Kevin erupted. He sprinted to Victor, grabbing the man by the neck and breaking his hold on Annavieve. As Kevin fully prepared to break the man’s neck, William howled and his guards, including Gorsedd and Adonis, rushed to break up the fight between Kevin and Victor. Annavieve, having fallen to the ground with the force of Victor’s blow, scrambled to her feet. She, too, dived in to break up the fight, terrified that Kevin wasgoing to kill Victor and, in doing so, condemn himself to death. Already, he was in considerable trouble for attacking the duke. She only hoped she could limit the exact measure of trouble he was in.
“Kevin, no!” she screamed, trying to get a hold of the man even as several other men were blocking her path. “Kevin, please! Let him go!”
More hands were on Kevin than were on Victor, pulling him off of the duke, who had managed to get in a good kick to the groin against Kevin. Still, Kevin pretended as if the blow had never happened. His hands were wrapped firmly around Victor’s head and neck but Adonis and Gorsedd managed to unwrap the digits. More Salisbury soldiers managed to pull him back. Eight men had Kevin restrained while Victor, being helped off the ground by William, was red in the face. Rubbing his neck, he pointed to Kevin.
“He tried to kill me!” he bellowed. “Throw him in the vault! Tomorrow, I will execute him myself!”
It was not an unexpected order. Attacking a nobleman, and especially a duke, was an executable offense. William, startled and overwhelmed by the evening’s events, tried to plead for calm with Victor but the man wasn’t listening. With eight men restraining Kevin, Victor went straight for Annavieve, who started to run. The moment she did so, William intercepted her. Victor grabbed hold of her arm but William wouldn’t let her go.
“Victor, no,” he pleaded. “Not like this. Let me take her with me until you have calmed.”
Victor was beyond rational thought. His dark, deadly eyes focused on William. “She is my wife,” he growled. “Let her go. You have no right to interfere.”
He was correct. Moreover, unless William wanted to have serious trouble with Victor for the rest of his life, he had no choice. He knew what Victor was capable of and he knew thatthe man would make his life hell. Sickened, and fearful for the duchess’ life, he had no choice but to release her.
Victor yanked Annavieve away from William, dragging her back towards the meeting house where the feast was still going on. Annavieve was struggling against the man, going so far as to shove at him, and he slapped her again. She kicked him. Slugging her hard, she stumbled, and Victor quite literally dragged her down the road and out of view.
William stood there, positively staggered by everything he had seen. Slowly, he turned to Kevin and the men restraining him. He could see the utter pain on Kevin’s face at what was happening, knowing that Kevin knew, as they all did, that Victor fully intended to punish Annavieve for her outburst. He might even kill her. But as her husband, and as a cousin to the king, Victor could do as he pleased. He was beyond reproach.
“Hage…,” William began.
“Please,” Kevin hissed, interrupted him. “Please let me go. He will kill her. You know this.”
William sighed heavily, hanging his head because he could not bear to see the agony in Kevin’s eyes. “You know I cannot….”
“I love her,” Kevin burst, his voice cracking with emotion. There were tears in his eyes now. “I love her. Is that what you wanted to know? I do. I love her with all my heart. I know you understand love, my lord. You loved your son. I am so sorry I took him from you but it was an accident, I swear it. Please do not let me feel the same grief that you are. Let me protect her.Let me save her.”
William’s tears were back. He could hear the anguish in Kevin’s voice; God help him, he could. But he was helpless. He had to make a choice; a lifetime of hell from Victor should he go against the duke’s wishes, or a few brief moments sympathizing with a distraught lover. It was the most difficult choice he’d everhad to make in his life and he had to make the one that was best for him. It was the most horrible choice for them all.
“Take him to the Lord Sheriff’s home on the next block,” he instructed his men. “The man has a vault we can put him in. I will go inform the Lord Sheriff of what has happened. He will need to know.”
Kevin didn’t go mad with rage at the command but Adonis did. He was unarmed since he had been attending the feast without his weapons or protection, but he slugged two of the guards holding Kevin and tried to break the hold of the others. He was struggling desperately to free Kevin as Kevin tried to help him, getting an arm loose and dropping the nearest Salisbury guard with a crushing blow to the face. Soon, the peaceful prisoner had turned into a raging tempest and a nasty brawl was afoot.
