The Bloodletters by Samantha Bell

Author:Samantha Bell [Bell, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781697445848
Published: 2019-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU WERE TALKING TO?” Greta hissed through her teeth.

I looked out the window of the carriage we were sharing with Thomas and Heather. Thomas was asleep and Heather had decided to ride upfront with the coachman and get some air.

“No?” I asked incredulously. I had spoken to so many people in the six hours we were at the ball. My feet ached and all I could think about was a hot bath. Well, that and the mysterious blond stranger.

“No?” Greta squealed.

“Well, there was lots of guests, which one do you mean?”

Greta’s mouth hung open in disbelief. She breathed in deeply to calm herself before continuing. “The Prince, Violet. Prince Isaac Saxon, second in line for the throne of Inwaed. Dear Gods, do you not know anything?”

Her insult passed over me in my shock. “The Prince?” I repeated.

Greta rolled her eyes. “Too bad his brother wasn’t there, the Crown Prince, but I mean – he drank your blood, Violet! The Prince!” Thomas snorted in his sleep and Greta lowered her voice. “The Prince. I would kill for a chance like that.”

Somehow, I didn’t doubt she would. She rambled on, but I didn’t hear a single word she said. The Prince. Prince Isaac. I had heard his name before many times, but I realized then that I had never seen a single photograph of him. I remembered my father saying that the Saxons liked to keep out of the spotlight as often as possible and that the King only intercepted politics when absolutely necessary. The Saxons, to me anyway, were names from textbooks. Distant and only slightly more tangible than characters from books.

The Prince had drank my blood, and he knew my name. I felt as giddy as a schoolgirl with a new crush. I stamped down on the emotion with all my might.

Greta voiced my internal thoughts. “Don’t get your hopes up. It’s not like he’ll remember a lowly Bloodletter like you.”

∾

I didn’t tell a soul about my meeting with the Prince and I tried to keep my hopes down. Greta’s excitement quickly turned to jealousy and she stopped talking to me again, not that I minded. The memory burned like a hot coal in my chest that I carried with me and used to warm myself whenever the dullness of the passing days became too much to bear.

As winter began to settle in, a bleak feeling began to fill the House. The clients became coming more often and we more demanding. When Heather took me to see Dr. Coleman because of my exhaustion he quickly dismissed it and cleared me for Bloodletting. I was beginning to wonder whose side he was on or if he switched whenever it suited him.

The feeling reached a climax when Thomas announced at lunch that Jack, his roommate, was not doing well. He was very weak and had been put on bedrest by the doctor.

My heart twisted at the thought of the thin, pale boy lying in bed alone.

“It’s always this time of year.

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