Chapter 86: Chapter 86

Lying on the chaise longue on the balcony, I watched the beginning of the sunset. A noise called out to me. Eric was waking up. I was alone with him, aware that it was very likely that we would spend the coming nights together. It had been a long time since we had shared a certain intimacy, and our last exchanges in Paris led me to suppose that Eric still had affection for me, despite everything that had happened since our meeting. He walked up to the balcony, and his gaze wandered to the left, above the cliff, where a hundred guards stood.

I tried to look detached, withdrew my legs, and invited him to come and take a seat on the chaise next to me. He accepted without taking his eyes off me. I noticed that the marks on his skin were gradually fading. He wasn’t holding his ribs anymore, so I assumed he felt a little better, except for the few grimaces I observed when he happened to make a sudden movement.

“So what’s the plan?” he said.

“There’s no plan,” I replied, “and talking about it out loud is not a good idea in these places.”

“So we’re stuck here?”

“Yes.”

“Together?”

After saying these words, a small smile appeared on his lips. I couldn’t help smiling myself. His charm and his whole personality attracted me, even if he had bruises everywhere. Eric had always had a certain effect on me, and I was beginning to fear the consequences of our isolation.

“Alright, so you know what you’re doing?”

“Yes, I know,” I lied.

Because at that moment, it was difficult for me to be so sure. Relieved he understood that we couldn’t talk about everything out loud, at least not about an escape plan, I decided to change the subject.

“Which side of the bed are you taking again?” I asked.

“What, did you forget?” he said, falsely offended. “Yet we had the opportunity to sleep together on many occasions.”

“I don’t remember any such thing.”

He pretended to take an invisible knife which he stuck in the heart. I burst out laughing.

“Okay, you sleep on the right side of the bed,” I reassured him.

“Which right are you talking about? The right when you’re in bed or the right when you have the bed facing you?”

“When you’re in bed!”

He smirked, then laughed. I imitated him, happy to find him in much better shape than when we last met. It was, however, time to spoil the party a little and to entrust him with the substance of my thoughts.

“Do you realise that if the Five put you here, it’s simply to distract me from my intentions? A way for them to keep me away from the castle as long as possible.”

“Yes, I understood that.”

There was a silence before I spoke again. Eric was staring at the horizon now.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said.

“No, indeed.”

The exchange of glances which followed was interrupted by the young servants who had already come the day before. They pushed a cart, and set its contents on the table without a word.

“I wonder where the old lady who was taking care of me has gone,” I said. “I hope she hasn’t suffered the same treatment as the previous one.”

“What happened to her?” Eric asked, putting on a shirt before taking a chair.

“She was executed for talking to me,” I whispered.

“No, are you serious?!” Eric snapped, terrified.

I waited for the young women to leave the room to tell him what I had seen, though I had no doubt that they were already well aware of the consequences of disobedience.

“They burned her in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t do anything. So whatever the maids ask you to do, do it.”

“Uh yes, okay, but what could they ask me? They don’t seem very talkative.”

“Well, every day they come and dress me, serve my meals, bathe me, and…”

“Wait, what?! They make you bathe?” Eric lifted his eyes wide.

“Yes, and they wash me too.”

“There’s a rather exciting ancient Egyptian side to it. Never tell that to Johnny, he might set up this ritual when you get back to the castle.”

“No, indeed, I’ll not make that mistake.”

A silence. Eric took a bite of his food and, when he was done, got up and went back to the balcony. I could understand his fascination with this view that I had gazed at for hundreds of hours. The maids came back to light the candles, cleared the table, then invited us to follow them inside the room, each on one side of the bed. There, Eric understood what I was talking to him about earlier, while the redhead began to take off his shirt. He held her by the arm to stop her.

“Let her do her job,” I ordered, aware of the consequences for her if he refused to submit.

So he let her pull the fabric over his head, then turned his eyes to me. I could see that he had never been accustomed to such treatment. The dark-haired maid slowly took off my dress. Embarrassed, Eric looked away. When the redhead pulled down his pants, I looked away too, but it was agony not to turn them in his direction.

Later, the embarrassment still showed on our faces, and it was difficult for us to face each other under such circumstances. Once covered with our outfits for the night, namely a thin white nightgown for me and light soft pants for Eric, it wasn’t easy either to carry on with a proper conversation. So we went to bed back to back, and I couldn’t sleep that night.

The next day, the official ritual began. The maids came to serve us breakfast at 9 o’clock. Then, an hour later, they showed up to dress us. The embarrassment experienced the day before manifested itself again, and an awkward silence settled until noon, when they placed a meal tray on the dining table.

“So it’s like this every day?” Eric called.

“Yes, every day. My first month here, I hadn’t spoken to anyone. The loneliness was so unbearable that I was almost happy to be invited to their boring dinners. I prefer that to my isolation.”

“Really?”

I then told him about my stay at the temple in as much detail as possible. He fidgeted in his chair when I mentioned my mother and the treatment my brother had received upon his arrival.

“So he got what he wanted,” Eric said.

“Indeed,” I said softly, “but thank God he came back.”

Then I told him about the Nave of Statues and my observations about the castes subject to the Five. Then I had to tell him the truth about the death of his parents, and my mother’s involvement in this horrible affair. With the pain in his eyes at that moment, I felt like a dagger sinking into my stomach.

“I’m sorry, Eric…”

“You don’t have to be. Now at least I know the truth.”

A silence fell after this sad revelation. I then finished my report on the latest events, including my meeting with Cassandra, then we continued again on the customs of the temple.

“It’s been a long time since I realised the value of our freedom in Mortain. But it makes you wonder how Estelle and Selene manage to organise themselves as we are so disorganised there!”

Eric smiled, but was interrupted by the servants who brought fruit in a basket. They put it on the small table on the balcony, where we went to sit a few minutes later.

“So, how long do you think they’re going to leave us here?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, looking weary.

I would have liked to tell him that I regularly tried to mentally call my mother and brother, but I couldn’t say that out loud without risking exposing our telepathy to the Five. I suspected them of bugging Eric by reading his mind, and anyway, all my attempts at communication were failing. When the maids returned again, I knew it was bath time. I thought the blond or the redhead would come get one of us first, but they asked us to follow them both, at the same time. The undressing ritual began. Naked, eyes averted, I felt the bathrobe land on my shoulders. The huge white sandstone bathtub, dug into the ground, was filled with water and foam. The redhead took off Eric’s robe who cleared his throat as the situation was delicate. When she took off his pants, I looked down again. He got into the water and lay down. The blond then began to undress me and it was with a quick step that I immersed myself, curling up my legs on my chest that the foam concealed. Eric complied without flinching when the two women motioned for him to stand up. I looked away as they washed him. An unbearable heat came to colour my cheeks, my breathing became difficult, my heartbeat accelerated dangerously. A few metres from me, Eric was completely naked, and I dared not take a look in his direction as I felt his presence and the tension at that moment. Once they had finished their task, Eric immediately plunged back into the bath, and it was my turn. I got up. Each passage of the hands on my skin made me shudder. I wasn’t unhappy that this merry-go-round was over, and even relieved when at last we were dressed and settled in for dinner.

That night, like many after this one, I couldn’t sleep a wink. My nerves and the tension between us kept me from regaining my peace of mind. And as I tried in vain to fall asleep, I realised that every second spent in Eric’s company was becoming more and more trying. I was starting to dread the next few days and how it was all going to end.