I fought to keep my composure, to swallow the revulsion clawing at my throat.
I was to belong to this…
This wretched husk of a man.
And no one—not even the father who had cast me aside—would save me.
Lord Winston raised a trembling hand to adjust the brocade jacket draped over his stooped shoulders as if the act could summon back a dignity long since lost.His fingers, gnarled and knotted like the roots of an ancient, dying tree, twitched with palsy’s tremors, making the simple movement seem Herculean.The veins that webbed his hands stood out starkly, blue rivers in the pale parchment of his skin.Each blackened fingernail curled unnaturally over its fingertip, clicking softly against the fabric of his coat like brittle talons.
He shuffled forward, his steps slow, laborious, as if dragging unseen chains forged by the weight of the years.His spine, curved into a permanent question mark, seemed to ask how much longer he could bear the burden of existence.His limbs bent at odd angles, his joints stiff and uncooperative, giving him the unsettling appearance of a marionette barely held together by fraying strings.
Revulsion and pity warred within me.
Once, perhaps, he had been a man who commanded attention, a figure of authority whose arrival alone was enough to silence a room.But now, no finery could mask the truth—he was little more than a hollow shell, a dying relic of a past gilded in wealth and power.The extravagant velvet of his coat, the lace at his throat, and the glint of polished brass buttons could not disguise the decay.His attire, meant to signal status and strength, only whispered of ruin, of the inexorable decline that came for all men, regardless of title or fortune.
I watched, transfixed by the tragedy unfolding before me.
A decayed nobleman swathed in the remnants of his former glory.A ghost haunting the world that had long since moved on without him.
And soon, I was to be bound to that ghost.
Condemned to wither beside him, trapped in his shadow, my life razed by the same emptiness that had hollowed him out.
The thought sent a tremor through me, a silent scream building in my chest.
But there was no one left to hear it.
Lord Winston moved suddenly, a lurching, unnatural motion, as though some unseen puppeteer had yanked his strings.His decayed features twisted into something vilely eager, a parody of joy stretching across his withered face.
“Oh, my dear Lady Alexander.What a surprise!I didn’t know you were here,” he crooned, his voice thin and rasping, like dead leaves scraping against stone.
Before I could recoil, his icy, skeletal fingers clamped around mine.My skin crawled beneath his touch as he dragged my hand to his parched lips, pressing them against my flesh in a mockery of affection.His chill seeped into my bones, a sensation so wrong and revolting that my body reacted before my mind could catch up.
I ripped my hand away, nausea clawing at my stomach.
His eyes widened, surprise flickering across his sallow features—just for a moment.Then the confusion melted into something darker, something more insidious.
“You’ll learn to love me,” he murmured, his voice thick with certainty.“I can’t wait for the two months to fly by.”
The words echoed hollowly in my ears, warping as panic surged inside me.My head shook back and forth in silent rebellion, like a weathervane caught in an errant gust.
No.
This could not be happening.
His gaze hardened, locking onto me with the crushing weight of an iron vice.
“Make no mistake, dear one,” he said, his tone now cold steel wrapped in velvet.“We are to be married.I have paid your father greatly for this transaction to take place.”
A transaction.
That was all I was—a purchase, a bartered possession.
“And if you’re not obedient—if you do not comply with my every request—when we are married, I will punish you.”
The room seemed to shrink around me, the air growing thick and heavy, pressing against my ribs.
He leaned in, his cracked lips curling into a sneer.“And if you dare to defy me,” he whispered, his breath rancid, “I will make sure your father hears about it… and he will punish you more severely.”
