni’s tone pleaded with him.
“Everything about you is—” He cut off as the carriage started to move again.
“What’s going on?” The Cowntess’s voice was shrill.
“Is wondrous,” Haid continued. “When I saw you the first time, I didn’t let myself want you, not the way I wanted to want you, but now… I can’t seem to help myself. I have no control when it comes to you, it seems, and—”
“Haid, please stop,” said Sefoni. She was going to have to force-feed him the ale, wasn’t she? Where was it? She tried to bend forward to feel around on the floor, where she’d set the bottle, but it was hard to move around Haid, lying in her lap, to say nothing of her dress, which would easily expose her if she wasn’t careful.
“I would pay that no mind,” said the Cowntess. “I can’t tell you the number of times he told me I was magnificent.”
Sefoni stiffened, glaring at the Cowntess.
Haid emitted a low groan that was almost a growl.
“It’s the iubilia,” the Cowntess said. “It makes his tongue loose. Shall I tell you the other things I taught him to do with his tongue?”
Sefoni’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
“Next time he’s between your legs, think of me, won’t you?” The Cowntess gave Sefoni a nasty smile.
Sefoni pushed Haid off her lap and launched herself across the carriage. She pressed four glowing fingers under the Cowntess’s chin.
The woman let out a throaty scream of pain.
Sefoni pulled her hand back. “Shut up.” She collapsed back onto her side of the carriage.
Haid was crumpled into the corner of the seat. “Magnificent,” he breathed.
Sefoni reached down and found the bottle of ale.
“She’s wrong about teaching me things,” Haid added casually. “She didn’t care what I did, it was more about what she did, and that mostly involved drawing blood.”
Sefoni was horrified. She shook her head at him.
The Cowntess was gingerly touching her burned skin, tears in her eyes, teeth gritted. “He begged me for it.”
“She forced me to beg,” said Haid, but he said this to the Cowntess.
“No one forced you to come to me in the first place,” said the Cowntess. “And you did want it. What I said before about craving punishment, it’s true.”
“Give her the ale,” said Haid darkly. “Then you and I will have some privacy.” He turned his gaze on Sefoni.
“Y-you can’t think that I want… with her there, and you out of your mind on iubilia?” Sefoni was incredulous. She opened the ale bottle and thrust it at him.
“I don’t want it,” said Haid.
“You want to feel the iubilia,” accused Sefoni.
Haid sniffed. He didn’t deny it.
“Drink it,” she said, drawing herself up, glaring down at him.
His lips parted, and he gazed at her with wide eyes. Then, wordlessly, he took the bottle and drank it down.
“Good,” said Sefoni.
“Can I put my head back in your lap?” His voice was very small.
She sighed. “I suppose.”
“Thank you.” He crawled back over to her. He was asleep against her in moments.
Now, it was just Sefoni and the Cowntess.
The woman was still gingerly handling her burned chin.
Sefoni pointed at her. “Nothing else from you, or I do that again. I will cover your body in burns if you can’t stay quiet.”
The Cowntess gave her a look of pure hatred, but she didn’t say anything.
Sefoni leaned back in her seat, shutting her eyes.
For a long time, it was silent.
They drove out of the city and the lights from the street lamps faded away. Now, it was very dark in the carriage, and Sefoni could only see the outline of the Cowntess across from her, whenever she opened her eyes to look, that was, which she did from time to time, just to make sure the woman hadn’t somehow gotten free of the ropes that bound her.
Eventually, though, the Cow
ntess spoke again.
“He’s broken, as you said.”
“I told you not to speak.”
“When you came to me in order to give your ‘seamstress’ access to my house, you accused me of breaking him,” said the Cowntess. “He was broken far before he came to me. He wanted me to finish the task, and I tried to oblige him, but now, apparently, he wants it to be you.”
“That’s not true,” said Sefoni. “He’s better now.”
“He likes women who can master him,” said the Cowntess.
Sefoni thought of the way that Haid looked at her whenever she beat him at shanj.
