Chapter 14
Author's Note: Woo, chapter. Writing Cappy was the high-point in this chapter for me. He's so EVIILL! Enjoy! I didn't mean to make it so long, sorry 'bout that. Thank you to all my reviewers!
To Dafne, it had all seemed to be going well until she dropped the tie.
It was several days into her appointment as Capricorn's personal maid, and dropping the tie had been an accident.
The silk slippery thing had slipped through her fingers as she went to rope it around Capricorn's neck.
With a quiet rustle it lay strewn on the floor like a vibrant crimson river.
Dafne had immediately stooped to retrieve it.
"Sorry."
She had the tie in her hand, moving to straighten when it felt as though an eagle had landed on her head, latching on with its talons.
She jerked with surprise and looked up at the man whose fingers had burrowed through her hair to squeeze her scalp.
His expression was impassive. He could have been staring at the mark on the floor instead of at a girl he had locked in a bent position.
It was through his voice that he communicated his actual displeasure,
"Have you no respect for my things?"
The question unsettled Dafne as much as the pressure on her head.
It meant Capricorn had found deeper offense in something that had been purely accidental.
An offended Capricorn was a dangerous Capricorn. He didn't have to be gripping her head for Dafne to know that.
"It was an accident, it slipped, I'm very sorry," she hastened to appease him with the truth.
Capricorn suddenly tugged on her head in an upwards motion and Dafne straightened in accordance with his pulling, not wanting him to yank her all the way himself.
She was relieved when he withdrew his hand after that, thinking he had decided to let the matter go.
But then Capricorn took hold of her wrists,
"Perhaps you have no respect for me," he said, appearing not to have listened to a word she had spoken in her defence, "And that's why you think you can just throw my clothes on the floor as if they belonged to a peasant."
Dafne stared at him with an expression of animated protest.
"I didn't throw..." she began, a trace of indignation in her voice and she quickly worked to suppress it. She didn't want to prove his point by sounding confrontational, "Please, it really was an accident."
"Was it an accident you attempted escape?"
Dafne's gaze darted to Capricorn's opaque eyes apprehensively.
It was the first time he had mentioned her escape attempt since he had surprised her by appointing her his personal maid.
It was an unpleasant task to be sure, being alone in his company, in very close proximity when she had to dress him, but she had contented herself with the fact that she was alive and so far physically unharmed.
Capricorn could have easily had her executed or at least mutilated by Basta's knife.
She couldn't understand why he had opted for neither. There were other maids who could have filled Resa's role. Maids who were attractive and submissive, maids who wouldn't dare defy Capricorn the way Dafne had.
But he had chosen Dafne and she was curious, suspiciously so, as to what had motivated his decision.
Capricorn wasn't a merciful or forgiving man so granting her such reprieve had to have some dark purpose behind it.
But the man had yet to offer any clues as to what that was. He treated her with the indifferent arrogance he would have given any other maid, giving her clipped orders then dismissing her just as curtly afterwards. He seemed generally uninterested in her presence and didn't engage her in conversation beyond giving instructions.
The way he acted, Dafne could have been a maid newly pressed into his service, and his attitude perplexed her. She was a maid with one count of great insubordination under her belt, and the man she had committed it against hadn't seemed interested in acknowledging that fact... up until now.
He chose to bring it up the first time she slipped up in her duties.
The timing made her nervous, nervous because her escape attempt was something that could only exacerbate his current displeasure.
She was also confused. What had her escape attempt have to do with accidently dropping a tie on the floor? If there was a connection, only Capricorn saw it.
"Well?" he prompted sharply after being met with silence from Dafne's reluctance to answer.
She shook her head, knowing it would be unwise to delay reply any further.
Capricorn had people like Basta to do his dirty work but his grip told Dafne he was strong enough himself to break her wrists if he wanted to.
"No," she said quietly in a voice she hoped sounded repentant.
"No of course it wasn't," Capricorn said, jiggling her wrists as he spoke, "It was by no accident that you ended up in the woods. You chose to escape. You chose to consider me not worthy enough of your fear to stop yourself from undertaking such a venture. You chose to disrespect me, to dismiss me. Me. Your master."
Capricorn's face leaned closer and his proximity was suffocating in its menace, like a python wrapping itself around her.
"Your lord. The man who could have these dainty hands hacked off. Who could have you flogged. Mutilated. Starved. Set on fire. I have complete power over your life and power over your death. I could kill you right now if I wished."
Dafne drew in a loud gasp of air, knowing that he meant every single word. It was a terrifying understanding.
Capricorn smiled.
"Oh yes. You see I could take this tie..."
