Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I did not remember that.
I tried to think but all I saw in my head was blood. I stared down at my hands again. My gloves were gone, but my hands were stained with it.
“Hathor, my dear, let’s go home and have you cleaned up,” Mama said to me, rubbing my shoulders. I looked at her and shook my head. “Sweetheart, there is nothing you can do here. Let’s get you home, and then we can come back.”
Again, I shook my head, finally able to speak. “No, Mama.”
“Hathor.”
“Mama, I’m not leaving until Wilhelm tells me to leave.”
“He is injured—”
“Why are you not listening to me!” I screamed at her. Shaking, I pushed her away and forced myself off the floor. “I am not leaving this palace until he can leave, too. I am not going anywhere. Stop asking me. Stop it! Please!”
“If that is what you desire, fine. But at the very least, have the good manners not to track dirt within my walls,” the queen said at the other end of the hall. Her face was stern, her head held high. “Lady Crane, see to it she is cleaned and dressed properly.”
“I am not leaving until—”
“Lady Hathor, this is my palace, and within the single blink of an eye, you can be dragged out and never allowed entrance again. Would you like that?”
I shook my head. “No, Your Majesty.”
“I thought so. Follow Lady Crane, and be dressed properly if you wish to remain here.”
I nodded, walking forward, when I felt someone grab my hand. When I looked, it was my mother. Her eyes begged me again to come with her, but I pulled my hand back and walked toward Lady Crane.
“Marchioness, you are free to come and visit your daughter as you please. However, I suggest you go inform your family she is all right,” I heard the queen say to her. I turned the corner and did not look back.
I thought we’d have far to go but the room was right at the corner of the hall. When I stepped in, there were maids already preparing a bath in a bronze tub, and a new dress was lying on the bed.
“Girls, come and help her.” Lady Crane’s voice was much softer than I had ever heard it before. Or maybe my ears were still ringing.
It did not matter; the maids circled me, one by one, helping me out of the layers of my clothes. When I was stripped down naked, they carefully brought me over to the tub and helped me inside. The moment I sat down, they began working to fix the tangled mess of my hair. I saw blades of grass and dirt fall out, and instantly I remembered how my body slammed onto the earth. How tightly he’d held me. He’d put his hand on the back of my head to protect it, even in that moment. Then he slumped off me.
I looked down, and…
“I…love…you.”
My lips quivered as I remembered. He told me he loved me, and that was the last thing he said before his eyes closed.
“It is all right to cry, Lady Hathor,” Lady Crane said as she washed my hands herself. “When something like this happens, everyone is allowed to cry.”
So I did. In the tub, I sobbed and wailed as if my soul were leaving my body. Everything was fine. It was a good day, and then it was horrid. All of this was so horrid. But as much as I feared I’d never truly recover from it, my deepest fear was that he wouldn’t. That those were the last words I’d ever hear from him.
Verity
“Deanna? Hathor?” the marquess yelled from the front of his house, he and his son Damon running toward us before the carriage even came to a stop. He nearly pushed the footmen out of the way as he yanked the door open. He looked to his wife, my godmother, who had not said a single word since we left the palace, and then to me, confused. “Deanna? Where is Hathor?”
Gently, both he and Damon helped her down from the carriage.
“She refused to come.” Godmother’s voice was so quiet. If we had not been close, I was sure we would not have heard her at all.
“What do you mean she would not come? Is she all right? Is she injured?” the marquess pressed, staring down at her as Damon helped me out as well.
“I do not know,” Godmother answered.
“What do you mean you do not know?”
“I mean I do not know!” she screamed back at him, causing my eyes to widen, as well as his and Damon’s. “I do not know, Charles! She would not talk to me. She pushed me away. And she refused to come home. I do not know anything more than that she is alive. And—and she was covered in blood, Charles.” Her voice broke and it was as though all the strength left her, forcing him to grab on to her. “She was hunched in a ball, covered in blood.”