Chapter Twenty-Three #3
Corisande felt as if she’d been slapped. All of the color drained from her face and, in a panic, she went on the defensive.
“Who told you such things?” she hissed.
“Do you mean to tell me that it is not true?”
Corisande backed up again, but he was on top of her. For every inch she put between them, he closed the gap and then some. She finally put her hands out to push him back because he was starting to overwhelm her.
“I am not telling you anything,” she seethed. “But by the tone of your voice, you clearly believe it is true, so anything I tell you will not matter.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“Would you believe me if I did?”
His jaw continued to work, infuriated and shattered.
“Do you mean to tell me you do not know anything about the rumors flying fast and furious that you exchanged your body for your release?” He sounded like he was growling.
“When we found your caravan, you were heading south. I want to know why they released you, so you will answer my question. And do not tell me that they released you because they no longer had need of you. In war, one does not simply release hostages. One uses them.”
Corisande stared at him. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
She was shocked and horrified, everything she could possibly feel, but there were two things whirling through her mind that she could grasp above all else.
The first was that Cole already believed whatever rumors he had heard and that cut her to the bone.
Did the man have so little faith in her?
The second was that she had to protect Gaia.
There she was, back in the position of protector again. Her little sister had made the ultimate sacrifice and, horribly, there were rumors about it. Or, they were about Corisande. She wasn’t going to ask Cole because whatever the rumors were, he believed them.
She wasn’t going to tell him the truth and destroy her sister’s sacrifice in the same stroke.
Let them think it was her.
Let Gaia keep the dignity she sacrificed to free them.
“You believe the rumors already, Cole,” she said coldly. “There is nothing more I can say.”
“You can tell me the truth.”
“You have your truth as you believe it. Your lack of faith in me is clear and I will not dignify the question with a response.”
“Did you let the Scots commander bed you in exchange for your freedom?”
It was a direct question. Looking up at Cole, Corisande couldn’t have felt more grief had he ripped her heart out of her chest. The pain was beyond anguish.
It entered the realm of becoming something that filled her as surely as blood filled her veins.
The man she loved thought the worst of her without giving her a chance to tell him the truth.
He had asked her for it, but he really didn’t want it. He already believed what he’d heard.
He wanted a confession.
She wasn’t going to give it to him.
Leaning forward, she looked him in the eyes.
“Go to hell,” she hissed. “And don’t come back.”
Cole’s head snapped back. That hadn’t been the answer he had been expecting. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but that wasn’t it. Overwhelmed, and overcome with grief and rage, he spun on his heel and marched off, heading out of the encampment.
Corisande stood there and trembled.
Standing behind Cole, several feet back, were Julian and al-Kort brothers. All three of them appeared extremely grieved by what had happened and when Cole pushed through them, Julian and Addax turned to follow.
But Essien just stood there with tears in his eyes.
Corisande saw him but she kept her chin up, defiantly. She wasn’t going to let them know how badly she was crumbling. If they wanted to believe she had let a Scotsman take advantage of her, then so be it. She didn’t care.
Better they think it of her than of Gaia.
“Cori?”
She heard a soft voice off to her right and she turned to see Gaia standing there, weeping.
She had heard the entire conversation and she had seen what her sister had done to protect her, once again.
She wasn’t going to let men know what Gaia had done and she’d let the love of her life walk away because of it.
It was Cole or Gaia.
She’d chosen Gaia.
“Cori, go after him,” she sobbed. “Do not let him leave.”
Corisande held up a hand to her sister to silence her. “Not a word,” she said, her voice tight with emotion. “You will not say another word about this, ever.”
Fearful of her sister’s reaction if she did not obey, Gaia did as she was told. She returned to stirring the soiled linen as Corisande went to the smaller tent that she and Gaia shared and collapsed.
She could hear her sister’s sobs all across the encampment.
When she saw Ares moving for the tent, hearing the sobs also, Gaia left the linen boiling and ran to him. If the truth was to be known, then it needed to come from her and she needed to tell someone who had a reputation for being fair and just.
Big brother had just become Father Confessor.
Gaia didn’t want her sacrifice with Alexander MacDuff to be in vain.