He pursed his lips together, his eyes looked over her, and he frowned. “I’m getting you something to eat.”
“No, thank you.”
He left, anyway. She sighed and shook her head. A cold breeze filled thetent when he strode out, and she realized that it was already dark outside. She hadn’t noticed because of her nearby lantern. “Stubborn man,” she grunted to herself.
When he returned, which was only minutes later, he gave Rennio a good kick with his boot and he woke up with a start, splattering his mead all over the tapestries covering the ground. “Wh-What? Oh. It’s you.”
Gerhard grunted. “It’s me. And if you’re not done being useless, please do it elsewhere.”
Rennio’s eyebrows rose and he said, “You just want me to leave you alone with her?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Gerhard verified snappishly.
Rennio took a swig of his mead. “Not proper. You’re a hot-blooded man. She’s an unmarried woman. Bad precedent to set after you just gave all your men blue ballocks.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion. Just a warning that a pummeling will soon begin,” Gerhard replied dryly, looming over the bishop.
Rennio took that as his cue to pull himself noisily out of his chair and toward the door with an unsavory belch. “You’ve always been a tyrant,” he complained on his way out. He continued to murmur about how he didn’t get any respect for all the work he did, especially considering that his worth was twenty times that of most men’s.
Gerhard rolled his eyes and then set a plate on a nearby table. “Wine, and some food, my lady. Come have some. You have to be famished.”
“I’m not,” she assured, but she closed her book and rose to her feet as gracefully as she could. “Tell me the news from the castle. Are my people being treated well?”
He sighed and pulled the chair Rennio had been sitting in toward the table. “Yes, although your people, especially the women folk, have given me and my captains headaches all day. They probably will all tomorrow as well. Not just the castle matrons, either. Just about every bloody female in that bloody fortress needs a good birching.” He adjusted his sleeves. “Must be something in the water, making the women stubborn and silly as mules. And now I see they take after you. Eat it. You’ve already spent your whole day cold, and I don’t want to see you ill.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting ill,” she replied, though a surge of pride welled up in her. She was actually quite glad that so many were giving Gerhard’s men trouble still, not just sitting down and bending to their enemy’s will. “Hopefully I’ll catch something and be able to give it to the man who’ll lop off my head as my last hoorah.”
He rolled his eyes. “You shouldn’t think the worst. The Emperor is a good man. He’ll give you a fair trial,” he assured flatly.
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think that?” She saw him take in a couple of deep, defensive breaths as he readied to verbally joust with her, butshe didn’t wait for him to respond. “If you think the emperor can afford to let enemies get away unscathed, than you are woefully naïve.”
He pressed his lips together, but his gaze didn’t linger on her for long. “Your journey doesn’t start for days, in any case. I want you safe until then, and taken care of.”
“I thank you.” And then she just stood there.
He looked back at her, now much more intense. “I have a headache from dealing with the promise I didn’t have to make to you at all. Can you please do the smallest thing I ask of you?”
“Are you still going on about the food?” she asked, unable to even spare the plate a glance. She was too exhausted to eat, and interestingly enough, she liked making him upset. Somehow, it made her feel like she once again had at least some element of control in her life. “Are scraps of food supposed to make me feel better?”
“They’re hardly scraps. I gave you the best I could find,” he argued, even seeming stung. “Stop being a brat, princess. It’s less than becoming.”
She lifted her chin; she hadn’t been called a brat by anyone in her whole life. “I’m not a brat. I’m a princess,” she gritted.
“Not any more. Now stop acting like a child.” She had a feeling it wasn’t about the food anymore. He was trying to force her to do something just to show that he could, that he was the master, and that he could rule a princess.
She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to abate her anger. It only made her frustration simmer to a boiling point as he stood there, looking at her like she was being silly. “I am not acting like a child. You are acting like a deranged brute. It’s bad enough that you take my whole kingdom from me. My life. My friends. I’m not going to stand here and—” She picked up her cup of wine and threw it at him. Unfortunately, he ducked, but she never stopped her tirade. “—do what you tell me as if you’re my master! Bullying me like I’m a dog!” He stepped forward so she picked up a leg of roast chicken and threw that at him as well. That hit him in the forehead, despite his attempt to avoid it.
“Calm down!” he barked furiously, pointing his index finger toward her.
She didn’t listen. She couldn’t calm down; she was at the edge of her sanity, and slipping off the edge. “Treating me like a—a—!” She picked up the whole wooden plate and threw it, seeing it clip him in the shoulder and spill the extra food everywhere. “—child! I won’t have it!”
She continued throwing anything in arms’ reach at him, and then when she ran out, she turned to grab more things. She didn’t know why, but every time something cracked against him, the better she felt. It didn’t strike her that she was in any danger until he marched behind her, grabbed her elbow, and spun her around. He gave her a hard shake. “Stop this. Calm yourself, Susanna.”
She slapped him and enjoyed the resounding sound that echoed throughthe room. It didn’t quite seem enough to repay him for taking everything precious in her life away from her, but it was a start.
She didn’t regret it until she noticed that his face had become a glowering mask of rage. His lips were pursed, his jaw tight. “I have only one way I deal with tantrums, my lady,” he threatened, his voice a low rumble, but then he dropped his hand from her shoulders and began to remove his belt.
She blanched white and stepped back, her anger dissolving like mist and only fear remaining. She took a giant step backwards. “Don’t even think about it!” she growled.
