Chapter 29 Lady Elizabeth
Lady Elizabeth
Asmodeus gestured towards Caspian to follow him.
Curious, Caspian obliged, following him onto a terrace. Asmodeus stood stock still, carefully watching the grounds below them.
“What are we waiting for, brother?” Caspian said, growing annoyed.
He was silenced by a hand.
They waited for several minutes until a figure on a horse came plodding into view. Elizabeth was sitting sidesaddle and riding towards the forest.
“Is that…?” Caspian started, suddenly recognizing which horse she was riding.
“That hybrid devil horse you bought last year? Yes. Yes, it is.”
Caspian said, “Someone should get her off that thing; he’s going to kill her. He won’t even—”
“Let Lial ride him? I know. Watch.”
They watched Elizabeth walk Draugr across the castle grounds with her head held high. Confident and calm. How in the Seven Hells had she gotten Draugr to behave?
Asmodeus flapped his wings and hovered in the air, knees bent, gesturing for Caspian to follow. Curious, Caspian manifested his wings and took off after his friend.
They kept to the shadows of the mountains, sneaking through the skies.
They watched as she took a trail in the forest, one he had travelled many times.
Nothing about her countenance suggested this was unusual for her.
The trail led out of the forest and into a valley, a wide, mostly flat plain, nestled beneath the mountains.
Asmodeus beckoned to him, and they hid in the mountainside, watching her from above.
It wasn’t particularly interesting besides the fact that he hadn’t the slightest idea how she had bewitched Draugr—a ludicrous name his previous owner had given him—to allow her to ride him.
He was certain she was about to be flung off.
Elizabeth dismounted and mounted up like a man, swinging her leg across the horse's back in one smooth move.
She sat astride and bent over to whisper something to Draugr.
Her skirt slipped, and instead of exposing her ankles, she was wearing gray-coloured breeches under her skirts that covered her legs down to her boots.
Where the devil had she even gotten pants?
She took off like a shot, and Caspian braced himself to fly to the rescue. He tensed, preparing to dive and save the reckless woman, hopefully before she hit the ground and broke her spine.
But Elizabeth did not falter.
Her seat was firm in the saddle, and she didn’t bounce about, like ladies often did.
She rode like a man, sure-seated. Draugr thundered down the plain with Elizabeth leaning forwards, holding the reins in one hand.
She reminded him of a legend he had learned as a child, of the goddess of the hunt who rode the very current of the wind and whose heart was wildness incarnate.
He didn’t even blink; his gaze was riveted to her.
She murmured something, and Draugr slowed, obediently. He was flabbergasted to see his half-wild stallion treating the girl with something akin to reverence.
They walked around to where they started on the plain and took the field at a run again.
Elizabeth grinned widely, a big smile he had never seen grace her features before. She held the reins with one hand and flung out the other above her, savoring in the wildness of the moment.
She took the plain at a run six times until she was grinning wickedly. With a gentle hand, she slowed to a walk and guided her horse home.
“Where on earth did you find a woman like that?” Asmodeus asked him as they both stared at the woman who raced wild horses for the sheer thrill of it.
Truthfully, he didn’t know.
This creature with barely contained glee and wildness was so at odds with the quiet, demure thing he had come to know.
The woman he knew was lovely to look at, but boring.
And more than a little cold and conceited.
Her blood and pedigree were so blue that he often thought of her as thinking herself too good for her surroundings.
The image of her grinning and flinging her arm out was burned into his brain.
Women tended to ride sidesaddle, and awkwardly at that, bouncing and almost unseating themselves from simply walking. She rode astride like a man, and instead of being alarmed by this, he found it unbelievably sexy and deliciously rebellious behaviour for a proper, well-bred lady.
Where had she even learned to ride like that?
Caspian followed her, hovering just out of sight. He watched her return her horse to the stables and venture inside to change.
Later, he looked for her in the library but couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in the gardens either. Eventually, he found her perched on a sofa in the sitting room with a book in her hands.
She looked more like the woman he had come to know now, sitting primly on the sofa with her hair pulled back into a slick knot, and a book resting open in her hands.
