THE INSTANT I had become aware of my consciousness, I wrenched my eyes open and tore the covers off of my body. I jerked around, expecting to find my husband lying beside me on the mattress.
He was not there. His side of the bed was empty and cold as though he had departed hours before I had awoken. In his place were my three daggers, lying equidistant from each other and their pommels towards me.
A grin tugged its way onto my lips and my fingers grasped onto the knives. They were intact, sturdy and sharp. Did he think to pay me for...last night? My cheeks heated, traitorous memories consuming my mind. The sensation of his arms encircling me, the graze of his lips along my jaw, the sturdy sound of his chest beating against my back, the whisper of his voice in my ear...his reaction when I commanded him to leave my rooms. I rubbed the base of my neck, soothing the skin that burned with the memory of his touch.
With a deep breath, I violently shook my head and distracted myself with the knives he had left me. Surely, he was aware that I would use them on him? Only a fool would return knives to a woman that intends to stab him.
Once the heat in my cheeks subsided, I untangled my legs from the sheets and hurried to the vanity table. My fingers rushed to open the coffer, which held various trinkets supplied to me as the lord's bride. I dug through the hairpins and clips until my fingertips slid against satin ribbons. Slowly, I pulled the red strips from the box and later knotted a strip to the ends of each of my knives.
I had later dressed in a slender, red gown cinched at the waist with a leather belt. With deft fingers, I attached the ribbons to my belt so that the knives dangled beside my hip. The trenchant blades were on for display, a clear warning not to touch me. It was a giddy sensation, one that resembled the first time I had brandished my newly acquired weapons.
The maidservants that attended my quarters had all took notice of my change in demeanor, each of them vaguely mentioning my husband. Vaguely, that is until one of them said, "Do you suppose it is because he spent the entirety of last night...pleasuring her?"
I nearly choked on my own spit.
"Of course not, you idiot," another unfamiliar voice replied, with no care for how loud she said it. "She would sooner stab him—with those knives he so stupidly returned to her."
"Girls," Madame Dubois called out, shushing their voices. "Her ladyship is disturbed by your speaking. Hush now and send for someone else to attend to her tonight." She added, "Someone that will not carry gossip back to your quarters."
They deserted the room with a chirp of giggles—something about a certain man keeping me good company for the entirety of last night.
"The moment they leave this room," I told Madame Dubois, my words aimed in the direction I thought her to be standing, "the fact that his lordship spent last night in my bedchamber will be spread through every floor and crack in this castle."
"Last night," she told me, the hint of joy flitting about her voice, "and likely very many more."
She was no better than the maids she sent off—mon Dieu, have mercy.
"The only additional night he spends here will be with him lying on the floor, dead," I mumbled, not at all as fiercely as I intended. I left the room before she could damper my spirits with more of her or her nonsense.
Yoann stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall to my left. He appeared concerned about something, for his brows were drawn together and his eyes narrowed. He wiped the expression away when he noticed me.
YOU ARE READING
Beast within the Beauty || A Beauty and the Beast Retelling
Romance"Well, well, well." I felt the entirety of my body stiffen. "Pray tell," the masculine voice murmured as his chin rested down onto my shoulder, "what has made them send such a fine lady such as yourself?" A Beauty and the Beast Retelling in which Be...
