Islands in the Sky

2.17

Later that night, finally alone together in her bedchamber, Cassa spoke to Willem Cloudview, her husband, for the first time.

She had ignored him as she walked there, and ignored him as her maids fussed about, leaving bread and wine, and offering to run baths and set charcoal braziers burning and do all the other things maids were supposed to do on wedding nights.

Cassa stood there, and ignored Willem, and said, “Go,” several times to the maids.

They were persistent. Irritatingly persistent, and Cassa was unsettled, so in the end, to her own surprise as much as theirs, she said loudly, angrily, “Leave us. Now.”

The maids all went quiet. They seemed startled, presumably because Cassa never raised her voice. They were startled enough to actually leave, though, to Cassa’s great relief.

She sighed, and closed the door behind them, and then turned her mind to Willem. She supposed she was going to have to deal with him now.

She turned around and considered him and wondered what to do.

Now they were alone, just murdering him was always a possibility. It seemed a little heartless, though, when he hadn’t actually done anything to her.

He was sitting on a chair, beside her desk, near the window, watching her. She was a little irritated that he had just sat down without asking leave, but she would have been equally irritated if he’d remained standing, she supposed, and then would have told herself he was making her feel uncomfortable.

She looked at Willem, thinking.

She was meant to wash his feet now, as a symbol of starting their lives together, to show she was welcoming him into her tower and family, or something of the sort. She wasn’t going to do that.

Instead, she showed him the dining knife she had taken from the wedding banquet table, and said, “If you ever touch me, even once, I’ll murder you.”

Willem just looked at her. He seemed quite calm, and quite placid, which was annoying when Cassa was making such dire threats.

“I mean it,” she said. “I promise I will. Touch me in anger, or touch me in lust, and I’ll murder you where you stand, even if it starts a war with your family that brings mine down.”

“You won’t ever need to,” Willem said.

“Even so, I will. And if you don’t believe that I can, I’ll kill one of your guardsmen right now just to prove I’m able.”

“I’d really rather you didn’t,” Willem said. “It seems a little unkind to the guardsman.”

Cassa looked at him, surprised. She liked him a little better for saying that.

She liked him a little better, so she assumed that was exactly what he had intended.

His compassion made her wary. Any time she was told something which pleased her, she became wary. People were forever scheming and flattering. Someone had probably warned Willem to speak kindly of servants to her, and so Cassa really ought to ignore his words.

She ought to, but part of her wanted to believe him.

She wondered what to do.

It wouldn’t hurt to know him a little better, she decided. She was stuck with him now, after all. It wouldn’t hurt to be sure.

“Do you mean that?” she said.

“Mean what?”

“That it would be a shame to kill some guardsman for no actual reason.”

“It would be,” Willem said, sounding surprised in turn. “Would it not?”

“Well I think so,” Cassa said. “But do you, in truth? Or did someone whisper to you that I am over-kind and soft-hearted and saying that would win my favour?”

Willem looked at her, uncertainly.

“What?” Cassa snapped.

“Forgive me, but you do not seem especially soft-hearted…”

“To the servants,” Cassa said. “Obviously. I am soft-hearted to the servants. Everyone knows that.”

“Oh,” Willem said. “I see. That makes a little more…”

Cassa glared at him.

Willem stopped, and seemed to think.

“I had not heard that about you,” Willem said, after a moment’s hesitation. “That was all I meant. Not about how you treat your servants, at any rate. So no, no-one warned me. And I meant what I said. It would be a shame if you hurt some bystander just to prove your ill-intent towards me. So could we not simply agree on your dislike now, between ourselves, and spare the poor guardsman his murder?”

“You’re just saying that,” Cassa said, wanting to believe Willem even so.

“I promise you, I am not.”

“Which you’d say, if you’d been put up to this.”

Willem looked at her, thinking. “There’s no actual way to prove I’m not being insincere…”

“True,” Cassa said, and thought too. “Very well, I believe you,” she said.

“Now I’m not sure I believe you.”

“I wouldn’t believe me,” Cassa said. “But it is your guardsman who will pay the price.”

“You don’t need to kill anyone,” Willem said, sounding a little desperate. “Please. I understand you never wanted this wedding. I’m not especially happy about it either…”

“How delightful for you.”

“But I have no intention of harming you, so there’s no need to go about murdering people. I beg of you, please don’t.”

“Perhaps I won’t,” Cassa said, deciding she believed him after all. He was pressing her too hard about the imaginary murder not to actually care whether she did it.

Willem sighed. He sounded exasperated. He seemed to sigh the same way she did. Cassa liked that about him too, and almost became suspicious all over again.

“Fine,” Cassa said. “I won’t kill your guardsman, so long as you believe that I could.”

“I believe you,” Willem said. “I have already said I believe you.”

“Well then,” Cassa said. “Why are we still speaking of it?”