He released one of her aching wrists to take the tie she had been gripping in that hand.
She had been holding onto it tightly to ensure the stupid thing which had provoked this trouble didn't slip from her again.
The fabric was now noticeably crumpled in the place she had been gripping it.
She watched Capricorn eyeing the defect. He had let go of her other wrist to hold the tie at two ends.
"This tie you threw so disrespectfully on the floor," he went on, "I could take this tie and put it around your neck..."
He brought the tie up to her throat and Dafne instinctively moved to back away. But Capricorn was quick and soon there was a circle of smooth silk rubbing against her skin.
A bolt of fear jolted through Dafne's body as she felt the circle growing tighter around her neck.
Her eyes bulged. She jerked.
"And squeeze..." Capricorn said.
Tighter.
Dafne whimpered. Tried to shake her head, the silk burned.
"Until..."
Tighter.
Her hands flew wildly to the makeshift noose, taking hold of it but it didn't budge.
Capricorn's mouth was at her ear. He might have laughed but she wasn't sure. Panic was buzzing in her ears, making Capricorn's voice seem far away even though he was close, so terribly killingly close.
"The life goes out of you."
Capricorn's face swam tauntingly in front of her.
She couldn't breathe! She couldn't breathe!
She couldn't speak so she pleaded with her eyes.
Please. Please let go. God please.
The pressure was suddenly lifted and she found herself bent over, drawing in great gulps of air.
Still gulping, she looked up at Capricorn in fear and amazement.
He was attempting to smooth the crease in his tie. The tie he had used to nearly asphyxiate her.
"My mother was a king's daughter," he said, "Making me something of a prince I suppose."
Capricorn abandoned his task looking unsatisfied.
Dafne ducked her head, too unnerved to meet his gaze.
"But even if I wasn't a prince," Capricorn went on, "And my mother wasn't a king's daughter, I would still be your master. Your lord."
He tucked a finger under her chin and forced her head up.
"Your God if you will," he smiled as if he liked the idea, "Your life is in my hands. Mine to do with as I please. So you best give me the respect and fear I am properly due. The respect and fear I am worthy of. If you displease me..."
Capricorn waved the tie in her face and Dafne flinched from it as though it were a snake.
"I will make you suffer. Make no mistake. I kept you alive for that very purpose."
"What?" Dafne whispered, wanting the last sentence clarified.
Capricorn obliged with satisfaction,
"Other people's suffering gives me pleasure," he said, "Your suffering gives me pleasure, especially since it's well deserved. You did me a great insult by trying to escape."
To her revulsion he trailed the tie over her cheek,
"Having you suffer at my hand is a sweeter vengeance than having you punished any other way."
He pressed the tie into her hand and Dafne realised now much her hands were shaking.
"But there's no sense in overdoing torture in one go," Capricorn said, "After all you're not going anywhere, are you."
It wasn't a question. It was the horrible truth.
"Go fetch me another tie to wear. And I want that one cleaned and pressed. Hurry up, get on with it. I have other matters to attend to besides you today."
Dafne left Capricorn's room with the tie she had been choked with and a grim understanding of her new reality.
Capricorn hadn't been showing her mercy by appointing her his personal maid. He had only done so to be able to torture her personally.
Death might have been preferable after all. There would have at least been end to the suffering. With Capricorn, there was no telling when the suffering might end, perhaps never.
Her neck and wrists ached. What pains could she expect in the future?
Dafne fought the urge to cry. Resa wouldn't cry. She would hold her head up, stay brave.
She wished Resa was here with her instead of in bed, recuperating from the snake bite. Dafne didn't ask Mortola if she could visit her. She knew the answer would be no. Mortola had been even more antagonistic towards Dafne since she had become Capricorn's personal maid. The old woman viewed the appointment as a reward Dafne didn't deserve. She would change her mind if she knew the truth.
Dafne considered sneaking into Resa's recovery room. If she could just lay eyes on her, talk to her, reaffirm that she wasn't alone in this...
But she decided against such a plan. She didn't want to risk Resa getting into trouble just because she wanted to be comforted. Mortola would probably accuse the two of brewing up another escape attempt if she caught them together. The last thing Dafne wanted was to be dragged before Capricorn on that charge. He might decide to finish what he started.
Dafne's hand crept to her neck, the skin was still pulsing where the tie had been. She wondered if there would be a bruise. Mortola would be sure to notice that with bird-like eyes.
She headed for the backyard. If she couldn't be with Resa, she wanted to be alone. Just for a little while, to collect herself, let her trembling pass. Then she would make her way to the kitchen for lunch duty before Mortola came looking for her.
