Chapter Eighteen #2
Blayth reluctantly loosened his grip and Christian pulled Ronan to his feet.
The man was battered and sore, with a huge bruise on his jaw.
But he was alive. Randolph helped Blayth to his feet, seeing him as an old man for the first time in his life.
Ronan’s brush with death had greatly affected him.
Ronan took his father’s arm as they headed back for the postern gate.
A crowd was waiting for them, including several armed soldiers along with Odo, Isabeth, Millicent, and Marian, who was weeping dramatically.
Ronan noticed that Odo had put himself between Isabeth and Marian, a touching protective move, but Millicent had a grip on Marian so she couldn’t run away or attack anyone in her grief.
As they approached the group, Christian muttered to his cousin.
“What are you going to do with her?” he asked. “She plotted to murder you. You cannot let that go unanswered.”
Ronan’s gaze was lingering on the woman who was an utter mess of weeping and hysteria.
His gaze also drifted over to Isabeth, who was standing several feet away.
He could see that she’d been crying, though she was trying to be very brave.
His heart just about broke as he saw here there, wanting to run to her and take her in his arms but knowing he couldn’t.
He couldn’t go back on all of those things he’d reconciled with his father because he would only have to go through it all again.
But God, it was killing him.
“I know,” he said after a moment. “Papa, what say you?”
Blayth grunted. “Lock the wench in a chamber until my rage towards her has cooled,” he said. “After that, I am not certain. I will discuss it with her father. Mayhap we shall send her back to her father for good. Let him deal with the animal he has raised.”
Perhaps that was the best that could be done at the moment.
Ronan was too tired to argue but his heartbreak was starting to overwhelm his senses.
He was coming closer to the women, seeing the one he wanted and the one he was saddled with.
It all seemed too ridiculously unfair to him, but it only reinforced what he already knew – if he remained at Ravenscar, he wouldn’t be able to stay away from Isabeth.
His heart cried out for her, his soul longed for her, and there was nothing more powerful on earth than what he felt for her.
But he couldn’t take her in his arms.
That was the worst defeat of all.
“Murderer!” Marian screamed at him. “You killed Gaspard, you murderer! God will punish you, Ronan de Wolfe. He will make you pay with your blood and sweat and immortal spirit!”
Ronan looked at her. “He already has,” he said. “I am married to you, aren’t I?”
Marian’s face twisted in outrage. “You contemptable bastard!”
Ronan chuckled, though it was without humor. “Marian, there is no need to send me to hell because I live it every day with you,” he said. “God forgive you for what you’ve done to me, because I can’t.”
Marian shrieked angrily, managing to yank her arm from Millicent’s grip.
“It is not forgiveness I seek but vengeance,” she snarled.
“Vengeance against you is all I shall live for all the days of my life. With every breath I take, I hate you more. With every second that passes, I wish you a thousand painful deaths and the deaths of those you love. I curse you, Ronan. I shall curse you until I die!”
Ronan simply didn’t have the strength to argue with her. Truthfully, he didn’t care what she thought or said or did any longer. For all intents and purposes, she was dead to him.
Gone.
But there was someone who wasn’t.
His gaze fell on Isabeth, standing next to the open gate.
Their eyes met and, for a moment, he was back with her, loving her and cherishing her.
The pain and exhaustion he felt was instantly gone, replaced by a powerful sense of peace.
The mere sight of her did that to him. But then he caught sight of his father and it all came crashing down again.
The anguish.
The grief.
Lowering his gaze, he moved through the open gate, but not before Isabeth reached out and touched his arm.
It was a simple touch and an innocent one, perhaps one of comfort, but that small touch meant the world to him.
It was the last touch he’d ever have from her and tears came to his eyes as he moved through the postern gate without a word to Isabeth.
His Esa.
But he did glance back at her, one more time, which was a mistake.
It wasn’t missed by Marian, in the midst of her throes of grief, and she saw in that moment how to hurt Ronan as he had hurt her.
She was free of Millicent even though the woman was standing behind her, but she was free enough to grab a dagger from one of the soldiers who happened to be standing within arm’s length.
Before Millicent could stop her, she lifted the blade and charged straight at Isabeth.
“My lady!” Millicent shouted.
