“Except my freedom,” Ingrid interjected. Leo paused, brown eyes blinking once before he nodded.
“It doesn’t have to be a bad thing, Ingrid.”
She slammed a hand over the table, the muffin dropped to her vacant plate.
The sound was loud but it didn’t startle Leo, nor the other two. “You’re not my friend. So you don’t have the right to call me that.”
“What do I call you, then?”
“Nothing. I don’t even want to speak to you!” She shouted.
“You’re worried that you can’t trust me but you are safe in this stupid mansion of yours! Even if I tried to tell anyone I’m sure you’d probably have Nadya cut my tongue out if you saw fit! But I can’t trust you! I saw you kill a man with your bare hands! How do I know that you won’t do that to me? How can I possibly believe this isn’t some scheme of yours to turn me into… into some kind of toy for your entertainment?”
“Because,” Leo said, and all manner of lightheartedness was gone from his voice.
“I’m not that sort of man.”
“But you’re the sort to kill someone?” Ingrid retorted.
Leo’s face turned stony, eyebrows dragging down into a fierce stare that stunned her.
“Yes. I am,” he admitted lowly.
“But you have no idea why I did what I did and so you have no right to judge me either.”
There are always two sides of a story, Ingrid. Her mother’s words hit her then, surprising her with the abrupt memory. You must never judge or take sides until you’re sure you know both sides of the story.
The sudden recollection sobered her immediately, made her anger nearly steam out completely. Leo turned his gaze away before taking another bite of his food.
Ingrid sat still, her gaze falling over a branch of grapes sitting still over a bowl ahead.
I got an innocent man out of deathrow! A man accused of murder. The case came to her hands because no one at the firm dared touch it. There was too much evidence against him, there were too many opinions on the situation.
Yet, Ingrid knew the man had been framed, she felt it in her stomach the second she laid eyes on her client. She had fought for his right to be set free, so that his reputation remained untarnished.
Yet that success had only brought her fear and judgment from everyone else.
That was different. He didn’t actually hurt anyone.
There are always two sides of a story.
“Why…?” Ingrid asked softly after a long moment of silence. She felt his attention and when she glanced up he was waiting for the rest of her question.
“Why did you kill that man?”
His expression darkened and he dropped the sandwich over the plate.
“It doesn’t concern you.”
Ingrid let out a short exhale, “Yes. It does. Otherwise I wouldn’t even be here.”
“No,” Leo rejected.
“The reason you’re here was because you stuck your nose where it didn’t belong.”
“You want me to trust you?” Ingrid insisted, crossing her arms.
“Then tell me. I won’t be allowed to leave anyway, what difference will it make?”
Leo stood abruptly and his gaze was steel, fury locked behind the brown of his irises, making them look dark.
“It will make all the difference. Consider the deal for the remainder of the day, I hope you actually think on it. Good afternoon.”
Suddenly he was walking off, leaving Ingrid to watch him, sputtering for something to say but ultimately was unable to say nothing as she watched man and butler disappear behind the door he came from.
The door slammed shut and the following silence made her feel as alone as she did that first night.
Chapter 9
This man was baffling. Never had Ingrid met someone that confused her so profoundly and it frustrated her more than it should. Not long after breakfast, Nadya escorted her back to her room—thankfully without the cuffs—and when she arrived, she was ushered to the closer where she was expected to change out of the sundress and change into something more comfortable.
She ended up in a loose dress and a thin sweater that fell to her hips. She was allowed a couple of slippers but aside from a wardrobe change, nothing much happened and Ingrid was suddenly left alone once more.
Now that she wasn’t glued to the bed, Ingrid began to pace a trail into the rug. Her fingers picked at the cuts, scratching at them until beads of blood got under her fingernails and left her skin feeling stung. Ingrid reached up and tugged her wavy hair over her shoulder and began to plait the locks into a braid, then two, then a few braids before her fingers worried through the strands.
None of this made sense. None of it.
Cold blooded killers didn’t behave like this man did—but then again what was actually a killer? Killers and murderers, they often come from places where people would never expect them to be.
Loving husbands, fathers, and neighbors with good intentions… in Ingrid’s experience there was no length to how far someone could go to hide a secret.
Clearly, she had seen that side of Leo and when she remembered the knife in her hand, Ingrid stopped short in her pacing.
She had been prepared then. She had let power coil in her muscles for a single moment where she would lunge and plunge that knife into that man…
Different. I’m a prisoner. A hostage. This would be self-defense.
But in all honesty, she had been prepared. She had even felt that surge in her blood, the desire to kill him, to actually watch him cave beneath her for causing her so much pain. It felt hideously right to think of that then.
Was she… no different?
No… no. She was a good person. Because even while she had thought that, she didn’t make a move.
She didn’t kill anyone, he did. In the end, they could all have the same thoughts and desires but action defined everything.
“I have got to get out of here…” Ingrid muttered to herself as she stared out the window, and when she approached, she felt her frustration only mount when she saw nothing but a steep drop into a lot of trees and the unknown forest.
