by Vi Carter
“Take Ella to the guard house.” My heart slams heavily against my chest. It takes everything in me to stand still as Mark takes her out of the room. She doesn’t fight. Once they are gone, my father steps back up to me and Henry.
“This is the final time I am giving you a choice son. You either marry Sandra and take your place as the leader, or you will be banished from this community, with a bounty on your head.”
I’ve never wanted to kill someone so much. He is everything that is wrong with this world. He is all my violence and hate rolled into one. There is nothing left in my father.
I would take the banishment if it meant Ella was safe but she wouldn’t be. She would be locked up here and I would have no power to save her. Staying here meant I could at least try.
“I’ll marry Sandra.” My father smiles and pats my shoulder. “Good choice.”
He exhales and turns to Henry, who shrinks away from him. The pity I feel for Henry is short lived when I think of the situation he put Ella in. The truth is, I put her in that situation. I had no idea it could lead to this. My father is right about one thing. I had no idea about our history or our rules. That is something that will change. Now I need to find a loophole in all of this.
“I can’t keep allowing my love for you to cloud my judgment, Henry.” My father touches Henry's face that’s red with the print of his hand. My father had no idea what love is. He is cruel and cold, incapable of such a feeling.
He exhales heavily again and releases Henry’s face. “You will have to marry one of the other girls. Ella is no longer an option.”
“Yes, Master Andrew.” Henry’s voice is small.
“I still need to punish you, you don’t go around and air our dirty laundry.” His eyes flicker to me before returning to Henry. “You could have come here calmly. But I’m sure everyone heard your shouts. So Alex is not allowed here anymore.”
“Please father, don’t take him away.”
This time the sound of flesh connecting with flesh has me biting down on the inside of my mouth.
“You keep talking out of turn.” My father half laughs like he can’t believe how stupid Henry is. Henry holds his face with two hands and for the first time I see anger flash in his eyes. My father acknowledges it when he places his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “I’m only trying to protect you from yourself.”
I’m as confused as Henry as my father steps away from us.
“Any more problems, come to me directly. We need this house to be in order. You’re dismissed.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ELLA
The slam of the door seems so final and I can’t move. I can’t look around the small space that I am now confined to. The door has a small window of bars on it. I shuffle forward and my fingers wrap around the cool steel. Is this really happening? The tremble that had entered my body still hasn’t subsided. When Henry had stated that I should be hung, he had me almost laughing that was until I had looked into Master Andrew’s eyes. Everything in me had grown cold and I was staring death in the face.
I bow my head and take in calming breaths. Peeking under my arm, my chest feels tight as I see the small bed and a steel bedside table.
This isn’t real. I need to wake up. This is too much.
The blood roars in my ears as a large sound bounces around further down the hall. My face is glued to the bars as I try to see, but the lights don’t continue the whole way down. I try to listen beyond my pounding heart.
“Hello.” My voice sounds hoarse. No one answers. Sweat soaks my hands and I release the bars. The image of a furry rat banging into a tin can has all my nerve endings on fire. I still can’t turn around and face this reality. If I stay by the door, someone will open it. They can’t leave me down here. I swallow the emotion that bubbles up my throat. A sob erupts from me when I think of Lucas. He had arrived, helped me up, and at the moment, I had been weak with relief. I really thought he would make it all disappear, that Henry’s outburst would be stopped.
The wooden door has been repainted too many times. Bubbles of paint are rough under my palm. I trail my finger the whole way to the keyhole. One turn and it would end this madness. I didn’t deserve this fate.
My heart pangs when I think of Hannah and Jessie. I think everyone heard what I had done. Henry roared from the gardens and all the way through the house as he dragged me to his father. It was a walk of shame.
Humiliating.
I swear I hear footsteps. I grip the bars and try to see as my heart pounds in my chest. I see a shadow and move back as it continues to move towards me. Black hair and inky eyes, his sculpted face is normally filled with an unshakable confidence. I hate the look of devastation in Lucas’s eyes.
This is bad.
Him being here brings so much to the surface. Everything in me is fighting and scrambling to get to the top.
“Please, let me out,” I whisper as my lips tug down and I try not to cry. I don’t want to speak too loud, but I need him to get me out.
“Ella.”
The way he says my name has me stepping back away from the door. Away from him. “You can’t, can you?”
He’s shaking his head.
I turn and stare at the space that feels smaller. Covering my heart with my hand, I beg it to stay in my chest. “I'm going to die?”
I can’t face Lucas.
“I won’t let that happen.” His words sound fierce-and if he keeps fighting-then I need to keep fighting as well.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
There is a lull before he speaks. “Please look at me.”
My stomach roils and I’m terrified in case I throw up. I turn and meet his dark eyes.
“I’m going to fix this.” His large hands grip the bars as he begs me to believe him.
I can’t answer him.
“I was never going to marry Sandra, you have to believe me.”
I bite the inside of my jaw until a metallic taste fills my mouth.
“I thought if I pushed you away, I would keep you safe.” He holds my stare.
