Page 24 of Empire of Dark
“You mean you can’t read any language?” I shuffled a step to the right to cut off her path.
Trapped, her stare had gone to the floor and she gave me a tiny nod.
“Venetia, truly, it is nothing to be embarrassed by.” I reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’ve seen it hundreds of times before. Lots of people have trouble reading. They just need to be taught in the right way—and there are multiple right ways to teach it. What school do you go to? There are lots of tests that are available to pinpoint what the exact issue is, and once it is identified, you’ll be reading in no time.”
Her gaze crept up to me, half obscured by her bangs. “I’ve never had that.”
“No one has ever tested you to help with your reading?”
“No. I’ve never been to a school.”
“A tutor, then? Who has taught you?”
She shook her head, her face lifting slightly to me. “No one. No one has ever taught me.”
“What?” I stilled for a moment, my brow furrowing. “Why on earth not? I’ve talked to you for five minutes and I can tell you’re intelligent.”
“I am.”
“Yet you’ve never been to school? Never had a teacher?”
She worried her bottom lip. “There hasn’t been time.”
“Time? Why in heaven’s name not?”
“Father says there isn’t time for that. Not now.”
The hairs along the back of my neck spiked, the blood in my veins starting to boil.
How dare Damen deny her an education? An education she so clearly wanted—needed.
Staring at books. Hoping the letters would suddenly make sense. She couldn’t read.Read.A basic.
I seethed in a breath to control my voice. “Yet you clearly want to learn, do you not?”
She met my look, her brown eyes suddenly very determined. She nodded.
“Then you should learn. Your father is sorely mistaken on this point. There is always time to learn. And if there isn’t, then you make time.”
The determined glint flickered out of her eyes and she bowed her head, hiding away from me under her bangs. “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have even been in here. I shouldn’t have let you see me. Please excuse me.”
Without waiting for a reply and before I could move to stop her, she darted around me and ran out of the library.
I stared after her for a few moments, watching the open doorway, willing her to come back. She wasn’t afraid of me, I was fairly assured of that. But shewasafraid.
I went over to the couch and picked up the book she’d had open on her lap. Emma. Jane Austen.
My heart broke a little bit.
Everyone needed a little Jane Austen in their lives.
The outraged blood rushing through my veins hadn’t eased. It’d only increased, heating my skin.
Asshole.
I stormed out of the library, setting my feet in the direction of the wing where I gathered Damen usually spent his days in his study or in one of the adjoining rooms.
It took me a good ten minutes to make it to Damen’s study after taking two wrong turns in the maze of corridors the castle held, but when I pulled up to it, the door was closed.