#angsty chapter

“My wife?” She asked, confusion clear in her voice. 

“I told them not to do it, but they didn’t listen to me.” The girl exclaimed in a hurried rush. “They took her cane from the chair while she was yelling at Elliot.”

Heat pooled in her cheeks as she understood the implication before being washed away by the concern for her friend. 

“She was heading over to the School for Evil, but she didn’t look too good, ma’am. Snapped at me when I offered to help. I thought she might feel better if it was you.” 

“Thank you, Elia. You did the right thing.” Dovey hushed. “If you would please leave a note on my desk with the names of those students, I would be ever so grateful.”

She collected her skirts and started running down the hall. 

“Oh! And Elia... Please, let’s not use spousal terms when referring to the staff. It will be Lady Lesso or Dean Lesso from now on. She gets a bit tetchy about proper titles.” Clarissa called over her shoulder. 

She would deal with that at a later date…after she has had the opportunity to speak to Leonora about it. 

Clarissa made it to the dark castle in record time, despite her heels and cumbersome skirts. The halls were blessedly empty and she only had to navigate two corridors before finding the other woman. Lady Lesso was leaning against the grimy, stone wall in a darkened corner of the alcove. She was holding her thigh in a white-knuckled grasp and, even from this distance, she could see the pain in her posture. 

“Lady Lesso!” Dovey greeted casually as she closed the distance. “Fancy meeting you here!”

Upon closer inspection, Lesso’s face appeared unnaturally pale. Beads of sweat clung to her hairline and her hands trembled in her effort to appear composed. 

“I was just heading to your chambers to find you. I was hoping to get your opinion on a suitable punishment for a set of Ever students who believed that torturing others was great entertainment.”

“Of course.” Lesso grit through bared teeth. “I have several ideas, actually.”

“Oh, but my feet are killing me from these heels. Be a dear, and help me the rest of the way?”

Clarissa didn’t ask. She linked her arm with Leonora’s and pulled the taller woman’s weight onto her frame. To anyone else, it would have looked like they were going for another one of their evening strolls. To Lesso, it was an immediate relief to her throbbing leg. They finished the stretch of the corridor and turned into an archway with a spiral staircase heading to the corner tower. Halfway to the top, Leonora pulled away and sat on the stairs with a hiss of pain. 

“How can I help you right now?” Clarissa whispered, joining her on the step. 

Her hands hovered anxiously over Lesso’s bad leg with a lost expression painted on her face. 

“I’m fine.” Lesso groaned, slapping her hands away. “Let’s just keep moving. We’re almost there.”

A sharp frown pulled at Clarissa’s lips, but she allowed the avoidance. She stood and offered her arm once more to her struggling friend. Together, they stumbled up the remaining stairs and into Leonora’s private chambers. 

“What happened?” Clarissa asked her as she collapsed onto the edge of her bed. 

“Oh, I thought that was common knowledge. I trained Cerberus for Hades back in the day as a favor.” Lesso answered blankly. 

Dovey’s heart constricted at the emptiness in Lesso’s response. She wrinkled her nose and sat gingerly next to her on the bed, trapping Lesso’s hand between her both of her own. 

“You don’t have to pretend with me, Nora.” She whispered against the tears burning in her eyes. 

“Yes, yes, I’m fine Dove.” Leonora sighed. “Just wondering the best way to kill some teenagers and manage to keep my job.” 

Dovey snorted a laugh and leaned her head onto Lesso’s shoulder. “I may or may not have a list waiting on my desk of the students responsible.” 

“Little shits. Your little Evers were too cowardly to try something face to face, they had to team up while my back was turned!” 

“I'm sure it’s the only way anyone at this school could have possibly gotten away with it. I defer all consequences to you, dear.” 

“When I’m done with them, they’ll be the ones needing a cane.” Lesso muttered darkly. 

Dovey pulled away and dipped to the floor, pulling at the laces on Lesso’s stiletto boots. The Dean of Evil quirked a curious eyebrow but said nothing. 

“You kind of set yourself up for it, you know.” Clarissa stated matter-of-fact as she tucked the boots neatly under the bed. “You don’t let anyone get close to you and you keep them guessing. Me included! Especially when you spin your fantastical tales about your injury. They’re dumb teenagers, Leonora. I’m not saying what they did was right. I’m just saying they are testing their boundaries and they have no earthly idea as to what consequences might come of it.”

A pensive pout pulled at Lesso’s lips and Clarissa was overcome with the sudden desire to kiss it away. Shaking the thought away, she quickly stood and fled to the ensuite to retrieve a glass of water and some pain medication, using the opportunity to hide the blush surely forming on her cheeks. 

“You know, I heard this fascinating rumor today.” She heard Lesso shout over the sound of the faucet. 