It was such a panicked cry that everyone looked in Millicent’s direction only to see Marian about three feet from Isabeth with a wicked-looking blade in her hand.
Odo was between them but Marian slashed at him, stabling him in the shoulder.
He fell to his knees even as he grabbed for her legs, but Marian was too fast.
That’s when Isabeth saw her.
She caught the flash of a dagger in Marian’s grip and immediately fell back, tripping over the hem of her garment and ending up on the ground.
It was a vulnerable position but Marian was running too fast and too recklessly to take advantage of it.
She had been aiming for Isabeth but when the woman fell to the ground, there wasn’t time to change course.
Marian ran straight into the gate itself, bending her right arm towards her, the same arm that was holding the dagger.
The blade, sharp and long, pushed straight into Marian’s chest and Marian collapsed on the ground with the hilt of the dagger sticking out of her breastbone.
By this time, Ronan and his father and the knights had pushed back through the postern gate to break up the attack.
Without hesitation, Ronan picked Isabeth off the ground, scooping her up and moving her away from the threat of Marian’s madness.
He paused just long enough to turn to see what was happening, noting that Randolph was tending Odo as his father and Christian bent over Marian, who was lying quite still.
“Papa?” Ronan said, his voice trembling.
Blayth’s gaze lingered on Marian for a moment before looking up at his son. “She’s dead,” he said simply.
Shocked, Ronan gently set Isabeth to her feet, making sure she wasn’t injured before going to stand over his wife’s body.
He simply couldn’t believe it.
“Are you certain?” he said, kneeling down and feeling for a pulse. “She’s gone?”
Blayth was on his feet now, standing over Marian with an unsympathetic gaze.
“She is,” he said. “I’m not sure how I am going to explain this to Edmund, but Marian’s evil finally caught up with her.
In trying to kill Lady de Brito, she ended up killing herself.
I should not like to think that God had a hand in this, but it seems to me that this was divine justice. ”
Ronan was so stunned that he ended up sitting on his buttocks next to Marian’s body. His head was whirling with the surprise, the suddenness, and the completeness of what had just happened. Marian had been shouting curses and then she was on the ground with a dagger in her chest.
God… did this really happen?
He was still trying to grasp it.
“Millie,” he finally said. “Take Lady de Brito inside. Get her out of here, please.”
Millicent didn’t know Lady de Brito personally, but she didn’t have to.
All she could see was a lovely, delicate woman with a big belly, someone that Ronan was clearly quite fond of.
That was enough for her. She went to Isabeth and helped the woman through the gate even though she was reluctant to go. In fact, she called out.
“Ronan?” she said anxiously.
Ronan looked up from Marian, his gaze meeting with Isabeth’s frightened one. Millicent had her arm around Isabeth’s shoulders and he suspected that was the problem – the woman who had arrived with Marian was now trying to take charge of her and Isabeth was understandably wary.
But Ronan wasn’t.
“’Tis okay,” he assured her. “You are safe. That is Millie and she will take you inside.”
That put Isabeth at ease, but only a little. “But I want to remain with you.”
Ronan shook his head. “You must rest,” he said. “Please. Go now and take Odo with you. He can use your help. I will come to you later.”
With Millicent’s coaxing and a bleeding Odo walking under his own power, Isabeth finally headed towards the manse.
Christian cleared out the soldiers, but not before ordering them to corral Lady de Wolfe’s escort until they could decide what was to be done.
That also meant her brutal ladies, who were still with the escort.
All of them grouped and guarded until some decisions could be made.
As the soldiers faded away, Ronan was still looking at Marian’s body.
He was still trying to grasp what had happened.
“Why?” he finally asked. “Why would she try something like that when she knew it could not end well? Why be so foolish?”
Blayth shook his head. “Who is to say?” he said. “She has never been the most rational creature, Roe.”
Ronan’s gaze trailed down her body, at the pregnancy. It wasn’t very large, but it was obvious. “The child,” he said. “Should we try and save the child? There may be a chance.”
Blayth was looking at it, too. “The child would be too small to survive, lad,” he said quietly.
“While I share your noble sentiment, to remove it from the mother right now would be to see it die a lingering death with no way to help it. This way… it is probably already dead. It is a sad thing to see an innocent life ended, but there is nothing we can do.”