I release my jaw from between my teeth and swallow my blood.
“I didn’t know that you could be punished like this.” His knuckles are white as he grips the bars. “Ella, please say something.”
“I’m standing in a cell, in a white summer dress as I wait for my fate.” My lip trembles again. I’ve never felt so naked.
“I’m going to make this right. I just need time.”
My head snaps up and I’m shaking it. I’m moving, my hands wrapping around his. “You can’t leave me down here.”
A surge of panic rips through me. To hear that’s it, not just this moment that I’m down here, that it could be longer, raises another layer of this reality.
“I will make sure you have everything you need.”
A hiccup of tears has me bowing my head until my forehead rests on my hands.
“All I wanted was to marry you.” I’m thinking of that moment in the car. Larry was driving and my mother was beside me. The smell of polish from the car's recent cleaning was heavy in the air along with my mother’s perfume.
“All I wanted was you.” I look up at him now as tears stream down my face. “Then I met you and you were so horrible.” Salty tears escape into my mouth. I half smile. “All the stories at bedtime were lies and it hurt.”
“Ella.” Lucas' voice is haunted with pain.
“Then you kissed me and each kiss healed everything in me and I got more than some story. I was living it.” I take a breath as I control the wave of emotions.
“I don’t regret it, Lucas. I don’t regret you.” No matter the outcome. I don’t say it out loud, but it lingers between the bars and hovers over our joined hands.
“You caught my attention on the first day. It was your eyes. You reminded me of a deer. You had stood so still staring at me. I might not have known it at that moment, but you captured me.” Lucas presses his lips against my fingers and a kink in my armor, that’
s barely hanging on, snaps.
“I really thought you hated me and the more you pushed the more I wanted you. Did I tell you you’re sexy when you’re angry?” His smile has my laugh mingling with my tears.
“Yes.” I swallow more tears as he places another kiss on my hands.
“You, Ella O’ Leary have dismantled all my walls…” He’s staring at me and I see them, the gold flecks floating in a mass of space. I’m rooting for their survival.
“I’m going to climb the tower and rescue you.” He’s smiling, but the heaviness in his eyes have me crying again.
“No, that was meant to make you smile.”
I laugh into our hands. “You don’t even know what story that is from,” I say looking up into his stunning eyes that are chasing the cold away. Forcing it into dark corners to give way to his light.
“Cinderella?”
I half laugh. “It’s Rapunzel and I’ve never really liked that story.”
“Which one is your favorite?”
I swallow tears as I think of all the bedtime stories. I’m smiling before I even say it. “Beauty and the Beast.”
He laughs, the sound warms my heart. “What a fitting story for us.”
Us, I like the sound of that.
“You are hardly a beast.” I smile now.
“A beast who has fallen in love with his beauty.”
My nerves are flooded with signals that have my mind pausing and needing to take in what he just said again. My stomach erupts and I can’t look away from his dark eyes. Oxygen grows thin and my hands grip his tighter.
“I love you, Ella.”
Tears come quick and I take in a lungful of air.
“Please don’t be upset.”
I look back up from him and shake my head, like it might shake the overwhelming feeling away. “I’m not, I’m just happy.”
He raises both eyebrows and I laugh.
“It’s just …” I swallow. I could keep saying it, but I don’t think Lucas would understand that I had dreamed of this moment since I was a little girl. I wasn’t standing in a cell when my prince declared his love for me, I was in a ballroom filled with spectators who couldn’t get over my beauty, when the prince declared me his, and told me I had his heart. But the real Lucas wasn’t some paper version of what I had built in my head. He was layered and confusing and I loved him for each fiber that made him up.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just need you to know that I’m going to make this all right.”
“How?” How could he possibly make this right? The coolness at my back has me pushing my body against the wooden door. I want to be in his arms, I want to feel his warmth.
“I don’t know yet. But I promise I will find a way.” His honesty calms me. I had to keep strong. I needed to trust him.
He kisses our entwined fingers again and I focus on the feel of his soft lips against my skin. I was in here less than an hour, yet freedom felt like a dream. My stomach tightens when I think of Hannah and Jessie again and what they must be going through.
“Hannah and Jessie.” I start and Lucas smiles at their names.
“I will let them know you are fine.”
I nod. “Lie to them. Don’t tell them I’m down here. Hannah will try to break me out and I’m sure she’ll end up in more trouble.”
“Don’t try to make her out to be the troublemaker; that’s you.”
I couldn’t defend myself this time. I had a tendency to get in trouble.
“She’s a good friend. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. “Thank you,” I whisper as a fresh wave of pain erupts inside me. I want to claw and kick my way out of here, but I try to settle the panic in me that keeps swelling and deflating.
“Tell me what you need?” Pain and more pain that’s all I see in Lucas’s eyes and I want to reach in and ease it for him.
“Just you.” I smile.
“You have me. But can I get you some books?”
I wasn’t going to be able to read for one second, but I didn’t want him to know that. If it eased him into thinking I was sitting here reading, then that’s what I would do.