To her relief, Ingrid didn’t see Leo for the rest of the day. She just hoped this would remain until she could clear her head enough to hatch a good enough escape plan. She just had to hold on.
--
The next day, Ingrid was woken by Nadya. There was a little bit more daylight filtering through the window and while Ingrid could only note the situation with some curiosity it fell flat when she saw familiar handcuffs on the woman’s hands.
“No way,” Ingrid shook her head, frowning at the maid. “I’m not putting those back on. I don’t care if you can’t hear me.”
Nadya blinked at her and in this lighting her gray eyes appeared a soft blue. Nadya took a step forward and when Ingrid made to bolt, the woman’s narrow eyebrows dipped into a look of warning. It was the most expression Ingrid got from the girl, but it was enough to remind her of their little grappling match from yesterday.
With a loud groan, Ingrid relented and stood, hating feeling the cuffs around her wrists again before she was following the maid out the door. They walked past the bathroom and straight toward the dining room, this time at an easier pace and for that Ingrid was somewhat grateful for.
Their footsteps echoed back to them, emphasizing the ever present silence between the two women and Ingrid vaguely wondered about Linda. She had been gone a total of maybe a week… a week of nothing but white noise between the two friends. Would Linda know she was in trouble?
Finally, the two women reached the dining room and the table was arranged yet again in a lovely spread of breakfast foods. This time it was different. Croissants and éclairs stood amongst foods Ingrid had never seen before but guessed where they came from.
This time, Leo was already sitting at the table, quietly discussion something with the butler on his right. At the sound of their footsteps, the men ceased their speech and Leo rose to see
them enter.
“Good morning,” He spoke nothing at all how he had spoken to her yesterday. Instead Leo watched her with something akin to sheepishness but Ingrid dared not make any assumptions and remained on her guard. “Did you rest well?”
“Better,” She admitted. “Since I didn’t have these.” She motioned to the cuffs before taking her seat and waiting for Nadya to take her place behind her shoulder.
“Then you considered the deal, I hope.” Leo said and took his seat not long after Ingrid settled in hers. Still, Ingrid made no move for the food ahead, settling on grabbing her hair and plaiting it to calm her uncertain nerves. After a long moment of just sitting, Ingrid finally nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve thought about it.”
“And?”
She took a breath, hoped that she would be strong enough. “I’ve decided to live here. As your guest.”
She had expected a smile, maybe a response that was more than what she got. Instead, Leo stared at her before his eyes narrowed. “Why?”
Ingrid made an exasperated motion with her hands, wanting nothing more than to shake his attention off of her. “Because there’s no point?” a pause. “Fine… it’s… it’s because there’s no where I could go. Last night, I was able to look out the window… and I saw nothing but a steep drop. Back home… it’s not any different. People don’t… they don’t treat me any better than I hoped they would. In fact, a large group of them would be rather happy if I wasn’t there. I have an apartment where I live on my own, I don’t own a dog, or a cat. I can’t own even a stupid goldfish because it would probably die. I dedicate myself to my work, I hoped to make a change—help people. Instead it’s only brought me the backlash of the townspeople and scary nights where I can’t even sleep without worrying someone’s going to do something about it. But…” Ingrid took a big breath and hoped for the best.
“Last night, when I slept without the cuffs…” She allowed herself to slide a little glance at Leo. “It was the first time I was able to sleep without being scared I was going to get mobbed or something. Considering.”
Silence spread between them as she felt Leo scrutinize her, watch her silently and make no move even though the food was probably getting cold between them. “So, you… you feel safer… here?”
Ingrid shrugged, “In a nutshell, yeah… don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly. “I still don’t trust you, not even close. But you said Nadya could protect me, and you said you didn’t want to harm me. The only option I can actually take to seize what freedom I can have is if I… actually allow you to show me that I can trust you.”
“Yesterday you insisted that you wanted nothing wrong with me because I killed a man,” Leo said, gesturing with a hand. “Why did that change now?”
“Because,” Ingrid proceeded and she met his gaze evenly. “There are always two sides of a story. I dedicated my life to help people sort their sides of the story, their sides of their situation before they were placed behind a jury who was ready to judge them and decide their fate. I fought for ten years so that people had that right. I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t give you the same option.”
It was almost an eternity before anything happened and for that eternity, Ingrid squeezed her fingers tight on her lap and hoped that this man wouldn’t see through her and that he would believe her. Finally, he gave her a half smile and his gaze dropped toward the direction of her wrists.
“Well then, it seems we have an accord.”
Ingrid let out a sigh and felt a smile push her own lips upwards, and when he reached for his glass of water she did the same. So far so good…
The sound of their clinking glass was like thunder and when he looked at her, Ingrid felt a different shudder work from the base of her spine to everywhere else. She looked away and took a sip of the beverage, hoping nothing came from this strange feeling of foreboding.
