by Miss Merikan
Annie’s eyes went to Erik, who pulled Copper two steps back but made no movement to intervene and just watched as the bloody carnage unfolded. The music stopped, leaving just the gasping and dull sounds of punching to carry through the large room. Woodley stepped in with two men in the theater’s uniforms, and they all had to put a lot of effort into pulling Dante off a bloodied, screaming Percy.
Annie covered her face, leaning against the wall and watching red drops on the marble floor. Percy crawled a few paces until two ladies kneeled next to him, ready to help. Woodley yelled at Dante, but Annie was so nervous she couldn’t even hear the exact words. Oh, God. It was all her fault.
And as if to confirm that, Dante turned around to glare at her when the guards escorted him out of the room.
Annie shook so hard her legs eventually gave up, and she slumped to the floor. Tears spilled down her cheeks before she could even think of hiding, but at least the music started again, and no one would hear her sobs.
Someone patted her shoulder, and when she found the courage to look up, she saw Rose’s concerned expression. “Annie, please get up, you’re making it worse,” she whispered and held out her hand.
Annie grabbed it and dragged herself up, feeling as lost and out of place as she was—a former slave girl who couldn’t read at a party for important people. She melted into Rose, hugging her tightly. “Where’s Dante?” she whispered, trying to ignore the ugly sneers around her. Now that there was no Dante to guide her, everyone could see she was inferior stock, not purebred at all.
“They escorted him out.” Rose took a deep breath. “This is terrible. I will try and see what I can do about the audition with Mr. Greyhurst. Please find him. His temper will ruin him. We’re barely paying rent as is.”
Annie blinked. “What? But ... he got me this dress ...” she muttered, looking at the expensive taffeta, now stained with blood at the front.
Rose sighed. “It’s called keeping up appearances. Find him, Annie, and get him back here,” she said and walked off, not waiting for an answer.
Annie pressed her fan against her chest, trying to calm down. The corset didn’t help her get her breathing even, but once she rested her hands on her hips and let its bones hold her up, she managed to get it back to normal.
Someone stumbled into her the moment she was ready to go after Dante, and it took her a few seconds to realize that the two young women who walked past her pushed her on purpose. They smirked from behind fans.
“A whore’s whore,” hissed one of them, and Annie choked up again, but this time, she just pushed into the crowd and ran. Where could they have taken Dante? Was there a detention room of sorts, or did they just throw him out, like they did with drunken men at the pubs?
She was amazed at her own reflex when someone pulled on her dress, and she slapped the hand away. She would usually just take any abuse coming her way, but enough was enough.
“Miss!” The man in a theater uniform frowned and cleared his throat.
Annie clenched her teeth and curtseyed, stumbling slightly, but she just straightened up and pretended it didn’t happen. “Yes?”
“This is for Mr. Salvai from Mr. Greyhurst. Can you please pass it to him?” the man said without blinking.
Annie nodded and took the tiny letter. “Thank you, kind sir,” she said and walked off, looking for the tall, familiar figure with long hair. Not knowing where else Dante could be, she walked past the staff at the door and looked out into the night.
It was chilly outside, and she took each step down the staircase slowly, unsure where to go. In her heeled shoes, without Dante’s strong arm, the stairs were a deathtrap that made her look twice every time she took a step. When Annie finally got down to the wooden platform, she knew where to go. There was a light in the window of their bedroom.
Her heart raced with each step, but she walked on, past two drunks singing a song as they sat on the edge of the wooden walkway and past a group of young people who commented on her dress so excessively she was afraid they’d try to rip it off her, but finally she reached the house. Exhausted, she took the shoes in her hand, pulled up the front of the skirt, and raced up the stairs. She couldn’t let Dante think she had betrayed him!
Annie walked through the hall, straight for the bedroom, where she’d seen the light. Dante looked up at her the moment she barged in. He sat on the edge of the bed with one of his bloodied hands tangled in his hair.
“What are you doing here?” he hissed. “Don’t you want to stay there and spread more gossip?”
