Page 81 of Unseen

My lashes fluttered as I tried to block that night out, to eliminate the memories of the fear I had felt, the disgust that the encounter had left behind, and the deep shame that I had somehow failed, somehow done something wrong.

“And when did you discover he had stolen me away?”

Azriel crossed the room to the table, snatching up the decanter and pouring himself another generous glass of wine. “Eight months ago, I was summoned to a business celebration. Some new acquisition, who knows what? I didn’t care. But I played the part of the dutiful son, and was in attendance. I was about to be free of him for a number of months, so what harm could it do?” He took a rather too long swig of wine, and sank back into his chair. “He was roaringly drunk, loud and uncouth. It was almost embarrassing to observe. I was about to leave but…” He trailed off, rubbing his thumb along his lower lip as he stared into the lamp light. “He began to speak of you. Filthy things, abhorrent things that no man should say publicly about his wife. The men around him loved it, of course.”

My cheeks were burning. “They did?”

Azriel gritted out a low growl. “Oh yes, a raucous audience. Degenerates, all of them. Salivating over the details of Evangeline Caine’s breasts, her cunt.”

Even now, the betrayal of Acton’s words stung. It should not have surprised me. It should not have even injured me. But by god, it did.

“He should not have done that,” I said softly, and Azriel grunted out a cruel laugh.

“My father was never much concerned with what he should and should not have done.” He drank down more of his wine, then looked across the table at me. “It was then that he said something, I barely heard it at first, but it sounded very much like, ‘Good thing I spared my son’. And I asked him what the devil he meant.” He took a deep breath, his eyes still on me, never wavering. “He laughed. The old fool laughed. He laughed right in my face, and told me that I should be grateful to him, that I wasn’t wasting my seed filling a womb where nothing would ever grow.”

“That is a vile thing to say.” My throat became thick, but I was determined not to weep. “An ugly, vile thing.”

“And then he told me everything. That he had gone to Leicester to arrange the marriage contract with your father, and had seen you in the garden. You, with your long, black hair.” His eyes flickered over me, and a soft smile ghosted over his face. “Your full, red lips. Your pale skin.” His expression darkened again, his eyes dropping from my face. “‘My very own Snow White’, that’s what he called you. His Snow White, come to marry the old, withering king in his decrepit castle.”

“With the prince waiting in the shadows,” I said with a weak smile, and Azriel’s shoulders jerked with a laugh.

“Yes, the hidden prince in the tower, forced to hide in the walls and watch what was taken from him.”

“Is that why you were gone so long?”

He did not react at first, simply skimmed his fingers around the stem of his wine glass. He winced slightly, shifting in his chair. “You must understand, Evie, that I never intended to leave you so long. Even though I knew you hated me, I had to be near you. I had to be in your presence. Leaving you was… It was though all the air had been sucked from the room, from every room I walked into. Everywhere was cold, and bare, and empty. My heart ceases to beat when I am not near you. For you own it. Entirely.” His expression was soft, and wanting, and full of something I believed he had never been gifted by anyone in his life. “For seven months, my heart was frozen. I was consumed with thoughts of you. I saw your face in the face of every woman who passed by. It was a madness, beloved, an all-encompassing madness.”

“So what drove you back?”

“Oh, Evie,” he said with a laugh, shaking his head. “You did, of course. The desire to feel my heart beating again, to see your face, to breathe in your presence.”

“Why did you never try to be kind to me?” I asked, my voice cracking as my throat swelled even more. “Why, not once, did you try to show me any kind of love, or-or-”

“To what end?” Azriel interjected, his face once again stormy. “What good would that have done?”

“I’d have known that you cared, at least.”

“It was preservation, Evie.”

I scoffed, and rose to my feet. “Preservation? Yes, your preservation. Mine be damned.” I strode towards the bedroom, and heavy footsteps pursued me.

“Where are you going?”

“To bed!” I attempted to slam the door behind me, but it was stopped by his hand. “Leave me alone.”

“What is this now?” His hand curled around my arm, spinning me around to face him. “Do not walk away from me.”

“Why not? You did?”

“You little fool. You would not have had me even if I’d offered.”

I wrenched my arm from his grasp, a useless endeavour as he grasped me firmly by both arms, shoving my full weight against him. “You forced yourself on me now, what was stopping you then? Propriety? You claim not to care about society, about the good opinion of others, and yet here you are.”

“You were not mine to claim then.”

“But I am now?”

“Yes.”

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