But she found the backyard occupied. There was a trio of maids weeding the garden. To her greater dismay, there was a man leaning over them as they worked.
"I could get that kind of stuff for you, it would be no problem..." Basta was saying.
Dafne grimaced. Things just seemed to get worse. She wondered if she could make it to shadow of the chicken coop without being spotted.
"Anything to be of service ladies."
Dafne made a face. Basta had obviously moved on from Resa by the looks of it. But the women he was flirting with didn't appear interested in flirting back. They kept working, their heads down, maybe thinking he would go away if they didn't respond.
Fat chance of that.
"Well?" Basta said, frustration slipping into his voice, "Are you going to say anything or just keep ignor... Oh hello little mouse!"
Dafne cringed, eyeing the chicken coop regretfully. She had been so close.
"Hello Basta," she said without turning to look at him.
"It's been a while. How are you?"
Dafne made a quiet scoffing noise. Why ask her that, as though they were friends.
"Fine," she lied, going on to say, "I'd ask you the same but you're obviously too busy at the moment to talk. I'll leave you and your lady friends to it."
Not waiting for a reply, she made it the rest of the way to the shadow of the chicken coop. She peered through the mesh and watched the chickens moving about. She suddenly pitied them. They were trapped, just like she was, doomed to spend their lives caged until the day came when they were no longer useful and were taken out to be killed.
Would Dafne share a similar fate, being disposed once Capricorn tired of tormenting her?
She interlaced her fingers through the mesh, feeling the true extent of her despair.
"Little mouse."
Dafne gripped the mesh tighter. Why had he come over? Was it too much to have a fragment of solitude in this hellish existence?
Maybe if she ignored him, he might go away.
Wrong.
He leaned up against the cage, forcing himself into her vision.
"Hey little mouse."
She gave him a weary glance.
"I'm not a mouse," she muttered darkly. She wasn't little either. She was taller than him.
Basta cupped a hand to his ear,
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Dafne said, not wanting to spark any kind of conversation.
"I'm finished with..." Basta gestured in the direction of the three maids, "Them over there. There's nothing really going on between me and any of them. Just so you know."
"Your relationship status is really none of my business," Dafne said, wondering why he had felt it necessary to tell her this.
"No I suppose not," Basta said, sounding a little put out.
Had he wanted her to be interested?
She wished he would leave.
He didn't seem to be planning to. He repositioned himself more comfortably against the coop.
"Silvio will be interested to know I've seen you," he said.
"Silvio?" Dafne said with genuine interest.
The boy had entered her thoughts more than once since the night of her capture. The anger she had felt towards him had dulled though it still stung to remember the part he had played. But she knew that she could forgive him, though it would take a little more time. She didn't have it in her heart to hate him. Deep down she still cared about him.
Basta looked pleased to have captured her full attention,
"That's right. The boy's been in a downright melancholy state lately. He thinks you're mad at him for helping us capture you."
"I am mad," Dafne said but couldn't commit to it, "A little I guess. Not as much as I was."
"He thought he was doing the right thing by you," Basta said, "He wouldn't have done it otherwise."
Dafne was a little surprised and little moved to hear Basta speaking up in Silvio's defence.
"Yes I know," she said, "Tell him I'm not mad, not really anymore."
Basta smiled,
"Well that news should cheer the brat up. He's been worried about how you're faring too. He'll have nothing to complain about once I tell him that you're 'fine' in your own words. I kept telling him you were likely to be alright but he wouldn't listen to me. I mean why wouldn't you be alright. You weren't punished for escaping and Capricorn made you his personal maid, which is a cut above being just an ordinary maid."
Basta shook his head bemusedly,
"I really wasn't expecting him to do that. Making you his personal maid. I thought for sure he would get me to cut you up or something."
Dafne stared at him sickened.
"I'm glad he didn't though," Basta said quickly, "Having to cut a pretty girl like you, would have been bloody tragic."
He winked as if he were sharing a joke.
Dafne turned away from him revolted.
Bloody tragic that she was trapped here in this village full of psychopaths.
But it wasn't the psychopath standing next to her who presented the most danger.
It was the one who had recently choked her half to death with the promise of more to come.
She would now have to live in constant fear of displeasing him.
She gripped the mesh of the chicken coop.
She had to find a way out of the situation.
But how?
She unconsciously began shaking the mesh in her agitation.
"Little mouse?" Basta said.
Dafne didn't answer. She wanted him to leave so she could think.
But he wouldn't let her be.
"Are you alright?"
Something caught in Dafne's throat when she heard the question, a sob that fizzled out before it made it past her lips.
No she wasn't alright.
