He, lifting himself first up on his hands, then away from her body, kneeling upright between her bent legs, his still-rigid member glistening with the fluids of their lovemaking, smiling at her.
She, her hands splaying across her belly, saying: We have made a daughter between us, Brutus. A daughter-heir .
He, leaning down to kiss her, saying: You have blessed me .
Her daughter was a blessing , when all he could summon for the daughter we had made together was irritation’ ?
I wanted to kill them then, the both of them, but I did not know how. I had no weapon to hand, no knife, even no rock with which to beat them.
Genvissa saw me, and she whispered something to Brutus. He looked at her, then laughed.
He laughed.
I threw myself at him, screaming, terrified, knowing I had lost him, tearing at his face with my nails, trying to kick him with my heels, succeeding only in further humiliating myself as he caught my arms easily
and threw me away.
‘Cornelia,” he said. “Go away. This does not concern you, and this is not your place.”
‘No!” I screamed, stabbing a finger at Genvissa. ” That is my place! There, beneath you!”
Genvissa laughed, tilting her head back, the sound rich and husky in her throat. She was not in the least perturbed, having me find her naked under my husband’s body.
My husband? Or hers, now?
‘Go away, Cornelia,” Brutus said, more gently now, and there was in his eyes something even more humiliating than his anger.
Pity. He pitied me.
Poor Cornelia, too young, too girlish to understand.
I stepped forward, leaned down, and hit him as hard as I could.
Then, sobbing and wretched, I turned and fled.
CbAPCGR GIDO XIENVISSA SIGHED, AS IF IN PITY. SHE LIFTED A HAND,
m ,’
^,’ f and touched Brutus’cheek where Cornelia’s hand had slapped ^%pf’ him.
‘Poor girl,” she said. “I should go to her,” he said.
‘Yes, but wait a moment, wait a while… wait a while.” She pulled him back to her body, and kissed him, and roused him to lust once more, and pulled him back into the deep warmth of her body.
She needed to give Cornelia just the right amount of time to damn herself, then she would send Brutus after her.
To kill her, the silly, irritating, useless, deathly dangerous girl, Who Brutus thought of too often …
Brutus thrust inside her, and Genvissa tilted back her lovely head and laughed once more for the joy and success she had already made here this night, and all that was yet to come.
GbR66 coRnelia speaks KNEW WHAT I WOULD FIND. I KNEW BRUTUS WOULD take Genvissa as a lover. I knew that after all I had done, every mistake I had made, Brutus had little respect for me.
And none of it made any difference to how I felt. The knowing never takes away the pain.
I stumbled away from that palace, my eyes blinded by grief and pain, and I somehow made my way to the ferry crossing and from there through the Trojan settlement and Llanbank toward my house.
At least I could have Achates to comfort me. I didn’t care if he was asleep, or if Aethylla growled at
me, I just needed my son in my arms. I just needed to know that someone loved me.
Thus it was that when I entered the house, wiping the tears from my face lest they scare my son, and found it completely empty, my world collapsed entirely.
I stopped by the central hearth: there was a single lamp left burning, enough light for me to see that all Aethylla’s and Hicetaon’s belongings were gone.
Achates, and all his baby paraphernalia, were gone.
All Brutus’ clothes and gear were gone.
Everything of mine remained.
I started to tremble, my mind accepting what my eyes told it, yet not accepting the actuality of it.
Everyone had moved out, leaving me behind.
I sank to my haunches, my hands trembling so badly I had difficulty in lifting them to my face.
There could be only one reason for this: They had moved to the palace .
There could be only one person behind this: Genvissa .
My shoulders began to shake in sympathy with my hands, but my throat was so tight I could not manage a sound. I hunched by the fire, my hands to my face, my entire body shaking, staring at Aethylla’s empty sleeping niche, unable to accept how splendidly, how bitterly splendidly, Genvissa had out-maneuvered me.
She had everything of mine: my husband, my son, my place as queen.
Everything.
‘Cornelia? Ah, Cornelia, I am sorry. I had thought to be here before you.”
I rose, but slipped over in the doing, sprawling inelegantly to the floor.
It was Coel, reaching down to me, murmuring soothing words, wrapping me in his arms, rocking me to and fro.
‘You knew?” I managed.
‘I saw Hicetaon come for Aethylla and the babies,” he said. “I knew then. I wanted to be here for you when you returned. I am so sorry. I came as quickly as I could.”
I clung to him, my weeping increasing, and Coel rocked me back and forth. “Cornelia,” he whispered,
“don’t cry, please don’t cry.” I tried to stop, but I couldn’t. My nose was running, my eyes were so swollen with tears I could hardly see out of them, and my chest kept wracking out sobs from so deep within me I thought I might actually bring up my stomach with the strength of them.
‘Cornelia,” Coel said, running one hand through my hair and using the other to wipe my nose with a
corner of his cloak. “Don’t cry, please. You are so beautiful, so lovely, I can’t bear to see you so unhappy.” My only answer was yet another sob.
He gathered me to him, holding me close, then he swore softly under his breath, tipped back my face, and stifled my sobs with his mouth.
It was as though we were back in that rock pool, yet this time he was not offering me sheer physical pleasure, but a depth of comfort and loving I had always yearned for, but never found.
His mouth was so sweet, his arms so soothing, and he was the beautiful one, not merely in body, but in nature as well.
‘Cornelia…” he said, and I heard the longing in his voice, and this time I was not predisposed to refuse him. After all, there was nothing left for me to lose, was there?
And some small, petty part of me whispered that it would be a sweet revenge for Brutus’ infidelity. It would salvage a part of my pride if, like Brutus, I took for myself a lover.
Perhaps this way Genvissa would not win.
Not completely.
‘Yes,” I said.
Somewhere an unknown voice screamed not to do this, to think, to not let passion and hate and revenge rule my head, but I refused to listen to it. No doubt Brutus and Genvissa lay in their furs, laughing at the thought of me weeping alone.
Well, I was not alone. Damn them! Damn them !
‘Yes,” I whispered again.
Coel smiled, so happy my tears almost flowed anew, and aided me to my feet, and slipped away my clothes, and then his. We stood there for a while, barely touching save for his fingers that wiped away the last of my tears.
And then we went to my bed.
Oh, Hera, he was so slow, so gentle, and his smile… he made me laugh with his silly, comforting words, and but a short while ago I would have thought laughter impossible. We kissed, and touched, and lay beside each other. I ran my hands over his body, marveling, for he was so lovely—clean-skinned and lean and so unlike Brutus in every respect.
I was almost happy, for I was taking my life in my own hands with this action. I did not love Coel, although one part of me thought that I was foolish not to, but I was immensely grateful to him… and immensely attracted to him.
The light touch of his fingertips, the warm caress of his breath as he ran his mouth down my body…
eventually I could wait no longer, and pulled him into me, and sighed with bliss as he began to move so gently, so slowly, within me.
If only Brutus could treat me with this much gentleness, this much respect.
I closed my eyes, lifted my body against his, and imagined that this was Brutus, this voice in my ear was his, saying he loved me, this mouth that laid itself so sweetly on mine was Brutus’ mouth.
This the act that had made my daughter within me, not that animalistic grabbing and coupling.
‘Cornelia,” he said, his movements now more urgent.
I moaned, curving my hands about his buttocks, pushing him deeper inside me. “Brutus,” I whispered.