Chapter 385: Confessions (2)
In the palace dungeon, Quinn leaned against the wall.
Boredom struck Quinn from the moment he entered the palace. There wasn’t anyone inside the dungeon to make it entertaining, and no one came to speak to him.
All the fun Quinn was having ended when he was taken away from Edgar.
"Did they figure it out?" Quinn spoke out loud, seeing no need to hide his thoughts.
Quinn wished he could have been around to see Edgar’s reactions to the gifts he had long prepared.
Was Edgar angry?
Did Edgar display his anger, or did he try to mask it?
Was Edgar pledging to kill him, and was already on his way to the palace dungeon?
"Why didn’t those fools keep me there? I wanted to see his face. All this planning just for what?" Quinn asked, irritated that he had missed so much of the show he had prepared.
Where was the king?
Where was Rafael?
Quinn had done so much to get their attention, but none of them stood before him.
Quinn stared ahead at the guards sitting at a small table, enjoying a meal.
"Tell the king to come to me. I have something he will want to hear," Quinn informed the guards.
To his dismay, Quinn was ignored by the guards.
This upset Quinn.
Quinn pushed himself off the wall and walked toward the iron bars of the cell.
Rather than yell at the guards for ignoring them, Quinn only stared at them at first.
"I should have you know that I am going to be released from this place soon, and when I do, I will remember all of your faces. I never forget a face, and to those who are rather impolite with me, face punishments beyond your imagination-"
Quinn was silenced by a guard throwing a cup filled with water at him. The water splashed on Quinn’s face, but it wasn’t enough to soak him.
Quinn chuckled. He hadn’t been treated like this in years.
It should anger him, but Quinn remained calm.
This was the fun part. To witness others treat him with so much disrespect, only to change their ways once he got hold of them.
Quinn wiped his face and said, "Water is nothing compared to what else was thrown at me in the past. If you want to silence me, why don’t you come closer?"
The guards were still facing away from Quinn. Quinn would soon learn that he wasn’t in an ordinary place.
Quinn would see the king only when the king wanted to meet. Whatever power Quinn had on the outside didn’t matter here.
Quinn’s playful interest in the guards soon started to crumble. Now, they had made themselves his enemy.
"I am going to enjoy seeing you again," said Quinn.
One of the guards laughed, humoured by Quinn thinking he was going to get out.
"If there were a chance you were innocent, they would have taken you to court. You were sent here to die."
"You say that as if I am afraid of dying. I feel like I died when I was far younger. I’m simply enjoying the days before death comes to me. I’m going to enjoy seeing your expressions change soon," Quinn said, going back to waiting.
Fortunately, the dungeon doors opened, and one of the men Quinn wanted to see entered the dungeon.
The guards stood to greet the king.
Quinn smiled, beaming with excitement to be in the presence of the king.
Tobias once again tried to read the kind of man Quinn was. "You appear rather happy though your younger brother is dead," he said.
"My brother and I always wanted to meet you. We’ve been invited to your balls, but we have never had the pleasure of speaking to you. I hate that it is under these circumstances, but I am rather happy to meet you. My brother would be happy," said Quinn.
"How unfortunate he didn’t get the chance to speak with me," Tobias said, standing before the cell where Quinn couldn’t reach him. "You don’t have a bit of regret for killing your brother."
"Why should I when he tried to kill others? I thought a man like you would applaud my good deed, but here I stand in the dungeon. Your people will not understand this. Did you want me to side with my brother after what he did?" Quinn asked.
"No, you should have waited and let us take him. I am certain you didn’t know what it was your brother did to have us at your gates. I would have waited if it were my brother," Tobias said, questioning if they truly were brothers.
"Well," Quinn said, flashing Tobias a look of pity. "How unfortunate your mother wasn’t able to give you a brother, and your father was so foolish that he didn’t take a mistress to his side."
Quinn was surprised to see that Tobias didn’t become upset and tried to lash out at him for speaking of his dead father.
"That didn’t work?"
"What makes you think you are special? You are not the first man to try to make me angry, and you will not be the last. What is it that you have come to Lockwood for? To cause trouble or to follow in your father’s footsteps?" Tobias asked, placing his hands behind his back.
Tobias signalled for the guards to be on alert.
"Did you figure it out? No, did the duke figure it out? Did he go to my father’s home?" Quinn asked, gripping the iron bars. "Tell me, how did the duke react? Did someone inform the duchess?"
Tobias was taken aback by Quinn’s interest in the Collinses.
Tobias tilted his head, starting to see Quinn’s mask slipping. Why was everyone so interested in Cassius when Quinn was like this?
"Why are you so interested in the duke and the duchess?" Tobias inquired.
Quinn frowned, annoyed that the king wanted to play the role of a fool before him. "Don’t act like you don’t know the reason. The duke killed my father. I could have inherited all that my father had."
"You are aware that it is likely your father took your mother from her family to cover a debt. It is what he tried to do with the duchess. For you to look up to him-"
Quinn’s laughter filled his cell. "Look up to him? That man was an awful father. He barely acknowledged me, though he wanted me to be his heir. If the others were alive, they would have said he was an awful father. Keeping us inside so the town wouldn’t know of us."
There was a time when William treated his children more like servants.
"Others?" Tobias questioned, hoping it wasn’t that William had other children.
"Yes, others. The few other children he had, but don’t worry. They are gone," Quinn confessed like it were good news.