Ilsa:

by Shanna Hatfield

  Falling into a deep sleep, she dreamed of Tony until other images - frightening, awful images, invaded her rest.

  She could see Delmon coming at her with a knife and smelled the sickening stench of him so close it was suffocating. Unable to move, she struggled to free herself. Working up a scream, it pierced the air and brought her fully awake.

  “It’s okay, Ilsa. I’m right here. You’re fine. Everything is okay,” Aundy assured her, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. It hurt to open her eyes, so she left them closed. She knew tears rolled down her cheeks by the salty taste of them on her lips. Trying to speak, her throat felt parched so she held back her questions.

  The sound of thudding footsteps startled her then she heard Tony ask Aundy what he could do to help.

  “Sit with her a moment. I’m going to get her a drink of water,” Aundy said.

  Ilsa felt her sister’s weight lift from the mattress beside her then held her breath when it sank beneath Tony’s.

  “It’s me, chickadee. Your friend and picnic partner, Tony.”

  She squeezed his hand, to let him know she recognized his voice.

  “Are you in pain? Can I get you something?”

  Ilsa tried to shake her head but the movement made her dizzy and queasy.

  “Don’t move, Ilsa. It’s fine,” Tony said. His fingers brushed the hair away from her forehead. She liked the feel of them against her skin, warm and tender. Turning her head slightly brought her face against his palm.

  Ilsa heard the swish of Aundy’s skirts as she returned to the room.

  “Can you raise her head up?” Aundy asked. “I’ll hold the glass for her.”

  Ilsa felt Tony rise from the bed then his hands gently slid beneath her shoulders, supporting her neck as he lifted her up. The rim of the glass touched her lips and Ilsa drank deeply of the cool water.

  When she’d slaked her thirst, she tipped her head back and Tony carefully laid her against the pillows.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, not certain why her eyes didn’t want to open, why she ached all over, or why her head felt fuzzy.

  Although Tony and Aundy spoke quietly, Ilsa heard enough of their conversation to realize she was in Tony’s apartment above Caterina’s restaurant.

  Trying to remember what she’d been doing, the last thing she could recall was eating dinner with everyone.

  Before she could further contemplate her strange circumstances, sleep claimed her.

  Dreaming something vile and foul was in her mouth, Ilsa awoke with a start, sitting up in bed and gasping for breath.

  Each intake of air made her side hurt so badly she cried out in pain.

  Footsteps sounded in the hall and the door burst open. Aundy and Tony both stared at her.

  “It’s okay, Ilsa. You’re fine. You’re safe,” Aundy said, walking to the bed and offering her a drink from a glass of water.

  Draining the glass, Ilsa handed it to Tony while Aundy helped her recline against the pillows.

  “Where am I?” Ilsa asked, glancing around the room, not recognizing anything except the two people exchanging concerned looks.

  “You’re in my room, at my apartment above the restaurant,” Tony said, taking Ilsa’s hand in his and rubbing the back of it with his thumb.

  She glanced down and saw the bruises and cuts on his hand. She didn’t remember them being there before they had dinner together. Was that last night or had she been asleep for a while?

  “Why?” she asked, feeling her eyes drift closed even though she wanted them to stay open.

  “You need to rest.” Aundy’s voice rapidly faded as Ilsa fell asleep.

  The next time Ilsa awoke, she was hungry and needed to make a trip to the bathroom. Cautiously opening her eyes, she saw Aundy sleeping in a chair placed close to the bed.

  The room was unfamiliar, though clean. She could smell Tony’s scent. It floated all around her and she closed her eyes, enjoying the experience of waking up feeling close to him even if he was nowhere in sight.

  Taking a deep breath, pain arced across her side, making her gasp.

  Casting a quick glance at her sister to make sure she was still asleep, Ilsa gingerly sat up in bed. The movement made her dizzy, but she waited for it to pass.

  When it did, she folded back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Looking down, she was surprised to find she wore a man’s shirt instead of her nightgown.

  Somewhere in the fuzzy recesses of her mind, she remembered someone telling her she was at Tony’s place. That must be why she didn’t recognize the room and his scent permeated the air.

