Shaded Love by Cristiane Serruya

Author:Cristiane Serruya [Serruya, Cristiane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

June 2004

She hurried down the hall, her slippers sliding on the floor as she turned the corner.

She was late, and when they were late, there was punishment to be dealt. Pushing open the door, she skidded to a stop, all eyes on her as she walked into the room as if she weren’t late at all.

“I told you she was going to be late.”

“Why does she think she’s special? She’s no different than the lot of us.”

She held her head up high as she walked past, taking her seat at the end of the long bench, tucking her hands in her lap.

She didn’t think she was special at all. What did they see that she didn’t? She was treated the same—rather, she was treated worse than the rest of them. She didn’t even have a name.

The side door opened and they all sat up a little straighter as he walked in the room, his billowing robes like black wings floating behind him. He had one for every day of the week, though Sundays were her favorite. On that day he wore pristine white, looking more like their leader and less like the formidable man that he was portraying right now.

As he approached the bench, they all stood dutifully, with the older women behind them, waiting for one of them to step out of line so they could be punished. No one dared move, barely breathing as he started on the far end, inspecting each girl as he did every week. She felt as if they were being evaluated for something, though no one ever told them why he did this inspection or what the outcome was.

But when one girl did not meet his expectations, well, they never saw her again.

She kept her eyes lowered to the floor, attempting to watch from the corner of her eye as he moved slowly down the line, muttering comments too softly to hear to his advisor that followed him everywhere.

From memory, she knew of his tall, lean frame, his hair the color of midnight, with graying at the temples.

She thought of the shrewdness of his gaze as he would look at her face, the brilliance of his blue eyes as they stared at her for a moment.

There was no warmth in those depths, no emotions that would make her think that he saw them as anything other than objects.

His shuffling grew nearer and she felt her heart race with anticipation that this would soon be over and she could go back to her duties, another week gone by that she was still here.

They were not allowed to discuss this inspection and if they were overheard doing so, it was a week without food.

No one wished for a week without food.

Finally, his shiny shoes came into view and she ceased to breathe, feeling the coldness of his touch on her chin as he beckoned for her to meet his gaze.

There was always something familiar about his gaze, as if she were looking into a mirror but was unable to understand the reflection.

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