Ear to the Serpent | ONC 2020 WINNER ✓ [ PUBLISHED ]

chapter I4

VINCENT WAS A bastard child.

Suitable enough to work for nobility but not too good for spying on his father's behalf. I wasn't sure what my opinion had been about him before, but I knew precisely what I thought of him now.

"Did you ever force yourself on Lily?" I demanded.

"Of course not," Vincent purred. "I can't have my future wife thinking such things of me."

"I still wouldn't put it past you," Lily scoffed.

"I have respectable manners," Vincent countered. "But I did what I felt what necessary. Lord Hugo promised to get me Lily's hand in marriage if I could find him a way of acquiring Miss Mora's," he explained.

"I will never marry you," my handmaiden spat.

"I'd suggest that you do marry him," the Lady then clipped coldly. "I'd expect that none of us want word of whatever...experiment, that you conducted on my daughter, to get out to the public."

"It wasn't an experiment," I frowned.

"We fell in love," Lily backed me up.

The Lady suddenly marched over and struck Lily's cheek, her dark eyes wild and angry. "Don't you ever utter such sin within my household."

"Mother!" I gasped.

"And you," she seethed, grabbing hold of my wrist. "You are to do as you are told. Whether by me, or Lord Hugo. The choice is yours, but either way, you will never see this wretched girl again."