CHAPTER 23
A BASKET OF HOPEB
aski’s eyes went wide. She couldn’t believe this! It was impossible! “Whose child was this, Danika?” she blurted out.
Danika looked confused and surprised at the same time. “Madam Baski?”
Baski’s hand reached out and took Danika’s hand into hers. She squeezed in agitation. “Tell m-me the truth. You know I’ll never tell on you, right? The king will never find out! We’ll bury it here and treat it like it never happened! As long as you promise me it’ll never happen again, the king will never find out! But you must tell me whose child you carried!” Shocked, Danika’s mouth opened, but Baski rushed on, clearly flustered and agitated. “Were you raped? Who did it!? Why did you try to cover it up!?” She shook Danika’s hand again. “Tell me everything, Danika. I need to know! Please!?”
Danika was speechless. She wiped the tears from her eyes to see Baski clearly and replayed every word Baski had said. Then she realized the older woman thought she had laid with another man who was not the king.
Baski thought she carried another man’s child.
“No!” Danika snatched her hand from Baski’s at the realization. “No! Never! I have been with no other man that way, Madam Baski! Never!” Her head began pounding, her heart racing, but she ignored those feelings and settled an intense gaze on Baski. “It’s always been the king! He’s the only man that I’ve ever been intimate with, Baski! He’s the man that took my virginity and it’s been him ever since! Why would I degrade myself and be with another man?”
She raised her chin, her eyes filled with fire. “I might be a slave now, Baski. I might be in plain clothes and do chores and mingle with all sorts of people. But I’d never degrade myself and let another man put his hands on me when I already belong to the king! I’d never do something that despicable, and it hurts me that you think so low of me.” She said, swiping the tears from her eyes again and glaring at Baski.
Baski raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth. That intensity—that innocence and disgust—in Danika’s eyes could not be faked. “Oh, Creator! No…” Baski shook her head in disbelief. “No. It can’t be.”
Danika took Baski’s hand and placed it to her own chest. Their eyes held, and she whispered, “I swear on my life. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
“No!” Baski snatched her hands away and tears began rolling out of her eyes in waves. “Heavens! No, oh Creator! His child? His child!? Oh, heavens! Gods! Creator!”
“Baski?” Danika called her name, shocked at her reaction. Why was she behaving like this?
Baski wasn’t looking at her. Instead, she kept exclaiming, her eyes wide. When she rose from the bed, Danika thought she wanted to leave the bedroom, but Baski began crying. “His child?” she cried, pain in her voice.
“Baski, what’s wrong?” Danika felt scared. She tried to go to Baski, but her body hurt, protesting the movement.
Baski sobbed like a woman who lost her child. She clutched her chest, and her legs gave out. She fell to the ground, crying. “The king’s child?”
“Please, you’re scaring me. Please, stop crying, Madam Baski. I swear, I didn’t do anything wrong. Please, stop,” Danika pleaded, feeling terrible at the broken sobs from the older woman.
Baski crawled closer to her and took hold of her hand. “You can’t lose that baby, Danika! You just c-can’t!”
“B-but—” Danika didn’t understand. It hurt her to see strong Baski fall apart this way. “Tell me what’s wrong, please; tell me how to help you.”
Baski shook her head sorrowfully. “You can only help me with that child, Danika. Oh, Creator, please! Why!? Why!? Danika, please help me,” she cried.
“How!? How do I help you? Please, tell me what to do!” Danika shifted in the bed, ignoring the shards of pain that spread through her body. She reached for Baski, pushed the older woman’s head to her chest, and cradled her head there. She rocked her softly. “It’s alright. Please, stop crying.”
Baski shifted her head to Danika’s belly and only cried harder. “How c-could this happen? Oh, my Creator!?”
Danika couldn’t understand much, but she gave Baski soothing words while rocking the woman as gently as she could. “It’s okay, Baski. Please, stop crying.”
Baski only cried harder.
Vetta dressed carefully and without words. Karandy was blathering about how good it was, and how good he felt. She said nothing. As she walked out of his house, Vetta thanked the gods for her large corsets that covered every part of her lower body extravagantly. No one would see that she was limping and her legs were trembling.
That bastard, Karandy, almost killed her. He’d pounded her hard, and for a moment, she’d thought the man planned to kill her. At first, she’d enjoyed it—she was no stranger to rough coupling. But then, the reminder came to her about who was drawing pleasures from her body—a man who was lower than dirt—and she’d dried up immediately. That was when he began pounding her like she wasn’t human, and it had hurt like hell.
“Animal!” she hissed as she stumbled upon a stone. Barely breaking her fall, she rose and glared behind her at his door. On the bright side, he was going to get her out of a mess first. Then she’d deal with him mercilessly for forcing her into that. Vetta wouldn’t let him go! Never would she let him go for dragging her down to his level!
For now, Vetta forced herself to put him out of her mind. It was a long walk back to the palace.