Chapter Twenty-One #2
“Nay!” he shouted. “Wait! Callie, wait!”
But Caledonia was pushing herself out of the window, barely holding on to the stone frame.
“You will not have anything,” she repeated, the tears returning.
“The earldom of Stafford and Tamworth belongs to a de Reyne. It no longer belongs to the House of de Wylde. Therefore, if I die, Tamworth will revert to the Crown and you will be unable to get your filthy hands on it. Stafford belongs to my eldest daughter, but that isn’t something you care about, thank God.
You only want Tamworth, and I am going to put it out of your reach for good. ”
Rotri knew better than to try to grab her. All she had to do was loosen her grip and she would fall from the window. She would do that rather than let him get a grip on her, he was certain.
The tables were turning.
Now, he was the one panicking.
“Please do not jump,” he pleaded. “Let us speak calmly. If you do not want to marry Cristano, then… then you do not have to. Please, Callie. Let us be reasonable about this.”
The tears were coursing down Caledonia’s face. “There is nothing to discuss,” she said. “My husband is dead. You have told me this. Is it true?”
Reluctantly, Rotri nodded. “I ordered him killed.”
She winced when she heard the words, feeling the shock and pain all over again.
“Then you have murdered a good man,” she murmured.
“It is true that the king forced us to marry. He did not want to do it, nor did I, and I went through great lengths to prevent it. But once I came to know him a little, I realized that he was a fine man. He was kind and considerate. He was attentive. He was everything I had been missing in my life, making me feel more loved and honored in just the short time we were married than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
I cannot face the prospect of life without him. I do not want to try.”
“Callie, please—”
“Nay, Uncle,” she said, cutting him off.
“When you ordered him killed, then you murdered me, too. I will not let you taint his memory with your greed and deceit. Why men like you continue to live and men like Thor are allowed to die is something I must ask God when I see him, for I do not understand any of it. I do not understand why He allows such terrible things to happen. He sent me an angel only to take him away? He will have to explain that to me.”
Rotri had his hands up in a supplicating gesture.
“If you jump from the window and kill yourself, you will not be allowed to see God,” he said, trying to use doctrine to get her out of the window.
“You will not even be allowed to see Thor. You will suffer in the sulfur lakes for eternity. Think about what you are doing and understand the consequences.”
That brought Caledonia pause. She, too, knew that church doctrine preached against suicide. But this wasn’t suicide, was it? It was vengeance for Thor’s death, punishment for Rotri’s greed. Surely God would understand that.
But then there were her children.
She would be leaving Jane, Janet, and Joan without a mother.
Again. And this time, there was no Madam Madonna to look after them, as poorly as the woman did it.
She would be leaving her daughters to fend for themselves in a world that would just as soon eat them up like wolves upon lambs.
They would end up in a foundling home, treated like rubbish for the rest of their lives.
Déchet, just like their mother.
As Caledonia crouched in the window, debating whether to live or die, she didn’t see her chamber door open.
She didn’t see Jane stand in the doorway, observing her mother in the window ledge as a strange man tried to convince her to come away.
When Rotri had bolted the door at the top of the stairs to prevent anyone from helping Caledonia, he had completely neglected the bedchamber with the young girls inside.
Eight-year-old Jane had heard everything.
Something had awoken her. It wasn’t the screaming. It had been more of a whisper in her ear, telling her to rise. Rise, child, the voice had said. Perhaps it had been a dream, but it had been enough to get her up and hear almost all of the conversation in the next chamber.
Her mother was in trouble.
For a young lass who had been conditioned by a bitter old woman into believing that she had to constantly spread the word of God in order to get to heaven and that the woman who gave birth to her was the embodiment of the devil, the past two weeks had shown her something quite different.
Tenderness…
Understanding…
Love.
Jane had seen all of these things, things she had resisted, but she was resisting no more.
Thor had spoken to her about the situation, and so had Darius.
