Rendezvous in the Romanowskian Empire

33. Dangerous women

Althea

I pushed myself off the bed, barely having the urge to do so. Eyes still blurry with heavy sleep, yawn after yawn came by, refusing to let go.

It was annoying when I had to wake up in the middle of my sleep, just to drink water or use the washroom. Ugh.

Dragging myself to the window, I pushed open the curtains to see a tinge of dark blue spread in the atmosphere, giving signs of early morning.

I rose my arms above to crack my neck from the morning fatigue. Through my hazy vision, I looked down to find a beeline of women entering the palace complex. Mild tinkering of a lyre engulfed the area, making me more sleepy than I already was.

The familiar baskets and wine jars told they were the Dionysus women, who had returned from wherever they had gone.

Drawing back the curtains, I staggered to my small table in the dark to get hold of the pitcher, which, to my disappointment, was empty.

There wasn't a choice but to step out into the hallway. Chilly morning air passed the open corridor, making me shiver in the thin linen I wore. I noticed a lone fire torch imparting a dull glow to the darkened hallway.

Gripping the pitcher in my hand, I walked along the brick walls of the hallway, like a white ghost sailing in an abandoned castle.
It had something to do with the food here, which left me more thirsty than I'd ever been.

The earthen pot kept near Julian's room always contained water. Reaching the fourth-century filter, I removed the lid, poured some into my pitcher and drank a mouthful. My eyes shifted to his room in curiosity.

There weren't any guards guarding the doorstep because he wasn't there. It was strange when I'd secretly seen him with a cloth wrapped around his face, only the eyes visible.
A strangely familiar woman also stood beside him with her face covered, as they'd talked in hushed whispers. I don't know why she looked like that woman Cheryl had introduced me to.

Helaine, something was her name.

When a similar man had arrived, they'd gone with him.

All this had happened after everyone was gone to sleep, which I'd witnessed through my room's window when I was writing my AI book.
It was crazy how my room could view everything happening outside Julian's room. I knew better than to poke my nose in his affairs and kept mum about it.

Drowned in my thoughts of the uncanny situation, I didn't notice two women who had entered the hallway.

"Oh dear, that was fantastic. Your girls did well," the woman walking next to Olympias laughed, a silky bliss enclosed her voice that could seduce any man, just by the sound of it.

"I had to make sure Alexander isn't surrounded by evil women," they laughed amongst themselves, but the next second, their eyes were on the silly woman who was gawking at them in fear.

Yep, right guess. Althea freaking Rosemary.

I nearly choked on my water when the face of the unfamiliar woman became clear under the fire torch.

She had the darkest kohl ever possible swiped around her eyes. Linen so perfectly draped that mine resembled a hag in comparison. Hairs pinned elegantly to the side, letting the rest fall till her back like a smooth black waterfall on a cloudy day. And her face?

It was a carbon copy of Julian's.

More like if Julian had soft features sans the stubble, instead of the hard-hitting face, he would look like her.

Impossible beauty would be the only word describing her.
But the fact was scaring me to bits that she looked ready to maul me with her bare hands.

"You weren't at the celebrations, dear?" Olympias asked as she came forward, her voice dripping like poisonous honey. A nervous wreck crept down my spine at her question.