Annie dropped her fan to the floor, along with the shoes. What was she to say to such accusations? “I thought he was your friend!”
“He’s a scoundrel. He broke my ankle and threw me to the rotters. He is not my friend. And you told him I whored myself out for a year?” Dante shook his head and looked away. Seeing him so upset was much worse than his anger.
Annie’s mouth trembled, and she bit on it hard. Now she saw how stupid she’d been, but there was no way to take her words back. “I just ... said you were a horse for a year ... I never said what you did exactly ... I’m sorry ... I didn’t know, Dante ...”
“What did you think? That it was all a joke to me? Spending a year in a fucking basement?”
Annie shuddered. “I just ... I didn’t think you were ashamed of it... y-you showed me off to your friends. Why would you do if it was wrong ...?”
Dante put his face in his hands. “Because it’s what happens with a horse. It doesn’t get choice and doesn’t complain. I took Alexander’s offer, because I lost my role at the theater. I had to support Rose. She’s like a sister to me, and she will not find work, you know this.”
Annie gripped the folds of her skirt and swallowed hard, taunted by guilt. “I’m so sorry ... I don’t know better. I’m such a stupid, stupid girl ...”
Dante took a deep breath but didn’t look up at her. “I need to be alone right now.”
Annie’s teeth rattled. It was as if Dante’s hands were permanently slipping out of hers. “You should punish me. I was a bad pony,” she whispered.
Dante stilled but finally pulled his hands away from his face, and she couldn’t remember seeing him this miserable. “I won’t punish you, Annie, because you didn’t do it as a pony. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Annie whimpered and turned away from him. She grabbed the crinoline through the fabric of her dress and lifted it all up, exposing her underwear. Her knees went soft with unease. “Please. I can’t see you like this ...”
“Hitting you won’t take it away! Pull the dress down.” Dante groaned. “It won’t change what everyone thinks of me now. They will laugh at me everywhere I go.”
Annie pushed her clothes down, utterly ashamed of herself. There was nothing she could do right. “But he lied. You were just a stud.”
Dante let out a sour laugh. “That’s what Alexander said when he enticed me into it. He said I would just be a stud. I could have swallowed that. Then came the tail. That was already uncomfortable. Over six months later, I’m halfway through, and he brings in other men. Copper I was fine with, a few others too. I played my part of the stud. But then he tells me he feels like changing things up. That he has a friend who wants to tame a stud.” Dante gritted his teeth so hard Annie could hear it. “Turned out he had more friends who enjoy taming a stud. So I went with it. What was I to do if he terminated our agreement? Take him to court? It all depended on his good will, and I’ve already done so many months ...” He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. “So I guess I was a whore to him.”
Annie stared at him, her heart in shreds. Her feet carried her to Dante before she even decided to move. She dropped to her knees and hugged him as hard as she could, burying her cheek in his bloodstained shirt. “That is horrible.”
“Being a horse wasn’t easy at all,” he whispered. “I liked men, but not like that. It’s not my preference. They’d just leave me tied to that fucking breeding post until one of them was ready for anot
her round. I feel sick even thinking of it. You must find me revolting now.”
Annie sobbed and tightened her arms around him. This was the most horrible thing she’d ever heard. So that was why Coal sometimes got so restless, so inconsolable, even when she combed his hair and petted him until he fell asleep? “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I didn’t know.”
“I never wanted to talk about it … I wanted to leave it behind me, and it still caught up with me through that fucker’s dirty lips. Everything is a joke to him. Not anymore.” Dante pursed his lips.
“He deserved it,” hissed Annie, looking up at Dante and kissing his neck. “He won’t be so pretty now ...”
Dante’s eyes were red when he spoke again. “You’re not disgusted by what I did?”
Annie exhaled and pulled him lower, pressing quick, soothing kisses to his face. She wanted to bury Dante under the covers and keep him safe forever. She couldn’t wrap her head round her Coal being so despicably violated. “No ... of course not.”
