( jessica's eyes move placidly as a bottomless lake, a depth of blue without a ripple of emotion. alia's triumph lies in the wrinkles of jessica's irritation — she will grant her no such thing. the sounder strategy is for pampered pets is to starve them of their petulance than reward its disobedience with scraps of attention. in this, she sends a message: alia may fashion herself a reverend mother, but she lacks the proper mind for it, if she thinks herself so skilled at eroding jessica's practiced patience.
as if she did not, presumably, learn at jessica's knee. as if she is not an incubator for jessica's terrible weaknesses. )
I haven't been a child ruled by hormones for some time.
( the implication, hidden inside jessica's words like a dagger slipped inside a sleeve: not as her daughter is. distracting herself, endangering their house, for impulsive whimsy. it's cold in its steel, a distraction from the anger she does not allow herself, the privacy of a heart alia is not entitled to see: how the mere question of it disrespects her father's memory, tarnishes jessica's love for him.
much of her heart died with her duke. the rest, unwelcome as it is, belongs with paul. how cruel a girl she must've raised, to look into the eye of jessica's grief, and suggest pleasures of the flesh to soothe it.
a knot in her neck unravels with a swan-like stretch to its side. then, jessica straightens, projecting nothing — before she strikes her leg out, serpent-certain, to twine around alia's ankle and sweep her toward the soft, mat-lined floor. if alia won't take her efforts seriously, then she'll be made to do so, as beasts chased into corners must. )
Do you believe I'll coddle you, because you've deigned your training beneath you? ( she leaves no breath for an answer as she half-steps back — less a measure of mercy than predicting the punitive rise of alia's juvenile anger. ) Rise.
no subject
as if she did not, presumably, learn at jessica's knee. as if she is not an incubator for jessica's terrible weaknesses. )
I haven't been a child ruled by hormones for some time.
( the implication, hidden inside jessica's words like a dagger slipped inside a sleeve: not as her daughter is. distracting herself, endangering their house, for impulsive whimsy. it's cold in its steel, a distraction from the anger she does not allow herself, the privacy of a heart alia is not entitled to see: how the mere question of it disrespects her father's memory, tarnishes jessica's love for him.
much of her heart died with her duke. the rest, unwelcome as it is, belongs with paul. how cruel a girl she must've raised, to look into the eye of jessica's grief, and suggest pleasures of the flesh to soothe it.
a knot in her neck unravels with a swan-like stretch to its side. then, jessica straightens, projecting nothing — before she strikes her leg out, serpent-certain, to twine around alia's ankle and sweep her toward the soft, mat-lined floor. if alia won't take her efforts seriously, then she'll be made to do so, as beasts chased into corners must. )
Do you believe I'll coddle you, because you've deigned your training beneath you? ( she leaves no breath for an answer as she half-steps back — less a measure of mercy than predicting the punitive rise of alia's juvenile anger. ) Rise.