Читать книгу Dead Men Don't Lie - Jackson Cain - Страница 43

Chapter 28

The Señorita Dolorosa led her court ladies into her palatial bedroom suite.

“I have a special treat for you,” she announced. “A new lover. He’s going to be here in a few minutes. When he comes in here, you have to watch.”

The Señorita loved terrifying and humiliating her lovers in front of her ladies. They put on a good front and pretended to enjoy the spectacle. Their survival often depended on appearing happy and cheerful, even when they were frightened half to death.

Today, however, they were more sanguine than usual. The night before their Lady had presented them with new clothes. This was the first time they had a chance to try them on. Catalina was wearing her new toga of crimson silk, which played off her red hair, matching nail polish, and high-heeled sandals. Rosalita’s outfit was an ebony toga, and it perfectly matched her long raven tresses and sandals. Isabella was attired in bright canary yellow, which complemented her long blond hair, while Roberta’s turquoise robe, sandals, and necklace almost seemed to reflect the deep lustrous blue of her sapphire eyes.

None of her ladies favored white, knowing that it was the Señorita’s favorite color.

“Is this new one gifted in bed, My Lady?” Catalina asked. “Is that why you want us to meet him?”

“Oh, I don’t think it will get that far,” the Lady Dolorosa said. “I plan on having a different kind of fun with him.”

“What kind of fun?” Roberta asked.

“He is the most craven man I’ve ever seen. You should have seen him when I took him into our Inquisitor’s chambers. When he saw the Inquisitor thumbscrew a man—who was already moaning, sobbing, and hanging from a strappado—the new man’s bladder released. He started crying at the temple-pyramid when the High Priest ripped out the heart of another of my former lovers. I had to summon my guards and make them force him to watch. I’ve never had one so bloody sensitive before. Usually my paramours are more . . . manly.”

“What will you do with him, My Lady?” Isabella could barely choke out the words.

“I thought you’d guess. I’m going to terrify him out of his wits and then have him tortured half to death.”

“My Lady,” Catalina said, secretly sick with dread, “it sounds so delightful.”

“Oh, we’ll have some fun with this one.”

Then the Señorita’s eyes flashed with a merriment so macabre and her smile blazed with a malevolence so feral that her ladies visibly shook involuntarily, even as they struggled to suppress their trembling.

Her ladies of the court could not imagine what unexpected horror the Señorita Dolorosa planned to perpetrate next.