But she couldn't confide why that was to Basta. He was the enemy.
Even if she told him all about it, what Capricorn had done, he wouldn't care.
Not Basta, Capricorn's number one henchman.
"Would. You. Just. Go," Dafne said in an uneven voice, knowing that she couldn't hold the tears back much longer.
Basta stood looking at her with the rebellious expression of a dog being ordered home by a stranger.
"Damn you," Dafne swore as her vision swam in the onslaught of tears.
She quickly put her hands over her face to form a private cocoon to weep in.
"What the devil?" she heard Basta said in a tight shocked voice, "What are you crying for?"
From a moment there was silence except for the sound of Dafne crying.
Then Basta started back up again,
"I didn't do anything!" he said in a raised defensive voice, "She just started crying on her own. I had nothing to do with it."
Dafne realised this protest of innocence was aimed at other maids. Her crying must have drawn their attention.
"Look - you," Basta was addressing Dafne again, "Will you stop crying. The others are giving me looks like I've done something to you. Which I haven't!"
Dafne didn't care that Basta was being unfairly judged by spectators.
All that mattered to her was that her situation seemed hopeless.
Escaping the village was now known to be a near impossible task.
She was trapped in the village, with no way of defending herself against Capricorn.
So she cried, ignoring Basta's order that she stop on his account.
Her crying irritated her tender neck but this only made her cry harder, the pain stimulating memories of her strangulation.
She felt Basta's hand on her shoulder,
"Little mouse. You need to get a hold of yourself."
She jerked away from him, blindly as she was still covering her face.
He followed her, seizing her hands and prising them away to expose the tear-slickened surface beneath.
"Damn you, what's happened to upset you like this?" he growled, "You had better tell me."
Dafne shook her head. Basta made a noise of annoyance.
"Is it Resa?" he said.
Surprised, Dafne rubbed her bleary eyes to see him better.
"What?" she croaked.
"Are you crying about Resa?" Basta asked.
Dafne stared at him. She wasn't crying about Resa. But the mention of her friend made her sadder. She wanted to see her so badly. Resa would know what to do about Capricorn. She would go about devising clever plan. That's how Resa was, brave in the face of adversity. She didn't simply break down and despair.
Why couldn't Dafne be more like Resa? Why did she have to be so weak? Weak and weeping.
"Do you... miss her or something?" Basta went on, thinking he was on the right track, "I heard she's almost fully recovered so you should be seeing her around pretty soon. So cheer up."
He smiled with a look of encouragement which held a dash of pleading.
"I'm not crying about Resa," Dafne said.
Basta's expression deflated to disappointment.
"Oh."
He sighed, scratched his head contemplatively. Dafne wasn't sure why she was participating in his guessing game. But it was a distraction from reflecting on the true source of her anguish. The flow of her tears had weakened considerably as a result, reduced to the dripping of a tap not quite turned off. She felt calmer which was for the best. She had to be calm, not hysterical. She couldn't think clearly in an emotional state.
"The boy then," Basta said, "You... I don't know, miss being friends. Is that it?"
Dafne did miss Silvio. But he wasn't the reason she was crying.
She shook her head.
"Damn," Basta said with the regretful tone of someone losing a game of cards.
He glanced over at the other maids and Dafne felt anger flare inside her. Basta didn't care why she was crying. He only wanted her to stop because it was putting him in a bad light with the maids he was trying to impress.
"Look, it doesn't matter," she said sharply, "Just leave it."
She went to head back inside. Mortola would be expecting her back in the kitchen about now. She could stop by the laundry room where she could wash her face and try to mask the fact she had been bawling her eyes out. No doubt word would spread amongst the maid population about her breakdown from the mouths of her spectators. She began to feel embarrassed to have behaved so emotionally in public. But she could bear being gossiped about by her fellow maids. It was Mortola she didn't want finding out. She didn't want her sniffing out the cause of her tears either. She could imagine the woman's hideous smirk if she learnt the truth.
"Only what you deserve," she would say to Dafne, "He should have finished the job."
Dafne was determined to not have that scenario play out. She had to get to the laundry room, to make her face appear as stoic and tear-free as possible.
But Basta got in her way,
"You aren't crying over something I did, are you?" he said.
Dafne glared at him.
"No, rest assured I'm not crying about any of the awful things you've ever done to me," she replied testily.
"Well that's a relief," Basta said.
"A relief for you," Dafne said, "You can go tell those maids you're not the man who made me cry."
She went to march around him but he moved to block her,
"So it's a man then."
Dafne eyed him frustratedly. She had thought the matter concluded.
