Remi had just been settled into his sleeping quarters after having tea again a few days later when Elizabeth came flying into the room abruptly, "Master Doremus is here lady Nadine!"
Nadine was already in motion before the words left her mouth. Helping Remi to his feet and pulling him towards the door. He halted and met her violet gaze with raised brows.
"Surely this husband of yours would understand, given my condition when I arrived, that I might be in his home."
She shook her head; trying again to push him out the doorway of the guest room as the maids made extraordinarily quick work of the bed and mopping the floors of yesterday's mud, brought in by the rain.
"You do not know him. He is... vengeful. To have you here without his permission, no matter the reason, is.. unthinkable. I do not know what he would do to me if you were found."
He followered after her silently; still slightly slower with his leg.
She paused to push into the ballroom. The dustiest room when she arrived. She had inquired to the staff about his uses for the manor. The ballroom was least likely of places he would come. She had kept the room swept regularly since Remi's unexpected arrival in case they should leave foot prints in the thick layer of dust.
"This way," she said without waiting, "the staff have been instructed under ANY circumstances to deny knowledge of you in the manor." She swept aside a small rug and pulled open a hatch among the floorboards.
"If we are caught. You are my responsibility as I brought you into the manor it seemed only fair that I would be the one to incur his wrath on your behalf."
They met eachother's intensely silent gaze for a moment before looking away. She shoved the satchel into his hands.
"You'll find some more supplies and a chamber pot in the corner."
Who knows how long he would be down there.
The space below was small. A cramped storage that held party dishes and props. among the clutter was a space big enough for him to sit or stand upright. He huffed as he sat with his legs pulled to his chest leaning back into a folded table. Without further explanation she shut the hatch. In a quick motion she swept the carpet back and fled the room. She had just made it to her room and was straightening the bedsheets when Boren walked in on light feet. She looked up and grasped her heart melodramatically. Looking away as she heaved a quick breath.
"Boren. It's a surprise to see you here."
"Yes, well I don't have to announce my self. I own the manor and everything in it."
His gaze met hers with a threatening point and he began to look around the room suspiciously inspecting her things. He was making a mess of her drawers when she spoke. Brave with the notion that the same magic that kept her from telling Scar that she loved him would keep his hands away from her as long as she was with child.
"I thought you couldn't bare to see your fragile things; knowing it was not an option to shatter them."
She saw his hands tighten into fists and the muscles in his shoulder bunched as he turned from dumping a drawer onto the floor.
"Don't forget with whom you speak."
She arched a brow, drunk on bravado.
"Very well. While your ransacking your manor shall I put on a pot of tea? Perhaps ask the chef to start on dinner?"
She dared not to inquire about the length of his stay.
He sneered at her.
"No tea. Have the chef cook the finest meat in the house and bring me a bottle of yellow fire with dinner."
She bowed and left the room as he swiped all her jewlery from the top of the dresser.
She heard a crack in the glass of her favorite box.
Her long skirts fluttered calmly as she sidled down the hall.
She found the maids in their quarters, all jumpy and skittish as she knocked on the open door.
"The best meat goes on the fire tonight and a bottle of yellow fire needs to be retrieved from the wine stores."
"Mrs. Nadine..."
"Call me Mrs. Deramus until he leaves and speak nothing of our guest. All is well."
The sigh in the room was collective and the woman smiled with newfound strength as they looked on to their calm Mistress.
She left the now noisy kitchen and made her way to the laundry. Remi's clothes had been stuffed up the chimney sweep in a burlap sack. All evidence of him gone.
She walked into the main room just as Boren did.
"What is this."
His tone was deadly as he held up a tea cup. One of two sat by the fireplace.
"A tea cup." She said deadpan as Jennie's eyes grew wide. "Ivan and I have tea together sometimes to discuss the progress of the baby."
"You are my wife, if I find you've dined with any of the servants again, even the doctor, there will be consequences."
He tossed the cup into the fireplace and it shattered as he stormed out to continue his inspection. A burlap sack fell onto the cup and Nadine ran to the firepit and shoved it back up. Her hands covered in soot she fled to the bathroom to scrub them clean before dinner.
Dinner was tense. The staff was stiff and formal bringing in large platters of steaming vegetables from the gardens, cheeses, rolls, and sweet things. A lamb had been slaughtered fresh from the market, and had been cooked three different ways.
Nadine had Jennie ladle some lamb soup into her bowl, a roll and some cheeses. She had a few of the sautéed vegetables added to her soup. A warm apple cider found its way along her plate. She dared not acknowledge the staff like she normally would instead she remained regal and poised at the edge of her seat watching Boren crack out orders about his meal.
He ate away at a pile of food whilst staring at her.
She picked at her food here and there, meeting his gaze with an icy stare. Hoping he would be gone soon.
Born stayed for one night. Insisting Nadine sleep with him in the Master bedroom. She hardly slept at all and was glad to find him gone without a word in the morning. She knew he had intentionally left without saying anything. The underlying message of his visit clear. He would come and go when it pleased him.
She checked on Remi a few hours before midday but waited until dark to let him out; just in case. Her nerves on edge. Not that the household would ever guess. To anyone on the outside she was a perfect picture of calm.
Although when she helped Remi out of the storage space and back to the guest room he had asked her about the tightness of her muscles and she wondered as she gave a lying smile and helped him settle if he had noticed because of all the time they'd spent together these past few days or if he was just unusually perceptive for a different reason.
It was the next morning when he brought it up again.
"Your husband rattles you." He said it matter of fact, and she looked at him sharply.
"Unfortunately you are all too right." She said tight lipped.
He nodded.
"Why?"
She took a breath and then surprising even herself she began to explain.
"My father seems to have lost his fortune he once had. He demanded that I marry Boren to secure himself once more. I'm sure the tidy sum he was given is more than enough to secure his happiness once again."
She crossed to the bay window and watched the thrashing ocean in the distance.
"What can be secured of it where the alcohol and worthlessness doesn't fill. While securing his fortune he robbed me of my own happiness, my freedom, and eventually I know his decision will eventually rob me of my future and life itself."
She could feel the intense thunder of his stare and silence and she didn't know why but she kept talking, perhaps to unburden herself, perhaps to fill the loudness of that silence.
"Boren does not love me. He is a dangerous and tormentuous creature. Given to violence and threat, and I'm sure he will do anything to keep the level of control he possesses. After my child is born he will probably kill me, but I have made an unlikely friend or two."
She glanced at his furious face to smile silently before she turned away again to watch the distant ocean. A last minute thought giving her more words to say than she realized she had as her mind worked.
"And before he ever lays hands or eyes on my child I plan to spirit him or her away. This is how you will repay me. It must be so. My fate has been sealed, but I will not allow my child to ever be his. You will take them and give them to a woman I met in the village. A woman who will take my child to be raised among the fea world. Far away from Boren's reach."
She turned to look at him pleadingly now.
"I ask you this in return for saving your life please save what will be left of mine. I beg of you."
She walked to him calmly and leveled him with a burning stare. Her knees brushed hardwood as she gripped his hands in her own. The only thing that gave away the lie of her calm exterior as they trembled ever so slightly.
"I will help you, but I will only help you my own way."
She looked at him both relieved and questioning.
"I will kill Boren for you. Only then will you be free."