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Just sixteen, Mari looked small and lost. She was sobbing hard enough that it nearly robbed her of breath and was leaning against Aunt Judith, who murmured consolations. PROLOGUETHIS HAS TO END.” BLAINE McFADDEN LOOKED at his sister Mari huddled in the bed, covers drawn up to her chin. AndThanks especially to my readers, who make all this possible.
While he had his mother’s dark chestnut hair, his blue eyes were a match in color and determination to his father’s. “You’ve been too tall for him to beat for years now.” At twenty years old and a few inches over six feet tall, Blaine stood a hand’s breadth taller than Lord McFadden. Sick of being beaten when he’s on one of his binges…” Judith’s lips quirked.
He took his temper out on my hide until I was tall enough to fight back. He was no longer the small, thin boy his father caned for the slightest infraction.“He killed our mother when she got between him and me. The work he did around the manor and its lands had filled out his chest and arms. He was honest enough to know that though he might not be the first man in a room to catch a lady’s eye, he was pleasant enough in face and manner to attract the attention of at least one female by the end of the evening. Ian McFadden’s features had the smashed look of a brawler Blaine’s were more regular, and if not quite handsome, better than passable. Where his father was short and round, Blaine was tall and rangy.
“I’ll kill that son of a bitch,” Blaine muttered, turning away and sprinting down the hall. I know my brother’s tempers better than anyone.” Absently, she stroked Mari’s hair.“By the gods… did he…” But the shamed look on Judith’s face as she turned away answered Blaine’s question. “Anything you do will only make it worse. Now this… it has to stop!”“Blaine, please.” Judith turned, and Blaine could see tears in her eyes. I had to put his horse down after he’d beaten it and broken its legs.
Where is he?” “Master Blaine, I beg you…” “Where is he?” “He headed for the gardens. “My whore-spawned father, that’s who. Edward: the expert manager, the budget master, and the family’s secret- keeper.“Where is he?” “Who, m’lord?” Blaine caught Edward by the arm and Edward shrank back from his gaze.
Blaine—” ran down the manor’s sweeping stone steps. “Blaine, think about this. Judith was halfway down the stairs.
Lord McFadden might be well into his fifth decade, but in his youth he had been an officer in the king’s army, where he had earned King Merrill’s notice and his gratitude. He held its thick oak handle across his body like a staff. Dropping his pipe, the man grabbed a rake that leaned against the stone fence edging the carriageway. Lord Ian McFadden’s eyes narrowed as he saw the sword in Blaine’s hand. “You bastard! You bloody bastard!” Blaine shouted. The smell of his father’s pipe smoke wafted back to him, as hated as the odor of camphor that always clung to Lord McFadden’s clothing.The older man turned at the sound of Blaine’s running footsteps.
“I guess this cur needs to be taught a lesson.” Lord McFadden swung atBlaine with enough force to have shattered his skull if Blaine had not ducked the heavy rake. In the distance, he could hear Judith screaming his name. Now drop that sword if you know what’s good for you.” Blaine’s blood thundered in his ears. Why Mari?”Lord McFadden’s face reddened. “Why? Why Mari? There’s no shortage of court whores.
Blood soaked Lord McFadden’s clothing, and gobbets of it splashed Blaine’s hand and shirt. Nothing mattered to him, nothing at all except for the ashen face of his father. “Didn’t think you had it in you,” he gasped.Behind him, Blaine could hear footsteps pounding on the cobblestones he heard panicked shouts and Judith’s scream. He met Blaine’s gaze, his eyes wide with surprise. The broadsword sank hilt-deep into the man’s chest, slicing through his waistcoat.Lord McFadden’s body shuddered, and he dropped the rake.
He gazed in horror at Lord McFadden, who lay twitching on the ground, breathing in labored, slow gasps.Blaine’s grip tightened on the sword in his hand. The first to reach the scene. Blaine let him slide from the sword, watched numbly as his father fell backward onto the carriageway in a spreading pool of blood.
“Blaine, can you hear me?” Judith was shaking his left arm. “Oh, by the gods, Blaine, what will become of us now?” Lord McFadden wheezed painfully and went still.Shock replaced numbness as the rage drained from Blaine’s body. “Let me through!”Heaving for breath, Judith pushed past Selden and grabbed Blaine’s left arm to steady herself. Raw from screaming, choked with tears, his aunt must have gathered her skirts like a milkmaid to run from the house this quickly. “Blaine! Blaine!” He barely recognized Judith’s voice.
I’ve thrown my life away for nothing if she’s dishonored.” He dropped the bloody sword, gripping Judith by the forearm. But it’s for naught if she’s shamed. “I’ll pay the consequences. “Say nothing about Mari to anyone,” he growled in a voice low enough that only she could hear. “I don’t think he realized, until the end, that I actually meant to do it.” “When the king hears—” Blaine snapped back to himself and turned toward Judith. “He swung first,” Blaine replied distantly.
“Except for that.” “You have been charged with murder. Carr will inherit when he’s old change—” “Except that you’ll hang for murder,” Judith said miserably.“Yes,” Blaine replied, folding his aunt against his chest as she sobbed. He met Judith’s eyes and a wave of cold resignation washed over him.“He won’t hurt Mari or Carr again. A knot of fear tightened in his stomach as he stared at the blood on his hand and the darkening stain on the cobblestones.Better to die avenged than crouch like a beaten dog. He’ll take your title… Oh, Blaine, you’ll hang for this.” Blaine swallowed hard. “I swear.” Selden and several of the other servants moved around them, givingBlaine a wary glance as they bent to carry Lord McFadden’s body back to the manor.“The king will find out.
He avoided theCurious stares of the courtiers and nobles in the gallery, those for whom death and punishment were nothing more than gossip and entertainment.Only two faces caught his eye. I’m not sorry and I’ll be damnedIf I’ll apologize, even to the king. Blaine straightened, and lifted his head once more. He was a murdering son of a bitch —”“Silence!” The guard at Blaine’s right shoulder cuffed him hard. Unshaven and filthy from more than a week in the king’s dungeon, he lifted his head to look at the king defiantly.“Guilty as charged, Your Majesty. Blaine McFadden knelt where the guards had forced him down, shackled at the wrists and ankles, his long brown hair hanging loose around his face.
Blaine could not meet her gaze. Carensa was dressed in mourning clothes her face was ashen and her eyes were red-rimmed. He and Carensa had been betrothed to wed later that spring. Beside her sat Carensa, daughter of the Earl of Rhystorp.
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