Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 36: Numb

Eory wasn't sure he believed Pollyanna when she said the story only got worse, but he was proved wrong.

It had gotten worse. Unimaginably worse and vile.

His eyes, which had seen so little, were slowly being opened wider and wider to how much worse living outside his comfy prison could be than living inside.

The only thing more shocking than the story itself was the ineffectual way Pollyanna told it.

She still shed no tears. Her voice did not waver, and she didn't even frown.

Eory was chilled to the bone by how used to cruelties she truly was. He couldn't fathom the horrors she had lived through as he was reminded that she was not just a fifty-year-old woman, but hundreds of years old.

Her life had started off so rough; he assumed it could only get rougher considering she had lived long enough to experience horrors that most people didn't have to.

His heart ached for her.

__

Over the next year, Pollyanna became accustomed to being married to Kline.

Because she wanted to keep Kline as amiable as possible, she had to learn the job of being a wife well.

She had to be the best cook, the best seamstress, the best servant, and the best lover.

She had to learn how to please him during the night as well as the day, even though it made her sick to her stomach.

She had become numb to it after a while, and that was the part that made her the sickest.

Even though she played the role of wife the best she could, Kline still found reasons to hurt her emotionally and physically.

His excuses for hurting her were rooted in her being unable to conceive a child.

"What is wrong with you? Why can't you give me a child?" Kline demanded as he crawled into bed next to her. "Are you damaged? Cursed by Renthas Himself? I should divorce you and find a wife who can deliver me a child!"

Pollyanna said nothing. Her back was faced to him and she stared listlessly at the wall.

"I'm sorry..." Kline murmured.

He grabbed her by the shoulder—rolling her toward him. Pollyanna kept her eyes low. She tried to hide her disgust for him. "I know you've been improving yourself just for me. I've shaped you into a fine wife."

Pollyanna murmured, "thank you."

"We'll just have to try harder, won't we?" Kline whispered and tugged her closer.

"Yes." Pollyanna replied subserviently.

Kline was an enigmatic man.

He was a monster to her. He would treat her how he wished no matter how she protested; sometimes he would slap her across the face for the most minor of offenses, but other times...

He was bizarrely kind to her.

He would take her out to festivals and parties held in town and buy her the most expensive outfits available; he liked to dress her up like a doll, and in front of others, he treated her like a glass doll. He would kiss her sweetly, he would give her the compliments she deserved for being such a wonderful wife, and sometimes he would even continue being kind to her when they came back to the manor after such social events.

At times, Pollyanna enjoyed being married to him, and she loathed herself for it.

She felt like she was being unfaithful to Rory, even though he was neither her husband nor her lover.