Help had indeed come.
How she wished her father and brother were alive to see it.
“It does not frighten me,” she said after a moment. “I was simply thinking… wondering… if you would give me a weapon, too. I have a father and brother to avenge. When Marius breathes his last, I want him to know I had a hand in it. I want him to see my face and know that, ultimately, a de Thorington was the last one standing. He tried to destroy us but, in the end, he did not. Does that sound too terribly brutal?”
Caius’ gaze lingered on her a moment, glittering darkly. Reaching into his tunic, he pulled forth a small but razor-sharp dagger with a pewter hilt. The hilt, in fact, was in the shape of a viper’s head. Flipping it over, he handed it to her, hilt-first.
“Put it someplace he cannot see it,” he whispered.
The stage was set.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Hallam was nowhereto be found.
In fact, Marius had not seen Hallam for quite some time. After his father’s body was discovered early that morning, Marius’ first order of business had been to assemble the remaining men he had at Winterhold. William Marshal’s army still sat on the perimeter of his outer wall, their tents covered in a layer of melting snow and ice, and completely inactive. Marius had been furious about the lack of action and the lack of support from William Marshal’s commanders, but his father seemed to think the situation needed to be handled with more tact.
Marius didn’t.
He was now the Lord of Winterhold Castle. Baron Darliston was now his title, his hereditary title, having belonged to his father and his father before him. This was what Marius had been groomed for his entire life and the sense of power he felt upon learning of his father’s death was something he had never imagined. He wasn’t even sorry for his father’s passing;nay.
He was grateful for it.
Now, he could do everything his father never would, including the final destruction and seizure of Hawkstone Castle.
He wasn’t going to wait any longer.
As the servants took his father’s body away and put it into the vault next to Rupert de Thorington’s decaying corpse, Marius assumed control of Winterhold’s destiny. It wasn’t long before he forgot about his father completely as he demanded to see his commanders, Hallam most importantly, but Hallam seemed to be missing. No one seemed to know where he was, and Marius suspected the man was off somewhere, grieving his father’s death.
At least, that’s what he thought.
He wasn’t happy about it, in truth. As the new Lord of Winterhold, he expected Hallam to be supremely loyal to him now. Hallam was a legacy knight, his father having served the House of de Wrenville for many years, and his grandfather as well. The entire Chadlington line, three generations back, had served the House of de Wrenville, so Hallam, in that sense, was really part of the family. Marius had known the man all of his life and he’d never had any particular feeling towards him one way or the other. Hallam was simply a legacy servant who had served his father quite well.
But now, Marius wanted that loyalty.
In Hallam’s absence, however, he was forced to muster the army himself, which thoroughly frustrated him. He hadn’t seen Lady de Wrenville either, but it never occurred to him that there was a link between Hallam’s disappearance and the lady’s absence. He wasn’t that sharp when it came to personal relationships. More than that, he simply didn’t care. He had been doing Hallam’s job most of the morning when he received a missive from Hawkstone Castle.
Caspian had surrendered the keep and Lady Emelisse had been found.
Marius didn’t even care that the missive came with terms. It said that he was to leave any armed escort behind, but thatdidn’t matter to him considering there were already Winterhold soldiers at Hawkstone. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the victory he had sought. He had his warhorse quickly saddled and took off on the muddy, mucky roads to the north, heading for Hawkstone.
He could almost taste triumph.
Hawkstone finally belonged to him.
Better still, he didn’t have to share it with his father. Now, this grand empire of Winterhold and Hawkstone belonged to him alone. He was the sole heir of a great and rich empire.
It almost made kissing the king’s arse for all those years worth it.
… almost.
As he rode north to Hawkstone, he didn’t see himself returning to the king anytime soon. Now he had what he wanted and there was no reason for him to ever go back to hanging on John’s coattails. He had what he wanted now and he would ensure that it flourished. He would well marry a wealthy local woman, have heirs of his own, and be lord over his own domain.
That was all he had ever really wanted in the first place.
Thank you, Father, for being drunk enough to kill yourself!
His arrival to Hawkstone took longer than it should have because of the impassability of the road. When he had been about halfway to his destination, he saw The Marshal’s army in a field off to the side of the road, but he did not acknowledge them. He did not need them any longer. In fact, he started laughing. All of the manipulation to marry into William Marshal’s family had been a waste of effort because, in the end, they hadn’t needed the alliance, after all.
