Julie's stomach knotted. The boldness that had surged through her only moments ago was gone, and she was rejecting her own decision with every fiber of her being.
The only reason she had dropped the berries in at all was to prove to herself that Cassius didn't own her, that she wasn't some trembling little girl under his thumb.
She wanted to show that she could do something, anything, against his strict command and still stand tall, to prove she wasn't scared of him.
But now, looking at him, at the cold, cutting stillness of his gaze, she knew she wasn't brave. She wasn't free. She was terrified. Terrified of Cassius, terrified of his thoughts, terrified of that silence that weighed heavier than any shouted reprimand.
Her courage had been nothing more than a shallow bluff, and the moment she saw his eyes, it shattered. She was a coward, plain and simple, and she wished desperately to take it back, to scoop those berries out of the stew, to undo the insult she had flung at him.
