Chapter Fifteen #4
Colin stopped impatiently. “Speak to me? About what? What could you possibly have to say to me, simpleton?”
Paul did not react to the insult; his diminished capacity afforded him little feeling in the area of humiliation. Instead, he fought hard for much-needed bravery. “I heard you telling Thia that you wanted to hurt Lady Peyton.”
Colin’s eyes widened immediately. “You….” quickly, he glanced about. Grasping Paul by the sleeve, he yanked him into the dim recesses of the stable.
Paul jerked himself free of the iron grasp, stumbling over a stool and struggling to regain his footing. “I heard you. If you hurt Lady Peyton, I shall tell my father.”
Colin’s reactive instinct was to strike the man senseless, but he uneasily refrained. It would not do to strike his future brother-in-law and, someday, his liege. Swallowing his shock, he struggled to remain calm.
“I am not going to hurt her,” he said evenly, moving toward the dense man. “I simply…. I want to surprise her, and I need Thia’s help.”
Paul shook his head hard, backing away. “That’s not what you said. I heard you tell my sister that you wished to exact revenge.”
Colin was advancing, slowly and steadily. “You misunderstood, Paul. I would not hurt your brother’s wife.”
Paul swallowed, back-stepping as the taller man stalked him. He knocked over a bucket, tripping over the handle and wildly kicking it away. He did not like the gleam in Colin’s eye. “You said you were going to kill her and I won’t let you. She is too lovely and…. and I like her. She is kind.”
“You won’t let me?” Colin raised his eyebrows. His footfalls were slow, deliberate. “And just how do you plan to stop me?”
Paul was unaware that he was backing himself into a dead end.
Behind him, his father’s massive charger was tethered in his stall because the animal had a tendency to bite at everything that moved.
A black hood covered the horse from his ears to his nose, purposely blinding him to the grooms who tended him.
“I told you,” he said in a thin voice, bumping into the wall of the stall as he continued to backtrack. “I am going to tell my father what you said.”
“Why haven’t you told him already?” Colin asked softly.
Paul swallowed hard; his terror was gaining a handle on his composure and he gasped when he nearly tripped over his own feet.
Colin kept moving toward him and Paul was sure the man was going to strike him, or kick him, or worse.
Beads of sweat began to form on his oily brow, realizing too late that confronting Colin Warrington with the information had not been a wise decision.
“Why?”
Paul’s eyes were wide at the repeated question. “Because…. I wanted to exact your promise that you would not harm her. I thought I could convince you to leave her alone.”
“You intended to blackmail me?” Colin cocked an eyebrow, a thin smile on his lips. “My, my, Paul. How grown-up of you to resort to blackmail.”
Paul knew vaguely what blackmail meant and realized that, indeed, that was what he had meant to do. It wasn’t until this moment that he realized there was a word for what he was trying to accomplish, and his bravery made a weak return.
“Then you had better promise that you will not harm Lady Peyton,” he said firmly. “’Else I shall tell my father, and he shall be angry with you.”
A few feet behind Paul, the warhorse began to quiver. Colin could see over Paul’s shoulder that the horse smelled the men approaching. Silk-smooth nostrils flared and slender ears piqued, listening. The closer Paul drew unknowingly, the more excited the horse became.
A flash of evil crossed Colin’s mind. It suddenly became clear how he could rid himself of the impending threat without taking the blame. His lips creased with a sinister expression.
“I promise, Paul,” he said quietly, advancing still, maneuvering Paul towards the charger’s stall. “I swear that I shall not harm Lady Peyton.”
Paul’s sweaty face washed with instant surprise. “Truly?”
Colin nodded slowly. “Truly.”
Paul stopped his back-peddling a mere foot in front of the open stall, but Colin continued to advance. When he was nearly upon the simple man, he smiled benevolently. “You and I are to be brothers, are we not?”
Paul nodded eagerly. “We are. I should like another brother since Alec has left.”
A degree of hatred rippled across Colin’s face, but it was quickly gone. Instead, he held up his arms as if to hug the smaller man. “I will be a better sibling, I promise. Embrace me, brother.”
Paul, eager and innocent and trusting, put up his arms. Instead of drawing him into his embrace, Colin planted his hands on Paul’s shoulders. Instead of clasping him against his breast, he shoved as hard as he could.
Instead of living to a ripe old age, the heir to the House of Summerlin met his death beneath the hooves of a startled destrier.
Colin watched and smiled, unconcerned with the splatters of blood that rained against the walls of the stall.
When a massive hoof came down on the weak human skull, Colin turned away and leisurely strolled from the stable.
The heir was dead.