“He likes women who have power over him,” she continued. “He’s drawn to you like a moth to the flame. Your flame. He wants you to burn him to ash. And if you’re really carrying his child—”
“I don’t want to hear your voice,” said Sefoni in a low, even tone. “I don’t know how I could have been more clear when I said it before. I would be burning you now if I didn’t have to dislodge him to get to you, but another word, and I will not hesitate.”
Nothing from the Cowntess.
She’d said her piece, and it settled sourly in Sefoni’s mind, even though she tried to argue with it. There was nothing odd about Haid liking it when she beat him at shanj. She beat men at shanj all the time, and they never seemed threatened by it. It wasn’t that way, because they didn’t see her as their equal. She knew that. She wasn’t a ‘real’ shanj player, she was a novelty, the female shanj player with the huge bosom. They liked her the way they liked an entertainer or a performer. Being beaten by her was an evening’s diversion.
Of course, it wasn’t that way with Haid. He didn’t see her that way.
Even so, he didn’t see her as an equal, either. He saw her as a tool, or perhaps a shanj piece to be moved around his board. He used her.
As much as that displeased her, it was a good thing to know, because it disproved the Cowntess’s theory. It meant that he thought of himself as superior to her, not inferior, not like the Cowntess was saying. Haid didn’t want to be destroyed.
He’d told her it was that way before, but that he’d realized that if he continued down that path, it would be as if his father had killed him anyway, if he hadn’t survived.
He wanted to survive.
He didn’t want to be destroyed.
But she wasn’t entirely sure why she was trying so hard to convince herself of that, or why she pondered it for so long, because she did.
They rode through the night and into the dawn. She would have liked to sleep, but she was frightened to do so, because she wanted to keep an eye on the Cowntess, who mercifully kept quiet for the rest of the journey.
When they arrived at the country house in the midmorning, Sefoni got her first sight of it in the autumn sunlight, and she couldn’t say she was impressed.
The house was huge. It was in the style of the old fortresses, which meant that it was essentially a big stone rectangle in the midst of the grounds. It had tiny, narrow windows that ran in rows around its three stories, and there were two turrets, one on the east side and one on the west side, which looked down over the countryside.
There had once been a garden that had been tended in the grounds surrounding the drive that lead to the front door, but it had fallen into tangled disrepair. There was even a fountain, depicting a charioteer rising out of flames, and it was choked with vines and weeds.
Of course, since it was autumn, everything was browned and dying, which had the effect of making it all the more depressing.
And I am mistress of this, she thought ruefully.
At their approach, two servants had come out to greet the carriages. The man and woman stood close, probably husband and wife, and they were likely in their mid-forties. They were quite surprised to see them.
“My husband didn’t send word he was coming?” said Sefoni. She had disembarked the carriage but left Haid and the Cowntess inside. Haid was still asleep and the Cowntess was better left where she was.
“No,” said the woman. “Your husband, you say? We had heard that the master married. You are the new deucess then?”
“I am,” said Sefoni, looking about.
“It’s a pleasure to meet Your Grace,” said the man. “We are Maister and Maisses Yeine.”
“And you are the only servants here?” said Sefoni.
“Well, no one has occupied the place in a decade,” said Maister Yeine. “It would have been foolish to keep a full staff here. The duex indicated he would never come back.”
“Where is he, by the way?” said Maisses Yeine, “or has he sent you on alone?”
“No, he’s here,” said Sefoni. “He’s asleep.” She rubbed her forehead. “All right, well, the most pressing matter is to get our prisoner into the dungeon, and to also load a coffin to a room down there as well. If Maister Yeine and the drivers can handle that, then perhaps I can assist Maisses Yeine in making up two beds, one for our guest Maisses Givons and another for my husband and myself. I won’t ask you to do more. It is too much until we can hire other servants.”
Also, she was going to have to send for her maid. She had known that she couldn’t bring the woman along with the Cowntess—too dangerous—but she had thought she’d have the use of servants here at the estate to help her until the arrival of her maid.
“Very good, Your Grace,” said Maisses Yeine.
