Dark King's Human Bride by Tessa Stockton

Author:Tessa Stockton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Creative Purpose Publications
Published: 2022-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

39

“Because I had a husband, unkind and gruff, the world can burn me alive in it before I ever marry again.” Though Eliana did not say it with bitterness, she spoke the truth.

Maudy’s eyes widened. Taken aback, she leaned away from Eliana for a better inspection of the intensity cast by her friend. “He beat you?”

Eliana bowed her head. “No,” she admitted, her voice quieting. “But verbal accusations, and other things, are damaging in a different way, yet still damaging. And when there weren’t accusations, there was invisibility. Mine. He did not see me,” Eliana thumped her hand over her heart. “He saw me at the surface. The rest,” she flung her hands, “invisible. He did not see my heart, soul, spirit. He did not see me,” she reiterated, near tears.

Maudy covered Eliana’s hand with her own that rested on the log. “What happened to him?”

In a hushed voice, Eliana drew closer to Maudy and divulged a summary of her nine years with Jabez that ended by a Darkoll massacre. “The arrow sealed his fate. A rare, single, violent strike that set me free.”

“Or divine intervention perhaps, an act of God?”

“I don’t know. I feel guilty thinking about it.” She wiped her nose that was beginning to run as the cold of night covered her. “The people revered my husband as a righteous man, a religious leader.”

“A hypocrite then,” Maudy mumbled, glancing off into the shadowed distance.

Eliana mused, then said, “I don’t know. There’s something that tells me, although he was not a natural-born nurturer, that he did the best he could. He behaved in the only way he knew how. And the way he and I perceived things—everything—was so completely opposite, even though we shared the same faith in the same God.” She lifted a knee, clasped her hands around it and rocked, contemplating. “Through all this I’ve learned a valuable lesson.”

“What is that? And please don’t tell me Jabez was right in his treatment of you—nothing justifies his actions.”

A light chuckle slipped out of Eliana’s mouth, for she adored her concerned friend. The conversation was a pleasure! “Well,” she cleared her throat, “failure to express or follow one’s own principles might make that one, like me, an enabler.”

“You’re a soft person. That hardly makes the ills of your marriage your fault.”

“Thanks, Maudy, but I was soft and enabling to where I avoided conflict in the smallest degree. My enabling created a bigger monster. I made unhealthy allowances for the sake of peace.”

“Smells like a manipulator, your husband, if you ask me.” Maudy shook her head. “And as you are soft, he was strict? In fact, I think that’s why Teivel and townsmen like him who have noticed advance on you,” she affirmed with a strong nod. “While they probably don’t realize, their chase is out of their inner drive to conquer and suppress something delicate. They’ve no idea how to treat a woman like you.”

Eliana laughed. “Obviously, I’ve no idea how to choose a man.”

“Leave that to El Roi.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.