Chapter 32
***
"How.................."
The man's golden eyes gleamed eagerly, wearing a cruel secret.
"Do you know, Louise? Before the tiniest bit of life sprouted in Elizabeth's belly, the couple decided to put all their hopes on the surviving prince. They believed that the day he would be restored to life, the empire and Ermoli would be restored to greatness."
Caius recited the old tale as if he were reading a fable from a book.
"I believed it, too, like gold. I believed in your parents sometimes more than I believed in the Bible, because they were the only two people I had, but..................."
Louise held her breath. She'd never heard that from her parents.
No, had she ever heard it?
The man's fingertips snapped together, bringing Louise back to reality.
"You were born, and they were terrified, and they retracted deep into the drawers of their hearts, and the reality they feared, because the child in their wombs was more precious to them than the imperial blood that might grow out of them at any moment."
Louise shook her head.
"That's impossible. If you're really the prince, my parents would never..."
Caius's mouth twisted into a sneer.
"Wouldn't they have traded places with you, sweet, lovely Louise Henriette, and me?"
The low laugh resembled more of a cry.
"No, they have changed. They refuse to give me the lifeline they were entrusted to save me, and I have lived twenty years in hiding, never using my name anywhere, never being seen."
A lifeline.
Louise sucked in a breath. Suddenly, the pearl necklace around her neck felt like it was choking her. She lowered her trembling gaze to the pearl, and Caius's gaze became entangled in the white pearl.
She was the only one who couldn't move, and then the man's strong fingertips grasped the pearl. A light but greedy and insistent.
"And when it came time to end my life, I even gave them my lifeblood, an imperial heirloom passed down to me by my father, and my father's father by his father."
Louise's eyes widened at that.
"..................What?"
"The Pearl of Albrecht, which you have always believed to be your mother's. It's a lost imperial heirloom, proof of the Heidenberg line."
The answer was brutal and slow, followed by the man's conclusion.
"It is mine."
The way the man looked at her like she was a thief hurt.
No, worse than a thief, for he had branded the Ermoli family as traitors.
Louise barely cleared her dry throat. The rattling voice seemed to belong to someone else.
"I didn't know. I just wanted to protect my mother's belongings."
But Caius paid no attention to Louise's excuses. His rough fingers gripped the recovered pearl tightly.
His grip on the necklace made it impossible for her to kneel. Louise stood and pleaded.
"You don't have to marry me, you know I didn't know anything, and you know it."
The man's head tilted forward a little, the lantern glowing near the crown of his head, casting shadow over his handsome face.
"Louise."
He called out, warningly.
"It's been in the imperial family for generations, and it's been notarized by its owner without fear."
An unfamiliar sneer tinged the ascending words. A firm finger finally released the pearl and pressed it to Louise's chest.
"The moment your name appeared on the imperial bank as the owner of the pearl, your fate was sealed, Ermoli by the side of Heidenberg. You must continue your duty as your family has done for generations."
A chill ran down her spine at the casual tone.
She knew better than anyone that the scattered name of Ermoli held no power, believing wholeheartedly that her dead parents had abandoned her.
Caius was going to take her name and use it to avenge his parents, and she didn’t even deserve it because she didn’t know anything.
"Is that why you want to marry me?"
Caius answered Louise's desperate question with only a twinge of sarcasm.
"If you're going to burn the lost documents, you might as well take the pearl, eh?"
Come to think of it, was it really the pawnshop owner who took the papers?
Memories of the sudden loss of her job, of traveling to distant Burg for a job interview, and of the small town of Melk, where events kept happening, flashed through her mind like a flashlight.
Was there a single one of them that hadn't been touched by this man?
Caius's long fingers lifted Louise's chin.
He smiled arrogantly, looking straight down into a pair of eyes that never let a single tear fall from their sockets.
"That's all you have for your mother's only relic, and it would break her heart if she heard it."
His lips descended on hers ferociously as the arsenic dissipated.
A hot tongue rudely invaded her lips that couldn’t even scream. The man's gaze was dry and bored as he looked away and spat.
"Are you sufficiently defiled to marry me as planned, or shall I do more?"
She kept the pearl, but he owned it. It was such a simple equation that Caius would not back down.
***
"Ah, stop it!"
Louise stumbled backward, tears streaming down her face, but the gap she'd created was swallowed up by the man as he followed her with great strides.
"Please, please don't do this."
Behind her back, the door had opened.
The brush slung over her shoulders had long since been dropped in the hallway. Louise was startled by the man's hand tugging at the ribbon of her loose nightgown, and she shoved him away.
"Stop!"
The man, who had only just been pushed back a step, tilted his head in amusement.
"How dare I touch the traitorous Ermoli."
There was a pause, and then the shroud was lifted. Each time hot lips touched the nape of her neck, Louise gasped as if she'd been burned.
"Oh, please....................."
Her tumbled hair was a tear-soaked mess.
Rough hands absentmindedly brushed her hair back, then stroked her exposed shoulders and chest, a sick satisfaction pooling in the man's golden eyes as he pressed his lips to the tear-stained palm.
Louise realized the depth of the quagmire she had fallen into.
If all he wanted to see was her misery, he had no reason to let go of her hand, for all he had to do was hold it and look into it, and the daughter of Ermoli, alone, would be unhappy forever.
And the cruel man would laugh, as he did today.
A cool finger reached out and wiped away Louise's tears. They sparkled like jewels as he held them up to the delicate light.
He pulled his lips into a tight smile, as if he had seen something beautiful.
"You'd better come to me quietly, my lady."
The voice finally warned, its tone somewhat subdued.
Flashes of the broken mud house, Miriam rejoicing, and Pietro in jail flashed through her mind. Finally, her mother's helpless voice rang in her ears.
"When the crown prince is crowned, take this.............."
Ah, so she had no choice in the matter.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Louise collapsed like a candlestick on its last breath. The sound of Pauline's laughter she had heard in the early evening was as faint as it had been in her previous life.
***
"Do you, the bridegroom, Caius von Burg, take Louise Henriette Ermoli to be your wife, and do you swear to honor and trust her, to cherish and protect her in all hardships and adversity?"
"Yes, I swear."
The man's voice was as dry as the winter sky.
The man swore a lie in the presence of the priest, his face unchanged. Of course, he was confident that he had suffered enough, that no worse would come to him.
Soon it was Louise's turn.
"Do you, Louise Henriette Ermoli, bride, take Caius von Burg to be your husband, and do you swear to honor, trust, and serve him with everlasting love?"
She couldn't make a sound, as if her throat was tight.
She did not want to be a liar like the man, nor did she want to swear a lie before the priest.
The priest smiled weakly at Louise's silence. He made eye contact and nodded to encourage her.
It was inconceivable that a commoner bride who met and married the Margrave would truly not want this marriage.
The world revolved around a cruel lie. It would be so convenient if she could just lose her mind and collapse, but she wasn't going to be so lucky. Her face stung at the stares around her.
Louise was forced to spit out a bitter lie.
"I.................. I swear."
***
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Write a comment
Seayon (Wednesday, 21 August 2024 12:20)
Caius... Sht! :(
Eris_chan (Sunday, 29 September 2024 16:24)
Nossa! Ela descobriu até rápido