Chapter Four #3
He was trying to force Canmore into more of a confession, but it had the opposite effect.
As the man began to tense, Corisande could feel what the men in the room couldn’t.
She could feel the arm around her neck tightening and she was starting to see stars because of it.
But there was one problem to Canmore’s grip.
He had her at an awkward angle, his arm partially covering her chin, which was probably the only thing preventing him from genuinely strangling her.
She had been listening to the odd conversation, coming to realize he was no ordinary visitor.
In fact, he was a prisoner from what she could gather, obviously someone who had been trying to coerce her father into doing…
something. She had no idea what it was and she didn’t care.
All she knew was that she didn’t want to die.
Fear had her planning her own escape.
She wasn’t going to let the man break her neck.
Lowering her chin, she managed to get her mouth on the fleshy part of his arm without him really noticing because he was too focused on de Velt. Quick as a flash, she bit him, digging her teeth into his flesh as hard as she could.
The results were as she had hoped.
Canmore screamed and loosened his grip as Cole shot out a giant hand and grabbed her, pulling her away from Canmore as the man staggered sideways.
It was just enough for Addax to step in and grab the man by the throat, but Canmore panicked and ended up pitching himself backwards as Addax lost his grip.
His momentum took him straight into that roaring fire.
In seconds, he was consumed with flame.
Cole still had Corisande, but Alastor quickly reached out and pulled her against him, throwing her into a protective embrace as Addax and Ares tried to pull Canmore out of the hearth.
But it was too late. His hair and clothing had gone up in an instant and he was already fully engulfed.
His cries of agony filled the chamber as Alastor quickly ushered his daughter out while Anteaus and Atlas ran for buckets of water, their shouts to the servants echoing through the keep.
The entire situation disintegrated into chaos.
Alastor had taken Corisande out of the chamber, but only to the door before he released her and ran back into his solar as a man burned to death before his very eyes.
Corisande stood in the entry, watching in utter horror as Canmore’s squirming lessened.
He was mostly in the hearth except for his legs, but he was kicking so much that he was scattering big logs of burning wood onto the floor.
He was risking burning down the entire chamber, so she watched as Cole and the knights who had come with him shoved Canmore back into the hearth and used a shovel and a fire poker to keep him there.
Gradually, he stopped moving.
After that, Corisande couldn’t watch anymore.
She wandered over to the mural stairs as her brothers and several soldiers rushed back into the keep, into the solar to extinguish the burning body.
She made it as far as the third step before plopping down and watching the activity, shocked and horrified by what she had just witnessed.
She’d never seen anything like it.
Even though Alastor had tried to remove her from the scene, she could still see what was happening.
The door to the chamber was open and she could see men moving about, tossing water into the hearth and moving anything flammable away from the mess.
Servants brought some of the chairs out of the solar along with the vellum that had been on the nearby table to keep it safe from the flames and water now being thrown around.
Corisande began to think that she had somehow contributed to the man’s horrible death by biting him.
If she was honest with herself, this whole situation had started when she entered the chamber with the wine.
Her father had told her to stay away, but she hadn’t listened.
She’d wanted to help the Scotsman in defiance of her father, but she’d ended up making herself a target when the man grabbed her.
And now this.
Arms wrapped around her torso, she hung her head and tried not to weep.
“My lady?”
A deep voice startled her and she lifted her head to see Cole standing there. He was looking at her with concern.
“Is he dead?” she asked hoarsely.
He nodded. “Aye,” he said. “There was nothing we could do. Are you well? He did not injure you?”
She shook her head. “He did not injure me,” she said. “But… but I fear I killed him.”
His brows flickered with confusion. “How did you kill him?”
She opened her mouth to explain, but the tears started to come. “I let him grab me,” she said, trying not to openly weep. “I did not mean to, but I did. Had I not given him that wine, he would not have grabbed me. I would not have bitten him and he would not have fallen into the hearth.”
