Ruby’s Reviews > The Nightingale > Status Update

The sadness in her dark eyes was unbearable. Her friends gaze cut to a building whose chimney puffed out putrid black smoke. "They're killing us to cover what they've done."

"Henri? Paul?... Gaetan?"

"They were all arrested, Juliette. Henry was hanged in the Town Square. The rest..." She shrugged.

:(

He kissed her. When he drew back, his lips remained against hers. "I love you, Vianne."

She closed her eyes and returned his kiss, waiting for her body to come alive at his touch, but when she slid beneath him and felt their bodies come together as they done so many times before, she felt nothing at all.

"I love you, too, Antoine." She tried not to cry as she said it.

He came up behind her. She felt his strong sure hands on her shoulders, hearing him breathing behind her. She longed to lean back, rest her body against his with the familiarity that came from years together, but she couldn't. His hands caressed her shoulders, ran down her arms, and then settled on her hips. He gently turned her to face him.

;_;

He turned to her. The newest of bruise on his cheek made him smile.

"Von Richter!" someone in the entourage yelled. "Leave your French whore behind."

"That is what you were, you know," he said.

She pressed her lips together to keep from speaking.

"I'll forget you." He leaned forward. "I wonder I'd you can say the same."

A dead body hung from every street lamp in the town square.

She moved the only thing she could--her head--and it thunked against something hard. She was naked, tied to a chair inside of a...

Frozen. Dark. Humming. Small...

A refrigerator.

Holy crap

KILLLL HIMMMMM WITH FIREEEE

His gaze moved down her throat to the pale skin above her breasts. "I need a new place to billet. The Hotel Bellevue is unsatisfactory. I believe your house will do nicely."

Better watch yourself, boi

"And you should know about that. Aren't you the one who couldn't bother to be her sister when she needed one?"

"If you try to take her away from me, I'll kill you."

"You'll kill me," he said, smiling.

She cocked her head towards Beck. "I killed him with a shovel, and I liked him."

Vianne looked desperately for a weapon, saw a shovel leaning against the wall.

He lifted the hatch and yelled something. As the door banged open, he stood up, taking aim. Vianne grabbed the shovel and swung it at him with all of her strength. The metal scoop made a sickening thunk as it hit him in the back of the head and sliced deeply into his skull.

Beck staggered sideways and turned. "Madame," he said.

AHHH