Beautiful Torment *Book One of the Beautiful series*

11) Leaving Again

Lucy raced back to the shared rooms like wind rustling over a vast, grassy plain. The whole way up, she battled with her own thoughts of the dark haired manservant, desperate to focus on the task at hand. On the only words he had spoken that should truly mean anything to her.

They were leaving.

Be it a merciful act from the gods, or a divine twist of fate, they would not be lingering in this horrid tower much longer. She did not know what that meant exactly; where they would go, or even if the next place would be worse. But she still could not wait to get there. After a deep, centering breath, Lucy pushed into their adjoined rooms.

Victoria lay asleep, still as a baby fawn. Hurrying to her side, she sat down on the mattress, reaching out to touch her friend's shoulder. "Little Red, you must awaken," she used the gentlest tone she could muster. "We are to leave this place. Rise so we can go." Lucy imagined rolling hills and a sky so blue it could break a heart, with birds in flight and tips of white heather tickling their ankles.

Somewhere they might have a chance. Anywhere but here would do.

Victoria rolled over, tear streaks already stained her face, declaring she had been awake for some time. "Do not joke of such things, Luciana," a hiccup caused her to stutter her next words. "I would giv... give anything to be gone from this place." The lingering despair in her eyes spoke volumes. Anything meant death. Whatever that man had done, he had already broken her friend.

She wished Alexander had not taken her knife, the urge to bury it in the Duke's chest returned tenfold. "I am not joking," she rushed to the bags that had yet to be unpacked. "The Duchess has arrived, along with the Duke's father." She whirled about the room, grabbing Victoria a dress that would allow her free movement, that way it would not be too much on the skin of her back decorated with deep blues and indigo, like a vicious sky before a storm. Lucy shivered to see it bared. "Alexander says we will be leaving very soon," she swallowed.

"Who?" The question was dull, lifeless. Nothing like her normal childish curiosity.

Lucy could hardly believe this was the same girl who used to run about the halls of Granston House. Giggling and popping her head into working women's rooms, much to her mothers great annoyance. The girl who could turn every bad situation into a light-hearted joke. Who had made her laugh every time she felt like weeping. Shaking her head, "One of the other servants. Now we must hurry."

Without any more words, she helped her friend dress, biting her tongue when she found deeper bruises the more skin she uncovered. It had been a wishful thought before; if she could reach the monster, no matter what happened to her. Now, it was a promise. If there was anything she did before death took her, it would be to extinguish the Duke's disgusting light from the world.

Once both girls were dressed, another meek looking servant appeared. This one female with willowy limbs and a sunken face. She barely looked up at them as she bid them to follow. Something about the girl's hunched over form hinted she had been long beaten into submission; despite the fact that she did not look more than fifteen summers old. Only a year younger than Veronica, another thought that made her shiver.

The girl led them to the stables, passing the bright, grand sitting room; where the highborns were being entertained by the Duke himself.

He seemed to have recovered his bravado from the quick stolen glimpse Lucy took between the ivory pillars. His hair was bright and shining, his suit inlaid with golden swirls as he raised a chalice to his smiling face. The rest of his guests were blocked by the room's edge. "It was a nuisance of a journey," he drawled on. "Nothing but war meetings and political garble," he laughed, a sound that was already weaseling its way into Lucy's nightmares. "Is that not right, cousin?"