After I arrived back to the boarding house, I went upstairs in my room. I was planning on departing to hunt, but I decided to rest for a while. I lay down on the bed, thinking.
Perhaps one of the Salvatore's will be my savior after all.
Dinner was in ten minutes, and Stefan had asked me again if I wished to attend. I told him thank you, but I was not hungry. He had smiled and nodded, looking as though he thought he overstepped. He went back downstairs and began speaking Giuseppe. Doing the most impolite thing a lady could, I walked to the door and creaked it open, listening in on their conversation.
"So, how is Miss Katherine?" Giuseppe asked.
"She is wonderful, and quite a beauty," Stefan replied. "She is wild, too, very fun."
Giuseppe nodded; I heard the air move as he did so. "Very nice."
There was a silence as Stefan gulped something, most likely wine. "Anyhow, there is a surprise for you."
"And what is that?" Giuseppe asked in a bored tone.
Stefan muttered, "Damon is back."
His father did a spit take. "Pardon me?"
"Hello, Father," Damon said, entering the room.
"How is it you are not being held by the confederacy?" He asked bitterly.
Damon shrugged. "I am Missing In Action, I wasn't signed out."
There was the sound of a chair screeching backward, and Stefan cried out, "Father!" as a loud slap echoed throughout the home.
"You have disgraced this family!" Giuseppe yelled, downward.
Damon cringed and said nothing.
There was a clang and I took a step out the door quietly.
"Father, stop!" Stefan cried.
I tiptoed down the stairs, never sliding in my slippers, watching from the hallway. I swallowed hard as I saw Giuseppe holding a butter knife and how Damon was wincing, trying not to cover the raging red mark growing on the left side of his face.
"You should be so ashamed of yourself! How could you do this to your colonies? To our country! To this family!" Giuseppe yelled and Damon cringed, taking a step back.
"Father, please!" Stefan yelled, taking a step toward him. "H-he didn't mean to anger you, Father, just let it go."
Giuseppe shoved Stefan backward. "Don't defend him!"
I took a step in the room just as Damon lifted his hand and Giuseppe pulled the knife back for a deathblow.
"Surely you wouldn't resort to such cruelty in the presence of a lady, Mister Salvatore." I said it sweetly, but with a low warning in my voice.
Damon looked shameful and embarrassed as he glanced at me. Giuseppe dropped the knife and smiled at me, as though I didn't hear the bang as it hit the floor. I made no expression toward him.
He sighed and shook his head. "I am sorry you had to see that, Miss Pierce. He just . . ."
"Needed a punishment. I understand. Blood should not be shed as a punishment." I held back a snort, how hypocritical I sounded.
He nodded.
I turned and headed back up the stairs, and I heard Damon groan in pain after a whoosh in the wind. I looked over my shoulder a moment, and saw him clutching his stomach. Stefan had his eyes closed, wincing.
Giuseppe whirled and left the room and walked out the front door, slamming the front door behind him.
I looked down at Damon from the third to the top stair and called. "Damon? Meet me in my bedroom, would you?"
