There was a long silence during which the bishop began to pace back and forth. After a few minutes, Rennio finally stopped and turned toward him. “We cannot be conservative about this. We need to make sure that witnesses are convinced she has died, but of course we won’t have a body to bring back. Not to mention we have to appear as though we couldn’t possibly be involved. It will be risky for us and for her.”
Gerhard perked up, recognizing Rennio’s tone. Rennio had a plan, he knew it. “What’s your idea?” he asked, leaning toward him.
Rennio shook his head. “You’re not going to like it.”
He put his hands on his hips and stood straight and confident. He already began to feel a little better. “Try me.”
Chapter Four
“Wake up, you whore!”
Susanna woke up with a start, finding herself in the middle of her cushioned pallet with naught covering her but a fur. She had barely spent longer than a moment nude in years, and it took her awhile to remember what she’d done the night before, then she felt the pinch of discomfort between her legs. She was no longer a virgin.
She looked up and saw Rennio hovering over her. He threw her clothes down on her. “Get dressed!” he growled.
“What—”
“Shut up, or I’ll drag you out there naked!” he snapped, and Susanna, her heart suddenly feeling like it was controlled by a hummingbird, quickly began to pull her underclothes on. She hadn’t dressed herself since she was an unruly child who wanted to be up and about before her nursemaid was ready to dress her. Since then, her clothing had become more complicated.
She moved quickly, her body flushed as she looked up and saw Rennio still leering at her. “Turn yourself away,” she demanded.
He suddenly stepped forward, then leaned down and grabbed her hair, snapping so loudly that anyone outside of the pavilion was sure to have heard him, “You don’t order me around, you bitch! You’re nothing! You have no power over anything! Now get yourself dressed so you can get out of Gerhard’s sight! He wants you to stop stinking up his tent!”
The gravity of his words only set in as she was trying to tie her underskirt onto her waist. For a moment she paused and let them slam against her soul.
Nobody had talked as sweetly to her as Gerhard had the night before. Despite the cold winter that was approaching outside, Gerhard’s words had been able to warm her down to her toes. He was handsome, sweet smelling, and had large, gorgeous hands and a chiseled jaw. He was the type of man she had never known she always wanted. Last night, after being so caring and sympathetic after her run in with the brute soldier, Gerhard had been able to awaken something deep inside her, and her body had reacted as if he had casta spell on her.
It had been glorious and fulfilling. She’d felt closer to Gerhard in those few short hours than she had felt with anyone in her whole life.
And now he wanted her out of his sight? How were they at one second two halves of the same whole and by the morning she was something that needed to be disposed of? She had gone from being in the height of bliss into the deepest pit of hell.
“Hurry up!” he growled.
Rennio was an enigma, too. He had been unpleasant yesterday, but he hadn’t been wicked or cruel. He hadn’t even been aggressive. “Wh-why are you being so terrible?” she begged, finally able to pull on her dress.
“Because of all the goddamned trouble you’ve caused! We’ve fought a war over your incompetence! Damn women—you can’t even take control of a cake without fucking it up!”
Her eyes widened and she turned away, hoping he wouldn’t see that her lip had now begun to quiver. She had known yesterday that her enemies were sure to be less-than-kind with her, but she had at least thought they’re be horrible right away, and not all of the sudden after she’d given one of them her maidenhead!
At that mere thought, she felt as though she had swallowed a stone. Her throat tensed and she could barely breathe.
She fumbled with her braids, her fingers feeling numb and not dexterous at all. Her handmaiden was the one who used to fix her hair, and although she had spent time playing around with the hair of her sister and cousins for fun and leisure, she hadn’t attempted to fix her own hair in ages. She clumsily tried to arrange her hair into buns and then tried her best to pin on her crispinettes, knowing it would look horrible if she had a looking glass to inspect it all.
She turned and said as clearly as she could beyond the lump in her throat, “If you could be so kind… I need help tying up the back of my dress.”
Rennio rolled his eyes dramatically and then marched behind her where he none-too-gently began to lace the back of her velvet gown. “As if I care if your tits are hanging out!” he replied then, loudly. She blushed, wondering why he had to say everything so loud that it even hurt her ears. He wasn’t on a stage, for God’s sake.
He handed her cloak to her then, although she was surprised that he would bother. She was nearly about to forget about it, feeling rushed and jittery, but was relieved when it was in her hands and she threw it around her shoulders and closed the clasp at the neck. She was sure she looked like the very devil, but at least she would be warm.
“Come on, you move slow as the grave,” he claimed, suddenly grabbing her arm and thrusting her out the door.
As soon as she was outside, she was seized on either side by two guardswho gripped her upper arms. There were soldiers all around her, crowded in tightly, as she was dragged through the camp. The atmosphere around her seemed even tenser than it had been the day before when she came through the castle gate to surrender.
She felt completely winded; yesterday she had been emotionally prepared for the worst, but sometime during the night she had begun to gain the smallest sliver of hope. She had been made happy by her enemy, after all, at least for a brief time. Perhaps that is why now she felt like there was a ball of ice in her stomach, one which only felt larger after the crowd began to shower her with rotting vegetables.
She had no idea where they were leading her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Rennio, but nowhere she looked could she see Gerhard. Did he know that she was being treated this way? Rennio had said that he did, but Rennio seemed like the type of man who might speak an untruth just to get under her skin.
She cried out when she was suddenly hit on her shoulder by something hard. With fury, she turned and realized that someone had thrown a small rock at her. When she turned, she saw a boy of ten covered in mud who made a face at her. She was just swallowing down her fury when she was hit in the cheek with something else.
