The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 28

 I woke up late the next morning to the rain pattering the windows and roofs of the tower, it's methodical drill calming me as I slipped out of bed. Rose was gone, and so I slipped on a fluffy white robe and stepped to the window. The deep gray clouds were pouring water onto the panes, the drops trickling down in globs. But through the dim light of the stormy night, through even the foggy window, I could see a white dress in the garden plaza, dancing in the rain. She twirled before the large statue, and I smiled at the sight of her. Who else would dare dance before her one removed fiancé's dead ex-husband? No one I knew.

She flew around the flooded fountain like a bird, her soaked white dress spinning heavily with her. Rosetta always loved the rain, and I wondered if as she dance, if she cried, or if she smiled too. I wondered if she could see the white robe behind the cut glass window. No doubt she knew I had noticed the hole, and left it for her, even though I myself was not entirely sure whether it was a good idea to do so. I slid the robe off my shoulders and kicked the glass, letting the shattered pieces spray outward and the rain engulf me as I replaced smooth skin with blackened fur. I splayed my wings and flew down to join her, perching on one of the gargoyles that guarded my wretched family. She was smiling.

* * *

"A ball?" I asked, replacing my knight on the chess board.

"I can't imagine any other way we could get her to listen while also getting her to see us." Illy said, placing her queen opposite my knight.

"We'll have to be careful, we can't have our relationship go public before people know Rosetta is innocent. You'd be ripped to bits for courting the child of your mother's ex."

"I think it'll be fine. We can push the roles of slave and master without really evicting any real suspicions. If anything, it might help later when people are trying to understand what went on and look to the past for clues." She said. I moved my knight, taking out her bishop.

"Very well, when?" I asked.

"Tuesday should do, I'll call Ebony up tonight and have her select dresses."

"I can't get used to your eyes." I leaned forward and looked at them, their melty purple color was so pretty against her white skin and black curls. She smiled as she took her queen in her hand.

"Checkmate." She replied, taking my pawn as she placed her queen before my king, guarded by her rook.

"If it takes me a decade, I swear I'll beat you someday." I replied.

"Do you know what that mate's called?" She asked, and I shook my head. "The kiss of death."She laughed and leaned forward over the chess board, "Shall I give you one personally?" She pressed her lips to mine in a kiss.

"You're too smooth for your own good." I grazed my hand across her neck as I spoke. "So tell me, Illy, is the move really called that?" I said. She laughed.

"Believed me or not, it is."

* * *

If there was a time I was most inclined to pin that puny man to the wall, it would be now, in all his many years of service, and all his petty mistakes, this made me the most irate. "One, maybe two days after I gave you strict instruction to revoke all requests put forth by my daughter and come to me immediately, is you memory really that short Josh. I am beginning to think I've hired a goldfish, for at this point I don't even think you stand shoulder to shoulder with the most cowardly of dogs. She's a lightweight, would never do a think about it if you refused, but you are so cowardly and dim that you cannot even stand your ground against her tactless words?" I yelled, smacking my palms down on the table as I stared down on him, his pupils were so small I felt his wire specs might shrink with them, and his hair stood on end in fear.