Chapter 3

Anya came in with the servants trailing behind her.

Alden was hurt all over, yet he still managed to shake his head at me.

I knew he was telling me not to do anything rash. But he was the only one in this house who was ever good to me. How could I stand there and watch him suffer and feel nothing?

Howard looked at me with a sneering little smile and clasped his hands toward Anya.

"If I hadn't kept an eye on the back gate ahead of time, this errand boy would've slipped right out."

"Look at him. Looks like he was going to find someone to come rescue him."

Anya rested her hand on the nanny's and asked nothing. She only let one cold word fall.

"Beat him to death."

I felt like I'd been dropped into an ice pit. I crawled on my knees to her feet.

"Mother, I'm the one who sent him out. It was my fault. Punish me, I beg you, but let Alden go."

I slammed my head against the floor, hard, again and again, until she stopped me before I'd done it many times.

She pressed the wound on my head gently with her handkerchief.

Hope rose in my chest.

The next instant it shattered.

"How is he supposed to please the princess with a marked-up face?"

Hands seized me and held me still.

They laid Alden across a bench, and the barbed rod came down across his lower back.

"Aaah!"

The shriek tore through the deep, long night.

And even then, he kept begging for a way to keep me alive.

"Madam, don't send the young master to the princess's manor. He'll die there, he'll die!"

I looked at Peggy, at Howard, pleading.

They only watched it all with cold eyes.

Alden's voice was growing fainter and fainter.

"Mother!"

I screamed.

From somewhere I found the strength to break free, and I threw myself over Alden to take one blow in his place.

Just one, and my lower back no longer felt like it belonged to me.

"I'll go to the princess's manor. Just let Alden go!"

Anya's expression did not change. She only had them drag me off him.

"You may not be a child of this house, but the marquess's manor has raised you all these years. You should at least be good for something."

"If you'd married off obediently, your errand boy wouldn't have to die. In the end, you're the one who killed him."

Howard said, with a touch of worry,

"Mother, are you sure the princess won't have anything to say about it?"

She put on a gentle smile and stroked Peggy's head.

"This wretch is good for nothing but a pretty face. And besides, the princess only asked for a young master of this house. Isn't your brother one too?"

Howard looked Alden over with interest.

"Cecil's no scholar and no fighter. It's past curfew. Who could he possibly go to? Some kept woman he's got on the side, maybe?"

Alden held on to his last breath.

"Madam, the Grand Princess is not the only power in this land. I beg you, think again!"

With that, Alden coughed up a mouthful of blood and died.

"Alden! Alden! Alden!"

Tears poured down my face, and under the enormity of it I lost consciousness on the spot.

Howard's face changed.

"Mother, the princess loves virgins above all. If Cecil has a woman out there and it angers the princess, won't she turn on this house?"

Anya stared at me where I lay senseless, then had someone haul over a bucket of ice water to bring me around.

I looked at her, dazed, and the tears came before anything else.

"Nanny Gwen, inspect his body."

Anya walked out of the shrine with her people.

Alden had meant to make her hesitate. He never imagined that what they cared about more was whether I was untouched.

The shrine doors closed in front of my eyes.

Anya was gone, but Howard did not leave.

Nanny Gwen had four errand boys pin down my hands and feet.

In that shrine I lost every last shred of dignity.

Despair and disgust broke me completely.

I screamed until my throat tore, and the shrine doors never opened.

Only when Nanny Gwen was satisfied was I let go.

She said I had never touched a woman, and only then did Anya breathe easier.

"Cecil had a way of contacting the outside, and that errand boy Alden was mixed up in it. His death is just as well. It keeps the family in order."

"In all the capital, how many hold more power than the Grand Princess? Even if some worthless woman comes to our door, we'll just beat her to death."

Howard looked at my face and let a sickening smile spread across it.

"Mother, don't worry. He's this pretty. He's sure to please the princess."

"Such a pity, though. One less male concubine in the house."

I stared at Anya in disbelief.

She looked at Howard with all a mother's tenderness.

"I'd meant to make Cecil your personal attendant after a while. With those tastes of yours, it's best to have someone at your side you know inside and out. I've trained him well. He'd have put you first in everything."

"But now, with this coming up, we have to keep you safe first. Once the business with the princess is settled, I'll pick out a good one for you."