Water splashed all around the bathroom, leaving large wet splotches on their clothes, but Gabriel’s hand on my shoulder stilled me.
“Shampoo, Evangeline. I can’t shampoo your hair if it isn’t wet.”
I looked at him, at the cool front he displayed in words, but knowing the hot anger that lay hidden beneath that exterior. The glimpse I’d had of it at the camp was enough to last a lifetime.
Feeling hopeless, the fight drained out of me. I was powerless and confused as hell. I covered my face, wanting to disappear, wanting to open my eyes and wake up from this nightmare that had become my life. Then the gentlest of fingers began to massage my scalp, the scent of perfumed shampoo soothing, calming me a little.
“Are you really going to do what that note says?” Would they really dismember me piece by piece until my father paid? Was what the newspaper said truly their intention?
“The note wasn’t from us, Eva,” Syn said. He reached into the tub to take my arm and began to clean it with the sudsy washcloth. “It’s not our intention to give you back.”
My gaze wandered from Syn’s dark eyes to the golden gaze of his brother’s. I didn’t understand what he had just said. I should have been reassured that they’d not been the ones to send the note, although that raised plenty of other questions, but what he followed with — that they had no intention of giving me back? I couldn’t even begin to think about that one.
“Then who? I don’t understand.”
“We’ll discuss it after your bath,” Syn said.
“Going under again, Evangeline. Take a breath and relax. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Somehow reassured by what could easily have been lies, I took that breath and Gabriel waited for me to do so before pushing me more gently beneath the surface of the water, his fingers combing through my hair, massaging my scalp until the shampoo washed out and he pulled me back up.
“We’re pretty sure Arthur’s behind that note,” Gabriel said while Syn continued with my other arm. “He’s now extorting money from your father, or at least he plans to. He must assume you won’t be back and now that his plans to have your body turn up have been interrupted, he’ll get the cash from a different source.”
My body?
“I can’t listen to this. I can’t.”
“Look at these cuts,” Syn said, holding up my foot and shaking his head. “Silly girl.”#p#分页标题#e#
I looked at him with suspicion.
“Stand up, let’s finish and we’ll get you bandaged.”
Gabriel wiped his hands on a towel as I rose to my feet, but when Syn’s hand slipped behind me, the washcloth traveling to my most private places, I gasped, grabbing his arm to stop him.
He simply smiled and removed my hand. “I’m going to clean you everywhere, Eva. You’ll get used to it. You’ll have no secrets from us. You belong to us now.”
You belong to us now.
I processed his words slowly, looking off at the white wall while he did as he’d said, his fingers working the washcloth over every inch of my skin. Only when he was satisfied did he have Gabriel wrap a thick towel around me and lift me out of the tub, carrying me into the bedroom and laying me on my bed.
“Let’s get these cuts disinfected,” Syn said.
I simply lay there, allowing them to work on me, their touch so gentle, so caring. In fact, aside from my parents, I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so cared for as I did at that moment. But I had to remember what was coming. I had to remember what Syn had said. He would punish me soon. I watched him as he worked, trying to reconcile those two sides of him, of both of them. Trying to understand their words, their claim that I now belonged to them.
Gabriel watched Evangeline closely when they entered the dining room to find Caroline had set a place for her and only for her. Her plate was filled with delicious food, but her comfortable chair had been removed and in its place was a low, hard wooden stool. In the corner of the room stood the foolish girl who had delivered the newspaper to Evangeline’s room. The girl’s nose was pressed into the corner, the uniform skirt she wore lifted and tucked into the waist to expose her freshly caned bottom. Caroline had done a thorough job of disciplining the girl and he had no doubt Thomas would take the cane to Caroline’s own bottom tonight for her oversight.
“Have a seat, Evangeline,” Gabriel said when she froze at the sight before them.
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again, glancing at the girl in the corner before moving to take her seat. Syn and Gabriel took their places and Gabriel poured a glass of wine for each of them, but left Evangeline’s glass empty. She’d drink water tonight. Syn had laid out all he needed for her punishment and he wanted her fully aware for her ordeal.