The King's Eye

Chapter 29

Elodie busied herself with embroidery, looking through the colorful strands with carelessness. A pile laid on the dirty wooden floor that warped at one corner as she strung it through her needle. Her mumbled curses made me miss Anne even more than I already had.

In the still of morning I watched the steam roll up in thin tendrils from my tea, the heat coming off of it radiated through the small space. The air damp with mold and decay. Elodie had lived here as a child. Somehow she had lived in almost complete desolation, alongside her aunt and uncle before moving into the city for better opportunities.

When I asked about her mother she only shrugged.

"You need to eat," Jacques said, sipping at his tea with disgust. "What is this?" He held the cup up to Elodie.

"Whatever was in the pantry." She didn't look up at him. Had refused to look at either of us after how we greeted one another in the maze.

The thought of it made me blush behind my cup. "I'm fine," I finally responded to him.

Jacques sat the cup down and pushed it away. He looked at me, gazing toward my chest and back to my eyes within a blink. "If your collar bone pops out anymore it'll look as if your skin is drapery."

Wincing at the taste of my own tea, I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine."

Elodie sighed in response, before going back to mumbling curses. From across the room I could see her trying to make a yellow rose against the white cloth. It was not going well.

Jacques grabbed the bread from my plate and took a bite of it, before tossing it back down. I looked at him in confusion as he shook off the crumbs. "You're fine, remember?" He drank the tea in one long swig, cringing. "I have some business to attend to."

Elodie mockingly mouthed the words, earning a glare from him.

He leaned over, his lips grazing my ear. "Wait up for me?" Giving him a smile in reply, he playfully nipped at my ear. He pushed off the table, walking with a hardly noticeable limp to the door. "See you tonight. Don't miss me too much, Elodie."

"I..." the door closed, as she made contact with me. Without finishing her thought, she went back to her clumsily sewn rose.

"Elodie?"

She stilled.

"You and Tomas..." I felt myself biting at my nail, and pulled my hand away. "Did you...ever..."

"I'm not having this conversation with you, Sophie." She put her embroidery down. "You know how sex works—"

"My mother told me just enough to understand..."I cut her off. "But not about what to want or do or this feeling in my chest." My fingers brushed against the knobs of my sternum as I looked toward the door.

"Lust," she said damingly. "It's just as dangerous love."

I played with the handle of my cup to avoid eye contact. "But you have loved. You had Tomas."

"Yes, and now all I have is a bastard child and..." She stood in shock with herself, her hands covering her mouth as if she had never said it out loud.

"A bastard child?" I felt my stomach tighten as I stood to approach her. "You and Tomas have a child?"

The door clicked shut to reveal Jacques leaning against its frame. His face was unreadable as he grabbed his belt off the stand and again left without a word. I knew that change in light though, the way his eyes darkened.

"Jacques." Elodie's voice cracked into a sob as she ran out the door after him. "Jacques, please!"

He turned, finger already pointing in her face. Pure rage painted his expression. "How old is the babe?"