The Chocolatier's Wife (100 page)

“There’s a
chair
behind
you,”
she
said
as
she
cleaned
her
athame. “Sit on
it.”

“I
can’t
think.
I
cannot
think.”
Bonny
did
as
she
was
told,
mechanically. “I
feel? I
...
”

“Robbed?”
Tasmin suggested,
drying
her
instruments
carefully.
Then, in
a
softer voice,
“Raped?”

“At
first
I
just
wanted
revenge.
Andrew
had
...
he
betrayed
me
with
that
penny ...
penny ...
”

“Slut? Tart?
Whore?”

“You have
a
vocabulary
and
a
half,”
Bonny
snapped.

“I
used
to
teach
young
girls.” She
shrugged.
The
only
thing
that
was important was to keep Bonny
talking.

“He got children on her. On her. We were
so happy, once; I loved him, but
once
I
realized
that
he
had
shared
his
body,
his
love, his
children
with another, I
could
not
bear
looking
at
him.
And
he’s
angry
with
me?”
She started
to
get
worked
up
now,
her
hands
gripping
the
edge
of
the
table. “And
William’s
angry
with
me?
How
could
they
possibly
understand
what women
feel?
All
our worth
is
between
our thighs
for
them.
Once
we
stop giving
them
the
one
and
cannot
give
them
the
other
we
are
nothing
to
them, nothing,
spell or
no
spell.”

“It
is
possible
that
Andrew
didn’t
wish
it,
that
he
merely
did
it
to
please his father.”

“’Tis
obvious
you’ve
not
let
William under
your
skirts,
despite
what mamma
thinks.
Then
you
would
know
that
he
had
to
wish
it,
at
least
a
little bit.”
Her
voice
was
turning
ugly
now,
and
Tasmin
blushed
deeply.
Part
of
it was
anger. She
would
usually
leave,
when
someone
started
saying
terrible things,
but now was the time to strike.

“So
you
went
to
him
for
revenge?
With
Eric?” She
avoided
saying
his last
name.
She
didn’t
want
to
remind
Bonny
that
he
was
William’s,
and therefore Tasmin’s
e
n
emy.

“He
courted
me.
I
was
never
courted;
I
played
with
both
the
boys
when we
were
li
t
tle,
and
as
we
grew
up
we—at
least
Andrew
and
I—stayed
close. I
missed
him
when
he
was
away,
and
then
even
when
he
came
back
so
very changed I
still loved him
and
thought him
my best friend.

“One
day
he
said, ‘‘
’
tis
about
time
we
got
married’
and
I
said, ‘All
right, then,’
and
the
next
month
we
were
having
our
joining
ceremony.
He
never had to win me.”

She
thrust
herself
away
from the
table.
“Eric
showed
me
that
to
have won
me,
to
have
had
to
win
me,
would
have
made
me
more valuable
in Andrew’s
eyes.
He
brought
me
presents,
and he
wooed
me
with
gentle touches
and
longing
looks,
until
finally
he
broke
down
and
told
me
that
he was
my
true
intended.
I am not
quite
a fool;
I knew
his
story
was
hard to prove
and
not
really
easy
to
believe
unless
you
wanted
to.
And
I
did,
dearly. Because
he
said
he
loved
me.
Because
he
was
handsome, and
strong,
and fierce
in
bed.
Because
he
wasn’t
the
man
who
preferred
plain
little
Franny Harker
over
me.”

But he
was
,
a
voice whispered in
her head, a
voice that was not hers.

“That’s
not one of my sprites,” she muttered.

In
fact,
it had not been a
sprite’s voice at all.

“There’s someone
else
here,”
she
said,
as
her
air
sprites
went
up
in arms.

A
Skellitt sprite landed on
the table, blue and
sickly green.

“I
wondered who your master was after William
told me about you.” She
knew
that
a
Skellitt
could
not
survive
without
a
master
to
feed
from.

That
rendered
it
less
important
to
her
than
its
master,
for
the
second
the link
was cut between them, the sprite would perish.

The
shop
door
opened
and
closed,
and,
like
the
flicker
of
flame,
a
woman
appeared. She was holding a
topaz in
her hand.

“You
beast,”
Bonny said.
“Undergrown
sow.”
She
looked
ready
to murder,
and
Tasmin
stepped forward,
prepared to stop her.

“Not
hard
to
assume
who
you
are,”
Tasmin said.

Franny Harker was radiating
power, but
Tasmin
could
not
tell
if
it
was
real
power,
or
a
veneer meant
to
puff
her
up,
make
her
look bigger
and more
frightening
than she really
was.
Tasmin
heard
the
sprites
screaming
as
they
fought
and
saw
that the
Skellitt
was
pinned
to
the
floor by
invisible
hands,
but
Franny
did
not seem to care.

“You
should
leave.”
Tasmin was
considering
her
options.
She
was
not good at throwing spells, her magic needed time.

Franny
sniffed
the
air.
“You’ve
just
conducted
the
mating
spell.
The
feel of
it
lingers.
Clever
girl,
so
you
do
know
the
truth. I
think
you
should
do
it again. It
will
be
ever
so
much
faster,
since
traces
of
the
last
are
still
in
the ether.”

“Why?”
Tasmin
asked.
“Has
no
one
told
you
where
your
true
intended waits?”