A Dove's Tale

Chapter 183

"Ivetta? Did you drown?"

Theresa's voice startled me into opening my eyes and sitting bolt upright, then sinking back into the tub and peeking over the edge to ensure she wasn't in the bathroom with me. The bathwater sloshing around me was now warm and bubble-free.

"Theresa! What are you doing here?" I called back to her.

"Making sure you didn't fall asleep in the tub," she replied from the bedroom. "You did, didn't you?"

I relaxed and let out a sigh. "I was just dozing off."

"Well, get out, then. If you drown in the bathtub, who knows what Chevalier will do to me? No, wait, I do know. He'll drown me in a bathtub. And then ban bathtubs from Rhodolite. We'll both be dead, and the country will reek to high heavens. Do you want that to happen?"

I smiled. "No, I guess not. I'll be out in a minute."

She sounded like she was in a good mood, I thought as I leaned forward to pull the plug from the drain. I hadn't heard her joke like that since she ended her relationship with Leon.

The smile slipped from my face. I needed to tell her the news before she heard it from gossiping tongues.

"Ivetta?"

I stepped out of the tub and grabbed a towel. "Yes?"

There was a pause. The water swirled and gurgled down the drain.

"The round table meeting was about Leon, wasn't it?"

This time, it was my turn to pause. "Did he tell you something?" I asked carefully.

The silence stretched so long that I poked my head out of the bathroom to check on her. She was sitting on the bed, looking forlornly down at her lap. I wrapped a towel around me and came out to sit beside her.

"You'll think I'm awful," she started.

"I doubt that."

Her fingers fidgeted with her skirt. "Well, I am."

"Theresa..."

"He told me." She looked up at me then, her green eyes conflicted. "He told me the truth about where he came from. That's what the round table was about, wasn't it?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, I thought so." She dropped her gaze to her lap again. "He told me the biggest secret in his life, something he'd never told anybody except Belle and Chevalier, and I... broke things off with him."

I put my hand over hers to still her fingers. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Because I wouldn't have told him if it were me. Because it proved he loved me, and I didn't love him. I mean, that's a huge secret. Telling the wrong person could have gotten him killed." She gave a harsh laugh and looked up at me again, a wry smile on her lips. "Isn't that a laugh? I've always had men lie and say they loved me so I wouldn't leave, and for once, I had one who lied and said he didn't love me for the same reason."

I bit my lip, wondering what to say. She'd been struggling with Leon's deepening feelings for her almost from the start, and even though a month had passed since this happened, one look at her slumped posture and miserable expression told me she was still struggling.

"Go on. Tell me I'm awful."

I squeezed her hand. "You're not awful, Theresa. If you were, this wouldn't bother you so much. You just didn't want to string him along if things weren't going anywhere."

"Yeah, well, I should have broken up with him before he told me that."

That was probably true. But I'd told her she should give it more time, so I felt partly responsible.