The Nightmare Daze

7. Awaiting Judgement

Florence

"Breakfast." Silas sets the bowl near where I'm seated on the floor and begins to work at the knots on my wrists. My skin is raw and bleeding in places, though it's my fault for working the ropes off in the first place. I try to meet his eye, but he won't look at me. Anger boils within me, and something else—hurt. Shame.

"Why did you talk with me that night?" I whisper finally, and I'm relieved when he actually meets my gaze, if only for a moment. "Why share a drink with me?"

"I didn't know who you were then."

"And if you did, would you have dragged me away then?"

He considers me with a coldness that I despise. "Perhaps."

It isn't lost on me that I shunned a room of possible suitors to have a drink with a man who has ultimately abducted me. The thought of it makes my cheeks heat, and I feel so very, very stupid. And angry. "Why were you there?"

"I was scoping out the place."

"You said you were a driver."

"That's enough. Eat your breakfast." I gingerly touch my wrists, feeling the hot skin sting at the contact. I want to argue with him, but I'm hungry and I'm exhausted. I barely slept last night, shivering beneath the threadbare blanket they allowed me and fearing what today might bring. The gruel doesn't have a particularly pleasant smell, but it's warm and will fill my stomach, so I begin to eat.

"Heading out?" Levi's voice sends a chill down my spine. I wonder at the intention behind the question, if he's remembered his threat from the previous night. I don't look at him to give him any reason to recall it.

"I'm going to town to deliver instructions. I should be back before nightfall." When he slips on his jacket and opens the door, I want to beg him to stay, to act as a buffer between me and Levi. He may be in charge of Levi and Benjamin, but he doesn't have the same air about him. He seems so terribly normal for a man who is running an errand to deliver ransom demands. When the door shuts behind him, I keep eating the gruel, careful not to make too much noise when lowering the spoon back into the bowl. I can feel Levi's eyes on me.

His boots creak against the floorboards but I don't look at him, knowing only how to continue the task in front of me as my heartbeat quickens. I don't even glance up when he kicks the bowl from my hands, sending the remainder of my breakfast across the floor. The silence is crushing as he crouches in front of me.

"What's got into you? Nothing to say?"

"No," I murmur, and he slaps me—lightly, almost playfully. I finally look up to see him smiling slightly at me, his head tilted slightly to the side.

"You've made a mess. Clean it up."

I don't ask for more gruel, though my stomach is still grumbling with hunger. Instead I move past him to stand and collect a damp rag at the edge of the wash tub in the kitchen area. Levi stands above me while I wash the floor, and I expect a kick in the stomach at any moment, but nothing comes. When the area is clean, I settle back into my place near the wall and resume my silence. Perhaps I can be boring and sullen enough that Levi loses interest.

It seems to work, and he eventually saunters back to the hallway to rouse Benjamin, leaving me alone in the main room, my limbs free of rope. I stare after him and feel like I could be sick. He'll be ready for me; it's only a trap mean to tempt me to escape, to give him an excuse to give chase. When he returns, Benjamin in tow, there is a flicker of a smile on his lips.

"We're going to cut wood. Are you going to behave?"

"Yes."

"Good."