Gorsedd was part of the brawl but, unlike Kevin and Adonis, he was armed. He had come to the feast as protection for Salisbury. He was greatly torn between helping Kevin and obeying his liege. He’d never disobeyed an order in the eleven years he had served him. His son served the man as a squire; the entire de Bretagne legacy was intertwined with Salisbury. If he disobeyed his liege at this point, it would mean ruin for him as well. Much like William, he was faced with one of the worst choices he had ever had to make. He hoped he wouldn’t hate himself for it in the long term.
When Adonis went after the one of the guards who was holding Kevin by the head, Gorsedd unsheathed his broadsword and, using the hilt, hit Adonis over the head with it. Adonis fell like a stone. When Kevin looked up with shock and disappointment to see what Gorsedd had done, Gorsedd whacked Kevin on the side of the head, too. Kevin was dazed but he didn’t go out completely. A second strike saw him knocked as cold as his friend.
The brawl was over as quickly as that. Salisbury soldiers were picking themselves up off the ground as Gorsedd stood over Kevin and Adonis, feeling sick. Sick and furious. Sheathing his sword, he pointed to the men at his feet.
“Collect Hage and take him to the Lord Sheriff’s home,” he instructed his soldiers. Then, he turned to Salisbury, who had been watching the skirmish with great apprehension. “You follow Dorset and make sure he does not kill that woman. If you do not, I will.”
Salisbury put a hand to his head, a gesture of utter sorrow. “Gorsedd, you know I cannot,” he said. “Youcannot. She is his wife!”
“He will murder her!”
Those shouted, desperate words seemed to ring about in William’s head, enough to the point where he turned to look at the last spot where he had seen Victor and Annavieve. He remembered the very last thing he saw between the pair, the strike Victor had committed against her.He will murder her!Gorsedd’s words rang in his brain. William was not a weak or indecisive man; he knew right from wrong. But he could not interfere in the duke’s marriage. Hewouldnot.
“Do what I tell you,” he said to Gorsedd, turning away and heading back in the direction of the meeting hall. “Take Hage to the Lord Sheriff’s abode before the man awakens. I will go and find the sheriff.”
With that, he made his way down the dark avenue, leaving Gorsedd standing there, anguished over the turn of events. He simply couldn’t believe William wasn’t going to help the duchess but, in reflection, he supposed that he did understand the man’s position. One did not interfere in another man’s marriage, and one in particular did not interfere in Dorset’s affairs. That was an unspoken rule regarding a man who had been known to make those who spoke unfavorably of him disappear. Gorsedd had aduty to do, as difficult as it was, so he helped his men collect Kevin and carry his massive body over to the next street where the Lord Sheriff’s place of business was located.
There was evidently no real vault but there were chains and shackles against a wall in the rear yard, next to a small stable, so when the Lord Sheriff arrived, they were able to chain a semi-conscious Kevin to the great stone wall, out in the night, out in the elements. It was a shameful state for the great Scorpion, a man in a long line of great knights.
Even when the Salisbury soldiers left to return to William and the sheriff returned to his feast, Gorsedd remained. He stayed as long as he could listening to Kevin beg him to go and save Annavieve, but when the guilt became too great because he would not help the duchess, he left Kevin alone. He simply couldn’t look at the man anymore or hear his anguished pleas. They cut him to the bone.
Meanwhile, when Adonis finally regained consciousness, alone in the livery yard, he staggered back into the meeting hall in search of Thomas only to be told that de Wolfe and de Evereux had inflicted mortal wounds upon each other in their battle and both had been taken to the barber-surgeon for tending, the same barber-surgeon where Magda’s body still lay in the back room. Unable to locate Victor or William or Gorsedd, Adonis went on to the barber-surgeon to sit with Thomas as the man hovered between life and death with a dagger wound that had gone deep into his chest.
De Evereux passed away shortly after Adonis arrived, having bled to death from a gash to his neck that Thomas had inflicted. The wicked, dark French knight went out without fanfare or sympathy from anyone around him. He died, as he had lived, alone and unloved, a fitting ending for a man who had never given, or known, kindness. He died, a victim of Thomas deWolfe’s blade, as Adonis sat beside Thomas, several feet away, and wept.
