Deprivation- The Feast and the Famine

Chapter 32- A Second Chance & a Box

Their fingers linked as Claudia and Victor departed the chapel. Her dress was not white, but that was right and proper. The mansion loomed just over the rise. They would be back in Victor’s country home before long.

She watched their hands sway back and forth. Man and wife, she thought.

“You are smiling. I wonder what thoughts pass through that pretty head of yours.”

Pretty, pretty, Claudia heard Eudora’s voice.

“Nothing odd, just that I am married now.” When she finished talking, Victor placed a finger under her chin, once her face was angled up he kissed her.

There was something intoxicating about being desired, and Claudia was not immune. This was the man Eudora loved. This kiss that had lured her- the white hart strolling to the hunter unaware. When the kiss ended, they continued toward the house.

Never again would she couple against a tree with a man who saw no need to wait for a bed. With a man who desired her beyond his own control. Victor was all about control, and it suited him well.

Claudia not so much. She was impatient.

When they came to the mansion, relief washed over her when he led her to the stairs. Compliant and demure Claudia allowed him to guide her to his unfamiliar bedroom. It was a stark room with none of the niceties most of the room had. Other than an ornate cross on the wall there was no decoration.

Victor smiled when her eyes paused on the jeweled monument to the God and moralities he served.

You loved him too, Eudora whispered. Claudia fell back on the bed. This dress was nothing like her first wedding gown. Simple and far easier to remove.

Everything we do together, Claudia, I could do with a whore, Bennett said.

Yes, Claudia thought as Victor began to help her from her dress.  The day that followed was spent primarily in bed. When not occupied with Victor Claudia kept the company of her two deceased loves.

Their whispers comforted her. She dreamed the four of them lay together, hands and limbs entangled and something warm and wet beneath them. It wasn’t until Bennett’s cold hand came free in her own that she grew afraid. Her eyes opened, separating her from her loves. She gave a small cry before looking over beside her.

Morning light streamed through the window making Victor a creature of pure gold. She smiled softly at the angelic looking man beside her.

She rolled over so that she sat astride him and then reached over to his night-table. Victor woke slowly, his hands had lifted to her hips. Claudia curled her fingers around the knife hilt. It didn’t surprise her that he kept a knife close to his person. Who knew when a servant might need correcting after all?

There is only one person I will kill, Eudora said.

The angel below her had yet to form a word when she buried the knife in his chest. There was no hesitation before she drove the blade in a second and then a third. Again and again, she stabbed him until his beauty was as sullied and poor Eudora’s had been.

Astride his bloody corpse, she paused holding the dripping blade to her heart. One last time she sank it into his vacant form.

“He would never have let you out, Dora, it had to be me. It had to be,” Claudia said as she wiped her sticky hands down her sides. “I can understand why you loved him. He was quite enjoyable.”

“I think you are truly depraved,” Eudora whispered, but Claudia heard a measure of pleasure in the sweet voice that echoed in her mind.