Page 91 of Dark Gambit: The Play

"My consent will not prove it one way or another."

He put a hand on his chest. "I already know that you are in here. Your consent will mean that you accept it as well."

"Then I consent."

72

SOFIA

Sofia had planned to consent regardless of Marcel's confession.

Eleanor had told her so many good things about the clan that she would have to be stupid not to want to be part of it, and she trusted the woman.

Eleanor had nothing to gain by convincing her, she'd been sincere, and she hadn't sugarcoated anything.

After using compulsion to verify everything that Sofia had told her and the others and ensuring that she didn't have anything relevant to add, Eleanor had told her so many things that Marcel hadn't. She'd told her about the clan's powerful enemies and that it was unlikely they would ever join forces. Eleanor had also told Sofia about her struggles when she'd first transitioned, and about the unlikely help she'd gotten from the sister-in-law whom she'd abandoned in her time of need, but who had taken care of her nonetheless.

As a newcomer to the clan herself, Eleanor didn't know much about Marcel's past. She'd heard that he'd been burned by love in his youth, but she didn't know any details. Her advice had been to let it go and not press him to talk about it. Eleanor had said that she preferred not to dwell on her own past mistakes but to look forward to a better future.

Sofia disagreed.

She wanted Marcel to tell her about it, not just to satisfy her curiosity, and not just as a way to prove his devotion to her, but because he needed to unburden himself from the guilt and self-loathing that were dragging him down.

"It's not easy for me to tell this story." He leaned his forehead against hers. "You might not want anything to do with me once you hear what I have done."

"I doubt it. You are a good man, Marcel, and we all make mistakes. I bet you've been beating yourself up over whatever that was for far too long."

"It happened a very long time ago when I was still a young man."

He was three hundred and twenty-seven years old. If he'd been a young man when he'd been burned, it must have been about three hundred years ago. The world had been a very different place back then.

She leaned back and looked into his eyes. "It's definitely time to unburden yourself. Tell me."

"Cordelia was a married woman, but I didn't know that when I started seeing her. Her husband was a naval officer, and he'd been stationed on a warship. She was beautiful, delicate, and she carried sadness around her like a shawl made of gossamer. I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She made me feel special, as if I was the only one who could make her laugh, make her happy, and when we made love, she made me feel as if I was the best lover in the world."

Having an affair with a married woman was not a good thing, but it wasn't such a terrible offense either. Three hundred years ago, her husband might have been partying with prostitutes every night, and the only reward the poor wife could expect for waiting for him to come home had been a sexually transmitted disease.

If that had been so, then kudos to her for finding happiness in the arms of another.

"When did you find out that she was married?"

"At first, I assumed that she was a widow. A large portrait of her husband in naval uniform hung over the fireplace in the living room, but it was draped over with a semi-sheer black cloth, which indicated that he was deceased, and that the household was in mourning. None of her servants ever mentioned the master of the house, and combined with her sadness, it all pointed to one conclusion, albeit a wrong one."

"Didn't you think to ask her?"

He shook his head. "It seemed like a painful subject, and since none of the servants breathed a word of him or gave me the stink eye for spending night after night in her bedchamber, I saw no reason to ask." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I gave her expensive jewelry, not because she demanded it, but because I was a fool in love. Every time I brought her an extravagant gift, she was so happy, and it made me feel like a prince."

"Did you spend all of your money on her?"

"I did. I was a Guardian back then, and Guardians were well paid. Still are. I didn't need the money, but I could have spent it on feeding a hungry village or two instead of wasting it on a manipulative woman. I later found out that I wasn't her first lover, and that she used the same tactics with others to collect riches and pay for her extravagant lifestyle."

Sofia pursed her lips. "So you were played. Big deal. You loved her, you were blinded by her beauty and her acting, and you spent all of your money on her. It's not like you murdered anyone."

He huffed out a breath. "I'm not done. The story gets much worse."

73

MARCEL