Free Web NovelChapter 289: Chapter 289
Circe had never had any pleasant encounters with Irah Alder. In the short time she had stayed at the palace, the woman had made it her personal mission to inconvenience Circe’s life in every way she could manage. It had not been difficult for Irah to do—Circe had been trapped in a strange land, surrounded by customs she did not yet understand, and still reeling from the violent loss of her kingdom.
"This isn’t just about me not staying in the carriage, and don’t even try to deny it," Circe said, her voice steady despite the tight knot in her chest.
She watched Ragnar’s body grow even more rigid at her words. The air around him felt sharp, and she could almost see his hackles rise.
"What were the two of you discussing back there?" she pressed on. "It’s clear she did something. You even said that you trusted her once, and that she took advantage of—"
"That has nothing to do with the conversation you and I are having," he snapped, cutting her off once more.
With every word, Circe felt him retreat further, stone sliding into place as he built his walls higher and higher. He withdrew the more she pushed, his responses turning defensive, and brittle.
She knew she should have dropped the issue. Stepping back would have been the most reasonable way to de-escalate the situation, it was what she would have advised anyone else to do. But it was also painfully obvious that he was not alright.
Whatever that transpired between him and Irah had reopened something old and deep, a wound that had never truly healed. It clung to him now, invisible but festering, having seeped so thoroughly into his soul that it shaped how he bore pain.
"It does, and you know it," she said quietly. "You only started acting like this when you realized I was there, watching the two of you. Tell me, Ragnar. I want to hear it from you, and you alone. Not from anyone else."
She didn’t keep pressing because she wanted to prolong the argument. She did it because she was worried. Because she could see that he was hurting and Ragnar processed that kind of pain by shutting down entirely.
"I can’t discuss this with you," he said.
There was something in the way he said it, so flat and final, that it made it sound like a dismissal. Right now, he was an impenetrable fortress.
"Can’t discuss it with me," she asked gently, "or won’t?"
"Whichever one gets you to drop the issue," he replied.
The words were out before he could stop them. Regret hit him instantly. He hated the harshness of his tone, hated that he had spoken to her that way. Yet he didn’t take it back. Even knowing he was pushing her away, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. freewёbnoνel.com
"You said there wouldn’t be any personal questions between us," Circe said, her voice still soft. "You said there wouldn’t be any secrets. What happened to that?" She searched his rigid profile. "Have you changed your mind?"
He told her about his father without hesitation. He had spoken of his earliest years spent on a farm as though they were inconsequential. He even explained how he got his scar with ease.
He wasn’t telling her the truth now because this was different. This was a secret he had buried deep and allowed to fester, an ulcer rotting from the inside.
"No," he said firmly. "I have not changed my mind."
That much was true. But it did not change the fact that skeletons still rattled violently in his cupboard.
Circe took a careful step closer. Then another. She stopped a few paces behind him, close enough to feel the tension rolling off his rigid frame in waves, close enough to see how his hands trembled faintly where they were braced against the windowsill.
"You’re angry," she said quietly. "I can accept that. But don’t pretend this is only about the carriage."
Ragnar said nothing.
The silence stretched, thick and oppressive. Outside, the wind howled through the night, distant and indifferent to what was unraveling within these walls.
"I heard what she said," Circe continued. Her voice did not waver, though her chest felt painfully tight. "I heard what you said too. I heard enough to put the pieces together if I wanted to. But I don’t want to guess. I want the truth from you. Yours is the only explanation I care to listen to."
That finally got a reaction.
His shoulders stiffened as though struck, breath catching for a second.
"You shouldn’t have heard any of it," he said at last. His voice was low, and controlled. "You weren’t meant to."
"But I did," she replied. "And I won’t pretend it didn’t happen."
She moved closer still, stepping to his side rather than remaining behind him. He didn’t turn to look at her, but she saw the muscle in his jaw flex as her presence pressed insistently against the walls he had built.
"Who was she to you, Ragnar?" Circe asked softly. "Tell me the truth."
A sharp breath escaped him through his nose.
"If you heard our conversation, then you already know the answer." He said.
"No," she said gently. "I heard a few heated words, enough to tell me that whatever she did, it wasn’t something small. How bad was it that it still hurts you this deeply, even now?" Her gaze lingered on him.
She hesitated before adding, almost reluctantly, "She said over twenty years. Is that how long you’ve been carrying the weight of it?"
He closed his eyes. At his feet, the shadows stirred restlessly, stretching wide along the floor as if responding to his turmoil, before finally recoiling back.
"Whatever it is, no matter how horrible you think it is, you don’t need to keep it bottled up any longer. If the situation were reversed, you wouldn’t hesitate for a single second to take on my burdens as your own..Let me do the same for you," Circe said quietly. She glanced at him, studying the rigid line of his shoulders. "Allow me to take some of the weight off your shoulders."
Ragnar opened his eyes, but he still did not look at her.
"You have no idea what knowing this will do to the way you look at me," he said. His voice was rough, scraped raw by fear. He grimaced and bowed his head.
She frowned. "You think less of yourself for it."
"Yes." He sucked in a sharp breath. "And I do not want to change the way you see me. I do not ever want a day like that to come. Yet it will, if I tell you what you are asking. And it frightens me."
The admission startled them both.
Circe absorbed that quietly. Then she said, "Please, look at me."
He didn’t.
She hesitated, her hand hovering in the air between them for a moment before she let it rest lightly against his forearm. He flinched slightly at the touch, but he did not pull away.
"Ragnar," she said again, firmer now. "I cannot stand beside you if you decide what I can and cannot bear. Whatever she holds over you only has power because you let it fester in silence."
