I am grown now; she can no longer oppress meThe doorway dwarfed the former queen"s figure. The willful spark in her eye had dulled to the tiredness of worn-out pewter. Her face was drawn and bony. Loose skin hung from her chin.
She rushed up to Denys and embraced her like a long-lost daughter. “What a lovely surprise! I"ve been so alone, how I long for company, and here you are.”
Denys no longer felt the contempt that filled her heart all those years. She would never walk through this door again.
She searched Elizabeth"s eyes for some hint of transparency, but the broken woman wallowed in the mire of self-defeat. Years of baiting and destroying victims had finally taken their toll. Empty and resigned, the deposed queen"s fate had dealt her a final blow she no longer had strength to resi
