While Zane was gone, Bree tried to distract herself from the thoughts of the slaves.She knew that he would be issuing their punishments now at this very moment that she stood in front of the fireplace in a sitting room with walls the color of midnight blue. The flickering flames provided the only light in the room.
Flames. “ARGH!” Bree put her hands into her face and screamed.Fawn was by her side not long after, concerned. “You’re Highness, are you alright?” She then touched Bree’s arm lightly.Bree looked at her.“Fawn, I am fine.Please, return to your duties.” Bree turned to leave the room, then stopped and turned to look at Fawn again.“Fawn?”
“Yes?”
“Did you light a fire in the yellow room?”
“Yes.”
“Extinguish it immediately. I don’t wish to have it burning when I go there.” Bree knew that the pale yellow room with its trellises and plants and dark green accents would cheer her.She could grab a book and read.“Oh, and Fawn?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.For the fire.It is just not necessary tonight.But, thank you.” Bree reached out and lightly touched Fawn’s arm.Fawn smiled weakly and looked down.
When Bree got to the yellow room, she lit every light she could and pulled the draperies shut over the blackness of the windows.She wanted it to feel like daylight.The yellow settee with its rich deep green crisscrosses invited her, and she sat with a book in her hand.But as she read, she could not get the image of Jasper feeding so monstrously on that slave girl out of her head.She attempted to read once again, but then she saw Zane in her mind, destroying that man’s life by maiming him with fire.She rang the bell to summon Fawn, and the girl was in the room within a minute.“Fawn, will you please prepare a bath for me?”
“Which room would you like it in?” Fawn, so obedient, so shy, even after all these years.She had always reminded Bree a little bit of Mitzi.
Bree figured that Zane would not be hungry when he returned, he would most likely have had a big meal after feeding on some slaves. It was his custom, his habit, his practice to eat a slave, or maybe even two, once he had issued a punishment by fire.Such an exertion of his power weakened him and the blood of a human would restore his strength.…and his temper, thought Bree.If he fed gluttonously, he would be calm and happy afterwards. “You’re Highness?” Fawn’s words snapped Bree out of her thoughts.
“Oh, I’m sorry.The fifth bathroom, the one with the wooden walls and ceiling.” She smiled. “That room is like a vacation for me, a retreat to a cabin.” Bree mused to herself, then continued. “And please bring me some wine and cheese.”
“Of course.” Fawn curtsied and left the room.
While Bree listened to the water pouring into the bathtub, she sat on the settee again in the yellow sitting room.She loved Zane and he ignited her passions, but knowing about his actions, even though she did not witness them, bothered her.Yet, as she thought more about what had happened this evening, she could feel the stain of anger that the experience had left in the back of her mind.Once in the hot water of the tub and surrounded in a sea of suds, she could feel her body relaxing.She took in the scent of the wood around her and watched as the light of the candles in the room danced slightly on the walls and ceiling. But her thoughts still raced on.
