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“You have had an eventful evening. I am far from surprised that you are tired.”
“I’m fine…” I regarded the large sack that now took up space on the empty table before me. But before I had slipped into sleep the table had been completely covered. “The food is gone.”
“Were you that famished?”
I shook my head. “No, the food is gone. This table was full and now it is not.”
I had fallen asleep with a belly full of more delicious food. Yet there was not a scrap left. “You said no one else lives here. But I hardly imagine you stoop low enough to serve and clean in your own dwelling.”
Marius kicked a chair out for himself and sat upon it. He leant his elbows on his knees and rested his chiselled jaw in his palms. “You are wrong. I said that there is not anyonelivinginside this castle.”
“But I—”
“Smell terrible. Truly.” He leaned back, nose scrunching. “I have drawn a bath in my chamber for you. In that sack is a spare set of clothes. Ones that are not so… revealing. Clean yourself up.” His voice was soft yet demanding.
I stiffened in the chair, gripping onto the sides to keep my hands busy. “What about Katharine?”
“She has returned home. The room is yours.”
“What about…” I silenced myself.
“Speak, Jak. Do not be shy.”
I was far from it.
“Where do you sleep?”
He tilted his head to the side. “I do not sleep.”
“Then where do you go? I have seen enough of this castle to know there are other empty rooms for me to stay in.”
“Those rooms are not mine.” His neck straightened, his deep voice hardened.
“Is that supposed to make me feel a type of way?”
He was still. Burgundy eyes flicked across my face. Searching. I held my breath. But then he smiled. “If I wanted to make you feel a certain way, Jak, I would not need it solely to be in my room.”
The chair squeaked across the floor as I stood abruptly.
“Have I said something to offend you?” he said through a sly grin.
My hands shook wildly at my side. “I do not know what you have grown used to, Marius. But I can tell you I am not like the others you have … played with. Watch what you say to me. And how you say it.”
Marius stood now, towering inches over me. “That sounds awfully similar to a threat.”
I stepped forward. “What if it is?”
We held each other’s stare. Neither one wanting to break it before the other.
“You are right, Jak,” Marius whispered, being the first to step back. “You are nothing like the others that have been before you. Nothing.”
* * *
The water was stillwarm when I slipped into its embrace. I released a groan until my head went under, mouth filling up with water. I kept my eyes open, watching bubbles escape from my mouth and rise to the surface.
Bliss. And much needed.
Only when my lungs burned for breath did I burst from its warm belly. I hardly cared as it splashed over the edge of the brass tub and splattered over the slabbed ground of Marius’s room.
