Chapter Fifteen #3
Addax was straining against him, more enraged than he’d ever been in his life. “He tried to kill Emmeline by kicking her down the stairs,” he snarled. “He killed the child she was carrying, and now, I am going to kill him.”
It was a shocking answer, once that nearly had Essien so startled that he almost let his guard down.
In fact, he started to, but Addax felt him slacken, and he pulled away in an attempt to get back to Maximilian.
Realizing this, Essien did what he normally wouldn’t do—he grabbed his brother by the hair, holding the back of his head, as he whispered in his ear.
“You need to stop this now,” he hissed. “Have you gone mad? You are only going to make this situation much, much worse!”
Addax was still struggling against his brother. “Not if I kill him first.”
Essien yanked on him, trying to pull him further away as Claudius ran to his son’s side to help him.
“Addax, listen to me,” he said. “If you kill him in front of Bretherdale, the earl can have you brought before a magistrate. They may even execute you for murder. Is that what you want? Hereford might not be able to get you out of it. Think!”
Addax was trying to think. He truly was. But he was so crazed with anger and hatred that he simply wasn’t thinking straight. But that all stopped when a feeble voice called to him from the top of the mural stairs.
“Addax?”
It was Emmeline. Her left arm was bandaged to her chest, and she had blood all over the bottom of her shift, but she was on her feet.
With the help of the cook and the physic, she was on her feet.
God only knew what strength it took to get her there, but she had forced herself out of her sickbed because of the chaos Addax had created.
He stopped struggling against Essien when he saw her.
“Get back to bed,” he told her. “You should not be up.”
Emmeline’s gaze was on him, but only for a moment. It soon moved to Maximilian, who was sitting up with his father’s assistance. The man was bloodied and battered, and still only half-conscious, but he was alive.
That was all Emmeline needed to see.
“Addax,” she said again. “Come here, please.”
Addax didn’t hesitate. He pulled free of his brother and took the stairs two at a time to her.
She ordered the physic and the cook away so she could speak to Addax privately, but she could hardly stand on her own, so she had to grab on to him with her one good arm.
He held her tightly, trying to turn her around to get her back to bed, but she balked.
“Stop pushing me around,” she said. “I want you to listen to me.”
He did as she asked and stopped trying to move her. “What is it?” he asked. “Truly, Emmy, you should not be—”
She cut him off, quietly done, but unmistakably. “Listen to me, and listen closely,” she said, barely above a whisper. “I want you to leave. Take your things and leave this instance. Do you understand me?”
He looked at her, puzzled. “Why?” he demanded. “I cannot—”
She cut him off again. “If you think this is a simple thing for me to ask you, then you would be wrong,” she said hoarsely.
“You have attacked the man I am married to. His father is an earl. You are in a good deal of trouble now, and I could not stand it if those two tried to prosecute you for your crimes. They can, you know. And they will ruin you.”
He was starting to calm down a little. She was saying essentially the same thing Essien had said, so the control that had eluded him so far was starting to come together again. He understood what they were saying, completely, but he couldn’t agree with it.
He wouldn’t.
“No one is going to ruin me,” he said quietly. “But I could not let what he did to you go unpunished.”
Emmeline knew that. She knew exactly why he’d done what he’d done, but that didn’t stop her from the utter terror she was feeling at the moment.
She’d already decided to ask him to leave earlier in the day, but this incident had set that decision in stone.
He had to leave, or very bad things were going to happen.
Tears were swimming in her eyes as she looked at him.
“There were times in my life that I prayed for a guardian angel, but God had other plans for me,” she murmured.
“He sent me a dragon to watch over me, and I love that dragon more than words can express. But you have given away our secret by attacking Maximilian. They will know of your feelings for me, and that means you cannot stay. You know you cannot stay.”
That was true. All of it. He hadn’t considered the fact that he’d betrayed their secret with his actions, but he could see now that he had. Still, it didn’t matter. If he had it to do all over again, he would do the same thing.
Again and again.
“I could not let his deed go unpunished,” he said simply.
“I know,” she said softly. “Addax, I am not asking you to go. I am telling you. You must leave. You must take your things and leave at this moment. Get out before they try to ruin you. Get out before they turn what we feel for one another into torment. Please, my love. I want you to go.”
Addax was starting to become emotional as the reality of the situation began to bear down on him. “But… how will I know what I leave behind?” he said, his voice tight. “How will I know how you are? If you are well? If Max is behaving himself?”
She sighed faintly. “You know the answer to that,” she said. “You must not think of me at all. I am another man’s wife, and I cannot have you wasting your life pining for me. You know I am right.”
“But—”