Page 22 of Seduced

“What on earth is wrong with you?” he repeated in a hollow, choked voice.

She lifted her eyes to his, and, for once, she didn’t care that he was watching her as closely as she was watching him.

“Honestly, my lord, I don’t know.”

seven

Alexei

Dawn was breaking pinkly on the horizon when they got back to the club.

Alexei strode through the card rooms and took the stairs two at a time until he reached the servants’ hall, two levels beneath the ground. The maids were beginning to heat up milk and water for breakfast. The boy and the cat followed closely at his heels, acting as similar as if they both belonged to the same species.

Either the cat was human, or the boy was a pet.

He didn’t know which was truer.

Which was worse.

Alexei had one of the kitchen maids pour milk in a saucer, and then fell to watching the boy lick his lips as he watched the cat thirstily lap at it. Alexei waited and waited, and the boy salivated, but still he did not make a sound to ask for anything.

“Would you not ask for food for yourself?” Alexei said in the end, goaded beyond endurance. “You are about to keel over.”

“Ask? I…It never occurred to me.” The boy shrugged, and stayed where he had been placed by Alexei, looking absolutely docile.

What is wrong with you?Alexei thought for the hundredth time.Who wouldn’t think to ask for food when they were about to faint from hunger?

What sort of creature are you?

His stomach turned.

He glanced at the maid, who was trained to obey his every movement, without the need for words. She bobbed a curtsyand quickly put together a plate with bread, cheese and cold mutton for the boy, and the latter at once fell on the food, stuffing everything inside his mouth with the elegance of a starving crocodile.

Alexei watched, half amused and half disturbed.

“Why do I get the feeling that you haven’t eaten in years?” he said.

“I don’t know, Your Honor,” the boy said with his mouth full, and it sounded like ‘Ba bo bob mer moror’. “I have no idea why you would think that. Maybe you should tend to your club instead of being down here.”

Telling me what to do now?

Whatever happened to ‘the more I speak the more I sin?’

“Or maybe you should eat with less enthusiasm,” Alexei retorted.

He received no answer to that one. Clearly, it was impossible.

“Right, come on,” he said at length. “Enough gobbling. It’ll take the servants a good week to replenish all the cupboards anyway.”

The boy, having consumed everything in sight in what felt like a matter of seconds, looked entirely changed. He was absolutely silent and subdued, his eyes wide as if in fear. Or guilt. Yes, it was guilt. Alexei knew that look well enough, having witnessed it several times over every single night in the club.

Why on earth would anyone feel guilt over having eaten a few slices of bread?

What the hell is wrong with this person?

“Come on,” he repeated, and the boy snapped to attention, much like a dog or a cat would—if it was feeling amiable that day. Seeing the same behavior from a youngman was disturbing beyond words. Alexei’s voice grew softer in spite of himself. “I’ll show you the rest of Hell.”

“Don’t need to see it,” the boy replied, but he was already standing up and following Alexei’s movements, head down, steps dragging on the floor.

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