“What did you hear?” Dovey questioned with genuine intrigue as she passed Lesso the pain relief. 

Clarissa allowed herself to relax on the already rumpled bedspread and propped her head up with her hand, looking at her friend curiously. Leonora set the glass on the nightstand and mirrored her position. 

“We look and sound like a couple of teenagers gossiping.” Clarissa giggled. 

“Oh, just you wait, Rissa.” Leonora barked with barely contained laughter. 

The redhead cleared her throat dramatically and lowered her voice into a stage whisper. 

“I heard some Ever boys saying some rather salacious comments about the lovely shape of…” She gestured rudely in the direction of her chest. “And then something about being a fairy godmother they’d like to…”

Clarissa’s offended gasp cut off the rest of Lesso’s statement. A wide and entirely too mirthful grin split across the Evil Dean’s face. 

“Based on the very descriptive details I overheard, I don’t think they were referencing our resident beauty teacher.” 

“While disgusting and highly inappropriate, that’s not exactly the definition of a rumor.” Dovey sputtered. 

The glee in Lesso’s eyes ignited and, if possible, her smile only widened. 

“One of your less than chivalrous boys asked how long the rest of them thought we had been dirty dancing for. Elliot, I believe his name was? He had some rather imaginative scenarios as to what we really do during the weekly staff meetings. Should I describe it for you?”

Clarissa choked on her own saliva and said a silent  prayer to the Storian to kill her now. Lady Lesso must have seen the mortification plain on her face, as she finally released the uncontrollable laughter she had been holding back. 

“I will cherish the horror that dawned on their faces the second they saw me behind him for as long as I shall live.” Leonora sighed as her laughter dissipated, wiping the joyful tears from her eyes. 

Dovey was still recovering from the heat of embarrassment and covered her face with her hands. She couldn’t look at her. If she looked at her, it was over. Lesso would be able to see the want and love staring back at her and this farce of being happy with merely friendship would be over. 

“Well, as a Dean of this hallowed institution, I, of course, could not let this behavior abide. While delivering a verbal reprimand, one of yours thought it would be hilarious to take my cane. And here we are.” Leonora concluded. 

“Well thank you for defending my honor.” Dovey said with only a hint of sarcasm from behind her fingers. 

Lesso let quietness settle between them. The stillness was comfortable, but she could feel the unexplained tension rolling off of the Fairy Godmother. 

“Thank you for coming to find me. I know that Ava girl sent for you.” She said quietly. 

“Elia.” Clarissa corrected. 

“I’m not a liar!”

Clarissa rolled her eyes at Leonora’s antics and didn’t fight the smile pulling at her lips. Lesso gave her a small smile in return, relieved to feel the tension dissipating with her terrible joke. 

“Leonora, how do you deal with all the rumors?” Dovey asked after a beat. 

The question was soft in its earnestness. Though quietly spoken, the weight of it seemed to fill the room. Clarissa watched as Leonora’s eyebrows knitted together in thought. A contemplative hum reverberated in her throat and she rolled herself to her belly. Lesso rested her head in the cradle of her folded arms and studied Clarissa intently. 

“It has been my experience that people are going to talk, no matter what you say or do.” She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. “No amount of threatening or punishment truly makes it stop. They just find other ways to communicate it. I have found that dealing with it, as you say, is more about not letting the things that are said affect me.”

“How do you do that?” Clarissa probed with genuine interest. 

“Well…” Lesso drawled. “I can’t be surprised or offended by a rumor if I’m the one creating it. I like to get ahead of the curve. It lets me control the narrative.”

The Fairy Godmother closed her eyes and nodded in a sorrowful understanding. 

“That’s why you make up stories about your leg.”

“It’s…easier than having to listen to idiots try to guess about something so outside of what their teeny tiny brains could possibly understand.”

Leonora shrugged her shoulders and pushed herself off the mattress. She held out her hand and helped Clarissa to her feet. 

“Come on, princess. At this rate, we are going to miss lunch.”

She rummaged through the wardrobe and retrieved the raven-headed cane and opened the door. 

“And we don’t need any more of those kinds of rumors going around.” She joked with a flirty wink. 

Clarissa flushed once more and let loose a nervous laugh. “About that…I heard this lovely little rumor from Elia this morning…”

“Who?” Lesso asked with feigned ignorance. 

Dovey’s expression fell flat and she deadpanned, “Ava.”

“Oh! Yes! Delightful girl, that one.” Lesso smirked. 

The pair began their descent down the staircase and into the hall. 

“How do you feel about a spring wedding?” 

Clarissa felt a broad smirk of her own form as Leonora’s steps beside her faltered. Maybe she wasn’t the only one feeling so affected by the implications of wild gossip. 

Chapter 4 (previous chapter)

Chapter 3

Chapter 2