The Telmarine Wife

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Central Europe, 1951

"Ileana! Ileana, please! Ileana!" Edmund chased Ileana through the streets. She was fast and angry; she didn't care who she bumped into or who she pushed out of her way. Edmund tried to be apologetic about it and it slowed him down. Ileana, however, was running in heels and Edmund was not.

"Lena, please..." Edmund eventually caught a hold of her arm.

"*Lasciami!" She shrugged him off.

"No, Lena, please look at me." She allowed him to gently turn her around. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"Didn't know what, Little King? That the people you work for would so easily turn on their own? That Daniels is a rotten swine? Or that they knew about Meri?"

"Any of it; well, except the Daniels one. That was obvious from the start." Ileana pulled away from him again. "I swear, Lena. I didn't know they knew about Meri."

"And who do you suppose told them?"

"It wasn't me. I swear it upon my honor as the Just King of Narnia."

Ileana huffed.

"I know that may not mean anything to you, but it means everything to me."

"Then how...?"

Edmund hated to say it. "Because, we...we are all spies in the S.I.S."

"No." Ileana shook her head. "I told everyone she was my sister."

"There must have been a nurse, or a doctor somewhere who saw you. Or they..." He hesitated.

"They what?"

"Or they read your letters to her."

Ileana faltered in her anger before succumbing to her tears. With just the slightest touch, Edmund pulled her into an embrace. Her head fell on his shoulder as she wept.

"You won't have to go through with this. I don't care what Daniels says; we'll...we'll leave." Even as he said it, he knew leaving would never work.

"And go where? They know about Meri. They'll be waiting for me. There is no escape."

"I'll...I'll protect you."

"Protect me? As the best swordsman in Narnia?"

"Yes!"

Ileana pulled back. "But we're not in Narnia. You are not a king in this world; your life would be forfeit, same as mine." She wiped away her tears. "Even in this world, my life is not my own. I will never be free of what they made me. Once a puttana, always a puttana."

"You are not a puttana," Edmund said adamantly. "You are the strongest person I know. You are absolutely amazing, stunningly beautiful, and you are..."

"Without choice," she finished. "You can see that, can't you? They have me trapped; I must do as requested or else..." Her voice faded. "They executed traitors in Narnia, beheaded them, shamed them and their family."

"I know," Edmund replied gravely.

Tears came back to her eyes. "I cannot do that to Meri. I...I will have to play cortesana to the rat. But you..."She stepped away from him, distancing herself. "You should not be there. I do not want you to see me like that."

"It doesn't matter," Edmund said, closing the gap between them again. "My life is forfeit without you, Lena. Where you go, I go. I will not leave you to them alone. Promesso."