  Standing, she steadied herself on the end of the bed then shuffled her way to the bedroom door. Opening it, she looked into a short hall. To the left she could see a sitting room and to the right there were two more doors. A glance in one revealed a storage room with a narrow cot. Looking in the second doorway, she was relieved to find a bathroom.

  Washing her hands, Ilsa glanced in the small mirror above the sink. Screams of terror burst from her throat as she stared at her image.

  Grasping the edge of the sink to keep from fainting, she couldn’t liken the girl in the mirror to the reflection she was accustomed to seeing.

  Her normally smooth hair was a snarled mess. Dark stitches near her ear stood out in contrast to the multi-colored bruises covering her entire face and neck. Cuts ran through her swollen lips and one eye only partially opened due to swelling.

  Before she could pull down the neck of the shirt to investigate for more bruises, the door to the bathroom burst open and Tony turned her around, away from the awful vision of her damaged face.

  “Don’t look, chickadee. Don’t look.” Tony pulled her into his comforting embrace. Before she could utter a word, he picked her up like some fragile doll and carried her back to bed. Aundy stood in the hall, looking at her anxiously.

  When Tony laid her down on the soft mattress, she rolled onto the side that didn’t hurt and pulled the sheet over her face, wanting to hide from his presence.

  “Please, go away!” she cried. How could Tony stand to see her like this? She didn’t even look human.

  “I can’t go away. I live here.” Tony hoped his teasing would calm Ilsa, maybe make her smile. At the sound of her sobs, he realized it only made her cry harder.

  “Just give us a minute, Tony. Please?” Aundy asked, followed by the receding sound of footsteps as he went downstairs. “Ilsa.” Aundy lifted the sheet from her head and brushed the hair away from her face. “Everything will be fine. You’re safe and you’ll be back to normal before you know it.”

  “I’m not fine. How can you say that?” Ilsa wanted to scream but lacked the energy to do so. “My face, Aundy! What happened to my face? What happened to me?”

  “Oh, sweetie.” Aundy sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around her and giving her a gentle hug. “What do you remember?”

  “We ate dinner here. Nora asked about my sample book and I went to get it. I was walking past the alley and someone grabbed me,” Ilsa said, as bits of her memory surfaced. Taking a moment to piece it all together, she groaned. “Delmon.”

  “When you didn’t hurry right back, Tony said he’d find you. From what he said, Delmon attacked you in the alley. He beat you and was in the process of cutting you with a knife when Tony arrived. Tony brought you here and Nik got Doc. You’ve got cracked ribs and a few stitches, but it could have been so much worse, Ilsa.”

  “Worse than this?” Ilsa touched her bruised face and grimaced. “I look like a monster.”

  “It’s just bruising, Ilsa.” Aundy knew Ilsa wouldn’t handle what she looked like well. No one would. Now that the bruises were deepening in color, they did look terrible. What Ilsa looked like on the surface didn’t concern her nearly as much as the bruising to the girl’s spirit. “He didn’t break any bones in your face. Once the bruising and swelling goes away, it will be like it never happened.”

  “And the stitches? Won’t they leave a scar?” Il
sa asked, touching the spot near her ear.

  “Doc said since it is right by your ear at the edge of your hairline, no one will notice.” Aundy carefully wiped the tears from Ilsa’s face with a damp cloth. “Do you remember everything that happened?”

  “Yes,” Ilsa whispered, remembering the rank smell of Delmon, the feel of him pressing against her, the terror she felt when he ripped her dress. She recalled every horrid moment and shuddered in revulsion.

  “Do you hurt anywhere the doctor missed?” Aundy asked, giving Ilsa a cautious look.

  “No.”

  “Garrett’s coming with the surrey to take us home in a while. Would you like some breakfast? I can bring you some toast and tea.”

  “Yes, thank you.” Ilsa would have agreed to anything to get Aundy out of the room for a few minutes. She needed a moment alone to digest what happened to her. Delmon’s belittling voice echoed in her ears and she replayed every cruel thing he said to her before he began beating her senseless.

  Recalling how Tony pounded Delmon, she momentarily hoped it had been enough to kill him then regretted her thoughts. Even if Delmon didn’t deserve to live, Tony didn’t deserve to bear the burden of his death.

