“Why am I facing the wall?” he asked.
An excellent question that most people would have asked prior to the facing of the wall.
“Because I need to do something,” she said.
Without a second thought, Luci set down her bag and began taking off her clothes. They were already sweat-drenched. The strange breeze within the cave whipped around her, kissing bare skin. Maybe she’d lost what remained of her mind, but nothing felt as right as the moment she set her bare foot into the river, testing its depth.
“Luci?” Ira asked.
“I’m fine. I just need to do this.”
Stepping into the water, she let its icy cold run over her. Normally, she would have complained about how cold it was, but now it felt like exactly what she needed. Without second-guessing herself, Luci pulled herself under the water and scrubbed at her hair. When she came up for air, black mingled with the blue-green water and began its downward descent towards the bottom of the river.
She let herself float. Her hair falling around her, seeping into the water. It felt like a cleansing, a ridding of bad spirits. When she finally emerged from the water once more, she found Ira lying on the ground with his hands behind his head and eyes closed.
Quietly, she padded towards where the small blanket was tossed near her clothes and used it to dry off. When she was at least partially dry, she redressed and wrung her hair out, for the first time in a while, seeing her honey-blond hair.
She stared at it, and Ira’s words rang in her ears.
“What you said was ridiculous,” she said.
Ira cracked an eye open and squinted at her.
“Oh?” a hint of a dimple. “Which part exactly?”
Luci held up her hands and let them fall in exasperation.
“All of it,” she hissed.
He shook his head and pushed himself up off the floor.
“I said a lot of things; it was more of a verbal onslaught, and in the pursuit of honesty, I’ve spent the last two hours trying to recall all of it so I could berate myself for my lack of tact, so I’m going to need you to be a little more specific.”
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Luci placed one hand on her hip and glared at him.
“I’m an orphan!” she said.
His smile slipped, and he dipped his head.
“You are, and for that I’m very sorry,” he said.
How could he not understand what she was trying to say? Insufferable and frustrating man.
“I’m a servant!”
He shrugged. “If you insist.”
Rage boiled beneath her skin at his deliberate obtuseness.
“How did you think this would end? I would be some mistress to keep tucked away for your convenience while you married someone like Annabeth?”
For a moment, Ira’s smile fell, and his eyes narrowed on hers in a way that grew a pit in her stomach like she’d done something terribly wrong.
“Is that what you think of me, Lucinda? That I would ask that of you?” he asked.
The pit grew, and smoky tendrils of guilt floated up her throat, evaporating the anger that she’d been holding onto and showing it for what it was. Not anger. Scared. Lucinda Blackthorn was terrified.
“How else would it- it’s impossible,” she breathed out.