“Don’t worry about me, Aurelio.”
“I didn’t—”
“I know you didn’t say anything. You don’t have to. It’s written all over your face.”
I eye the hand-shaped angry red mark on her face. “But—”
“It doesn’t hurt. Don’t worry. Let’s just get back to the palace, alright?”
I concede. If this is what she wants, then I’m in no place to deny her. I nod to Mina and Gemma, and they fetch the church knights, who open the doors once more and check that the coast is clear before we step out onto the busy main street. We make a beeline for the palace, trying our best to stay out of view of the throngs of people, and head straight back to the room once we arrive. I turn to Alessia once Mina and Gemma leave, but she holds up a hand to stop me.
“Give me some time to decompress, Aurelio. I’ll see you in a bit.”
She heads upstairs for the bathroom and shuts the door behind her, a clear signal to “leave me the hells alone.”
The problem? I can’t leave her alone. Not when I heard the tremble in her voice just now, and especially not when I saw the makings of tears welling up in her eyes.
I pace on the bottom floor, walking from bookshelf to bookshelf across the room while I wait for her to fill up the tub. The water pours and pours into oblivion. I swear there’s no end to that soaking tub. It’s taking for what feels like forever for her to just fill it up. I need her to hurry so I can walk in when she’s covered by bubbles and—
Just then, I hear the trickle of water. I look up, and I see water running out from under the bathroom door. It’s already trickling down onto the spiral stairs. My heart seizes in my chest.
“Alessia?”
There’s no response. I’m running up the stairs before I can stop myself, bursting through the bathroom door without knocking first. I take in the situation in half a second, and it cleaves my heart in two.
Alessia is curled up in the fetal position on the floor, sobbing silently. Her body trembles violently, but she’s stopping herself from making a sound. The water pouring into the tub has long surpassed the maximum capacity, and it’s just running out onto the floor and out the door now. Alessia probably lost the will to get up and turn it off when she started crying.
And to think, she was the picture of indifference in the church…apparently, there’s a lot I still don’t know about my wife.
I walk over to the tub and turn off the faucet, pulling the drain plug on the bottom while I’m at it. I wait for the water to drain a couple inches, then put it back in, stirring up the water to make sure there are enough bubbles to cover the surface. Then, satisfied, I take a couple of towels, dry up the water trails, and toss them aside. I shut the bathroom door, tap the spellglass lights beside the sink to dim them, and finally return to Alessia’s side. She’s completely undressed already, so I feel bad for not asking before touching her, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I pick her up, carry her over to the tub, and gently set her in the water. She looks up at me in a panic, pulling her knees to her chest as she sinks into the tub.
“What are you doing, Aurelio?” she demands. “I told you to give me some time to decompress.”
“I know you said that, but I can’t help lending a hand when there’s water running down the stairs,” I say softly. “I was worried it might damage some of your books.”
“They’re fine. I can dry them.”
“Even so, I’d prefer they never got wet in the first place. It might damage the text before you can get to them.”
I grab the chair from beside the changing screen and bring it closer to the tub, taking a seat beside the edge. Alessia stares at me with puffy eyes, her face bright red from crying. I can trace the tear stains down her face with my eyes; it breaks my heart to see it. I reach out to carefully wipe the tear tracks away. Alessia’s eyes round.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not sure, really. I just can’t bear to leave you alone when you’re feeling this low,” I admit.
“What if I want to be left alone?”
I shrug. “I don’t think that’s what you really want. It’s written all over your face. I think you’ve used up all your fake facial expressions for the day.”
Alessia glares at me. “I’m not fake!”
“I didn’t call you fake. You’re an expert at hiding your emotions, though. You could have fooled me, the way you handled Daelia’s outburst.”
Alessia’s face falls again. She bites her lip, turning away from me.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. It’s nothing worth getting bent out of shape for.”
