"Agree to marry me, Delphi, and I will save you from the pyre." His fingers tightened around her wrist, and she fought not to pull away. "If you don't, I will light the torches myself."
5
It was hot and stuffy inside Louis's carriage. Narcisse reeked of wine and sulfur, so they had made him sit up with the driver. Delphi tried hard to remain as calm as she could.
"This place really is a shit hole, Delphi. I can't believe you left Bellemere for it," Louis said, his lip curling. The sun was setting, and it made everything seem even more dreary.
"I didn't have a choice," she replied, her mouth so dry she could barely speak.
Louis gave her a pitying look. "You really are too good for Narcisse. I'm just pleased I found you before some backward farmer tried to get you with child."
Delphi smiled because he expected her to. "I had a few proposals, but rejected them."
"I'm so happy you didn't reject me," he replied.
Delphi looked down at her lap and hoped it would pass as being demure. "Well, you aren't a farmer."
She didn't believe for a second that Louis had any intention of marrying her. Lord's sons did not marry the daughters of disgraced alchemists. She was buying time by agreeing to this ridiculous farce.
They pulled up in front of the cottage, and the carriage door opened for her. Louis's expression grew almost pained as he looked at their humble abode.
"You have an hour. Though by the looks of things, you won't need that long," he said and gestured to them to get on with it. His guards kept a close watch and stationed themselves around the little yard.
Narcisse wouldn't go anywhere without his lab equipment, and for once, Delphi was grateful for his fussy ways. It gave her some time to think and pack her own things.
"Excuse me, father, might I have a private word?" she requested through gritted teeth.
Narcisse put an arm around her shoulders and guided her to her room. "Of course, my dear. This is a big change for both of us."
Delphi carefully closed the door before rounding on him. "What the fuck, Narcisse? You steal from me, and now we are fucked."
"Keep your voice down," he hissed. "Don't ruin this for us with hysterics."
"They are threatening to burn me alive," she whispered. "I don't have much choice, do I?"
Narcisse shook his head. "He won't do it. He is just using it to blackmail you. It doesn't matter. This is a good deal for us. I thought this place would be the answer to my research, but it wasn't. The forest, the whispers, everything is tooloudhere. We should have stayed in Bellemere as you said. Now we have a chance to return."
"He will never marry me. You can't think for a moment he will," Delphi replied, folding her arms.
"You don't want to be married anyway. His house had a good lab. I can rebuild my reputation, and they are powerful enough to make this witch rumor go away. Pretty yourself up andbehave. I won't have you ruin this for us," Narcisse said, his eyes flaring with dark anger.
"I will be his whore and nothing else. You don't even care."
Narcisse glared at her. "It is this, or we are both dead. Don't act like a child. There are no good choices here."
Delphi thought of the poison under her bed. That wasn't a good choice either. "Go and pack your things. We can't keep our new master waiting."
"You say it with such derision, but there are worse things than having a wealthy master, Delphi," Narcisse replied. He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry about the money, but you were going to try to leave me. I can't have that. You are too important to my work."
He left without another word, Delphi suddenly struggling to breathe. His words hit harder than any physical blow. He didn't want her to leave him, not out of love, but because of her magic and how he benefited from it. He had always been selfish. This was a new low.
With numb fingers, Delphi got her tatty leather bag from her bottom drawer and packed her three tunics and her skirt. She took her books out from under her floorboards, put them in her bag, and tied it up. One single bag. That was all she owned in the world.
The vial of delphinium poison was tucked in her corset between her breasts, just in case she got separated from her other things. None of it felt real. She stared out of the window and into the forest beyond.
A lord's whore and possible death on the pyre, that's your future, she thought.
Louis would hold the fear of it over her head for as long as she lived. He would be able to do whatever he wanted to her, and she would take it, because the alternative was being tortured and burned alive.
