“So if you trulychoseto go to Orc Mountain,” he said, very evenly, as he reached into his coat pocket, “then what thefuckdid you mean bythis?!”
This. It was a letter. One that looked very familiar, and when Lord Kaspar snapped it open, Rosa’s heart clenched at the glimpse of her own script, written in neat lines across the page.
“To Lord Kaspar,” he read aloud, in a crisp voice. “I write to inform you that I will not be returning to Dusbury, or to my work at the library. I have found a new life, with new work, new friends, and a new partner who truly respects and cares for me. I do not expect we will meet again. Farewell.”
Rosa swallowed, but didn’t move, and Lord Kaspar tossed the letter onto the lending desk, and came another step closer. “I’ve spent almosttwo weekscamped at that hovel, trying torescueyou,” he hissed. “And for myextraordinaryefforts on your behalf, I get this?! What the hell kind of game are you playing, Rosa! Did the orcsforceyou to write that?!”
There was a slight waver in his voice, something Rosa couldn’t ever recall hearing from him before, and she made herself hold his gaze, take a thick breath. She could speak truth. She could.
“The orcs didn’t force me to do anything,” she said, quiet but sure. “The letter was true. I was happy there. I wanted to stay.”
Lord Kaspar’s eyes goggled at her, his mouth dropping open, and he sharply shook his head, as though he’d badly misheard. “You wanted tostay,” he repeated, enunciating each word. “With the orcs. With this —partner. Anorc. Who, I presume, has also beenfuckingyou this entire time?!”
Rosa wasn’t talking about that with Lord Kaspar, she wouldnot— but the look on her face must have spoken anyway, because he gaped at her for another hurtling instant, the disgust and disdain flaring across his furious eyes.
“Good gods, Rosa,” he said, as he lurched another step closer. “Have you lost your fuckingmind? You deliberately misunderstand my orders, you humiliate me, you waste two weeks of myextremelybusy life — and now you spout off with this utterinsanity?! You wanted to leave me, alord, so you could go live inOrc Mountain, and fuck a disgusting illiteratebeast?!”
His hand snapped out as he spoke, grasping tight at Rosa’s chin. “Last chance, you fool wench,” he said flatly. “You need to get on your knees, right now, andbegme for my mercy. And you also need to present me with a research paper so explosive, it will blow that entire fucking mountain toash, without my lifting another fuckingfinger!”
The fear that had been pooling in Rosa’s belly was steadily rising, clanging against her chest — but deeper still was her own determination, her own fusing contempt. And beyond that, somewhere, was — John. John, still here, in the library, hiding, listening, waiting. And no matter what happened here, John would keep her safe. Hewould.
“Look, I’m sorry if I’ve alarmed you, or wasted your time,” Rosa said finally, to Lord Kaspar’s furious eyes. “But I will not beg you foranything. Because” — truth,truth— “this needs to be over, between us. It should have been over long ago, once I realized what it truly was. You’ve been manipulating me, and taking advantage of me, for years. It’sfinished.”
The shock in his eyes felt visceral, truly aghast, as though no one had dared speak such things to him before — and before he could counter it, Rosa kept going, getting it out. “And I don’t have a research paper for you,” she said firmly. “I don’t have any new information, any new atrocities or scandals. The orcs are not what we say they are. They are different, yes, with a different culture, a different language, a different way of living together. Butnoneof it was worth a war.Noneof it is worth breaking this treaty.”
Lord Kaspar was still staring, his hand gone slack on Rosa’s chin, and she drew in more breath, more courage. “Wehumansare the ones breaking the treaty,” she said. “I saw it with my own eyes. I witnessed multiple acts of unwarranted aggression against orcs, and heard reliable accounts of many more. It needs to stop.Youneed to stop it.”
There was a strange twitch on Lord Kaspar’s face, in the clutch of his fingers on her skin. “Do I,” he replied, his voice thick. “Do explainhow, Rosa.”
A sudden, skittering hope whispered in Rosa’s gut, and she held his eyes, made her voice as convincing as she could. “You need to go to your father,” she said, “and the other lords on that Council, and tell them just what I’ve told you. There are no atrocities. There’s been no new aggression from the orcs.We’rethe oppressors.We’rethe ones who have been breaking the treaty. This foolish attempt at another war is a complete waste of your time and money, and there are far more important matters to address. Like” — she squared her shoulders — “taking care of the peasants like me across the realm who’ve been suffering foryears, thanks to the nobility’s neglect and injustice and cruelty and greed.Thatis the true atrocity here.Thatis the scandal.Notthe orcs.”
Lord Kaspar’s face convulsed again, twisting into something Rosa didn’t recognize, and for another hurtling instant the hope rose, stretched, spread wide — and then spattered into dust, as Lord Kaspar laughed.Laughed, with true, brilliant, callous mirth dancing across his lovely eyes.
“Oh,Rosa,” he said, between guffaws. “You truly have lost your silly little mind. I suppose the orcs fucking you likely broke your sanity altogether. I should have known better” — his laughter faded, his head tilting — “than to expect true mental fortitude from an ill-bred peasant woman, no matter how clever you pretended to be.”
His eyes had narrowed slightly, his hand gripping tighter on her face. Sparking the fear again, raw and virulent, shuddering under Rosa’s skin.
“But,” he said slowly, “perhaps you could still be of use to me, after all. Perhaps I could present you as an exhibit of what happens when a woman is stolen and brutalized by orcs. Perhapsyoucan be my atrocity, my empty-headed little darling. And surely” — his other hand came up, and brushed at her lips — “your deep little throat still works, I presume? As long as the orcs haven’t broken that, too?”
His voice was light, like this was all suddenly a good joke. LikeRosawas a joke, a tool, an empty vessel for his amusement. Which, perhaps, she always had been, all this time.
“Why don’t we give it a try, darling,” he said smoothly. “Gods know I need a decent blow, after all this. And who knows, maybe a good deep-throating will clear some of the fog from your pretty little head.”
He roughly released Rosa’s chin, in favour of reaching to pluck the papers out of her slack, trembling fingers. While also dropping his other hand to unbutton his trousers, even as his eyes swept up and down Rosa’s front, settling narrow on the slight swell of her breasts.
“What the fuck have you been eating?” he asked, voice testy. “Gods, Rosa, you’re starting to look like a fuckingmatron.”
The fear and the bile both surged in Rosa’s throat, and somehow, thank the gods, her frozen body jerked backwards, away from him, away from that suddenly repulsive sight at his exposed groin.
“No,” she choked out. “I am not touching you, Lord Kaspar. Never again. I told you, it’sover.”
But he only laughed again, advancing closer, one hand on his swollen bared cock, the other still holding her papers. “Are you sure, Rosa darling?” he asked. “Oh, I think you could be convinced. Maybe I’ll make you a student. Maybe I’ll even make you mywife. Will that do, for now?”
He wasmockingher, Rosa realized, with a jolting, sickening misery. He was saying he would never have given her such things, he wouldneverhave made her a real student, let alone his wife. Her future had always been just —this. Trapped serving this horrible empty man, until he tired of her, and threw her away.
“You need to bethankful, Rosa,” he continued, almost conversationally. “You’re lucky you can be of any use to me at all anymore. Especially after thehellyou’ve put me through these past weeks, without a single fuckingpaperto show for it!”
Rosa’s body had begun shivering, backing toward the nearest shelf, her heart clanging, her breath gulping. “You’rethe one who’s fucked, Kaspar,” she gasped. “You lying entitledasshole. Don’ttouchme!”
