Marked

After the tender moment they shared, her husband gave their servants orders to prepare a herbal bath, something that would quicken the process of her recovery.

He pardoned himself afterward but promised to be present for supper. Sophie held her protests when Luke, touchingly, left a kiss on her forehead as he twirled a strand of her hair with his finger.

The servants were instructed to assist her throughout the entirety of her bath which made her feel a multitude of things.

It seemed like her husband believed her too injured to do anything on her own.

Sophie's face flushed. She knew it was somewhat normal for nobles to be assisted by servants in acts so intimate, but it still embarrassed Sophie.

In her family's household, the servants were too few and too spread thin to perform such menial tasks.

As duchess, Sophie tried not to exhaust her husband's servants with jobs that she knew she could accomplish on her own, eager to earn their approval as their mistress. It was important for a lady to be considerate of everyone's time and energy, after all. Another lesson her mother persistently drilled into her head.

So the moment three eager maids came rushing to her side, holding her up as she made her way to the bathroom, Sophie already had plans to oppose her husband's orders.

She could bathe well enough on her own, injured or not.

And to Sophie's surprise, the places she fell on didn't hurt that much anymore, not as much as when she had just woken up.

A miraculously speedy comeback.

Beneath all her reservations about appearing helpless, Sophie was insecure about the state of her body. Before that, she'd never acquired injuries so serious. She dedicated most of her life to maintaining prim and proper, after all.

If another's eyes were to see her skin in such a battered state, she didn't know how she would feel.

It was embarrassing at best. But at worst, it was capable of sending her down a spiral she wasn't ready to pull herself out of.

When she finally came face to face with the tub after an excruciatingly slow walk, she asked the three maids to leave her be. They understood her hesitance and left promptly. Sophie was grateful no resistance came about else she'd start getting emotional again.

She stripped away the thin layers of robes hanging on her body and carefully removed the bandages.

The gasp she let out had been uncontained. Fortunately, she was alone in the bathing room and it was likely no one was near that part of the estate except the maids she excused.

The sight before her could push the weak-hearted into fainting.

Instead of wounds and bruises, a large mark covered her torso.

Terrifying as much as it was fascinating—imprinted on her skin was a fierce creature with scales and eyes of gold.

Sophie rubbed at the mark, praying it would go away, praying it was a figment of her imagination.

But it remained. She blinked her eyes once, twice, and it remained where she discovered it.

Why was such a strange thing engraved on her skin?

The world started spinning once she realized that the mark resembled the beast in the woods.

Had it gotten attached to Sophie? Did it perform a ritual on her? Left her with a curse? Perhaps the mark is its mating mark? What would her husband think? Would her husband assume that she had been the beast's accomplice?

It wasn't entirely untrue, Sophie ran into the beast when it was in a feral state, seemingly possessed by the spirit of carnage. It rested its forehead on hers and stared as if she had hung the moon with her hands. Despite her attitude, she couldn't say it was entirely unpleasant.

She clenched her fists, tears bubbling up her eyes in shame. She swore there was no man for her but her husband, but she allowed the beast to persuade her so easily—she had even climbed a gigantic tree to retrieve food for it.

Luke would deem her untrustworthy. Their marriage would fall into a state of unfixable.

After everything they've been through, no one else could know of the mark.

She gulped down all her pessimistic thoughts and stepped into the tub.

She would not let anyone see the mark. She would change her bandages herself, no matter how much her husband protests—not that she needed to after her recent recovery. Regardless, he must never find out.

Sophie knew better, but she still tried to scrub off the mark. When her skin turned red, positively irritated, she stopped. Everything hurt a tad bit more, but the mark remained.

Along with it remained a few internal injuries. She learned the hard way when she had moved her arm too fast for comfort. The yelp that left her lips was undignified to say the least.

Sophie felt like she was falling into the pits of hell upon realizing that she had to dress herself alone with a few invisible pains around her body. She was ready to risk it all and call for her maids.

But Sophie sucked it up, choosing instead to wear less constricting clothes. Her husband would adore the discarded amount of layers, but she would not allow him to undress her.

A loss for both of them, truly.