Chapter 4 The Tainted Bread
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Her eyes were reddened, yet her stare was hard as flint. he shut the door behind her, pressed one palm flat against the chest that still throbbed with pain, and lowered herself onto the bed to steady her breath and gather her thoughts.
Since she had woken up inside this borrowed body, she had found it all but impossible to use any of the fighting arts she had once mastered.
In her former life she had not merely been the High Priestess of Persandria-revered by commoners and lords alike-simply because she could find lost graves or read a man’s fate in the lines of his palm and the cast of the runes. She had also been able to hold her own against a hundred foes at once. That was no idle boast.
Now, with every passing hour, she missed her old flesh more keenly. She had trained from the time she could walk; her sinews had been tempered like steel cable, her limbs far stronger than those of ordinary folk. Had she been in that body, would she have allowed a pack of servants to shove her about? Not for a
moment.
But it was a useless wish. That body of hers had likely been reduced to ashes and scattered to the four winds long ago.
*****
In his study, Daniel sat frowning at the far wall. For reasons he could not name, an uneasiness gnawed at his gut and would not let him rest.
Owen Dixon appeared at the door and rapped twice upon the frame. “My lord, shall we send the men again tonight? Give Brielle another fright, as we did before?”
Daniel’s brow tightened even more. “Leave it be,” he said at last.
Last night’s escapade had already taught them a hard lesson. If they tried the same trick twice, the woman might do something desperate-perhaps even try to end herself once and for all. If she actually succeeded in dying, explaining matters to the Whitmore family would be no small trouble.
Owen inclined his head. “As you wish, my lord.”
“Creak-”
The chamber door swung inward, allowing a sliver of dan amber light to fall across the floor. Without his noticing, the sun had already dipped behind the rooftops.
A young maid strode in, her chin lifted with an air of smug importance. She let out a mocking little laugh. “Well, have you been sitting there all afternoon hoping to sprout wings and fly up to the heavens?”
Brielle, who had been seated cross-legged with her eyes shut, opened them slowly. Her gaze was cold and cutting, and for a fleeting second Sarah Lennox felt a call of unease.
Shaking off the feeling, Sarah beckoned to someone wating in the corridor. She spoke with exaggerated patience, as if dealing with a dimwitted child. “You’ve had not a bite all day, Lady Brielle. You must be famished. Lord Daniel, in his great kindness, has sent you this.”
Several maids filed in bearing wooden trays, and upon ach tray lay nothing but plain, hard bread rolls.
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Chapter 4 The Tainted Bread
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“Eat up.” Sarah said, her voice heavy with sly meaning. “ou’ll need your strength later tonight.” She shot Brielle a look steeped in venom, then spun on her heel and quit the room. Before the door fully closed, she cast one more vicious glare over her shoulder.
For years and years she had waited for her chance to become Daniel’s bedchamber maid. Had Donna gone through with the wedding and become his wife, Sarah would have finally been summoned to his bed this very evening. The dream had hovered so close she could almost taste it-and then this plain-faced creature had snatched it all away.
And she fancied herself a lady? With that face? A laughable notion.
The smell of warm, fresh bread drifted into Brielle’s nostrils, and her stomach answered with a low, insistent growl. She was ravenous, no denying it.
Bread it would have to be. It was not as if a bit of coarse flour would choke her.
She rose, settled herself at the small table, and picked up one of the rolls. She took a bite, chewed twice, and her expression shifted abruptly. She spat the mouthful straight.back onto the plate.
She lifted a roll from each tray in turn and brought it to her nose. Every single one had been tainted. Dreamer’s Dust-the kind of powder that set the mind adrift for hours in vivid, uncontrollable delusions. You saw whoever you longed to see, or whoever you most dreaded, and you could not tell a friendly face from a snarling beast.
The night before, it had only been a smoky incense meant to rattle her nerves. Tonight they had graduated to Dreamer’s Dust itself.
Was it because she had injured Donna earlier that day? ad Daniel’s hatred grown so much fiercer? Was this his notion of vengeance?
The Regent of Veridia, it seemed, fully deserved his reputation for cold cruelty.
Every last roll was poisoned. She could not eat a crumb. She would simply have to go hungry.
A glint of frost hardened in her eyes. She would play along for the moment. Daniel might be bent on breaking her, but she was not the sort of Brielle who lay down and welcomed the lash.
She tucked three of the rolls beneath the mattress so that it would appear she had consumed her portion.
In the hush that followed, the sound of shouting and the thud of blows carried from the yard outside the courtyard. She thought she caught Lilith’s voice amid the commotion. Curious, she followed the noise.
