TITLE: Imprisoned in the Viewless Winds

CHAPTER: 2


Romeo...

"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;

Being vexed a sea nourish'd with loving tears:

What is it else? a madness most discreet,"

A choking gall, and a preserving sweet."

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene 1


The girl he called Jessie grew into the woman named Jessamine. A woman he pledged his life to protect. An Empress who trusted him to keep her safe. The lover he watched murdered at his feet helpless to save her. Too busy fighting off her attackers, he couldn't get to her. When they finally disappeared with Emily in tow, Corvo stumbled to her side in time to hear her last words and watch her die. She pleaded with him to take care of Emily. Given a little more time, he might have said, I love you, and forced her to admit that Emily was his daughter.

Love. Never having known the emotion how he was supposed to recognize it when it captured his heart? Snatched from him at the moment of understanding, he lost the love of Jessamine before he could express what she meant to him. In the blink of an eye, Corvo lost everything. Everything but Emily. They took her, too. But he will retrieve her from the mysterious men who could appear and disappear.

Of course, they arrested him. Hiram Burrows pointed his finger and the guards snatched him from the marble floor of the gazebo and dragged him off to prison. Six months of torture and near starvation left him weakened. They didn't require information from Corvo because they already knew everything. So they tortured him at their whim. They did it for sport and to entertain themselves on the long cold nights behind the thick stone walls of Coldridge prison.

Revenge grew thick and evil in the back of his throat. Violence was an old friend. He knew it, and it had been his companion since childhood. Revenge was different. Revenge meant planning. Revenge meant imagining the death of those who betrayed him. No, he mused to give himself the fuel to keep going. No pistols, no dart guns, and no magical powers. They would die with his bare hands wrapped around their neck, he would look into their eyes while they died so they would know who it was that killed them.

Jessamine's daughter needed him. He would die, if that is what's required, to save her. He cannot allow himself to think of what they might do to her. The shock and grief of the loss drove Corvo across the city killing anyone who tried to stop him from finding her and the men responsible. The terror of dying from the rat plague changed to fear of dying by the hand of the mysterious masked man.

He had watched Jessie grow into a poised young woman. They might play games in the yard and along the shore, but inside the tower, she pulled on her mask and fell into place among her courtiers. Always, he stood silently at her shoulder. And, day by day, he fell in love with her. Everyone loved her, he was but one among hundreds. He was her friend, confidant, and partner in crime. Late at night when he lay in his lonely bunk and felt desire for her burning in his blood, he reminded himself that he was a nobody from the streets and would never be good enough for her.

Corvo buttoned his coat, secured his weapons, drew a deep breath and dove into the black sky. Seconds ticked by as he waited to meet the water. Corvo wasn't taking this chance because the Outsider goaded him into it. He did it because The Outsider was correct, the sound of Emily calling him echoed in his head like a gong…like the death knell of distant bells.

He hit the water and for the second time, that night had the wind knocked out of him. The water, the same color as the sky took him, wrapped him in its embrace, and sucked his body down. Corvo fought hard, searching frantically for the surface. Finally, with the last of his strength, his chest bursting, Corvo gasped the sweet air when he found the surface. Corvo fought the current and forced himself to swim.

I'm coming, Emily.

One night, during the celebration, to commemorate her sixteenth birthday she disappeared from the cavernous ballroom. One minute he watched her whirling across the dance floor in the arms of a handsome young lieutenant and the next, she was gone. While his heart hit his ribcage like an unexpected blow, he kept quiet and decided not to sound the alarm. Once outside, he went straight to the roof—he knew all her hiding places, of course. She whirled at the sound of his footsteps and dashed the wetness from her cheeks.

His angel stood silhouetted in the moonlight. With every graceful line of her body reaching outward, toward life. Corvo's eyes followed the curve of her bosom outlined by the silver shadows. In deference to her coming of age, she wore her hair up tonight. Tendrils escaped and curled cascading down her back. In the dim light, he watched the tangle-haired tomboy change into a woman. He knew it when she walked toward him and caught his gaze.

The battlements were quite narrow here so there's no nowhere for him to put space between them. Why he felt they needed space between them was a question he couldn't answer. The determination in her eyes halted his movement. There was something else there too. No, it couldn't be. Not that. What he saw in Jessie's eyes startled him. No, it scared him. He quickly decided someone must have hurt her feelings tonight, and he will see to it. Her hands landed on his forearm, and she stared up at him. She trusted him, but this must stop.

She was beautiful, and although he's known it for months, tonight he sees that his Jessie is just beginning to feel the power of her femininity. And he wasn't sure what he might do if she turned that power on him. Then he had to find that answer because she's saying something and there's no little girl left in her.

He needs her. He loves her. And she is as beyond his reach as the Dukedom of Karnaca.

"Corvo? I overheard two of our serving girls talking this morning."

Schooling his features into what he hoped was a parental expression, he replied, "Jessamine Kaldwin, you know better than to eavesdrop."

Corvo only called her by her full name when he was annoyed with her. He must need reminding, so she replied, "I am the Empress…or will be. I may listen to whom I please and go where I wish."

The haughty look left her, her eyes softened, and she leaned toward him. "Don't be angry with me, Corvo. Not tonight."

