Page 32 of The Vampire Debt
When neither woman returns, I sit and dig into my food. With the first bite, I groan. This food is delicious and decadent. After another few bites, I shovel it into my mouth, barely finishing one bite before I take another, washing it down with tea sweetened with sugar and a splash of milk.
“Miss?” Elise says from the doorway.
I nearly choke not realizing she had reappeared. Her placid expression has returned.
Demon’s tits she is quiet. I put the silverware down and lift my glass to my lips, taking large gulps.
“Do you need anything else, Miss? More tea perhaps?”
I push back my chair and stand, swallowing the last bit of food. “No. I don’t think I could eat another bite. Thank you for the meal.”
I skirt the table and pass her and head toward the front entrance. Elise clears her throat, a sound that makes it obvious she has something to say. I stop mid-stride to look at her over my shoulder.
I smile for her, pretending that everything is fine, but it’s strained and already making my face ache with the effort.
“Miss, if it’s all right, I would like to ask you a question.”
I nod.
“Earlier—” She plays with the hem of her sleeve, hesitating for such a long moment that I’m not sure she is capable of finishing. “—why did you assume you would be…” her question trails off.
I say nothing. She is an idiot to not realize what it means when a vampire takes a human during the claiming.
“Do you not like the Master?” Elise whispers the question.
“No, I do not,” I say before I can stop myself.
Elise wrinkles her nose as if it were abnormal to loath a thing that fed on you. Even rabbits know that the fox is not their friend. It is all too clear that she adores the beast that keeps her.Poor thing.
Her mood shifts visibly across her pale face.
“He has been nothing but kind to you. He allows you to stay here, feeds you the best food—” Once more she takes me in from head to foot, only this time she looks as if she smelled a pile of horse manure. “He gives you the best clothes.”
“Then you don’t know him as well as you think you do. You don’t know what he’s done.”
“The only thing he has done is improve your life.”
She’s angry again. But so am I. Elise is a fool if she thinks being given clothes, a large room, and pretty things is enough to make someone worthy of adoration—for ripping me away from the ones I love and the life I have fought tooth and nail for.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, turning my back on her. “It takes more than material possessions and money to win someone over.”
“I know he is a good man.”
Otherworld take me, this girl is crazy.A good man?She is so deep into her delusion there is no use trying to explain how much he falls short of that mark. The other servants must be equally blind to who and what he is as well.
“I’m going for a walk,” I say. I storm from the room and out the front door, effectively ending the conversation.
Once I get outside, the cool air takes the edge off my irritation. I make my way through the gardens. White stone gravel crunches underfoot. I wander through the paths, between rows of rose bushes and shrubs. Occasional birdbaths decorate where the pathways intersect.
I stop at a bench situated before a small circular pool of water that has a blanket of lily pads over half of the surface. The stones placed around it start small and gradually get wider as they fan out. Green moss grows thickly in the grooves. I plop down on the bench and grip the edge with my fingers and wait for my anger to dissipate.
* * *
The next several days pass and the manor is quiet. I could almost believe Alaric has left for good. I haven’t seen him in a few days. Except I do spot that flying beastie of his hovering around me in my wanderings.
It still surprises me that Mr. Devereaux has not come for me, or taken back his dagger. I have managed to sew pockets into most the dresses in my wardrobe to better hide it.
I have returned to the small pond every day for the last three days to think, and it is today that I have decided…