They insisted that Madam Madonna had lied about her mother, and the more time passed, the more Jane was coming to understand that.
Earlier that day, she’d had the first lesson with her mother as Darius had sat next to her, helping her with her letters.
It had been a glimpse into a world where people cared for her and nurtured her.
For a child who had only known fear and neglect, it had been a pivotal moment.
But tonight, something bad was happening.
Jane had heard the man in her mother’s room speak of Thor being dead, which upset her.
He had been so very kind, explaining things in a way she could understand even if she didn’t believe it.
One of the things he had told her, repeatedly, was how much her mother loved her.
A woman that Jane had never given a chance until that afternoon.
She didn’t regret it. In fact, she wanted to do it again, but there would be no opportunity if her mother jumped from the window.
That frightened Jane.
She had to help.
Silently, Jane entered the bedchamber as the man and her mother were arguing.
Over to her left, she could see a dagger on the floor where her mother had dropped it.
It was long and sharp. After a moment of indecision, she collected the dagger and came up behind the man, who still hadn’t see her.
He was pleading with her mother to come out of the window, but Jane knew that the man had said some bad things.
She knew there had been a fight and her mother had a bloody cut on her lip. The man was bad.
Honor thy mother and thy father.
God wouldn’t forgive her if she let something happen to her mother.
She lifted the dagger.
Oblivious to Jane’s presence, Caledonia was pondering the future of her daughters without her when Rotri suddenly jerked and let out a gasp of anguish.
He jerked two or three more times, bellowing in agony, before collapsing on the floor, facedown.
As he fell, he revealed that Jane had been standing behind him, and Caledonia looked to see that the very dagger Rotri had forced from her hand was now protruding out of the small of his back.
There were at least three other stab wounds, all quickly bleeding out.
Something vital had been cut because the blood began to flow in rivers down to the floor.
When Caledonia looked at Jane, it was clear what had happened.
The child had blood on her hands.
Shocked, Caledonia came out of the window and ran to Jane, who suddenly threw her arms around her mother and began to cry.
Overcome and distraught, Caledonia fell back onto her bum, taking Jane with her.
She pulled the lass onto her lap, holding her so tightly that she was squeezing the life from her.
But Jane was squeezing just as tightly back.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I’m sorry, but he was wicked. He was going to hurt you and I… I heard what he said. I heard everything!”
Caledonia had her face in the side of the girl’s head, smelling her firstborn’s hair for the very first time. Her heart was beating so swiftly that she felt faint.
“You did not do wrong, my little angel,” she said. “I swear, you did not do wrong. You saved me and I am so very grateful.”
Jane loosened her grip enough to look her mother in the eye. “You… you are not angry?”
Caledonia smiled, kissing the child on the cheek. “Nay, sweetheart,” she said. “You were very brave. You saved me.”
“I had to.”
“You did well, my angel.”
Jane, perhaps a little overwhelmed by all of the affection and by the circumstances in general, simply nodded her head and held her mother tightly again. As tight as her little arms would hold her. It seemed that had finally come to terms with the woman who had given birth to her.
Her mother.
As Caledonia and Jane sat on the floor in a tight embrace, Nicola burst into the chamber followed by Janet and Joan.
Nicola had had been awakened by the screaming, but with the stair door locked, she’d had to locate the key in order to get through.
She found a chamber in shambles, a bloodied dead man on the floor, and Caledonia huddled with Jane.
Nicola was so horrified that she stood there with her hand over her mouth as Janet and Joan crept over to their mother and sister.
When Caledonia saw her younger daughters, she opened one arm to them, too, pulling them into her embrace.
And that was when Caledonia realized Janet was still holding her chicken.
That damn chicken.
Sitting on the floor, with her daughters crowding into her arms, Caledonia laughed until she cried, and when Thor barreled into the keep less than a half-hour later, that was how he found them.
Holding one another.
A family at last.