"It's a man making you cry," Basta hypothesised, his expression hardening, "Is it Cockerell? Did he do something?"
As far as Dafne could see, Basta had no basis for accusing Cockerell other than personal bias. He was wasting her time, time she wanted to spend in the laundry room.
"No. Anyway I haven't seen him since that night in the woods," she said, "I've hardly seen any of the men at all since becoming Capricorn's maid."
Capricorn's personal slave to torture. Dafne fought to not sink back into despair. She had to stay strong, focused. Laundry room.
"I have to get back to the kitchen," she told Basta firmly.
Basta didn't reply. He was staring at the ground with his brow furrowed.
He didn't physically move to intercept her as she headed off. But he did speak and what he said made her stop in her tracks.
"Capricorn is the one you're crying about, isn't he."
He said it with a quiet certainty.
Dafne found her collectedness breaking away. Basta knew! Her neck seemed to throb in recognition of the truth. The pain threatened to make her eyes water again but she fought against it.
She turned to face Basta. He was looking rather uncomfortable with his discovery.
"Yes," she said, the word scraping her throat painfully as it came forth.
Basta grimaced, looking off to one side. Dafne was grateful he did as drops were starting to form in her eyes. She shut her eyes against the moisture, pressing her palms to her lids to barricade what she couldn't hold back mentally.
She heard Basta sigh.
"Little mouse."
He said that stupid name he called her like someone expressing a condolence.
Dafne lowered her hands. There was pity on Basta's face. He looked uneasy too but it was the pity which struck her the most.
He looked sorry for her.
He had no way of knowing what Capricorn had done to her exactly. But Basta knew his master well enough to know it must have been horrible.
It had been horrible. So horrible.
Dafne opened her mouth. He tried to strangle me, she wanted to say. But it was too hard, too painful, she sort of fell and ended up sobbing on Basta's shoulder.
She was too consumed with crying to be mortified.
Her attention was only diverted by a hand beginning to pat her on the shoulder.
"There, there," Basta said, not without stress in his voice.
Dafne quietened in her surprise.
He was trying to comfort her. She couldn't quite believe it. For him to do that seemed extraordinary, considering who he was.
Dafne came to her senses very quickly.
Who he was. A criminal was who Basta was.
She was crying on the shoulder of a criminal. Not just any criminal. The one who had brought to the village. He was to blame for every horrible thing that happened to her since.
Dafne's head was turned down and she could see, although her vision was blurry with tears, an object she knew to be the holster on Basta's belt. The holster for Basta's knife. It seemed confirmation of her idiocy to be looking at it. Basta's wickedness was tied to his knife.
A thought leapt wildly into Dafne's mind. She could use a knife. A weapon to defend herself from Capricorn if he tried to assault her again. With a knife she might kill him. He could never hurt her if he was dead.
Dafne now stared at the holster with longing.
Her hand was only a short distance away.
"Little mouse?" Basta said, his hand stilling. Dafne knew he was calling her because she had gone quiet.
She suddenly realised what she had to do. She started wailing, as high-pitched as she could. She felt Basta cringe and in the diversion of her wailing, she snuck her hand to his holster and took his knife.
Grasping it, she pushed herself away from Basta and fled as fast as she could.
She had a knife. She just hoped Basta was none the wiser that it was his.
To be continued...
Quite an insane thing to do taking Basta's knife and thinking you're going to kill Cappy with it. But Dafne isn't in the best emotional state at the moment - after being strangled with a tie! A tie of all things. Cappy is the MacGyver of torture devices.
If you're wondering what Basta meant by "stuff" when he was trying to chat up those other maids, he meant perfume, jewellery etc. a.k.a. stuff he can just go take out of people's houses. Basta trying to bribe his way into women's hearts!
I said last chapter that I will be reposting the rest of the chapters and I will do that soon now that this is finished. I know some of you are missing Pietro and Nico *cough* Skyridge *cough*
Now to reviewers' comments:
Leona, I love Basta too (can't you tell lol). Cappy very bad in this chapter I think.
Skyridge, CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST FANFIC CHECK IT OUT PEOPLE IT'S CALLED "A HEART WORTH BREAKING" IT'S ABOUT BASTA AND IT'S GREAT IT'S FUN TO WRITE IN CAPLOCKS! I will get to writing some PeanutButter soon. "You are deliciously small" LOL you amuse me greatly. What is Fiona? Some kind of weapon I'm assuming but it sounds very cute.
TheKaylester, aw thank you!
Ziliverina, I hope you enjoy Capricorn in this chapter. I feel so guilty for enjoying writing him when he's just so utterly nasty.
Until next time readers!