Dante took a deep breath and slid his hand over hers without a word. Annie entwined their fingers and pushed hard against him, ready to give him all the help he needed.
“It’s not your fault.”
Dante swallowed and squeezed her hand. “I don’t know any more. It’s not like I was a horse. I could have said something, stopped him. Maybe I should have quit? But I can’t take it back now.” He pushed his other palm against his forehead. “I’m so fucking stubborn. I thought that I’d be a failure if I backed out so far in.”
Annie shook her head and stroked his cheek gently. “You can’t, but it’s over now. I’m here for you, Dante. I’ll help any way I can,” she whispered, melting into his slumped but still strong body. He could get over this.
“I love you,” he whispered, finally looking into her eyes. “You will never know how much you mean to me.”
Annie shuddered as her chest filled with a thick, warm goo that was joy, and guilt, and sadness for him. “I love you too. I loved you as Coal, and my heart broke when you were leaving. I love you even more now, Dante,” she whispered, sitting back on her heels in front of him.
Dante sniffed and smiled at her softly. She wanted to cheer him up so badly it hurt, so she pulled out the letter from Mr. Greyhurst. Surely, if the man cared enough to write it when Dante was escorted out, it had to mean that he wanted to see Dante in private.
“What is it?” Dante asked, but his eyes went a bit wider when he noticed the signature on the envelope.
Annie gave him a faint smile. “I was told to give this to you.”
Dante ripped the envelope open and pulled out the letter, but as he read, his face fell. “He writes that there is no room for brutes in the arts.” Dante swallowed. “That he doesn’t want to see me. Tonight, or ever.”
Annie rubbed his thighs, spiraling down the well of fear. “Oh, no ... that can’t be ... he needs to see how good of an actor you are!”
“He only comes to Bylondon once a year, and he’s pretty much unattainable.” It was painful to watch Dante so beaten, even if it was Percy’s blood on his knuckles.
“So ... what will we do?” asked Annie, searching Dante’s face for answers. She wanted him to succeed after all he’d been through, all the torture and disappointment of the past year.
Dante shrugged and slowly got up. “I’ll go back, butter up Woodley so he lets me in, and … mingle, I guess. Try to straighten out the gossip as much as I can. I can’t show it got to me. If I don’t make friends again, and get someone to employ me, we’ll lose the house.”
Annie shook her head. “Rose told me you’re poor ...”
Dante frowned. “Oh, did she?”
“She was worried. She said she’s gonna try to straighten things up.” Annie gently stroked Dante’s thigh and kissed his knee. “I can go to work. I used to work at a cotton mill before I was sold. I could talk to the owner, ask if he’ll take me in again.”
“You’re not working at the mill. You’ve had it hard enough.”
Annie looked at him, deflated by the blatant rejection of her readiness to help. “But ... you just got your freedom back. What happened to all the money from Alexander?”
Dante squeezed her hands and leaned down for a kiss. “I’ve spent most of it on you.”
Annie grasped his fingers tight. She couldn’t stop watching his handsome face. Dante was her savior. Without him, she’d rot away in the scullery and then end up in the street once her hands became too damaged to continue working. “But ... you worked so hard for it ...”
“It wouldn’t be worth anything if I got out and knew you were still there, without a choice to leave.”
Annie leaned in and kissed his lips, gently pulling at his hair as her heart raced against his. She had to do something to help him. “I’m sorry ... I’m such a blunderer.”
“It’s not your fault. I should have kept my fists reined in.” Dante gave her one more kiss before pulling away. “Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to sort things out.”
She kneeled at his feet and let him go. Her mind raced at full speed, coming up with scenarios that could work or end up horribly wrong. As she watched Dante leave, she couldn’t help but come back to the same idea. Over and over again.
Chapter 12
Rose adjusted the last bit of tack on Annie. The bit. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea. What if it backfires?”