There stood Lilith, ringed by a cluster of maids, while heavy boots and fists landed against her hunched frame. She cried out in anguish, yet even through her tears she pleaded, “Sarah, my mother is gravely ill. I fear she may be drawing her last breath. I must go home. Beat me as much as you please, only let me leave the manor just this once.”
Sarah stood a few paces off with her arms crossed, her expression one of utter indifference. “She’s not dead. yet,” she said coolly. “Come back to me when she is.”
Desperation twisted Lilith’s face. She clutched at Sarah sleeve, her voice cracking. “Sarah, I am begging you. Please.”
“Get your hands off me!” In the tussle that followed, the fabric of Sarah’s sleeve gave way with a sharp rip. Sarah drove her boot into Lilith’s chest and shrieked, “You withered old crone! Do you have any notion what
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Chapter 4 The Tainted Bread
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this gown cost? You couldn’t pay for it if you sold yourself to the lowest brothel in the city-though I doubt any brothel would want a face as ancient and worn as yours.”
Brielle watched the scene with a rising fury. This was the same maid who had carried in the poisoned bread. Who did she think she was to lord over others with such arrogance?
And now she was kicking Lilith about as though the woman were nothing more than a sack of grain.
Lilith’s mother lay sick, perhaps dying, and she only wished to go home. Instead of granting a simple leave, they were heaping humiliation upon an old woman and beating her senseless.
Brielle had never pretended to be a saint, but neither could she stand idle while someone was kicked to death in front of her.
“Enough!” Brielle’s voice cut through the noise like a blade of ice. She strode forward swiftly and pushed aside the maids who were still aiming their blows at Lilith.
Sarah spotted her and immediately drew herself up with an air of offended dignity. “It seems you have nothing better to occupy your time,” she said icily. “First you knock the true bride unconscious and steal her place at the altar, and now you come here to instruct me on how to manage a serving woman. If your heart bleeds so freely for the lowly, why not take a bucket and scrub every garderobe in the manor yourself? That would give the real servants a well-earned rest.”
Brielle’s expression never flickered. She raised one hand and delivered a sharp, ringing slap across Sarah’s cheek. Her voice was as cold as a winter crypt. “A servant like you presumes to give orders to the lady of this house? Who put such boldness into your head?”
Because of her larger frame, Brielle’s blow landed with considerable force. Sarah nearly spun sideways; she stumbled two full circles before she managed to steady herself, while the other maids gasped and scrambled to catch hold of her arm.
The maids stared, their mouths agape. Even Lilith looked stunned into silence.
Sarah could scarcely believe what had just happened. When she righted herself and lifted her head, the imprint of five red fingers bloomed across her cheek, and a trickle of blood crept from the corner of her lips. “You struck me?
“You miserable wretch! Even Lord Daniel has never raised a hand against me, and you dare?” Sarah’s eyes bulged with fury, and her voice rose to a screech.
Brielle arched one brow. “Is that so? Are you some secre princess, then? Even Daniel refrains from touching you?”
Sarah realized she had let her tongue run away with her and her face turned blotchy. “I-that is not-”
Then her glare snapped back to Brielle, renewed and fiercer. “You worthless cow. Just because I address you as ‘my lady’ out of formality does not mean you are one In this household, you rank lower than the pigs in the sty. You dare to cross me? You have just signed your own death warrant.”
Clutching her stinging face, Sarah shot Brielle one last look of pure hatred and swept off in a fury.
How dare that creature strike her? Before the night was out, she would make that b*tch choke on her own
arrogance.
Sarah and her gaggle of maids vanished around a corne Lilith struggled to push herself upright, her features tight with pain.
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Brielle almost turned on her heel and walked away. But she noticed the way Lilith’s arm trembled and hung at an unnatural angle, and she knew in an instant that the shoulder had been wrenched from its socket.
She stepped closer and placed a firm hand on Lilith’s right shoulder.
The sudden contact made Lilith’s eyes widen in alarm, and she tried to twist away. “What are you doing? Let go of me this instant!”
“Be still. Your shoulder is out of place,” Brielle ordered in a clipped tone.
Lilith gaped at her in disbelief. She had been certain that Brielle was coming to add a few more bruises to her collection.
While Lilith’s mind was still reeling with confusion, Brielle found the proper angle and, with a single practiced motion, slipped the bone back into its joint.
A harsh crack sounded, and Lilith’s face drained of all color as a wave of white-hot agony shot through her. She bit down hard to keep from crying out.
“There. It’s done.”
Hearing those words, Lilith blinked in astonishment. She cautiously tried to move her arm, and to her amazement, it responded without complaint.
Lilith looked at Brielle as though she were seeing a stranger for the first time. “You… Why did you help me?”
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Chapter 10
I had saved the Chloe in the book.
09:50 Thu, May 7
Fate Binds Me to Lord Clarke
