I glanced away. “Do you think Eurycleia will be gone long?”
“I hope so. She’s brilliant, but gods, is she intense.”
I huffed a laugh. “I think she’s going to skin me alive for orderingyou around so much.”
“I seem to remember you saying something about my ‘pampered royal arse’?”
“Me? Never. You were delirious. You must’ve been hallucinating.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Penelope’s smile stretch into a grin.
“Strange. I’m quite certain I heard it.”
“Well, whatever I might have said,I got results, didn’t I?” I motioned to the babe in her arms.
She chuckled at that, and I felt the sound glow inside me, so warm and alive. It never felt like that with anyone else, and I had missed the feeling.
I had missedher.
“You’re right, you know,” she murmured, voice sobering. “I could not have done it without you, Melantho. I mean that.”
That warm feeling in my chest intensified.
“You could have,” I whispered. “But I am glad I was here.”
I leaned forward, brushing a finger along the babe’s cheek, his skin so impossibly soft.
I felt Penelope’s eyes on me, and it was only when I met her gaze that I realized how close our faces had become. I could feel the warmth of her breath against my lips, could feel her unbound hair caressing my cheek. There was something in the depth of our silence, as if we were trying to let the stillness speak the words we could not form.
The door burst open then, making the baby bawl. I instantly recoiled from Penelope as Odysseus strode into the room, a huge grin cracked across his face.
“Where is he? Where is my son?” he bellowed, not even sparing me a glance as I shrank against the wall. “By Zeus, look at him! He is perfect! My love, I am so proud of you.”
I melted farther into the shadows as Odysseus cupped Penelope’s face and planted a kiss on her lips, claiming them for himself.
“What of your meeting with Palamedes?” Penelope pressed. “Areyou to join Agamemnon’s war?”
“We will discuss when you are rested,” Odysseus said, plucking his child from her arms and shushing him back to sleep.
“But—”
“Please, my love. Let us just be together as a family.”
Penelope’s smile wavered as she nodded, and Odysseus planted another, gentler kiss upon her lips.
I slipped from the room shortly after that.
I could not stomach any more.
23
It was the dead of night when I finally returned to the slave quarters.
I was utterly spent, my body drained from battling an onslaught of emotions. There was still so much for me to process, but I forced that cacophony of thoughts to wash away in the currents of my exhaustion.
I needed to sleep, but hunger drove me to the palace kitchens. I had not eaten since breakfast, and my gnawing stomach would keep me awake if I did not satiate it. Unlike Sparta, the kitchens were not guarded at night, though I knew I would still be in trouble if I was found in there alone. So I slipped silently across the stone floors, willing my rumbling stomach to quiet.
A heavy thud made me freeze, my eyes adjusting to the dimness to make out a familiar shadow slumped over a table.