  The memory of Tony picking her up and cradling her to his chest made her feel safe and loved. Her dreams of touching his bare skin weren’t dreams at all. They were moments she’d experienced in her half-conscious state.

  Mortified at the thought of him seeing her like this, she wished Garrett would hurry then wondered how they would possibly get her home without half the town staring at her.

  “How are you feeling this morning?”

  Ilsa jumped at the deep voice speaking to her from the doorway. She looked up into Kade’s sympathetic gaze.

  “I’ve had better starts to the day.” She sat up and tried to put pillows behind her back to lean against the headboard. Kade stepped next to the bed and moved them for her. She pulled the sheet up to nearly her chin when he took a seat at the foot of the bed.

  “Caterina and Aundy are making breakfast and Tony went to get some ice. I hate to ask, Ilsa, but I need you to give me a statement of what happened last night.” Kade pulled a pad of paper and pencil from his pocket, ready to write.

  “Is Delmon alive?” Ilsa asked, fidgeting with the edge of the sheet.

  “Yep. But if you think your face looks bad, you ought to get a look at his.” Kade grinned, knowing that would somehow make Ilsa feel better. He’d interviewed enough of the town’s soiled doves, beaten mercilessly by their clients, to know there was grim satisfaction when the attacker got a dose of his own medicine. “His eyes are swollen shut, his nose is broken, he lost several teeth, and his jaw appears to be cracked.”

  “Good,” Ilsa said, surprising herself by her response. She wasn’t the kind of person who wished bad things on anyone, but she couldn’t stop from feeling some measure of delight in Delmon’s suffering.

  “Please, Ilsa. Can you at least give me the highlights of what happened?” Kade asked, knowing the task would be both unpleasant and uncomfortable for the girl.

  Ilsa told him what she remembered, leaving out the part about begging Tony not to kill Delmon when he was beating him without restraint or mercy, not that the evil little man deserved either.

  “Did you ask Tony to stop hitting him?” Kade asked.

  “Yes.” Apparently, Kade already knew that part of the story. “Tony isn’t in trouble, is he?”

  “No. In my report, Tony was merely defending you against a man intent on harm and potentially murder.”

  “Do you think Delmon meant to kill me?” Ilsa hadn’t even considered that possibility.

  “I don’t know. The only story I can get out of him is that he was walking down the street and happened to hear a woman screaming for help. He claims some wild animal attacked him while trying to provide assistance. He says he’s never seen or heard of you before.”

  “What? That’s not true at all.” Ilsa shouldn’t have been shocked by Delmon’s lies.

  “I just need to make your prior relationship with him clear. You were engaged to marry him under the order of your aunt who was, at the time, holding you captive in her home. Is that correct?”

  “Yes. Given a choice, I would never have agreed to marry Delmon. I despise him and everything about him.”

  Caterina and Aundy arrived in the room with a breakfast tray before Kade could ask more questions. He patted her hand and thanked her for her help before going downstairs.

  Although her lips were swollen and sore, Ilsa ate the toast and eggs Caterina prepared for her and sipped the tea Aundy made.

  Caterina disappeared and soon returned with a hairbrush and a handful of hairpins. “Shall we get your hair out of the way?”

  Kneeling on the bed beside her, Caterina tenderly brushed her hair. “You have such lovely hair, Ilsa. It seems to cooperate in however you want to style it. My wild mess generally wants to do its own thing and I have to wrestle it into submission.”

  Aundy and Ilsa both smiled at Caterina’s words, but the movement made Ilsa’s lips hurt.

  “But you have all those lovely black curls,” Ilsa said, then turned to look at Aundy. “And your hair has those thick waves that give it such life. Mine is as straight as a board.”

  “It might be straight, but if you braid it or pin it up, it stays where you put it. Mine wants to fly off every direction.” Caterina twisted Ilsa’s hair up on her head and gently poked in enough hairpins to hold it. “There, that should last until you get home.”

  “Will Garrett be here soon?” Ilsa asked. She desperately wanted to go home where she could hide in her room and not worry about seeing anyone, especially Tony. Although she didn’t like Kade seeing her face, his presence didn’t disturb her the way Tony’s did.