Then they set about discussing the ins and outs of what needed to be accomplished. A bed would also need to be made for Cadon, of course, but assuming he’d slept on the way here, that might be left until the evening, and perhaps Pairce’s as well.
Sefoni, however, needed to rest now. She was practically falling asleep on her feet.
She yawned as she went into the house for the first time, but upon entering, she was too shocked to yawn any longer.
She knew Haid hadn’t been here in a long time, and that he hadn’t tended to the place, but it was…
The entryway was bare stone, and there were empty hooks on the walls, as if paintings or portraits had once hung from them. However, now there was nothing on any of the walls, and there was nothing on the floor, just bare stone. Cobwebs clung to the corners and to the stairs that ascended in the middle of the room. Some of the stone was covered in a thin film of something green, something growing.
And that was what she smelled—mildew and rot and age.
She let out a little gasp.
“Apologies, Your Grace,” said Maisses Yeine. “But it’s been a bit too much for my husband and I to keep up with. The house is so large.”
“The artwork that hung here?” said Sefoni. “You took it down to keep it safe in storage somewhere?”
“No,” said Maister Yeine. “That was all carted away by the Deux of Madigain a decade ago.”
“Oh, of course,” she breathed. He had won everything from Haid’s father, making him a pauper with land and a title, nothing more. An awful thought occurred to her. “There are beds to be made up, aren’t there? Did Madigain take the beds and the linens and everything?”
“There are beds,” said Maisses Yeine. “Don’t worry. We can have fires going and everything quite cheery in no time.” She gave her a reassuring smile, but Sefoni didn’t feel reassured.
First things first, she must remove this dreadful dress. She would have liked to wash as well—a soak in a warm bath sounded quite welcome—but that would have to wait.
Her trunk had been brought inside the entryway, but it hadn’t been taken up the stairs yet. Sefoni held what passed for a bodice of her current dress in place while she dug through it herself and found another dress to put on.
Luckily, the dress she was wearing came off very easily, and the dress she’d pulled out buttoned up the front. She was able to change without any assistance.
Now able to move without fear of exposing her naked skin, Sefoni helped as best she could as the Cowntess was dragged to the dungeon, which was in the same sort of shape as the rest of the place, moldy an
d damp and full of insects and cobwebs. She was locked into a cell.
Then Cadon’s coffin was brought down to another cell, and he was able to get out and stretch and move about. He confirmed that he’d slept, and that he did not need a bed a yet. They left his cell open, though Sefoni couldn’t help but wonder if that was foolish. What if a stray bit of fire somehow triggered one of his rages?
However, she knew Pairce would not consent to his being locked away, and so she said nothing.
Pairce said she would stay with Cadon, and that she was in no need of a bed being made up for her until nightfall, having also slept in the carriage.
Since it was only one bed to be made, Sefoni consented to sit in the sitting room downstairs instead of helping Maisses Yeine. The sitting room had been kept in reasonable repair and a fire was burning there. Haid was brought in—still sleeping off the ale—and laid out on a couch. Sefoni was brought bread and salted meat and tea with which to break her fast.
When she saw the food, she realized she was starving, and she ate hungrily. By the time she was done, her bedroom was ready.
There seemed no point in moving Haid from his couch, where he was resting easily, so she ascended the stairs without him and was brought to the room that had been made up for them both—which had likely been Haid’s father’s old room, judging from the size of it. It was empty, more hooks on the walls showing what had once been, and only one threadbare rug on the floor on one side of the bed.
Though the bed was large, in the vast, empty room it looked small. And even though a fire had been started in the room, its heat had not yet warmed the large room. The place also smelled of mold and the air was damp.
Sefoni was too tired to care, however.
She fell into bed, wrapping herself in blankets, and she was asleep immediately.
CHAPTER NINE
PAIRCE SPEND THE morning going to fetch things to make Cadon’s room more comfortable. She didn’t like the idea of his being in a dungeon, and she wanted to make it as little like a cell as possible.
Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of things in the house. It was quite spare, almost everything having been stripped away by Madigain years ago. The place was depressing, wet, and dark, and she understood why Haid never came here.
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