Chapter Seventeen #2
Dane could see Cort moving in his periphery, heading to the door that Adela had just slammed with the intention of blocking her should she try to run.
That gave Dane the confidence to say what he needed to say without her trying to bolt from the chamber.
There was a table behind him. He sat back on it, smiling thinly at Adela’s annoyed face.
“We have not seen each other in several years, Adela,” he said. “You could not even be polite when you greeted me. Why must you act as if I am a stranger? I am your husband’s brother.”
Adela stiffened. “Did he send you here?” she demanded. “What does he want?”
“Trenton?” Dane shrugged lazily. “Nothing from you. He cannot stand the sight of you much as you cannot stand the sight of him. He doesn’t care about you in the least, and I am sure the feeling is mutual. Therefore, Cort and I have come of our own accord with a business proposition.”
Adela’s dark-eyed gaze moved between Dane and Cort. “Clowns, both of you,” she hissed. “What possible business could you have with me?”
Dane cocked an eyebrow. Now he remembered why he hated the woman so much.
“You have an eye for money, like any good whore,” he said.
“And since you are a whore for money, my proposition has to do with paying you a good deal of it. How much would it take for you to leave Penleigh and go back to Breton where you belong?”
Her face turned a deep shade of red. “Swine,” she growled. “How dare you…”
He cut her off. “You only stay with my brother, and at Penleigh, for the money,” he said. He pointed to her dress. “How much did that awful thing cost? You look like a fool in it. So tell me, Adela – how much will it take for you to leave England, and my brother, and never again contact him.”
Adela was so angry, so offended, that she was sweating. She turned to leave the room but saw Cort standing in front of the door, blocking her path. Realizing she was boxed in only made her angrier.
“Get out of my way,” she snarled at Cort.
He grinned at her as Dane spoke. “He is not moving until you tell me your price,” he said. “Everyone has a price.”
Adela turned to him swiftly, backing away from Cort and heading in the direction of the hearth with its gently snapping fire. The first thing she came across was the fire poker, and she lifted it, wielding it like a sword.
“I said get out of my way,” she hissed. “I shall not discuss this with you. I have every right to remain here, as the Countess of Westbury, and you cannot make me leave with your pathetic attempts.”
Dane didn’t move. He remained perched on the table even though he was in range of the fire poker should she decide to swing it at him.
“You married my brother because your father forced you to,” he said. “Much as my father forced Trenton to marry you. It was not your doing, nor was it Trenton’s, but the two of you were unfortunately thrown together. Surely you cannot be happy here.”
Adela was backing away from the men, feeling extremely threatened. “That is none of your affair.”
“It is a simple statement with an obvious answer.”
Adela paused, looking between the two knights.
“Do you truly wish to know how I feel?” she said.
“I cannot stand the stink of the name de Russe on me. I cannot stand the English around me, so I pay my friends to come and stay with me. Even now, I am hosting a grand party for my friends. Do you know what we do? We toast our hatred of the English, and of my husband, as we drink the wine and eat the food that his money has provided. When I saw you had come, I was hoping that you had come to tell me of his death, but I see that I am not so fortunate. Mayhap the next time you come to me, it will be with good news such as that.”
It was a vile thing to say, hatred beyond measure. It was an effort for Dane not to react to it because he would have liked nothing better than to snap the woman’s neck.
“Your husband is alive and healthy,” he said. “But your words tell me just how evil you truly are, Adela. I have never seen anyone with a heart as black as yours.”
Adela threw up her chin. “What do I care what you think? You are interrupting my party.”
Dane lifted a hand. “We do not have to,” he said.
“We can be quickly done with this. We want to know how much we can pay you to disappear. You are a disgrace to the House of de Russe and a shame for my brother to bear. Do you think he does not know about the men you bring to Penleigh? I am sure there are a few whore mongers among those friends you have brought into my brother’s house.
How many will you take to your bed tonight? ”
Adela was turning red again and she lifted the poker in his direction. “You will not say such things to me!”
“Then deny it. I dare you.”
She bared her teeth at him. “You are a swine,” she growled. “Like your older brother, you are a disgusting excuse for a man and I loathe the sight of you. Get out of my house, do you hear? Get out and never return!”
Dane was unimpressed with her anger. “It is not your house,” he said, “and if you do not name your price, you will be very sorry.”
“I said get out!”
“Nay.”
With a furious cry, she took a swipe at him with the poker.
Dane was fast enough to grab it, yanking it from her grip.