She sniffed and lowered her head, wiping at the tears that were trickling down her cheeks. Cole’s gaze lingered on her a moment before he took a seat on the step below where she was sitting. Since the stairs were wide, they were a few feet apart, a proper distance, as he faced her.
“I think you are looking at this the wrong way,” he said with a surprising amount of compassion. “Alpin Canmore was a man with free will. He made the choice to grab you. He was not coerced. Everything that happened was by his choice. You did nothing wrong.”
Her shaking hand continued to wipe away the tears that were falling. “You are kind to say so, but it is not the truth,” she said. “It would not have happened had I not been there. I did not mean to cause trouble.”
“You did not,” Cole said. “Any trouble was caused by Canmore alone. You were simply a victim of his bad decision, so you must not blame yourself for any of this, my lady, truly.”
Corisande could see that he was trying to comfort her, making sure she was tended to as her father and brothers dealt with the madness in the solar.
Realizing that Cole had made a special effort to come to her when everyone else was occupied made her take a second look at the man.
It was an inordinately kind gesture on his part and certainly not expected from a man who bore the name of the most brutal warlord in England.
“I… I do not think I have seen you here before,” she said after a moment. “Have we never met before now?”
Cole shook his head. “Never,” he said. “I have known your father and brothers for years, of course, because they are allies with my father, but I have never been to The Keld. And I am sure you have never been to my home.”
“Where is your home?”
“Pelinom Castle. It is to the north, on the Scots border.”
“You serve there with your father?”
He nodded. “I do.”
For such a terrifying-looking man, in both size and manner, he had an unusual gentleness as he spoke to her. In fact, he had succeeded in calming her down, and Corisande wiped the last of her tears as Cole managed to make her feel a little less shaken. In fact, she felt better with his reassurance.
“You have been very kind, my lord,” she said. “You did not have to take the time to speak with me after… after what happened, but I am grateful that you did.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “It was my pleasure,” he said.
“You see, I have three sisters, only one of which is a calm, rational female. The other two are flighty and a bit dramatic at times, but they are sweet and lovable. They are my sisters, after all. Should they become upset over something, I would hope that someone would speak kindly to them and calm them.”
Corisande grinned, revealing lovely teeth. “Then you are well-versed in handling hysterical woman.”
He snorted. “Hardly,” he said. “Effie is a handful even in the best of times, but Addie is more manageable. There was a time when she would not leave me alone, sitting in my lap and holding my hand everywhere I went, the little goose. I could not shake her no matter what I did.”
Corisande eyed him dubiously. “You probably did not even try.”
“Of course I did,” he insisted. “But then she would cry and my mother would become angry, so I was forced to endure.”
“And you loved it.”
He lifted his chin defiantly. “I did not and you cannot make me say otherwise.”
Corisande giggled at him because she could see that he was jesting.
There was a lightness to the mood that hadn’t been there before and after the horrors of the day, it did her heart good.
The man had a comforting manner about him, at least with her, and it intrigued her immensely.
She liked it. In fact, she thought he was rather sweet and was about to taunt him again about his annoying little sister when the door to the solar suddenly slammed back on its hinges.
Ares and Addax appeared, dragging the charred, smoldering corpse out into the entry. The stench of burned human flesh began to seep into the air, that sickening sweet smell, and Corisande had a quick, sickening glimpse of the body before Cole abruptly stood up and blocked her view.
“Where is your chamber, my lady?” he asked steadily. “Mayhap it is time to retire until this mess is cleaned up.”
Corisande was unable to see anything with that big body in her field of vision. “I do not think that is necessary,” she said. “My father’s will surely need my assistance now and…”
He interrupted her, though he was not harsh.
“Someone will attend to your father,” he said, standing on the bottom step so she had no choice but to stand up and move up a stair or two.
“He has several knights at his disposal and hundreds of soldiers, so you needn’t worry.
I realize you are the chatelaine and this is your domain, but let the men handle this.
You do not need to sully your delicate senses with this unsavory task, my lady. ”