Rytius Records (Substack Edition), Ch. 9

Ch. 9. Cartesia Boniface

9. Cartesia Boniface

She awoke naturally to the muted thumps of rain on her double-paned bay windows high above the street, and slowly stretched her arm out to caress Lee’s side, all the while knowing that she would not be there. Lee only slept over Saturday nights into Sunday mornings, working all the others. Cartesia had asked her twice to let her take care of her, and she would not ask again. She had tried to reason with Lee. Lee and her friend Tee had kept in good touch with their old baby sisters-in-law, and Cartesia had ensured that they had made good impressions upon the princes—they were already partners. She pulled her arms back to her sides, hugged herself and admitted that she had not reasoned but that she had shamelessly pleaded and begged. Thereafter Cartesia had begun to feel endangered, as though she were holding herself carelessly open. She had caught herself searching Lee’s face for signs of strain or deceit, perhaps in the form of averted eyes or a stolen glance, and she had felt ashamed when their eyes met last night, and Lee’s face lit up, and her own breath quickened when she saw Lee seeing what Lee saw in her. She knew that Lee could never betray her, because she wielded state power, and she knew that Lee loved her, in her own way. And likewise.