Page 91 of Historical Hotties
Now, with Amata’s apology, her emotions were fresh and brittle once again. She had run all the way from her grandfather’s solar and now stood in the middle of her larger chamber, reliving the apology over and over again. She was reliving beating up on Amata, thinking that she should have been satisfied from physically expressing her rage but realizing there was no satisfaction at all.
The damage to her life was irreparable.
It was over before it even began.
“My lady?” Edie was standing in the doorway of the smaller chamber. “Are… are you well?”
Dacia looked over at the woman who tried so hard to take good care of her. “I am.”
“Did you see Amata?”
“I did.”
“And she apologized?”
Dacia nodded. “For everything, she did.”
She didn’t elaborate and Edie didn’t push. She was intuitive that way. She knew that if Dacia wanted her to know something, she would tell her. For now, however, Edie was just glad Amata had made amends, but Dacia didn’t seem too relieved or overjoyed.
She simply seemed weary.
“Come and lay down, lamb,” she said gently. “I’ll mix you a sleeping position and rub your forehead. Would you like that?”
Dacia smiled weakly. “Dear Edie,” she said. “You are always trying to tend to me, just like a child.”
Edie went over to the big bed and pulled back the coverlet. “That is because sometimes we all need careful tending,” she said. “This is your time. Come and lay down, lamb. Let me take care of you.”
Dacia didn’t fight her on it. She was weary and, truth be told, feeling weak. The day had been too much for her. She needed to rest and organize her thoughts, which were centering more and more on Cassius. Perhaps if she apologized to him, he might forgive her for being cruel and come back to her. If he truly loved her as he said he did, perhaps he’d be willing.
She needed to sleep on it.
“There is some wine over there,” she told Edie. “There is a phial in my medicament bag, in the back row, four from the left, that are the sleeping powders that Emmeric gave Grandfather last year. They worked for him. I may as well try them.”
Edie looked at the two bags, side by side. “I put the things from his bag into yours,” she said, worried. “I thought you wanted his medicines in your bag.”
Dacia sat on the bed to remove her slippers. “I did,” she said. “Look for the wordsomnumscratched into the glass. That is the sleeping powders.”
Edie knew the letters of the alphabet, but she couldn’t read very well. Dacia was aware of that and she had tried to educated Edie further, but Edie had been embarrassed about it and she had told Dacia she understood far more than she actually did.
Therefore, reading the etchings on the glass phials was nerve wracking for her because she wanted to find the right powders. She didn’t want to admit to Dacia that she couldn’t read them properly. The young woman had enough to worry about without an incompetent servant. She came to a phial with “um” at the end of the word and held it up into the light.
“Somnum?” she said.
Dacia was already laying down. “Is that what is says?”
“I think so, my lady. I seeumat the end of it.”
“Is it a white powder?”
Edie held it up for her to see, but she was several feet away. “It is, my lady.”
Dacia only glanced at it from afar. “Good,” she said. “Use one of those little spoons to put a goodly amount in a cup of wine and bring it to me.”
“Are you certain?” Edie said reluctantly. “I put Emmeric’s potions and powders in here, and some of them were poisons.”
But Dacia didn’t seem concerned. “If the phial sayssomnum, then it is a sleeping powder,” she said. “Put it in the wine, Edie.”
Edie did as she was told. She put a heaping spoonful into a cup of wine and stirred it around, dissolving it. Bringing it over to Dacia, she helped the woman sit up so she could drain the entire cup. Edie took the cup away as Dacia lay back down, rolling onto her side.