Chapter 10
The days passed unusually quickly. Since her upgrade from prisoner to “permanent house guest”, Ingrid was permitted to leave her room so long as she had Nadya at her side.
When she saw her own clothes, cleaned and dried, on her bed the following day, Ingrid insisted that she wear them despite Nadya’s singular frowns.
She needed to have something that belonged to her and while silk felt nice on her skin, it didn’t feel like home. Ingrid felt some relief when she found she could, in fact, communicate with Nadya.
The maid was apparently fantastic at reading lips and when Ingrid asked her to help her find a study where there might be books she could entertain herself with, the blonde woman led her toward a particularly huge library.
Ingrid was not much of a book lover but when her eyes beheld the side of so many books, she nearly gawked in surprise. Instead an ironic laugh burst through her lips. Of course.
Before long, Ingrid found herself collecting a few volumes in her arms, forcing happy smiles over her lips while Nadya kept a steady watch over her.
Ingrid had no doubt that they were somewhat expecting her to try to escape soon, but she had to at least play the part right enough to at least make them uncertain. She wanted to escape there was no doubt about it.
The sooner she escaped the better, if that meant playing nice, then fine. It would just take time… and she had all the time in the world.
Chapter 11
Breakfasts lead to conversations that made Ingrid every so wary of Leo. They spoke of small things, like what kinds of flowers he grew in his gardens, or where he liked to travel.
It didn’t escape her that he never really mentioned what he did or where his family was since Ingrid had managed to become well acquainted with the estate and didn’t see a single soul aside from Nadya, Leo’s Butler (whose name was Gerard), another maid with pale flaxen hair named Lucy (Ingrid had only seen her once), and Leo himself. She had been tempted to ask, feeling more and more curious the longer she stayed, but she steeled herself against it.
She didn’t want to overdo it and do something stupid, like admit that she enjoyed the gardens outside the dining room more than the library, or how she found herself kind of used to Nadya’s constant watch.
No. She needed to remain objective. She needed to build enough trust that she would probably be given the opportunity to escape without having to actually search it out herself.
Ingrid wandered throughout the estate, testing her boundaries until Nadya would place herself in front of her an act as a sort of border, staring the woman down until she got the message to stop following a specific route.
There was no doubt in her mind that there were secrets in this place, and she didn’t want to stick around to become one of them.
A week, then two… three weeks, a month…
Breakfasts had become lunches…
“You’re quite opinionated.” Leo observed after Ingrid finished a particular tirade.
She had gotten energetic, passionate, fired up… all because he had asked about that case and she had been unable to keep her mouth shut.
“People believe what they want,” She had sighed.
“It doesn’t matter how much evidence you put in front of them. You could tell them the sky is blue and show them all the proof but if they see green that’s all the sky will ever be.”
“Maybe…” Leo shrugged and when she turned to face him, he was standing a foot away and his proximity made her want to take a step back, until he faced her with a small smile.
“It doesn’t mean you should give up.”
“I don’t.” She insisted with a scowl. He chuckled before he turned and walked off without another word.
Lunches became dinners…
“I’m not trying to poke my nose in your life!” Ingrid shouted, completed incensed.
Leo spun a pen through his fingers, watching her as she slid a knife roughly over a piece of roast beef.
“So sue me if I’m a little curious!”
“Curiosity killed the cat, Ingrid.”
“Satisfaction brou
ght it back, Leo.” Ingrid retorted, rolling her eyes even when he blinked at her, surprised.
“I’m still not telling you anything.”
She threw her hands up and stood up from the table.
“Goodnight then, mister mysterious!”
And the more Ingrid spoke with Leo… the harder it became to keep herself objective.
Despite their conversations, Leo never revealed anything about his life and she became more and more infuriated with his practiced smile and strategic chuckles. He would casually brush off her questions and return them with different topics that made her head spin.
Each conversation only made her angrier, made her want to punch him, but at the same time, it made her want to press onwards and get more words out of him. Some nights though, Leo was nowhere to be found.
He just disappeared, sometimes for days, only to return one following morning acting as if nothing was strange and he would dodge every single question she had about his whereabouts. It was driving Ingrid insane.
Finally, one night of restless turning on the large bed she refused to call hers, Ingrid shot up from the mattress and walked toward the door.
It was unlocked—a fact she had argued against Leo for hours one evening when she insisted that she nearly pissed all over herself when Nadya arrived to open the door for her—and Ingrid peeked around the corner. Nothing.
Quietly, she walked out the door and closed it behind her. Her feet padded softly against the cold marble and she shivered. She traveled down the hallways, now familiar with their twists and turns and where they would lead.
A part of her hoped that Nadya was sleeping, or somewhere else, because she honestly had no idea what she would say if they found her wondering this far from her room. Frankly, she didn’t even want to think about it, so she brushed it off.
She wanted to figure things out, get more information, and make sure she could establish a point in her escape plan that was concrete.
Romance: Stranded With The Lion: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (BBW Shifter Romance, Werebear Romance, Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) Page 5