Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Before I can do anything, I am grabbed.
Lydia takes me back to the bedroom, by taking hold of my ear and marching me back. At first it is almost a relief to be removed from the situation, then the pain exceeds the relief.
“I didn’t think I could dislike you anymore than I already do,” I say as she twists painfully. “But there’s always something new.”
“I didn’t think you could get in any more trouble than you already were, but you’ve managed it,” Lydia replies. “Try keeping your mouth shut and going to bed. Trust me when I tell you, you do not want to cross the Archon-General when he is in this mood.”
“I didn’t tell on you,” I say. “I didn’t tell him that the ruse worked, and that you did get distracted by that candy man. I could have made a big deal of that. I could have told him that you are a bad guard distracted by men. But I didn’t. You should be grateful. I probably saved your life today.”
“Well, thank you, Lady Darken, for saving my life,” Lydia replies sarcastically.
“Am I going to get dinner? Or is the intention to starve me?”
She leans down toward me. “You don’t know your husband very well. He trained my regiment many years ago. Trust me when I say being sent to bed without dinner is very light punishment, and how you act now is going to inform what eventually happens to you. There. I might not have saved your life today, but I have definitely given you enough information to help save your ass.”
Arthur
My bride is young, immature, irrepressible, irresponsible, and an absolute handful. I know I have to do something with her, but Lance has my attention this evening and for good reason.
“Trouble in paradise already?” Lance raises a brow after Mila is taken away.
“Nothing that’s unexpected with such a young bride,” I say. “She needs a guiding hand. Perhaps more. An entire guiding army.”
He chuckles. “It doesn’t matter the age, women are always a handful. Your problem is you’re used to dealing with people who are under your command. But your wife isn’t a soldier to be dressed down. She’s your partner.”
I didn’t ask for his advice, and I don’t want it. Mila will have to follow the same rules as everybody else. It seems to me that she has been under the influence of the most badly behaved ladies our city has to offer. If she was high today, then she was once again dosed by a member of high society.
“She’s impressionable, and everybody seems intent on making a terrible impression on her. I am very close to not letting her out of the house again. Lydia cannot keep a close enough eye on her, but that is not Lydia’s failing. When she was my guard, I did her the favor of not attempting to lose her so I could go and get high.”
Lance is chuckling. “One day you will look back on all of this and see how funny it all is,” he says. “These are fleeting, but formative moments. Try not to take them too seriously. You love her, remember that.”
He has the nerve to tell me that I love her. I haven’t said that to her yet myself.
But I do love her.
It’s strange. It happened all too quickly and all at once. I think that is part of the reason my disappointment in her behavior goes so deep. It feels like a betrayal of sorts. I feel as though she should have known better and wanted to do better for me. She should respect Lydia, because Lydia is someone I have put there to protect her.
“I had the wrappers in her pocket tested for Soma as you requested,” Lydia says later on, once Lance is gone and I am preparing to go and deal with my wife. “I’m sorry, sir, but they came back positive for Soma and several other lesser substances.”
“Damnit.” I grit my teeth. That is the second time she has been exposed to that pernicious crap. She’ll be an addict before I know it. She probably already is.
“I don’t think she intended to get high either time,” Lydia says. “I think she just wanted to have some time to herself. Unfortunately, Elizabeth came with a collection of substances. It may be difficult to find a suitable companion for her.”
I sigh. “Here you are, arguing on her behalf. She has nothing nice to say to you.”
“She’s been displaced from everything she knows and she wants friends. I cannot be her friend. You cannot be her friend.”
“And the fact that we cannot find a friend suitable for her says very dangerous things about the state of high society in New Boston. I believe I am uncovering corruption from within at a rate I have never been able to before. So in some sense, her delinquency is useful. But that does not mean that I will tolerate it.”