Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
“You think the Regent will prevail,” she said with no small amount of disgust.
“I know he will,” I told her.
“Then it is you who will see precisely what it is like to exist in this world if he does not spirit you from it when he fails,” she spat. “Until then, you cannot stand there and judge me. You have no idea.”
“I have more idea than you can imagine,” I retorted.
I immediately pulled back when her face twisted in wrath.
And pain.
“I had a love,” she bit out. “A gentle man who was gentle to me and he loved me.” She leaned my way so threateningly, Cassius moved partially in front of me. “Loved me,” she hissed. “But then, I caught the eye of the king.”
Oh no.
“He petitioned, my Coram did,” she went on angrily. “He petitioned the king to release me so he could have my hand. There is one thing I’m sure you know, my Princess Regent. You know what the king’s answer was to that.”
“Horatia,” I whispered, stunned at hearing this news and hating the hearing of it.
“And my king,” she threw her hands to the sides and continued to glare at me, “oh, how delighted he was with his new acquisition. Yes, he was.” Her expression became a sneer. “He simply could not get enough of me.”
I felt cold overtake me.
“So yes, absolutely, when Cornelia came along, I saw an opportunity,” she shared. “And yes, when she was there, I knew I would finally have some relief. So yes, absolutely yes, my Princess Regent, I contrived to offer her up. I contrived so he would turn to her and not to me. I schemed to keep her his favorite and bow her to my whim, for I had few whims available to me. And when Domitia arrived, I did the same. And I’d do it again. Make no mistake, I feel no remorse. I’d do it again and again and again.”
“You were correct,” I said carefully. “I do not understand your world.”
“You still judge,” she retorted snidely.
“I don’t,” I said softly.
It was as if she didn’t hear me when she carried on, “Living in your homes in the trees, free from tyranny. You have no idea how it feels to wake in the morning every morning and know there is no goodness to be had that day, as there was none the day before, and there will be none the day after, and yet you wake, but you wish you did not.”
I decided, belatedly, to stop speaking.
Though I did it knowing my heart was bleeding.
“Will you speak to his treatment of you and the others?” Cassius asked, his voice reserved.
“No, I will not,” she returned.
“It is not on deaf ears your words have fallen,” Cassius told her. “But you will face tribunal yourself, Horatia, if you do not agree. In what you have shared, I hope you understand that all who aid this kind of behavior must learn not to do as such.” Cassius warned. “I lament that was the life you led. But I can do naught about the past. Only your future. And your future includes a long time in this room, Horatia, if you do not agree to speak to his treatment of his wives.”
She looked side to side and declared, “It is not so very terrible here.” Her attention returned to Cassius. “Indeed, sire, a fire, a book, naught but my own company, this is paradise.”
I could imagine it was.
I was then surprised when Cassius did not relent.
“Horatia, before, you had limited choices on the actions you took to end your own suffering. But now, you have the opportunity to make the right ones. With that, and the many who will benefit, the many who will not be forced to live the existence you did, will you not make the right ones?” Cassius pressed.
“I have already told you, Your Grace,” she stated, “I feel I have been making the right ones.”
All in the room and out of it remained silent until Cass broke it.
“I am sorry all that befell you,” he said quietly.
“I am sorry, for I do not believe you, as you lived in the very same home as me, and you did naught to help me.”
I got closer to Cassius after he flinched at her words.
“I am sorry for that as well,” he shared, but he offered no excuses about the fact he was near as powerless as she.
“Your apology means nothing to me,” she spat.
Cassius took that.
But I would not allow him to absorb it.
“Did you share with him what you were enduring?” I asked.
“He knew,” she returned.
Maybe he did.
But at his response to what he saw happening to Domitia, I had a sense he did not.
“It is my understanding he had as little to do with his father as he could,” I noted, not entirely pleased with myself she conceded that with her expression, though I hoped Cassius caught it. “It is also my understanding he was but a boy when you came to the Citadel.”