“Lots of books. Maybe some blankets.”
His eyes grow brighter.
“I do like really red apples, so red that they almost look like wine. Also some warmer clothes.”
He’s nodding voraciously. “I will get all that.”
He seems more content. “Oh, and a tie for my hair.”
His laughter warms me again. “Aren’t you demanding?”
I shrug and my stomach twists as I sense his departure.
“I’m going to get everything for you. Okay.” He kisses my hands again and I tell myself it isn’t a goodbye, it’s a see you soon.
“Lucas…” I want to tell him I love him too, but I decide that once I am out of here, I will. It’s what will keep me going.
“Be safe,” I whisper.
“You too.” His body is moving, but I’m still gripping his hands.
Let him go, Ella.
I release him and hold my breath as he steps away from the door. I want to scream, “Don't leave me” so, I drop my eyes so he can’t see me. His broad back disappears and I hear his footfalls. Turning to the bed sets me off and a sob mixed with too much tears from me, and for this moment, I will allow myself to break.
Alone, in a cell, but with Lucas’s love embracing me. That’s what will piece me back together.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
LUCAS
I can’t leave her. So I sit on the cold floor and listen to her cry. Each tear burns me and I take the punishment for what I have done to her. Her sobs are fast as she gasps for air. I tighten my hands into fists as she continues to cry. I would give up my soul to silence her pain. The sad part is, if I was given the choice to go right back to the moment she looked up at me in the drawing room, on her first day here, would I have looked away and ignored her if that saved her all this pain?
The answer is no. I couldn’t give her up. The most defining moment for me was when she protected Alex. He didn’t deserve her protection, but against all the odds that stood in front of her she never left him. She stood up to me when no one else had. I’m smiling at the memory, but my smile dissolves as I allow her cries back in. I sit here in her circle of pain until her sobs subside and I wonder if she has fallen asleep. I know I should go and start figuring out how to get her out of here but leaving her alone is tearing at me. She’s moving and I listen as she moves around, a sob erupts every once in a while and soon she settles again. The creak of the bed has me using the noise to stand.
I get up carefully so as not to draw attention to myself and climb the stairs reluctantly.
The air feels different as I step into the foyer. The house feels like a different place all together, even a different time period. My hand won’t release the knob, closing the door on her makes me feel like a monster. She shouldn’t be down there. Someone behind me clears their throat. I look over my shoulder and see George watching me.
“George.” I close the door and face him. I can assume he’s waiting for me. I’m staring at him and wondering if Henry was telling the truth when he said George killed Declan. It didn’t take strength to flip a switch, stopping the electrical current from turning off. But it took a sharpness that I just didn’t see in George. He didn’t look like a killer to me.
“Master Lucas. I’m so sorry. How is Ella?”
“I need you to bring her some things quietly. I don’t want anyone to know, so be discreet.”
He nods. I tell George about the list that she had asked for. “As for how she is…” How would anyone be? I don’t finish that sentence. “Tell Ella I will get back to her as soon as I can. I need to find a way out of this.” I am opening the floor to any suggestions because right now I have no idea how I am getting Ella out of that cell. I have no Idea if I do achieve to get her out, then how can we be together without being banished and hunted down b
y my father?
“If I think of anything I will let you know, Master Lucas.” There is an uncertainty in George’s eye that vanishes when he bobs his head. I don’t stop him as I spot Hannah and Jessie marching towards me. Hannah’s mouth opens wide and I grip her arm and steer her into a sitting room directly beside us. She releases a squeal as I push her in. Jessie is staring at me.
“Get in now,” I order and she quickly joins Hannah whose hands are fisted on her hips. Her cheeks are red with anger and her being friends with Ella makes sense. Both of them are passionate and fiery. It isn’t the best combination at all in a dangerous place like this.
“You both can’t be marching around demanding answers. Ella would be so angry if she knew you were putting yourselves in danger.”
“Where is she?” Hannah doesn’t take in a word that I just said.
“She’s safe.” The only plus to this is that she can’t get in trouble while she is down there. I don’t have to worry about what she is up to.
Hannah is shaking her head. “I want to know where my friend is.”
Hannah chews her lip.
I can go two ways with this, I can reason with them, or frighten them. Frightening them seems more appealing, but I think of Ella and what she would say to me for frightening them.
“My father had her locked up,” I answer honestly.
Hannah’s eyes grow wide, her hands leaving her hips. I glance at Jessie who’s slowly sitting down.
Both girls look devastated and I stand awkwardly.
“What are you going to do about it?” Hannah asks.
I can’t stop the smile. “I’m going to get her out.”
She bobs her head several times. “What’s the plan?”
“Plan?” I had no plan. That’s the problem, but they don’t need to know just how clueless I am in all this.
“Yeah, how are we going to do this?”
I shake my head. “There is no we,” I tell Hannah.
She glances at Jessie as if I just hadn’t spoken. “You told me once that you can pick a door with a bobby pin.”