Pollyanna unabashedly curled up next to Eory, draping a dark-skinned arm over his stomach. Eory, who had been looking up at the ceiling, turned on his side, meeting her eyes, “Why are you tempting me when it could result in your death?”
Pollyanna snorted with a remorseful smile. “I’m not tempting you… Even I start to miss physical contact after awhile, and that’s all this is; comfort, not sex. Won’t you grant this lonely old soldier a small boon?”
Eory wondered if that was truly her intention, considering the fact that she was giving him bedroom eyes.
Her sudden recklessness—the fact that she didn’t care whether she lived or died—disturbed him. The fact that, for a moment, he didn’t care whether she lived or died, disturbed him all-the-more.
He tried to ignore the passions boiling within him even now. Eory’s wondered aloud. “Would you really not care if I killed you here and now? You certainly didn’t seem to care earlier.”
A mischievousness smile adorned Pollyanna’s face. “Oh, I would care... One of my dreams is to live forever, after all. I want to help create the greatest world possible while I live—a world where only the strong live. However, I have already left my mark on this world, which was my greatest dream of all. No soul will upon Yharos will ever forget that I existed. If I were to die here and now by you, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world—especially if it gave you that push you needed to become a true Arrozan.”
Eory knew no words could convince her that slaughtering innocents and wishing for a world where the weak did not exist was wrong. He knew there were conflicts in her way of thinking, however; conflicts he had exploited already and wanted to continue to exploit to help her see the truth.
Pollyanna was a logical, practical, and hard woman. Eory had to make her realize that her way of thinking wasn’t so logical for her to see the light. But first, he needed to understand her. He prompted her to continue once again. “I want to hear the rest of the story.”
Pollyanna obeyed. “I wasn’t allowed to leave the manor for months. At the end of six months, however, I was able to gain his trust back, and I was able to leave when he dictated I could each day. I was sure Rory would have married some other girl by the time I finally got to see him again…”
__
Pollyanna headed out into the town with her hood up.
It had been so long since she had seen anyone other than the manor staff, Kline, and occasionally her mother, that she had become very nervous about seeing strangers. She was sent out to town to run errands for Kline like she had in the past, and if she didn’t come back in an hour, he would punish her.
She hurried.
She was a scared little girl again; whipped into a subservient, happy little slave through threats and violence. She was ordered to talk to no one but the butcher and the fisherman who were selling her proposed dinner for the night. Some of the townsfolk recognized her and tried to greet her—they wanted to ask where she had been for the past few months—but she quickly sped past them before they could tell her more than a “hello”.
The land was gray under blanketing clouds. Raindrops parted the dirt where they fell—creating tiny, thumb-sized puddles as they did so. Pollyanna stepped inside the fisherman’s shop and picked up a bass, and then turned toward the butcher’s shop across the way.
She saw a familiar face looking at her in front of the butcher’s shop.
Pollyanna tightened her hood.
She turned away and began walking back to the manor without the meat.
He’ll forgive me this one time since I’ve otherwise been so good.
She quickened her pace as the imp began following her. She intended to hide in the crowd that was coming her way.
“Pollyanna!” Rory finally called.
Pollyanna stopped for a moment where she stood.
In another moment, she ran.
The bottom of her long, green cloak brushed the dirty, rainy ground as she went.
The rain seemed to intensify as she got closer and closer to the manor.
“Pollyanna!” Rory called again, voice carried on a brisk wind.
Pollyanna did not slow down. She sped up.
“Polly—” Rory began again but was stayed when he saw the tall girl fall and slide through mud.
He was at her side in an instant. Her hood had fallen back, revealing her pained, tear-streaked face.
“Are you oka—” Rory began, but was interrupted by Pollyanna throwing her arms around him, weeping heavily. He just held her for a moment and was glad the passersby did not seem to recognize them.
“Stay and talk with me for a moment… Where have you been?” Rory asked.
Pollyanna stood up, and she was reminded of how wretchedly tall she was when she looked down at him. he was silent for a moment, looking down at her red heels.
“Let’s get you somewhere dry…” Rory suggested with an accommodating smile.
Pollyanna nodded, despite knowing better.
__
He took her to an abandoned cottage at the edge of town.