Annie moaned around the piece of wood and rubber, and stomped her foot on the floor, tossing her newly loose hair about. She was determined to mend Dante’s situation. There was no way she would let him lose against that bastard Percy, have his dreams crushed, now that she found out what he did for her. She’d seen just how fond Greyhurst was of Copper. Playing the part of a pony was a perfect way to get close to the man, who wouldn’t otherwise look at her twice.
Rose took a deep, raspy sigh. “Whatever you like. It’s not me who is walking around naked.” She grabbed the reins and led Annie out without pulling. They arranged that she’d keep close in case Annie needed protection, but there was no way Rose could shield her from prying gazes eager to lick her up and down. But Annie didn’t care. This time it was Dante who needed help, and she would step up, even despite his wishes. After all, he never asked her if she wanted to be bought and live with him in Bylondon. There was no way a man like Greyhurst would just forget the reason for not wanting to see Dante again without being compelled to look at him in a new light.
The first step out into the open air seemed like the hardest, but there was no one just by the door, and Rose threw a long cape over Annie’s shoulders, so even though her heart beat in her chest like mad, there was nothing she had to be afraid of. It was the next few steps that she had to take on the wooden pathway that were harder. The cape didn’t change the fact that Annie herself knew she was nude underneath, that a gust of wind could give the beggar down the street a glimpse of her body. Everyone would see the halter on her face, the bit that deemed her mute, and the little pointy ears made of leather.
She looked like a freak of nature, but even as she heard someone whistle, Annie held her head high and kept her eyes firmly focused on her target—the wide open door to the theater, with music streaming out of it and dark figures looming inside. The men watching her now, so close they could slip their hands underneath the cape and touch, were like mosquitoes eager for her blood, but she wouldn’t flinch and disappoint her master because of such a minor thing.
She could hear Rose’s footsteps behind her, firm and decisive, and each of them spurred Annie to walk on and be brave. The worst part was yet to come. Everyone would see her bare skin. Maybe they would laugh at her since she couldn’t count on the protection of someone as powerful as Mr. Dal, but she was willing to take that risk. Slowly, Annie stepped on the marble stairs of the theater and raised her head, looking straight at the men guarding the entrance.
One of them raised his eyebrows, but they were both let inside and approached the cloakroom. It was sink or swim. Rose
gave Annie one more look, her eyes calm above the copper nose.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” she whispered.
Annie glanced at her friend, biting hard into the bit as terror overcame her body, but she nodded. This was the only way she could help Dante, and if he had risked so much for her, she could do the same for him.
Rose slipped the cape off Annie’s arms and handed it to an astounded clerk, who didn’t choke out a word as he hung it in the row of hangers, yet almost tripped over his feet as he looked back. Annie’s skin covered with goose bumps, and the way her nipples went stiff made her more self-conscious than ever before.
She whinnied and stretched, trying to be as much into the horse persona as she could. Dante said it helped him endure—to just be a horse and not think about all the bad things. She could be leered at or petted, but it would be Crema who would deal with it, without any shame at all.
Annie moved her foot stiffly then made a step with the other, and as she walked, each consecutive movement was easier to make, even if stepping into the bright electric lights of the main hall hit her on the head like a golden bludgeon.
At least Rose was there, leading her by the reins, helping her not have to make decisions about where to go. They had decided before that Rose would try to get them to Mr. Greyhurst’s booth, and they would take it from there. But even so, passing through the theater crowds, with their loud comments, gasps of shock, and laughter was making Annie so anxious she could hardly breathe.
As they walked down the hall, a man in a top hat he should have left in the cloakroom let out a laugh and patted Annie’s ass. “I wish Mr. Dal inspired even more of these horse girls.”
Annie whinnied and just stepped further into the thickening crowd. They had been stepping back at first, but now that the shock of seeing a naked woman wore off, the people gathered weren’t as keen to walk away, instead turning their interest at her unprotected flesh.
Annie heard a feminine laugh, and when she looked up, the face of the lady who purposefully stumbled into her earlier was right in front of her, the leer of a demon from hell coming from behind the fan.