The Wolves Belong Underground

Chapter 5

As the day carried on, Maria felt her anxiety growing from the pit of her stomach all the way up to the back of her throat. After the way Zorath treated her with such roughness, the thought of being alone with him made her queasy. She knew she had no choice now though. As she said before, she needed him as much as he needed her now. And once the party was over, they could forget all of this ever happened. Plus, she would have to be much more careful when she wandered the manor.

When Maria was walking down the hall, she could hear the grandfather clock in the living room chime eight times. She picked up her pace, hurrying to the library as her boots clicked on the wooden floors. Maria opened the doors, seeing Zorath sitting there at the massive, mahogany table in the center of the library. The table was littered with books, papers, quills, as well as a bronze candle holder. His dark chocolate brown hair casted a deep shade of gold from the candlelight next to him, his rusty red eyes flickering to her as she closed the door behind her.

"Good. You're here." he said with his usual stoic and bored voice "Let's get this over with."

"I must say, my Lord, I'm surprised a noble like you does not speak French." she commented as she sat across from him, reaching out and grabbing a spare sheet of paper that laid on the table, as well as a quill and inkwell "I was always told noblemen spoke two languages; typically English and French."

"I have family that resides in Germany on my father's side. He insisted I learn that instead to keep a strong alliance with them." he said shortly, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

"Ah, that's nice. Do you visit them often?" she asked with a soft smile, writing down a few phrases in French on the paper. Zorath said nothing, only the sound of the crackling fireplace filling the silence. Maria looked up from the paper, seeing Zorath staring at her with an icy glare. She was growing so used to him looking at her in such distain that she hardly reacted with fear like before. Now she only felt annoyance.

"What now?" she sighed heavily, setting the quill down "What have I done to upset you now?"

Zorath's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, his eyes flickering down at the paper and then back to her. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm writing down a few phrases for you to memorize." she stated, tapping on them with her finger. Zorath looked more than displeased with her town, his gaze growing sharper.

"The lady has quite the attitude. I think you need to understand that just because I need your help in this does not mean you are in charge here." he said bitterly. Maria pressed her pink lips together, taking a low and deep breath so as not to cause an outburst at him.

"I apologize, my lord. I was simply put off at the fact that you...seemed very disinterested in my small talk. But I should have known not to ask questions with such familiarity." she said through her teeth and a forced smile "Shall we begin the lesson now?"

He grunted, taking the paper from her and looking it over silently. "Comment...allez-vous." he mumbled the words, his accent too heavily English.

"No, no my Lord," she shook her head.

"What do you mean, no? That's what you wrote."

"I know, but your accent is too thick."

"It doesn't matter if my accent is too thick." he argued.

"It most certain does, you're just going to embarrass yourself."

"There's not point to this, I'm not going to know all of this in two weeks." He rolled his eyes.

"My Lord," she said, taking in a sharp breath as his stubbornness was causing her to grow agitated. "I believe it will look good if you can say some words. If not, I will be there to translate."

Zorath let out a deep sigh, leaning back in his chair. "Fine."

"Good. Now, repeat after me. Comment."

Zorath let out a huff, his eyes narrowing a bit. "Comment."

"Good. Allez."

"Allez."

"Vous."

"Vous."

"Oui, very good my Lord." she smiled brightly at him "See? It's not so hard."

"My accent is terrible."

"Oui, but I can understand you much better now." she beamed at him. Zorath grunted, his eyes falling back to the paper. His eyebrows knitted, peering over the paper at her.

"Where on earth did a woman like you learn to read and write?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Maria felt a bit of air get squeezed out of her lungs, letting out a small cough before answering. "A... a man was kind enough to teach me sometime after I moved here from France." she explained shortly, trying to keep her pitch normal. Zorath looked at her up and down, and Maria noticed for the first time he looked...impressed with her.

"Is that why you were hiding here the other day?"

"Ah, you caught me." she nervously chuckled "I really do enjoy reading a good book."

"Do not be skipping your duties to come here and read." he scolded her. Maria slumped in her seat, a small pout pushing out her bottom lip.

"But I was here to clean, sir. I just-"

"You're on thin ice as it is, Miss. DeRose. I don't want excuses. Just do your damn work." he mumbled in a grumpy tone, looking over the rest of what she wrote. Maria dug her nails into her thighs as she held her breath. Her temper sometimes got to the best of her back in London. Yet if a man spoke to her like this then, she could easily dish it back out to them. Now, she was under the thumb of this spoiled and rude man, who could kick her out of his home quicker than she could say sorry.

"Yes, sir. I apologize, it will not happen again. Shall we continue with the lesson? I'm sure you would like to carry on."

"Hm." he grunted.

These next two weeks will drag out longer than it needs to, thought Maria. And he will do it kicking and screaming.