Chapter 68
****
Louise gaped at his overreaction. The Marquis had just showed his respect by kissing the back of her hand. It wasn’t a big deal, she thought.
She was dumbfounded, but soon made excuses for the Marquis.
"He didn't mean it like that. You saw him talking to me about my father."
"How many times do I have to tell you that Ermoli with the pearl belongs to me before you get it?"
Caius said, cuttingly. Then he leaned down unexpectedly and took the pearl necklace into his mouth. The same pearl that had been strung across Louise's breastbone.
"Your Highness................"
The position was so intimate that Louise gasped in surprise.
He pressed his lips against her flesh as he bit and released the large pearl, then slapped the curtains shut with one hand. The sound of the curtains slamming shut rang in their ears, but it didn't darken the carriage.
"If you're so worried about the soundproofing of the inn, how about the carriage? The sound of the horses’ hooves will be too loud for people to hear what’s going on in here.”
"You're kidding, Caius."
Louise replied as seriously as she could, but he shook his head as if he didn't understand. It was as if he had never spat a joke in the first place.
His rough hand slipped inside the wide neckline of her dress.
"No, not here."
But Louise's skin turned pink in an instant.
"Of course not."
He smiled cruelly, burying his lips in her fine flesh.
"We need to get the other man's scent off you. Don't you agree, Louise?"
***
"Ha, Your Highness...............!"
Louise tried to push his hand away at the animalistic territorial marking.
But Caius's goal was all too clear as he cupped her prying hand in his own.
"We'll do this every time another man kisses you outside."
Louise was shocked by his tone, as if he were trying to blame her for her infidelity.
She had come along today to help him with his work.
There was no reason for her to be with him if she wasn't going to help him. Wasn't he the one who brought her here?
Louise gripped the hot, sticky flesh, helpless.
"Don't be ridiculous, I didn't do it because I liked it.................."
"You didn't like it? You didn't like it and you stood there while the old man rubbed his beard and didn't scream? Why, so you could be loyal to me?"
Tears welled up in her eyes in frustration. She knew he was just saying it to insult her, but she was still angry.
"Then you would have been happy if I pushed him away?!”
Caius spat.
"I'd have been pissed in the head, but I'd have been happy in the dick."
"Your Highness, you're drunk..................!"
Louise, startled by the offensive language, raised her free hand and clamped it over his lips. She'd seen him accept a glass of whiskey a few times at the racetrack, but she'd never thought he was drunk.
The man licked her palm slowly, teasing Louise.
"A few shots of whiskey won't get me drunk."
It would be better to say he was drunk than to say this when he wasn't.
He smeared sticky saliva all over Louise's flustered fingers, and then asked with satisfaction, his golden eyes like finely crafted jewels.
"You're off the pills, aren't you?"
Heidenberg's golden eyes flashed before her blurry vision.
Louise nodded falsely.
It wouldn't be so cruel to withhold one from a man who would give his life for it.
With satisfaction, Caius grasped Louise's wrist and turned it over, then lowered his lips to the smooth skin that showed the bluish veins.
"Here, Heidenberg, where the blue half-moon rises."
His voice murmured with delight in the carriage.
"Let this be the last gift you will give me."
Louise closed her eyes.
The tears that had been building up fell again, and the man licked them willingly. His graceful mouth curved in satisfaction as if he had tasted something delicious.
When they finally reached Trier, Caius dismounted with Louise in his arms.
It was dark with the setting sun, and her flowing dress hid her dirty clothes.
Still, Louise didn't dare look up. She felt as if everyone could guess what they had done in the carriage.
Caius was a natural.
"I'll take her. My wife's gotten motion sickness."
The hired men backed away quietly.
But Louise's vision didn't return after she was laid down on the bed.
The man was indeed persistent, relentless waves.
It broke and broke and broke, only to rise again. It wouldn't stop until it stopped breathing altogether and settled to the bottom.
***
Two days later.
Back in Burg, Louise went to see Miriam early in the morning.
She had been away twice in the past week, and she wasn't sure how the girl was being left behind.
On the way out of the racetrack, she bought a toy for Miriam, which she seemed to like.
"Wow! What is this, sister?"
"I went to the racetrack with your brother this time, and there was a craftsman selling these horse-shaped toys, aren't they pretty?"
"It's so pretty!"
It was a toy with three horses hanging from a wooden carved roof.
Louise had never seen one in person, but Caius explained that it was called a "carousel." It was from Gallicia, and one recently arrived in the capital.
You wind it up to go around a pole in the center, and the horses circle around the pole as if they were running on their own. There's music playing, too.
"Wow, I love it! I love it! You're the best!"
Miriam, who had grown somewhat sullen in the few days she'd been away from the manor, immediately brightened and exclaimed.
"I'm glad you like it, Miriam."
Louise stroked Miriam's hair and studied the drawings she'd made, the books she'd read, and the calligraphy she'd practiced during her time alone.
Then she spoke softly.
"Now, Miriam, come May, your brother will be even busier, and I'll have more work to do to help, and I may be away from home even more often than I have been lately."
In truth, she was thinking of the day Caius would take over the palace.
It was as optimistic an outlook as Louise could muster, given the stakes of the man’s rebellion, but no matter how successful he was, there was no way Caius would take Miriam to the palace.
If things went well, Ferdinand would be recognized for his work.
Maybe he would get a few more nearby estates, but he would stay in Burg with Miriam.
Even though it was impossible to assume that Ferdinand would take good care of his daughter, Louise wanted to take Miriam with her no matter what.
She never knew when she would be abandoned.
"Here, Heidenberg, where the blue half-moon rises, is the last gift you will ever give me."
A final gift.
The man who had hoped for an heir simply said his last words.
She had guessed there would be an end, but hearing it in his voice broke her heart.
If she didn’t take the pills and get pregnant by the end, he'd abandon her without giving him a final gift.
Maybe even if she did have a child, he would only take the child and abandon her, and when that happened, he would take away her name to avoid the stigma of abandoning his wife.
It wasn't hard to guess now, Louise realized, that he would be able to do just that once he took the throne.
That's why she felt it necessary to sort out her relationship with Miriam.
"More than now..................?"
Miriam tore her gaze away from her gifted carousel and rolled her blue eyes uneasily.
"Because if I don't help, His Excellency won't have time to sleep."
Miriam's lips curled into a thin line, even as Louise tried to make the most pitiful excuse she could.
She was afraid of him, even more so than she had been with Caius.
Up until now, it would have been easy enough to let him sleep or not, as long as he was busy and away from the manor.
But when he used his busyness as an excuse to take Louise away, it was a problem for Miriam.
Louise was Miriam's only sister, and she was also her teacher.
"So, Miriam. Why don't you come with me to find a new teacher?"
****
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