If she was going to discover what secrets Theodore was hiding, no man was clearly going to tell her. She would have to find a way to discover the secret all by herself.
Theodore followed his mother all the way to the library. He glanced back more than once as he walked, ensuring that no one else was following them. To his relief, not even Cedric trailed after them.
In the library, candles were already lit. Theodore shook his head as he slowly closed the door. Clearly, this had been planned between Catherine and his aunt, for the room had already been prepared for their arrival.
Catherine turned in the center of the room, running a hand across her forehead and cheek, as if she suffered great pain and was steeling herself to speak. Theodore barely entered the room. He placed his hands neatly in his pockets, staring at his mother and waiting for the inevitable.
Every meeting with her is the same.
“I am surprised you came with me so willingly,” Catherine scoffed. “There had been a time when you ran as far from me as you could get, your devil tail trailing behind you.”
He gave no sign of feeling anything at her words. If she wasn’t comparing him to the devil, then it was to a demon or a monster. This was nothing new.
“You did not run tonight?” Catherine was clearly trying to provoke him into a reaction.
I didn’t want Maggie to hear how you speak to me.
The thought cut through surprisingly sharply. He may have been used to the way that Catherine spoke to him, but to even consider that Maggie might hear it was cutting.
He adjusted his cravat, his hand falling still when Catherine’s eyes narrowed on his hand.
“Obsessed with being neat as you always have been, I see?”
“You did not come here to comment on my neatness,” he said in a low and level tone. “Speak as you wish to.”
Catherine stepped closer toward him, her expression so dark that he was ready for it the moment she raised her hand. Her palm struck cleanly across his cheek. The stinging pain told him at once that his skin would be red and smarting in seconds. He didn’t wince though, nor did he let out any sign of pain. He just calmly, slowly, angled his head back around to face her.
Catherine actually flinched at his look, jerked her head back.
“How could you?” she seethed. “You married? After I told you not to.”
“If you have come to talk facts, I have no interest in the discussion.”
“How could you repeat the past?” She began to walk around him. “You’re just like your father. His reincarnation. Shadow and darkness, made into man,” she spat, reaching his back. She flicked at the corner of his jacket, and he calmly rearranged it, so his appearance was perfectly neat again. “To think, I had to hear it from my sister. I didn’t even hear it from you –”
“We both know you wouldn’t have come to the wedding,” he muttered.
“Ha! I would have come. I would have come to object. To point out that no lady of this world should be bound to a demon.”
There were words he wished to hurl back at her, to demand that she held her tongue and desisted with this infernal wish to torment him and persuade him that he was nothing but the devil’s spawn. Yet what would be the point?
“She seems a normal lady too. Decent. She even curtsied just now, probably against your wishes. Oh, I saw you hold her, try to stop her from showing any deference,” she pushed on, walking around to his front. “How she must now suffer at your side. Poor lady, to be bullied by you.”
Bullied!?
Something snapped in Theodore’s gut. He stepped toward her sharply. She jolted back, cowering away, her hand trembling as she reached for the necklace at her throat.
Those gray eyes quivered, then her hand steadied and any fear in her face abated, replaced with anger.
“Do you wish to hit me, Theodore? You wish to strike your own mother?”
His hand balled into a tight fist at his side. The scars on his back he could suddenly feel scraping against his shirt. What wounds had been caused between them were done by her, and yet…hewas the bully?Hewas the devil?
“Enough of this,” he spat. Turning on the spot, he marched toward the door. He had to get away, not just from Catherine but from this whole evening. Why he had even come in the first place baffled him now.
“You will not turn your back on me. I will not have it!” Catherine raged.
Theodore reached for the door just as the vase flung through the air. He didn’t even turn to face her as the vase cut across the side of his face. The porcelain struck the wall beside him, smashing into shards and fragments. One fragment cut across the top of his cheek.
