Chapter Fifteen #3
Addax was straining against him, more enraged than he’d ever been in his life. “He tried to kill Emmeline by kicking her down the stairs,” he snarled. “He killed the child she was carrying, and now, I am going to kill him.”
It was a shocking answer, once that nearly had Essien so startled that he almost let his guard down.
In fact, he started to, but Addax felt him slacken, and he pulled away in an attempt to get back to Maximilian.
Realizing this, Essien did what he normally wouldn’t do—he grabbed his brother by the hair, holding the back of his head, as he whispered in his ear.
“You need to stop this now,” he hissed. “Have you gone mad? You are only going to make this situation much, much worse!”
Addax was still struggling against his brother. “Not if I kill him first.”
Essien yanked on him, trying to pull him further away as Claudius ran to his son’s side to help him.
“Addax, listen to me,” he said. “If you kill him in front of Bretherdale, the earl can have you brought before a magistrate. They may even execute you for murder. Is that what you want? Hereford might not be able to get you out of it. Think!”
Addax was trying to think. He truly was. But he was so crazed with anger and hatred that he simply wasn’t thinking straight. But that all stopped when a feeble voice called to him from the top of the mural stairs.
“Addax?”
It was Emmeline. Her left arm was bandaged to her chest, and she had blood all over the bottom of her shift, but she was on her feet.
With the help of the cook and the physic, she was on her feet.
God only knew what strength it took to get her there, but she had forced herself out of her sickbed because of the chaos Addax had created.
He stopped struggling against Essien when he saw her.
“Get back to bed,” he told her. “You should not be up.”
Emmeline’s gaze was on him, but only for a moment. It soon moved to Maximilian, who was sitting up with his father’s assistance. The man was bloodied and battered, and still only half-conscious, but he was alive.
That was all Emmeline needed to see.
“Addax,” she said again. “Come here, please.”
Addax didn’t hesitate. He pulled free of his brother and took the stairs two at a time to her.
She ordered the physic and the cook away so she could speak to Addax privately, but she could hardly stand on her own, so she had to grab on to him with her one good arm.
He held her tightly, trying to turn her around to get her back to bed, but she balked.
“Stop pushing me around,” she said. “I want you to listen to me.”
He did as she asked and stopped trying to move her. “What is it?” he asked. “Truly, Emmy, you should not be—”
She cut him off, quietly done, but unmistakably. “Listen to me, and listen closely,” she said, barely above a whisper. “I want you to leave. Take your things and leave this instance. Do you understand me?”
He looked at her, puzzled. “Why?” he demanded. “I cannot—”
She cut him off again. “If you think this is a simple thing for me to ask you, then you would be wrong,” she said hoarsely.
“You have attacked the man I am married to. His father is an earl. You are in a good deal of trouble now, and I could not stand it if those two tried to prosecute you for your crimes. They can, you know. And they will ruin you.”
He was starting to calm down a little. She was saying essentially the same thing Essien had said, so the control that had eluded him so far was starting to come together again. He understood what they were saying, completely, but he couldn’t agree with it.
He wouldn’t.
“No one is going to ruin me,” he said quietly. “But I could not let what he did to you go unpunished.”
Emmeline knew that. She knew exactly why he’d done what he’d done, but that didn’t stop her from the utter terror she was feeling at the moment.
She’d already decided to ask him to leave earlier in the day, but this incident had set that decision in stone.
He had to leave, or very bad things were going to happen.
Tears were swimming in her eyes as she looked at him.
“There were times in my life that I prayed for a guardian angel, but God had other plans for me,” she murmured.
“He sent me a dragon to watch over me, and I love that dragon more than words can express. But you have given away our secret by attacking Maximilian. They will know of your feelings for me, and that means you cannot stay. You know you cannot stay.”
That was true. All of it. He hadn’t considered the fact that he’d betrayed their secret with his actions, but he could see now that he had. Still, it didn’t matter. If he had it to do all over again, he would do the same thing.
Again and again.
“I could not let his deed go unpunished,” he said simply.
“I know,” she said softly. “Addax, I am not asking you to go. I am telling you. You must leave. You must take your things and leave at this moment. Get out before they try to ruin you. Get out before they turn what we feel for one another into torment. Please, my love. I want you to go.”
Addax was starting to become emotional as the reality of the situation began to bear down on him. “But… how will I know what I leave behind?” he said, his voice tight. “How will I know how you are? If you are well? If Max is behaving himself?”
