The room wasn't a chamber.
It was a treasure vault.
There were so many rubies, sapphires, amethysts, too, and there was a man-sized heap of gold coins in the corner. There was also a thick layer of dust on almost every item, except for a few really nice goblets. Those had been handled recently.
Wherever Mariana looked, she saw things that had more value than the combined property of all her relatives.
"Before you get too excited, I must say that none of this is mine, to be exact," Sam said. "I am merely keeping this treasure, like a banker would…"
"But bankers are thieves, you have said so yourself," Mariana said.
"Exactly. Which is why I am more than willing to start our union with a betrayal."
Sam smiled, and there was something so dark and scary about him right now that Mariana shuddered a little.
"Partners in crime…a terrible theft that will go unnoticed, because the owner of this treasure will not come looking for it anytime soon."
"And how are you so sure about it?" Mariana asked.
"Oh, because he is dead and his bastard son does not know who he even was."
Mariana smiled.
"Then I don't have anything smart to say," she said. "You win. You will always win."
This, too, was a lie, as Mariana did not accept any failures on her own part. She had to win, she had to be on top.
For a beautiful thing with a way with words, she sure was proud of that cold heart of hers.
"Then it is settled. I would love to help you, Mariana, you are as wise as you are stunning. You are like the queen of the afterlife, like a ghost in a beautiful and impenetrable darkness."
Mariana resisted the temptation to laugh.
"But I cannot love you if you are as impermanent in my life as a ghost or some other beautiful apparition."
Sam knelt in front of her, snatching a dainty diamond ring from the pile of treasure.
"Would you honor my ancient family tradition and accept my unorthodox proposal, Mariana? Will you be my wife so that we can embrace the hatred we share?"
This was indeed an unusual way of proposing, not anything that Mariana would have been culturally familiar with.
The words he had chosen were also hurtful. How could he think that she was defined by hate alone?
She resisted the urge to sob. She was surrounded by riches, proposed to by a noble cor, and yet she had never felt more alone or poorer in her life.
"I will accept this," she said, unable to force a yes or even an aye out of her mouth. She felt so disgusted with herself that she wanted to burn both her forked tongue and the entire manor down, along with the dishonest man who claimed to love her.
He embraced her.
Now, though, she didn't feel cold any longer. His body was awkwardly hot, his skin a bit moist and sticky, and she wished that she had realized the state of their relationship.
She could have made him shave before the proposal, mother of worms…now, though, it was way too late.
She cried now, but somehow he mistook her every emotion for something else. Perhaps he had been blinded by her beauty, especially with all the gold around them. It was possible to get drunk on precious metals. It happened at times - a king or some other person with access to plentiful riches absorbed too much of that shiny energy and drove himself or herself into complete insanity.
"It will be mine, and what is mine is yours, and you are mine now," Sam muttered.
She let the high cor run his hands all over her body. It was disgusting, but in a way she had rarely experienced. He didn't smell like booze, he wasn't grimy or filthy by any means. She just didn't want him.
His heat against her cheek, his heartbeat, they were things that she tolerated, and now she realized why women did not go to war.
Men like Sam functioned as a perfectly acceptable substitute to death. She died a little, not in a good way, cringing through the whole thing and trying to act like the best actress in the royal theater. No actress was as good as Mariana, though.
She could control everything from her heart to the size of her pupils, or at least she felt that way.
It didn't make embracing him any easier, but at least he pulled away.
"I am going to wash myself now," he declared. "I would like for you to join me soon. I will not give you any bastards, so you should fetch yourself some contraceptive herbs from a local healer or a wisewoman. Take some coins, you'll need them. They are asking such insane prices for everything. Couldn't get any paw without -"
"You want to have me as…"
"Yes, if you want me, I'm yours."
Of course she didn't want him, the idea that she could pull off this act was ridiculous, but she had to believe that this was happening. She kissed his cheek and found him a warm towel, thinking that at least he had an excuse to take a nice bath with oils that smelled like heaven.
He would be in for a nasty surprise.
She gathered as many diamonds as she could. What was dense when it came to its value was the best option. She had to carry everything in her bag now, as she couldn't exactly get a carriage to move her stolen cargo from the mansion to the people she owed money to.
There was this sweet old chair, though, and it had to be so gracefully aged that she could get thousands for it…it was awfully tempting.
She checked it out. It was light enough that she could carry it all the way down without hitting any walls on the way out, and it had the signature of some famous artist, which was interesting as well. The paintings on the legs were the work of an expert.
Then she remembered her history lessons and gasped.
The chair, although tasteless, had to be worth ten thousand gold coins!