Pollyanna looked upon the disaster of a cottage with dry eyes and a smile she couldn’t help.
There was a hole in the roof and black rot eating away at the wood at all corners. Pollyanna hunched over, stepped inside, and exclaimed, “What a quaint little cottage to start a family in!”
Rory grinned, joining Pollyanna in staring up at the leaking roof. “I fear it would be very inappropriate to raise a child in such a house.”
Pollyanna sighed resignedly. “I fear we couldn’t, regardless. I am sure you already have a lovely wife who is with child.”
There was a long silence, and then he finally replied, “I told you that I would love no other.”
Pollyanna let out a tearful laugh, so relieved was she that he still hadn’t found a wife. She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. “You are too good and kind to me.”
Rory screwed his eyes shut with tears brimming at the corner of his eyes.
He begged her to tell him everything, and she did.
She told him of her mother and Kline. She told him of the weeks she had been kept captive at the manor after that. She told him of how she was not treated as a wife, but instead a prostitute.
“I can’t even run away or get a divorce!” Pollyanna wept. “He has bribed the guards; they will ignore any bruises I get, and if they ignore those, they will always bring me back if I try to run as is Kline’s right as my husband.”
Rory held her cheeks in his hands.
She felt unworthy to look upon him, and so she didn’t. She averted her eyes shyly.
“Say the word, and I will run away with you in the dead of night or even during the day.” Rory whispered.
Pollyanna felt her heart beating out of control. Not because she could possibly consider endangering Rory’s life by running away from him, but because of something else which could be even
more
dangerous.
It was because she wanted him desperately.
She pressed her lips to his. “I fear… If you don’t get me out of this dress… That I will catch cold.”
Rory was in disbelief of what she was asking. He knew the
dangers
of what she was asking, and yet he could not help himself.
Pollyanna didn’t realize, before that moment, that making love could be anything but dirty and torturous.
She didn’t think it could be something pure and pleasurable.
__
--Kline’s frustration at Pollyanna had only mounted after that.
He wanted a child more than anything, and Pollyanna appeared unable to give him one. He was on the verge of divorcing her, but could not justify it before the law and was unwilling to deal with the ramifications of such a decision.
“I would have to pay your living expenses for the rest of your life. That would not do. I suppose I’m stuck with you…” He spat hatefully.
Pollyanna thanked god that the amulet she had placed under the bed was working. Both for her own sake and the sake of any would-be-child.
Kline called in a physician weekly to check on her health and to see if she were pregnant. The physician would press her hands to Pollyanna’s belly and look perplexed. “I don’t understand… She’s perfectly healthy, she should have had gotten pregnant at least once by now…”
Pollyanna would perspire intensely each time the physician came around. If Kline were to find out about the amulet, she was sure he would kill her.
In the meantime, whenever she was let out of the manor, she would see Rory when she could. Most of the time, they would just talk. Rory would often give her news that she was unaware of due to being locked in the manor.
“The fairies are getting closer and closer to the Maribel border. If they attack, our town would be one of the first to be taken…” Rory worried.
“What are you talking about?” Pollyanna asked confusedly.
“Don’t you know? Fairies are marching upon Maribel. They intend to take the whole kingdom for themselves. Word has it that they are fairly small in number, and it is well known that fairies are little more than animalistic savages, but they do have powerful magic where we humans don’t…” Rory murmured solemnly.
Such talk worried Pollyanna to no end. She wondered if Kline planned to move elsewhere. When she asked him, he told her there was nothing to worry about and that the king was sending an army to deter the approaching fairies.
While most of the time she and Rory would just talk, other times, they would get carried away and would end up sleeping together. And blissfully, very little happened to her over the next month.
Until one morning when she felt sick to her stomach and threw up.
Kline called the physician, and as the woman pressed her fingers to Pollyanna’s stomach, her face lit up. “Renthas has heard your prayers! You’re pregnant, Pollyanna!” The physician exclaimed—clapping her hands together excitedly.
Pollyanna, who was sitting on the edge of their bed, stared ahead in horror as Kline kissed her far too intimately and possessively in front of company. “I knew it. I knew you were the one who would finally give me a child!” Kline exclaimed.
The physician awkwardly averting her gaze.
Pollyanna knew the amulet was still under the bed.
The baby was not Kline’s.