Up until now, he had considered her to be like a piece of art. A beautiful woman that he, a man of power and prestige, was deserving of having about his home.
A prize to be won, land to be conquered.
Now, he wasn’t so sure that Elizabeth’s heart would be easy to conquer at all.
Elizabeth felt his gaze, and her sapphire eyes flicked up, piercing. Waiting for him to state his purpose in disturbing her reading.
“Good evening, Elizabeth,” he asserted with a shadow of a smile.
“Hello, Caspian,” she said coolly and returned to her reading. Utterly unfazed by him. Didn’t she know how fast he could end her if he wanted to?
“Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?” he said, his voice gravelly and deep.
She took the time to finish the paragraph she was reading before closing her book and smiling at him. “Certainly. I look forward to it.”
Polite, empty words.
He gave her a curt nod and turned to leave.
At dinner, Mammond, Asmodeus, and Finnigan were discussing issues in the Underworld.
Raziel, the bastard, had amassed forces that had been raiding demon cities to stir up trouble.
So far, they had only killed low-level demons, but if their powers and influence grew, they might become an actual threat to mid-level demons and higher.
They were all in agreement that they must cut off the threat before that happened, or figure out who was financing Raziel and cut him off.
Elizabeth looked either at her food or the wall. Polite, bored.
“And what do you think of all of this, Elizabeth?” he inquired. “Surely you have an opinion of the inner workings of the Underworld and of the enemy who is threatening to destabilize everything we stand for.”
Asmodeus snickered at him asking a mortal for her opinion. But Caspian shrugged and glared at Asmodeus, curling his lip in disdain.
She chewed her food and swallowed. She dabbed her lips delicately with a handkerchief before replying, “I’m afraid I don’t know enough about the issue to weigh in.”
A non-answer.
Caspian snapped, “There’s a newly Fallen angel named Raziel.
He is deeply upset that when he Fell, he wasn’t gifted any legions.
He has no tie to the power he seeks and no reason for us to give it to him.
He is trying to amass followers.” He paused.
“Raziel is saying the low-level demons don’t have to live with the hierarchies as they are, and he seeks to destabilize them.
His goal is not just our lands. He wants to open the portals and flood these lands with demons and force humans to kneel to us. ”
He looked at her, convinced this would interest her sufficiently to give one of her rare, opinionated replies.
She paused, appearing to consider her words carefully. “I would trust that the men, who are more learned in war and government than I am, would ensure there are plans in place so that all can end well for me and humanity never has to deal with such a horrible thing.”
He itched to wipe that false smile off her face. The polite mask she wore grated against his nerves, like nails against stone.
Instead, he tilted his head. “Indeed, we couldn’t let something happen to such an elegant and beautiful lady.”
The corners of her eyes twitched like she was trying not to roll them. He took the hit to his pride and smirked. Whether she liked it or not, they would have their night together soon.
Leaning forward, he said, “If the Seven Hells fall, and this usurper is victorious, he might go after your realm next. The mortal realms are very much a part of this.”
She folded her hands in her lap and fixed her eyes on him.
“I do not see why this Fallen angel would have any interest in our lands. Surely if he’s banished to the Seven Hells, he is trapped in the Underworld.
If your lands do not fall, which I don’t see how they would, then it will never be our problem. ”
She set down her napkin and rose gracefully from her chair, smoothing her skirts with practiced precision.
She stood with such impeccable posture that Caspian was reminded she had been groomed from childhood to become the perfect noblewoman, nearly a princess in rank.
She lifted her chin and looked down her nose at the lot of them with ease.
Just a spoiled noblewoman who cared for nothing but herself. Elizabeth gave a slow, simpering smile—a false smile—and paused on the threshold, waiting to be dismissed.
His hands tensed at his side, and he snarled, “I’m glad to know you have such faith in us. I hope this war never reaches your realm.”
She continued to smile pleasantly, and it irked him to no end.
Speaking through gritted teeth, he said, “Enjoy the rest of your evening, Elizabeth.”
“Thank you, Caspian. You as well.” Elizabeth curtseyed and left the hall.
He stared, transfixed at her behind, as she walked away. The little minx had refused half the dresses he had bought for her, insisting on wearing more modest attire.