Page 54 of Odette's Vow

He took two steps towards me, until his toes were aligned with mine. “Rise.”

I complied. No point disobeying an order unless that disobedience had purpose.

“If you saw this act against the gods, why did you not stop it?”

“I tried, my lord,” I lied. He knew it. I could tell by his face he knew it. But if he and none of the other men had seen it, they could not prove my lie, could they? “But you know us women,” I continued. “Emotional creatures that we are, we don’t listen to reason when it is presented to us.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” one of the men piped up.

“Quiet!” Odysseus barked.

That was surprising. I’d never known him to snap at his men like that.

He turned back to face me, frowning. “You have been given too long a leash if you feel it’s okay to answer me with such disdain in that tone, after the freedoms and luxuries you have enjoyed.”

“I answered truthfully! I haven’t done anything wrong!” I protested.

Odysseus leaned in closer, whispering against the shell of my ear so that the other men could not hear, igniting a fire I despised myself for feeling. Every fibre of my being wanted to recoil, to lash out, yet the heat of his presence stirred something primal, something I wished I could crush.

“Have you not?” His words were a taunt that dripped with the power he wielded over me – power I hated, but could not deny.

“No.”

“No, what?”

“No, my lord,” I said between gritted teeth.

He grabbed at my chin roughly with a finger and thumb. “I won’t have insubordination on my ship. Do you hear me, Odette? I can’t have a mutiny while we travel across oceans and time to get back home to Ithaca.”

“Yes, my lord.”

He was so close now, every deep breath I took pushed my breasts into his chest. Still, he didn’t move. It was a power play in front of everyone. And for the first time in a long time, I had to fight the temptation to spit in his face.

“What has gotten into you, hmm? Where has the woman I’ve come to know gone?”

You have never known me.

I did not say it. I did not have to; he read it in my eyes.

“You are not free just because you are no longer on Trojan soil, do you understand me?” His tone remained quiet, for my ears only.

When I didn’t answer immediately, he squeezed my jaw tightly.

“Yes, my lord.” I held my head up and looked him in the eye as I said it. That was one of the lessons I had learnt from observing Queen Hecuba. They could make you a slave, but they could not strip you of your grace. Only the gods could do that.

He noted the slight uptick in my chin, the resolve in my eyes, the clenching of my jaw beneath the pad of his thumb.

“For your insolence, your privileges have been revoked until I say otherwise.” The words were so softly spoken I could see themen in my periphery trying to lean in to hear what their king was saying.

I almost laughed when they bounced back as Odysseus shouted his next words for all to hear.

“Get the ship ready to go by the time I get back from escorting Odette back to her proper place.”

I wondered where that might be.

“How long will you be, sir?”

“Long enough for you to get it done,” he snapped.

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