“How did I wind up with Dorian’s father?” she said with a laugh, “That part is simple enough, I was assigned first to gather information from him, and later I was tasked with his assassination.”
My head was swimming already from the alcohol, so I doubted my ears for a moment, “Wait, what?”
“You heard me,” she said, before repeating herself, “I was tasked with assassinating Gram Thornbear.”
At some point my mouth had fallen open. Once I noticed, I closed it quickly, my teeth clicking audibly.
Elise smiled, “Andrew Tremont, the Duke, wanted a spy in the Lancaster household. He paid the church a large sum to acquire such a person, and since my superiors knew already of Gram’s patronage at the brothel, I was the obvious choice.”
“His patronage?”
“Gram was more worldly than our son. As a young man, he came to the place that I worked, and I caught his eye right away. He had been seeing me regularly for several months before the request came for me to try and use him to the Duke’s advantage,” she explained quietly.
“So they wanted you to shpy on him?” I said, slurring a bit despite myself.
“I had already used him for information. They wanted something more involved. I was supposed to compromise his integrity, force him into situations that would cause him to commit small deceits; things that would seem harmless but which he would know ran counter to his lord’s wishes. In general, the method involves requesting small favors that, over time put him at a serious disadvantage. Eventually, the agent will drop the charade and threaten to expose their target. At that point, the relationship becomes an ugly one of cold blackmail and exploitation, essentially forcing the target into the service of whoever is paying the agent,” she explained.
“Sho how did it go from that to ashashination?” I cringed inwardly at my pronunciation, but I knew there was no hope for it; the alcohol had permeated my brain, and even now I was growing more numb.
She sighed, “The problem arose when he refused my requests. He was infuriatingly unaccommodating when it came to my little ‘favors’. He steadfastly refused to do anything that went against Lancaster’s wishes. The whole thing was exasperating, and was made even more so by the fact that he always brought me flowers.”
“Flowersh?”
“The first time he came to see me, he brought daisies,” she said with a faint smile. “Almost no one brings flowers to a whore, although it isn’t unheard of, but he brought them every time he came. Make no mistake, he knew what his coin was purchasing, and he made good on his claim, but he always behaved as though he were courting me. For a girl who had been raised as gentry, then turned into a prostitute, it was a bittersweet thing. It reminded me of my life before, of my hopes and dreams for a normal life.”
“After a few months, I began to grow angry. I was sure he had played me for a fool. He had to have guessed at my game by then, he had already refused so many of my requests. Yet he continued to bring flowers; wildflowers, lilacs, gardenias, roses, whatever he could find, whatever was in season. Even worse, he paid double whatever I asked, always saying, ‘this is for you, and this is for whoever claims your fee later’. He knew they took most of what we earned, so he paid twice, so I could keep it and give the mistress her share as well. I couldn’t understand him, or what his motivations were, and it drove me mad.”
As she spoke, I could almost see Dorian doing something similar, if he had ever been so bold as to frequent such a place. Clearly his father had been a hopeless romantic as well, though he had obviously been very earthly in his desires.
Lady Thornbear went on, “My masters were growing impatient with my lack of progress, so at last I decided to try something more direct. During his next visit I admitted my duplicity and threatened to reveal his secret visits to the brothel. While that wouldn’t have been much of a scandal, I had convinced myself that his rigorous sense of honor must be based on pride, a pride that would not bear to see itself shamed. I was sure that rather than taint his name even slightly, he would turn traitor.”
I laughed, “You really didn’t undershtand him at all did you?”
She shook her head ruefully, “No, I did not. You must understand, at that time my own soul had been so blackened by my circumstances and my actions that I truly could not believe anyone would act unselfishly. The shadow in my heart had convinced me that his honor was just a sham, something one puts on like a coat when you go outdoors.”
“What happened?”
“He laughed at me. ‘Go ahead and tell people whatever you want,’ he told me. He was not at all worried about the ‘appearance’ of honor, just the substance of it, and he knew he had not failed in that. He even bragged that once people had seen me, they would understand his reasons for visiting me so frequently. It didn’t embarrass him in the least.”
Elise frowned, “His flippant attitude made me furious, and I threw him out. Afterward I reported what had happened, and my superiors decided it would be best to eliminate him. They were worried that if he repeated what I had told him, that someone might guess at my ultimate employer. There was already considerable tension between Lancaster and Tremont, and it would have cast a dishonorable shadow across Tremont, although it would have been impossible to prove anything.”
“He returned a week later, and I received him in a far different manner than I had the time before. The poison I had prepared days before; a slow acting poison much like the one I gave you when Dorian was abducted. I slipped it into his cup so skillfully he never had a chance, but then…,” her voice trailed away for a moment.
Her story had created such a dramatic tension I became agitated, “Then what?!”
Lady Thornbear’s cheek had a fine track of tears on it now, “It was his smile I think, that undid me… or perhaps it was his trusting eyes. As he lifted the cup to his lips, they pierced my heart, and I couldn’t bear to watch him drink it. I caught his hand and confessed what I had done. I still didn’t realize my own true feelings. I just couldn’t let him come to harm. When he didn’t become angry with me for what I had done, I became angry with him instead. I had already told him to leave for his own sake, but he wouldn’t listen. He was ever so stubborn.”
“When I asked him why, he said something I have never forgotten. He had always been unfailingly polite, but that day his patience had finally grown thin. ‘Elise, you are the dumbest woman I have ever known, for you do not know your own heart. You claim the world is full of darkness, and that everyone acts only for their own gain, yet you ignore the evidence of your own heart. You love me as keenly as any woman ever loved a man, and I have loved you since the first day I came here. In this chest of mine beats two hearts, yours and mine both. That’s why you couldn’t let me drink that cup. Deep down you knew that the poison would kill us both.’”
“At that I became even angrier,” continued Lady Thornbear. “I called him a fool for loving a whore that would never return his affection. I mocked his feelings and made light of the flowers he had brought. I said every wicked thing I could think of to drive him away, and all the while my heart cried within,” she paused for a second and stared into my eyes. “Do you know what he did then?!”
I shook my head in a vigorous ‘no’, making the room spin around me.
“He picked the cup back up, and in the space of a heartbeat, he gulped the contents down, saying, ‘If what you say is true, then this world is no place for me, and I will not live in it.’ That was when my heart finally broke, and everything turned upside down. I knew then that he was not merely pretending to be an honorable man, rather he was exactly what he had presented himself as, an honorable man, too stubborn and half-witted to survive in the cruel world we existed within.” Lady Thornbear stopped then and dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.