  “Yes. He’s on his way right now.”

  “Would you like more tea? Something else to eat?” Caterina asked, picking up the tray sitting across Ilsa’s lap.

  “No, thank you. I had enough to eat and it was very good.”

  “It was just toast and eggs, but I’m glad it tasted good to you.” Caterina smiled over her shoulder before breezing out of the room.

  “Would you like to take a bath?” Aundy asked, fussing with Ilsa’s pillows, trying to make her more comfortable.

  Ilsa shook her head. “Maybe when we get home. Not here.”

  “Okay.”

  Aundy started straightening the covers of the bed, trying to keep her hands busy. It was driving Ilsa mad, so she grabbed her sister’s hand and held it in her own.

  “Can you give me a few minutes, before Garrett arrives? Please?”

  “Sure, sweetie.” Aundy kissed Ilsa’s forehead and left the room, closing the door behind her.

  Ilsa released a long sigh then clutched at her sore ribs. Unbuttoning the top few buttons of the shirt she wore, she glanced down at the bruises on her chest. Pulling the shirt off one shoulder, she could see more bruises there as well.

  It was no wonder every part of her ached. Realizing she should be grateful nothing more than her ribs were cracked, she couldn’t help feeling Delmon had taken a part of her, a part of her innocence and trust, snatching it away. She knew what happened would be with her always, coloring her thoughts and actions.

  Hate, dark and bitter, churned inside her and she closed her eyes, trying to ignore its presence.

  Curling on her side once again, she wept for the girl she would never again be. Crying until she was sure she had no tears left, the fact she wasn’t alone in the room made her dry her tears on the sheet and roll over.

  Tony sat on the edge of the bed. A sad smile hovered on his lips while his eyes filled with such pain and anguish, Ilsa knew they reflected what was in her own.

  “Garrett’s here. I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner, that I didn’t go with you in the first place.” Tony reached out to touch her then drew back his hand, afraid to hurt her.

  Ilsa sat up and clasped his hand betw
een hers. “None of this is your fault, Tony. If you hadn’t arrived when you did… I owe you not only my thanks, but quite probably my life.”

  “It’s a life worth saving,” Tony whispered before carefully pulling her into his arms. He held her for a long moment then cleared his throat. “Did he hurt you anywhere else, chickadee? Anywhere you didn’t tell the doctor?”

  Ilsa knew what he was asking and was grateful she could tell him no. She had no doubts about what Delmon planned, but Tony arrived before the awful man could desecrate her virtue.

  “That’s good,” Tony breathed in relief, holding her closer.

  Not giving a thought to the impropriety of him being there, holding her so lovingly, Ilsa relished the strength and comfort he offered.

  “Thank you,” Ilsa whispered, pulling back at the sound of footsteps nearing the door.

  “I’ll visit you every day,” Tony promised, getting to his feet, although he continued to grasp her hand tenderly.

  “Please, don’t. I beg of you, Tony. I’d rather you didn’t see me looking like this.” Ilsa ducked her head, embarrassed by her vanity.

  “I don’t care what you look like, chickadee. I just want to…”

  Aundy and Caterina hurried in, carrying clothes for her to wear. Tony snapped his mouth shut and released Ilsa’s hand. He left the room although his thoughts stayed with the wounded girl in his bed.

  Visiting with Garrett and Kade, the men talked about ordinary, mundane topics, not wanting to think about how close they came to losing Ilsa.

  It didn’t take long for Aundy and Caterina to come downstairs. Aundy thanked Tony for all he’d done then pinned on her hat and picked up her things from the evening before.

  Garrett went upstairs and returned carrying Ilsa in his arms.

  Kade opened the front door and Garrett hurried to set Ilsa down on the back seat of the surrey. Thanks to a hat with a veil and the high neck of her dress, it was hard to see much of her face or the bruising.

  Tony gave Aundy a hand up as she took a seat beside her sister while Garrett slid onto the front seat and picked up the reins.

  “Thank you all, so much, for everything,” he said, then clicked his tongue, guiding the horse down the street toward home.