Unfortunately, the momentum of her swing, and his grab, caused her to topple over backwards and, with the weight of her dress, she wasn’t able to catch herself.
As Dane and Cort watched, Adela fell back into the hearth, right into the blazing flames.
It was a shocking event and she had been unable to catch herself.
Unfortunately, her dress, with all of its jewels, was made of very flammable material, and she went up in an instant.
Within a second, her entire skirt was in flames, tearing into her undergarments.
That which wasn’t in flames was seared against the flesh of her lower body, which also started to burn.
Very quickly, everything but her face and arms was on fire, and Cort rushed forward to pull her out of the hearth, but Dane stopped him.
“Nay,” he said, watching the woman as she was rapidly consumed with fire. “It is too late. She is already badly burned. You cannot save her.”
Nor did they truly want to. Engulfed in yellow flames, Adela’s screams were muffled as smoke and fire traveled down her throat.
No longer able to cry out, she tried to push herself out of the hearth, but her entire body was on fire.
Everything was burning. Soon enough, she could no longer move, and she simply collapsed into the hearth in a burning mess.
The room began to fill with dark, black smoke, and the great tapestry above the hearth went up in flames, as did the entire side of the room. It was a shocking sight.
“Come,” Dane said, realizing there was nothing they could do. “We must get out of here or we, too, shall be ash. Come!”
Cort, horrified at what he was seeing, followed his brother as the man kicked out the windows overlooking the bailey.
As the two of them bailed from the chamber, the entire thing went up in flames.
The wooden walls, the fabric drapery, and the tapestries made it a tinderbox.
They’d barely jumped from the window before flames began shooting out of it.
With one chamber up in flames, the floor above it began to go up in smoke and flames also, and Dane and Cort backed away from the blaze as they watched the entire side of the house catch fire.
The structure was not made of stone, but from wattle and daub, which was pieces of tinder-dry wood layered with things like lime and chalk, sometimes mud, but whatever the house was built with went up like a torch.
On the interior, with all of the expensive woods and furnishings, and the ingredients used to treat the wood, it only made more fuel for the fire.
With their attention still on the fire that was rapidly spreading, Dane began to head towards his horse, pulling Cort along with him.
They ended up running to their animals just as some of the Breton soldiers in the courtyard began to see what was going on.
As they rushed for the house, Cort and Dane vaulted onto their steeds and headed for the open gatehouse, pausing to watch as the fire spread over the upper floor.
They could see it through the windows, with smoke pouring out and fingers of flame licking at the walls.
The guests at Adela’s party were alerted to something being very wrong as the hall deep in the house filled with smoke.
Dane knew the layout of the house – beyond the entry was a large gathering room and then beyond that, a great dining hall.
They could hear the screams of party guests as they tried to get clear of the heavy smoke, which was filling the house at an alarming rate.
It wasn’t so much that the flames were blocking their exit; it was simply that the heavy smoke was overwhelming them.
Dane and Cort continued to watch from the gatehouse as the house was overrun by the flames, and they saw one man emerge from the entry and collapse on the dirt of the courtyard with his clothing smoking.
Perhaps they should have gone to help him, but considering how much hatred Adela had brought about, neither one of them made a move.
Especially Dane. In his view, this was rightness served.
“Should we try to help, Dane?” Cort finally asked.
Dane didn’t reply for a moment. When he did, it was to shake his head.
“Nay,” he muttered. “That woman wished our brother was dead. You heard her; she was hoping for it. You heard all of the vile things she said about our brother and our family. Were we burning, she would have laughed and cheered. Therefore, I will not help, not even a little. Let her evil die in those flames and consider it God’s good justice. ”
Cort didn’t disagree with him, but it was the chivalrous knight in him, the one with the strong sense of duty, that had asked the question. Yet, the brother in him agreed with Dane completely.
Let her evil die.
They could hear screams as floors collapsed. And as the flames shot up into the night sky, they remained there until the entire top portion of the house collapsed and no one save a few Breton soldiers and the man with the smoking clothing made it out alive.
For Dane and Cort, they watched until there was nothing left to see, until Penleigh House was a giant bonfire burning brightly into the night.
There was a sense of finality to it, of cleansing, and as Dane said, of justice.
The wickedness and hatred that had filled the halls of Penleigh House were being purged, never to rise again.
They’d come to do anything they could to save their brother from his horror of a wife, to somehow bring the tormented man some healing, but in the end, Adela’s wicked actions had brought about her own demise.
And no one was sorry for it.
Before the night was out, Dane and Cort were heading to Wellesbourne Castle.