Chapter 44 #2
Emma draws in a deep breath and closes her eyes, hugging Thomas to her before she turns around. I do the same, not willing to watch my own death as it happens.
“Why is it not possible?” she cackles. “Because I am a beta? Because I am a woman? Men always underestimate us. Not this time. This time, Norhaven will feel the pain I’ve lived with for years now.”
Behind me, she shifts a bit as she talks to them, nearly standing upright behind me. The knife bites into my neck further from this new angle as warmth slides down. Blood?
Before I can process what I’m feeling, a loud sound rings out. Everything stops for a moment, including my heart. The pressure at my neck bites for a moment more then releases as the knife clatters into my lap.
I stare at it, unblinking, unable to believe what I’m seeing. As I look down, the air shifts again, as a loud thud greets my ears. They still ring as my hands tremble in my lap. The air hangs heavy around me as my mind and body attempt to come to terms.
“Cynthia,” Alessandra cries out as she races to my side, breaking through the haze in my mind.
I blink for a moment, then scrunch my eyes shut.
When I open them again, I see nothing in front of me.
The gun is nowhere to be found, and no one says a word.
Just a cloud of smoke dissipates into the air.
Emma holds Thomas to her as he sobs, screaming in fear of the loud, sudden noise.
With a loud shout, the men come tearing into the garden.
“What has happened?” Joseph cries out. “Why was there a shot?”
“The notes,” I babble out as I rise, sending the knife clattering to the ground.
“The woman. She-” I point to the body a moment, my stomach churning as I take in the bright red staining her chest, before turning away to cast my contents up on the grass.
Charles gathers me into his arms as the tears fall in earnest, soaking into his chest. “Am I badly cut?” I sob out. “The knife… She held it to my throat.”
He pulls me away from him, his hands trembling as he looks me over. “Barely a scratch,” he murmurs, keeping his tone low and soothing while the men circle us, lending their protection as they keep watch.
“But I felt… There was something wet and warm.”
He gives me a soft smile as he runs his hands over my cheeks. “Tears, my dear love. Tears and nothing more.”
Once we’re safe, the others hunch down to look at the woman, their faces scrunched up in confusion. “A maid? A maid wrote the letters?” Benedict asks.
Charles glances down. “She is no maid of mine, but she does look familiar.”
“The Prince’s mistress,” Lewis murmurs, his voice deadly serious.
“No. She can’t be,” Edward says. “I have seen her serving drinks at-” He glances at the women. “You know.”
“We all know,” Augusta sighs. “We’ve been there.”
“Be that as it may,” Charles growls. “You are quite right. She was there. But…”
He kneels down next to her body. “No. There has to be something else. Why me? Why her?”
With a soft hiccup, I go closer to his side, even though it draws me all the nearer to the woman dead on the ground. “She said she wanted you to feel the same pain she did for these years.”
He mulls over my words before he takes his hands and places them on her face. “I wonder.”
I refuse to look, refuse to stare at the carnage any longer.
“It’s her,” he murmurs. “It has to be.”
“Who?” I call out over my shoulder.
“Rosamund.”
The others murmur about. Thankfully, they don’t know who she is either.
“Speak plainly, Charles,” Lewis demands. “I know naught of this woman.”
“She’s the sister to the previous Duke of Norhaven. When he fell… She had only to talk to me. With no heirs, there was nowhere else for Norhaven to go. Why this? Why threaten me? I would have seen her safe and well cared for.”
Charles comes back to me and wraps me in his arms. I snuggle in deep, listening to his purr as he soothes me.
“Where’s the gun?” I hear Joseph ask.
I peek around my husband’s arms to look at the women. None of them says a word.
“Who fired it then?” Lewis inquires. “There will be an investigation.”
Again, they look at each other and shrug.
“Emma,” Robert growls. “Who was it?” he asks, knowing she cannot keep a secret. The guilt would be far too much for her.
The duchess turns and gives him an odd smile. “Forgive me, husband. My eyes were closed. I cannot say who had the gun or what happened after it was fired. I have nothing to tell.”
He blinks at her for a minute before his lips slide into a wide grin. “You mean to say you kept yourself from knowing just so you can keep the identity a secret from me?”
She beams as she shuffles back and forth, soothing Thomas. “I did. And I did it on purpose.”
“Normally, I’d shake my head and decry the influence these women have on you, but that’s my good girl,” he murmurs. “Such a good, good girl.”
The others giggle for a moment but soon turn sober.
“What will happen to us? Teresa asks as she takes Thomas into her arms to hold him tightly to her chest.
With a sigh, Lewis wipes his forehead. “Since no one here saw anything, no one can answer to anything. We will simply say it was one of us. We saw Cynthia in trouble and intervened.”
“And all will be well?” Her voice trembles a bit as she holds her son.
“All will be well. Besides, it helps to have a prince as your friend. It will all be smoothed over.” Servants linger at the perimeter, their eyes wide as they see the fallen maid.
“Go to Bow Street and fetch the magistrate,” he calls to them.
“Anne, stay here with the others. I will go directly to the prince.”
“In the meantime,” Charles says. “I say we take the ladies inside. No need for them to be amongst this carnage.”
My husband holds me in a tight embrace as we go back into the town house. The women mutter around me, their conversations quite grim indeed. Yet, somehow, they are all able to find humor in the situation.
As we sit there and talk, I look around the room, my heart squeezing tight with every beat. Charles is there, in me, soothing me. I lean into it, soaking it up.
You’re safe now, he whispers into my mind. No one will ever hurt you again.
His strength infuses me, allowing me to smile once more at some ribald joke Augusta says. Each woman sits around me, their hair different, their eyes different, their tastes completely different. Yet, in each of them, I found something I never thought I’d ever have.
Each one is a sister to me. They’re my dearest friends. My closest allies. To my husband’s detriment, my partners in crime.
So many tears have led to this moment. So much heartache between us. Charles looks at me from across the room, where he and his friends plan out what they’re going to say to the magistrate. He gives me a soft smile as the bond hums with our love.
It’s a love that was hard won, spanning far longer a time than I’d like. But to be in his arms, to have him as mine, to wear his bond mark on my shoulder, I’d endure it all a million times over.