The River Bride's Revenge I Won't Save You Twice

I struggled to prop myself up and pulled a box from beneath the bed. Inside lay the Body Collector's Iron Medallion. I pressed it into Ruby's hands.

"Ruby, take this into the palace. Give it to the Emperor and tell him Penelope Maxwell is calling in her favor. Tell him I want divorce papers."

Years ago, when the Emperor himself had traveled to Millhaven Village to bring the Crown Prince and the young lord back to the capital, he'd been so grateful for my saving their lives that he promised me one request, anything I asked.

I had never dared waste that chance. Now, finally, it had a purpose.

Homer didn't return with Dr. Shepherd until the following afternoon.

By then, the royal physician Ruby had summoned was already on his way out.

Homer caught the physician by the arm. "How is my wife?"

"She'll live. But I'm afraid..."

Homer's voice dropped low, unsteady in a way I'd rarely heard when it concerned me. "Afraid of what?"

The physician shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Her body is ruined. She'll spend the rest of her life in pain."

Something like guilt flickered across Homer's face. He gathered me into his arms, my body limp as a threadbare rag. "I'm sorry, Penny. It's not that I didn't want to help you, but the Crown Prince's wife is carrying a royal heir. I couldn't afford the delay..."

I gritted my teeth against the pain and pulled myself free of his embrace. I shook my head. "It's fine. You were up all night, my lord. Go rest."

His hands hung frozen in the air where I'd been. His voice came out scraped raw. "Are you angry with me, Penny?"

I closed my eyes. My answer was flat, toneless. "This commoner wouldn't dare."

"Commoner?"

Homer caught the shift instantly. He stared at me as though I'd spoken a foreign language.

Before, I had always addressed myself as "your wife" in his presence.

Now I'd changed the word. The line between us, drawn clean.

"Yes. This commoner was born lowly. Naturally, I can't be compared to the Crown Prince's wife. So you did the right thing, my lord. This commoner wouldn't dare hold it against you."

A violent cough tore through me, and blood splattered from my lips. Homer saw it, and for once, he asked nothing more.

He rubbed slow circles on my back, his voice softening. "You've always been the most sensible one, Penny. I was overthinking it. Rest now. Your husband will stay right here. I'm not going anywhere."

I didn't know how long I slept before the noise from the courtyard dragged me awake.

The moment I opened my eyes, I saw Ruby sprawled in the center of the yard, a rod cracking down across her body again and again.

Her clothes were soaked through with blood. Each breath she drew looked like it might be her last.

Chloe Fox sat nearby, watching with cold, disinterested eyes.

When Homer saw me stir, he didn't bother explaining. He simply pressed my shoulders back down. "The Crown Prince's wife is disciplining a servant. Don't interfere, Penny."

I had braced myself for some grave offense. But the crime, it turned out, was nothing more than this: after delivering the divorce papers to the Emperor, Ruby had taken it upon herself to summon the royal physician for me.

The Emperor and Empress already carried guilt over the Crown Prince breaking off his engagement to me. When they learned what had happened, they'd rebuked Chloe harshly.

Called her vicious. Said she'd shown callous disregard for another woman's life.

Chloe couldn't touch me, not with the Emperor and Empress shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Ruby instead.

I watched Ruby's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop.

I seized Homer's sleeve and begged. "My lord, please save Ruby. Every fault is mine, all of it."

"She was only worried about me."

Homer's expression pinched with reluctance. "Penny, she's just a servant. Let the Crown Prince's wife vent her anger and it'll blow over."

I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.

Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?

Mine didn't. Ruby's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of Millhaven Village.

I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered Millhaven Village, my lord? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"

Homer flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting red with fury.