Forget the Past

Forget the Past Part 5

Battle Lines Are Drawn

"Do you imagine not speaking to me upsets?" Erich had noted the attitude as he was meant to do these past few hours. "It does not."

"Then why end the bliss." Tessa smiled sweetly over, then returned to her sullen brooding.

She did not know any of the countryside outside the carriage window. "This is abduction. Where are you taking me?" she demanded to know.

"Could we not go back to the 'not speaking' part?" Erich studied the papers his mother sent. A boundary dispute. He would be damned if that Englishman lay claim to his Northern section. If he had to call the bastard out to settle the matter, then that is exactly what he would do.

"My god..." Tessa sat straighter in her seat, something having caught her attention on the far horizon. "What ever is that monstrosity there, up on that hill."

"That is my ancestral home, Dearest." Erich snapped, not pleased with her rather apt description.

He hated the place, always had but to have someone else criticize it, pissed him off.

"It looks like a dungeon." Tessa was well pleased to needle the man. "I assume it has a moat filled with all sorts of vile creatures who eat people." she lifted innocent brows. "I am already aware it possesses a fire breathing dragon."

"Do not dragons 'eat' bad little girls?" Erich had caught the reference. He knew she would not catch his, which amused somewhat.

"I am all aquiver." Tessa's expression was annoyed.

"You shall be...when I 'eat' you." his eyes deepened considerably, holding the blue ones ever so easily.

Tessa pulled a face, and he was hard pressed not to allow his amusement.

"I hate your home, it is beyond ugly."

"You hate most things, do you not." he scoffed the insult aside.

The woman did not think that was true. "I do not I only hate large apes and dungeons and ugly houses."

"Well the day is young." The man knew what awaited her at the 'dungeon.'

"You are not." The girl sent him a disdainful look. "You are old."

Erich lifted a furrowed brow. "Old enough to take you over the proverbial knee."

Tessa fell silent, not particularly intimidated by his threat, he noted.

***************

"She will only be staying a few days at best, Mother." Erich sorted through the post.

"Well, who is she? Why have you brought her into our home?" The older woman's features showed her disapproval. "I do not like her already."

"That was made abundantly clear. You could have been a little more hospitable. She is a guest in 'our' home." he knew he could be accused of the same failing, in reality

"She is one of your whores, admit it." the woman's face was tight.

"She assures me she is merely a trollop." he lifted a cool glance. "Do not say such a thing again."

"You defend her so readily?" It was accused. "Against me?"

"It has nothing to do with you, Mother." he sat at his desk. "As I said, this is only temporary. You can bear it a few days."

"I suppose you will be visiting her room each night. The servants will surely gossip. What of our other guests?"

"Whether I visit her room or not is my business and mine alone." he snapped. "I am not Wilhelm. Do not speak to me as if I were. You will not manipulate me as you do the others."