And maybe — maybe — it was high time for someone to care forhim.
“Are we close to Dusbury now?” Rosa asked, lifting her chin, wiping at her wet cheeks. “Will we get there today?”
“Before noontide,” Simon said, his voice curt. “If woman’s little legs keep up.”
Rosa flashed him the same lewd gesture Salvi had used earlier, but felt her head again nodding, her determination circling tight. John had fucked up, but so had she. And she was going to take care of it. She was going to take care of the people, the home, thelife, they both cared about.
My deeds, and my wishes, are my own.
“Good,” she said firmly. “Then I want you to take me to the north side of town. I’m paying a long-overdue visit to Lady Scall.”
34
If Lady Scall was shocked by the sudden appearance of a muddy, bloody librarian in her fine sitting-room, she certainly didn’t show it.
“To what do I owe this… call?” she said, once she’d shut the door behind them, and glided to sit in an overstuffed chair across the room. She was wearing a simple riding-dress, rather than the exquisite confection she’d sported last time they’d met, though the look on her face was perhaps just as pinched, just as disapproving.
But Rosa had spent weeks in Orc Mountain, dealing with unnerving and cantankerous orcs on a daily basis. And after that, it felt almost easy to hold her eyes to Lady Scall’s, to speak.
“I need to talk to you,” she said. “About Lord Kaspar.”
Lady Scall’s eyebrows arched up, her manicured hands folding together in her lap. “Do you.”
“Yes,” Rosa said firmly. “You ought to know that Lord Kaspar’s been sleeping with me. Since I was fifteen. He came to my school, and” — she took a deep breath — “told the headmaster he needed someone small and unobtrusive to help him in his library. He picked me out of alineup.”
Lady Scall’s face was a mask, suddenly, impossible to read, but this was Rosa’s truth, she was speaking it, she could. “At first, I thought he loved me,” she continued, with a bitter little laugh. “He let me believe that — wanted me to believe that. But then I learned the truth. I was just one of many, many women. He sleeps with his housemaids. With his acquaintances. With courtesans. He has multiple mistresses. Multiple illegitimate children that he refuses to recognize or support.”
Lady Scall still hadn’t moved, or acknowledged any of this, and Rosa drew in more breath, more truth. “But Iamstill special to him,” she said, quieter. “Enough that he told me, that day he brought you to the library, that he would never give me up once he married you. Because” — Rosa swallowed hard, she could say it — “I’m small, and obliging, and good with my mouth. But most of all, because I’ve been researching and writing most of his academic papers for the past half-decade.”
Lady Scall’s face had begun to look rather pale, but Rosa wasn’t done. “I recently went on an unexpected journey,” she said, “without telling Lord Kaspar exactly where I’d gone. And do you know what he did? He somehow rustled up two entire regiments, and rode there to rescue me. Not, I assure you” — she grimaced at the floor — “because he missed me that much. But because I was supposed to be writing the biggest paper of his career.”
It almost hurt to say that last bit, because even now, part of Rosa had hoped that Lord Kaspar had truly cared, in some small way — but she’d had far too much time to think these past days, and to put together just what must have happened. Susan must have told Southall of John’s appearance in the library, and then Rosa’s sudden disappearance. Rosa’s research — her books, her treatises, her papers — had all been left behind. And while Rosa’s letters had sought to explain the situation, they’d been admittedly vague, and hastily written, and had likely been easily dismissed as being penned under duress. At the command of a cruel orc kidnapper, determined to foil Lord Kaspar’s research, and his war.
Which had, perhaps, been at least a partial truth. Perhaps Johnhadcome to the library with the express intent of seducing her. And while the thought of that still clutched painfully in Rosa’s belly, she couldn’t even seem to muster the outrage anymore. This war was unjust. The men had been breaking the treaty, again and again, and had done so before Rosa’s very eyes. And John would give all to keep safe those he cared for.
“The last time Kaspar wrote me,” Lady Scall’s voice finally said, very even, “he told me he’d been sent toOrc Mountain.”
Her eyes were narrow on Rosa’s, the challenge of those words clear in the air between them, and Rosa nodded, slow. Truth.
“Yes,” she said. “I indeed went to Orc Mountain. Would you like to hear how it happened?”
Lady Scall gave a jerky shrug, which Rosa took as a yes — so she sucked in a breath, and launched into the whole tale from the start. Finding John in the library. Her research, their frantic pleasure together, the bitter reality of the next morning. The escape. The mountain.
She spoke with as much coherency and urgency as she could muster, almost as though this were another scholarly presentation, perhaps the most crucial one of her life. She needed to convince Lady Scall. She needed to take care of John. Sheneededto stop this war.
When Rosa finally finished, maybe a full hour later, her face felt flushed, her breath shallow, her hands clutched instinctively to her waist. But Lady Scall had listened without interruption, her gaze now intent, searching, piercing.
“You know, I might not have believed you,” she said abruptly, unexpectedly, “or even entertained you, or such a mad tale. If not for” — her hands twitched toward her dress pocket, and drew out a folded piece of paper — “for this.”
She jerked up to hand it over, her steps not quite steady on the plush rug, and Rosa accordingly took the paper, and unfolded it. It was a letter from — Jule?
And yes, yes, it was, and it was dated to just the day before. And it was — Rosa’s eyes scanned the page, her disbelief rising — it was a request for Lady Scall’shelp. It called upon their past friendship, and alluded to altered allegiances, and the atrocities committed by the men against their own treaty. It even introduced Rosa, suggesting that she may soon return to Dusbury, and that she was a dear friend of Jule’s, as well as a bright and clever scholar — and might Lady Scall grant her the favour of a call, and keep an open mind toward whatever she might have to say?
“It appeared on my doorstep this morning,” Lady Scall said, settling in her chair again, smoothing out her dress. “I haven’t heard from Jule in over a year, though of course I’d heard the rumours, and hoped she was still alive and well. And now —”
She waved a wobbly hand toward Rosa, her mouth tight, her eyes bright — and suddenly Rosa realized that she appeared almost on the verge of weeping. This poised, rich, beautiful woman, looking just as bared and broken as Rosa felt.
“I’m so sorry to have upset you,” Rosa said, quiet. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. But I thought it was important for you to know. Because knowledge changeseverything.”
