The corridor felt longer. Each step landed too sharply. The laughter had died long ago, but its ghost still lingered in the air. Celeste walked between two servants, her wrists limp at her sides. She could still feel the weight of Aiden's stare, the echo of his laughter ringing somewhere deep in her chest.
When they finally stopped, it was before a door at the end of the narrow hall.
Anna stepped forward, "You're safe here, madam," she said softly.
Celeste only nodded, too drained to answer. She stepped inside with Anna following behind while the others disappeared down the hall. Anna quietly set to work as Celeste sat at the edge of the bed, lost in thought. When the bath was ready, she approached her carefully, as though afraid she might break with a careless touch.
"Your bath is ready, miss."
Celeste responded with a nod once again and then rose, moving mechanically as she slipped out of her gown. The water was warm, yet she couldn't feel it. Anna knelt beside her, pouring scented oil into the water. When she reached for the sponge, her eyes betrayed her, trailing to Celeste's throat. The faint bruising was beginning to darken, a cruel imprint of her master's fingers. Anna could only sigh, luckily he hadn't done any more than that.
By the time Celeste stepped out of the bath, her skin had turned pink from the heat. Anna helped her into a soft and clean robe, smelling faintly of lavender. The fabric brushed against the bruises on her throat, and she flinched without meaning to. Anna's hands paused, then withdrew quickly, murmuring an apology she didn't need to give.
A tray of food waited on the bedside table, arranged neatly beside a cup of steaming tea. The scent of it only made Celeste's stomach turn. She stared at the tray for a long time, the thought of eating felt strange.
Noticing this, Anna said softly. "Please miss, you must eat something. You need your strength."
Celeste's gaze lifted to the maid's face, which had worry written all over. With a sigh, she reached for the spoon.
The food was warm, but it was tasteless to Celeste. Each mouthful sat heavy in her tongue, swallowed only for Anna's sake. She forced a few more bites down before setting the spoon aside.
"That's enough," her voice came out as a whisper. "Thank you, Anna."
Anna hesitated, wondering whether or not to offer words of comfort, or maybe an apology, but in the end she only nodded. "You should rest miss," she murmured. "You'll feel better by morning."
Celeste doubted it, but she said nothing. She watched Anna leave the room, and once again she was alone. She didn't move for a while. Then, as if a thought suddenly hit her, she stood up, heading for the door. She turned the lock, a relieved breath escaping her lips as she heard the door make a soft click.
She dragged herself back to the bed, a distant look in her eyes. Her breathing grew uneven and her chest tightened. She bent forward, hiding her face in her hands as the first sob escaped. It was loud and messy. All the fear she had held in, the shock, it all came out at once.
She cried for herself, for the foolish girl who had believed every soft word, every promise her family had given her. Who had mistaken their sudden kindness for love.
Now she understood.
They hadn't given her a future, they had simply traded her away. She could finally see it, she had been sent away like a burden.
Was it wrong to want to be loved?
She'd spent so long pretending she didn't care, that the coldness at home hadn't shaped her, that the sudden kindness before signing the papers wasn't strange. But she'd wanted it. God! She'd wanted it so badly. Her fingers dug into the robe's fabric. Was it wrong to believe them? To believe she was worth something?
Her gaze drifted to the window, where rain traced slow streaks down the glass. The sound was soft, the kind that might once have soothed her. Now it only reminded her how completely alone she was.
Exhaustion washed over her, her body weak from the day's events. Celeste let herself sink into the bed, her eyes fluttering shut.