He'd been her playmate while he indulged her childish games. Her big brother when she needed a strong shoulder or an understanding ear. Held her in his arms when she was less than a day old, guided her studies, and taught her to swim. In front of him stood, a desirable woman dressed in a form fitting doublet of blue velvet over a matching skirt. The long sleeve silk blouse she wore underneath was so fine he could see the supple muscles and soft skin beneath.

He shook his head and stepped away. It was not for him to pull the pins from her hair, watch it cascade down her back and weave his coarse fingers into the mass of curls, tilt her head up…No. Escort her back to the ballroom. He had no right to give her the first touch of a man's passion. Did she even understand the effect she was having on him?

She's even closer now. When had she taken those last steps to stand directly under his chin?

"Corvo?"

The delicate scent of her perfume pulled him in. The diamonds and sapphires in her ears twinkled, mesmerizing him. He took her firmly by the arm and led her toward the narrow staircase. "Come, I will return you to the ballroom."

She stopped.

He stopped.

"Don't you even want to know what they were talking about?"

"Jessie, you must know I have no time for girlish prattle. You are a full-time job."

Her laughter floated through the air. "And you take excellent care of me. Oh, Corvo, that's why I trust this moment to no one but you."

With her hands wrapped around his upper arm, she pulled herself closer to him. Blood strummed his nerves setting them to burn.

"Please, Corvo?"

Where was the little girl, he could tempt into behaving with a promise of a swim or a treat from the kitchens? A strange fear caught his breath and he gave her shoulders a shake.

"Have any of those court lackeys trifled with you?" He'd just thought of that. What if…?

"Don't be silly Corvo," her smile held all the artless flirtation of a woman experimenting with her first man.

If he left her alone, what if one of those court boys lured her into mischief? She was the Emperor's daughter, not some downstairs maid searching for a moment of excitement. She stood in front of him, her breasts pressing into his upper arm. What could he say to stop this? If he didn't push her away now, she might keep searching until she found another man. The idea infuriated him and in response, his hands moved over the transparent silk fabric of her sleeve.

She turned her face to his with her fathomless brown eyes staring up at him as if he had all the answers and she trusted him to give them to her.

His fingertips brushed the pale skin of her neck, his thumb touched the oval sapphire setting it ablaze. The fire lit her eyes. Corvo's heart pulsed with forbidden desire. He watched her fingers curl into his lapels, and he wished her hands were bare and not covered long gloves silk gloves. A thought bloomed in his mind sending his body along a path he could no longer control. Such a long time since he's touched a woman. How would the silk covered fingers feel on his skin? The thought of her bare hands on his chest sent his thoughts reeling.

"Jessie," he breathed trying to remember he was the adult. The adult, they both needed to be strong. That this child-woman leaning against him was not his to know. He bent his head and found his nose buried in the soft curls.

Instead of the healthy dusty sweat of a tomboy or the nursery soap-washed scent of a child, Jessie smelled of red roses, temptation, and raw desire.

"Am I beautiful tonight, Corvo?"

Yes, he wanted to say. For a man who's never known a moment of tenderness, he marveled at his control. Sex for him was immediate and without affection. A tender kiss a complete unknown. What if he hurt her? What if someone caught them and tossed him into the city jail? He held the Lady Jessamine in his arms. Corvo moved his body away from hers. He cannot allow her to notice the evidence of his coarse desire; she's too young, too precious.

Her breath is warm and sweet against his cheek. Her fingers move from his chest to his cheek, then his mouth.

"Jessie, please don't do this."

"Corvo, please. I don't want anyone else."

Corvo squeezed her arms and pushed her away. "Don't you understand that a man has needs? That I'm just a man, and you…you're a beautiful woman."

"I'm only asking for a kiss, not a child."

"Jessie," he sighed and tugged her toward him, tilting her head back with one hand in her hair and the other holding her trim waist. His breath, quick and shallow against her cheek. "I wonder which one of us is the bigger fool?"

She gave a little gasp when his lips touched hers. When her body arched into his, he caught her against him. Her hips crashing against the hard mound under his clothes made her jerk away with eyes full of disbelief.

"Come here, Jessie. Do not fear me."

"I'm not afraid and I am not afraid of you. Never of you. My body confuses me tonight, Corvo. I want something from you that I don't understand."

This time, he controlled her so there were several inches between them. "You are beautiful, Jessie," he breathed against her mouth. "I want you to know that the first man to kiss you, also loves you."

She whimpered and curled herself into him.

The kiss lasted forever, but Corvo was not a child, and although he remembered what was expected of him as a gentleman he couldn't let her go. So he pressed her against the stone parapet and groaned into her mouth. The night held them in its moonlit shadows until a bell far below their perch signaled a change of the Watch. He reluctantly pushed her away, fixed her collar, and smoothed her hair.

"Go, my Lady. Go back to your guests."

Her kiss-swollen lips pouted for a moment, and then the decision was made for her when someone called her name. Then another shout ordering the guards to search for her. She stepped away and touched his cheek, "I love you, too." And disappeared into the darkness.

Corvo? We really don't have time for reminiscing about the night you debauched the Emporer's daughter. Shocking to think how you took advantage of that girl's innocence. You've at least a mile to swim, my good man. I think you'd better concentrate more on swimming and less on the fairer sex.