Abyss - Book Five of the Alpha Series - MxM

Chapter 26

Filipa brushes her hair roughly with her fingers, muttering to herself in Serbian as she wrinkles her nose in disgust. Anuetta can't help but giggle, practically kicking her feet. 

"Isn't 'e just... how you say... délicieux? Mon dieu, I would drop to my knees for zat man, no question.." She breathes, fanning herself. 

Fillipa makes a sound of disgust. "He's a prick." She spits on the floor, "I don't know how someone like His Grace puts up with a foul temper like that. Talking to me as if I were nothing.. sweetheart.." She repeats and shakes her head as she flips her hair off her shoulder. "I hate men like that."

My chest tightens, and I press my back into the corner of the carriage, trying to decide what was even polite for me to suggest. If I sided with her, I would be going against the man I loved, and if I sided with him, I would raise suspicion. 

"Commander Mercer is a soldier first and foremost. He has seen more hours of combat than anyone else here; he is a master of the game and war, and I trust his judgement even if I don't like it. And I don't like it." I correct her, pressing my lips together as I cross one leg over the other, shivering at the chill coming in the window as the carriage rolls down the path. 

Anuetta shrugs, kicking off her shoes with a sigh of relief. "I do not care 'ow ze men trying to kill us die, non. It is ze job of zose who serve us to lay down zeir lives, is it not? Zey are paid men, and zeir families receive a large pension when zey die. So, if zey did not come ready to die... eh bien, zey were not 'ere to do zeir job, were zey?"

Fillipa crosses her arms over her chest, it was as if we'd all picked a corner to hide from each other in. "That's disgusting, and you know it. A man should not have to agree to die to feed his family. Your Grace, if you say we should trust him, then I shall, I'm just voicing my concern that this man seems willing to throw away lives and destroy others by means that I find abhorrent."

There was a time when I did, too. But I'd come to find that brutality could be necessary if it meant keeping the past from finding you. "I would agree if I didn't know him. This is killing him inside, it's our job now not to make it any harder than it has to be. Even if I don't like it, I can't say I wouldn't have eventually come to the same decision myself, but it would have been way to late."

Her tone effectively ended the conversation, for all Anuetta wanted to talk about was sleeping with him, and it appeared to make Helen almost as uncomfortable as it made me. Helen and Fillipa swap spaces, for Fillipa had no interest in sitting next to the French woman. I couldn't say I blamed her.

I listen to the sound of the horse's hooves as we make our way off into the night. Part of me wants to throw the windows open, and part of me wants to hunker down and sleep until it's all over. We can't go for long, as the horses haven't had much time for rest, but I imagine we're banking on not needing the beasts for much longer.

The moon's light creeps in through the slats of the windows, and I see Fillipa is still awake. She slides over to me, leaving Anuetta and Helen to snooze in a heap on top of each other. If I liked either of them, I might have even found it endearing.

"It appears we've truly been excommunicated." She sighs, looking up towards the ceiling of the carriage. I almost shift away from her, but force myself to remain. It wasn't normal to avoid women, even if I were playing the part of a gentleman. 

"I'm impressed. I thought you'd be some inconsiderate jerk like Apostal or self-righteous, spoiled prick."

I can't help but chuckle. "I am both of those things, actually." But her tone leaves me a bit frustrated, folding my hands in my lap, I finally turn to her. Assuming we lived through this, we would have to go on to get married; she'd have to get used to my blunt nature sooner or later. "You know, you keep saying you're impressed, and I'm starting to get offended. I'm not impressed you're more than a set of tits and ass. Maybe extend me the same courtesy?"