She sighed faintly. “You know the answer to that,” she said. “You must not think of me at all. I am another man’s wife, and I cannot have you wasting your life pining for me. You know I am right.”
“But—”
“Zahid, Addax,” she whispered, interrupting him. “You will always have everything of me. But you must go, and you must leave me behind.”
“You ask too much.”
“I know. But it is all we can do.”
Addax felt as if he’d been hit in the chest. He audibly exhaled as if there had been an actual blow.
Emmeline watched his face for a moment, holding back the explosive grief she was feeling, but knowing it was the right thing to do.
Addax had to save himself. After attacking Maximilian, there was nothing else he could do.
“Essien?” Emmeline called. “Please come to me.”
Essien, who had been watching the situation from afar, quickly made his way up the stairs.
He stood a step below Emmeline and Addax, watching the two of them, seeing the naked agony in his brother’s face, and he knew why.
He’d always known. Addax was in love with Emmeline, and that love had overtaken him. He could no longer hide it.
Emmeline, this time, was the strong one.
“Essien, you must take your brother and get out of here,” she said quietly. “Gather your things and go now. Go back to the tournament circuit, and do not let your brother come back here. If he does, they will ruin him. And that must not happen.”
Essien could see that she meant it. Every word of it.
But Addax was about to crumble before his eyes.
The strongest man he’d ever known was having the weakest moment of his life.
But the lady was right—he had to leave before Bretherdale and Maximilian did something terrible to him, and Essien appreciated that the lady was trying to save him.
Even in her injured state, she was only thinking of Addax. But God… It was painful to watch.
After a moment, Essien nodded.
“We will go,” he said quietly, reaching out to peel his brother off Emmeline. “Ad, let her go. We must leave.”
Addax refused. He had her good hand, and he also had an arm around her waist, supporting her, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Oh, God,” he breathed. “I am not sure I can.”
Emmeline pried his fingers off her hand and tried to step back, weak as she was. “Addax, let go of me,” she said. “Please. I must go back to bed.”
That caused her to loosen his grip, and she staggered back so the cook could catch her.
Old Elza had her tightly, tears in her eyes because she’d heard what had been said.
The physic, however, hadn’t heard anything because he’d been further away, but he stepped forward to take Emmeline.
As the cook and the physic turned her toward the stairs that led up to her chamber, Addax spoke softly.
“Zahid, Emmeline,” he said. “For always.”
Emmeline couldn’t hide the tears. As the cook and the physic helped her take one stair at a time, Essien pulled Addax down the flight of stairs with him.
“Come,” Essien said. “We must go.”
Addax nodded dumbly, but he also gestured back toward the mural stairs. “My things are in my chamber,” he said weakly. “I must go get them.”
“Nay,” Essien said. “Go prepare your horse. I will get your things.”
“I can get them.”
“That was not a suggestion. Go prepare your horse.”
It was Essien giving the commands for a change, because Addax was incapable of thinking clearly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Addax headed out of the keep, into the night beyond.
Essien watched him go, making sure he wouldn’t try to double back.
When Addax was far enough away, Essien turned to Claudius and Maximilian.
“I am taking him out tonight,” he said quietly. “He will not come back.”
Claudius was quivering with fear, with rage. “See that he does not,” he said. “But he may yet feel my wrath for what he has done.”
Essien fixed on the earl. “If I were you, I would not start any trouble,” he said.
“Addax has the backing of de Velt and de Lohr. One word from him and they will march on Raisbeck and Alston and raze them both. If you do not wish to lose everything you have, then take heed—keep your lips shut and ensure that Lady Emmeline remains safe and sound for the rest of her life, for any word that she has been injured again, or worse, and there is nothing I can do to hold my brother back. He will come back, and he will kill you both. Is this in any way unclear?”
It was a heavy threat, but one that Claudius believed implicitly. There was no way he could defend himself against de Velt or de Lohr, and they both knew it. Therefore, there would be no retaliation for what Addax had done to Maximilian.
They were fortunate it hadn’t been worse.
With a brief nod, Claudius turned his attention back to Maximilian, who was in a bad way.
But Essien didn’t care. He headed back up to his brother’s chamber, gathering all of his things, before returning to the stable where Addax was already on his horse, mounted.
He was just sitting there, waiting. Waiting to start the rest of his life without the woman he’d been foolish enough to fall in love with.
Something went out of Addax al-Kort that night.
Something he would never find again.