The Art of the Corset (2017)

Chapter Forty Two- Unintentional Truths

"Marth?" Evelyn summoned as she moved into the room in which he had been changing for the night. Wearing no shirt and just his pants, he quickly turned to the sound of her voice and her eyes glued to his chest, before then fixating to his eyes.

"Yes?"

"Why endure all this pain? Losing Rose was hard for us both...then you act as though your feelings for me had never existed to begin with...I don't understand-"

"Do you know the feeling when you look to the one person you would sacrifice your life for, give up everything, and they look back with complete hate? I do. I know you loathe me...everything I did to you...no matter the reason-I should not have done it. But I cannot tell you how sorry I am. Not only for Rose...but for everything. For not telling you when I should have, for not keeping you."

She remained silent as a tear slid down his cheek.

"I do not have hate for you, Marth. I have a broken heart...because I believed that our love could extinguish the hottest flames of hell and open the gates to heaven...I truly thought that by your side, anything was possible and not a conjured dream. I do not loathe you, I never could. I loathe what I made you."

"What YOU made me?"

"Just as Amelia had done. I broke your heart and you became the opposite of who you really are."

"I was not fair in growing angry in your past before me. I was hurt due to the truth that I was not allowed to know from the woman I love. I wanted only to hear it from you. You were also right when you spoke of us-the royals-my kind, whatever you want to call them. We do not have to worry about our next meal or if we have to kill to survive...we worry about pleasing our families and sacrificing where needed. I was angry because I wasn't mad at YOU. I was at myself. For pushing you so far away that you didn't care to hold on any longer."

"There is nothing to be done about it now. I am already married to another and-"

"I can annul it. I have the capability...Everything can continue as it was."

To her surprise, he held her hands with great adoration before looking deep in her eyes for an answer.

"I cannot leave Marcus. He has never harmed me either physically or otherwise. I will not do that to him. He has been nothing but kind and a gentleman."

For a moment, Marth had looked off as if wanting to speak, before returning to her. "You should go to him. I am sure he is worried for you..."

"Marth-"

"You are right Evelyn. He has never done wrong by you...so you should go to him. Your husband."

Without another word, Evelyn moved from the room and into the kitchen, where she found Winnie.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah...I uh...I am going to the market and will be back within the hour."

"Do you wish for company?" Winnie dusted off her flour covered hands and moved to untie her apron before Evelyn threw her hand up.

"No. I will only be a moment. Marth knows where I am going."

Winnie nodded as Evelyn moved down the streets of France, taking in the smiles and happy music-as she made her way back to the home she shared with Marcus and his sister. Upon entering, she found the guards to give her a look of surprise before then looking to one another with fear. Disregarding this as an unimportant oddity, she continued her search for her husband before finding him in his chambers, writing a letter of some kind before hearing her enter behind him.