“Go back to your homes!” I shouted through the door. “We do not want to harm you.”
“Sylvaine?” Theo called out. “Is that you?”
“Theo, thank God! Tell these men to turn around and leave this place,” I begged him.
“We found Fabien's body in the woods,” Theo shouted back. “Ease down, everyone, give me a moment.”
The men shouted, and a thump came at the door.
“Hey now! That's Sylvaine in there!”
“If she's in there, then we must save her!” Another man cried out.
“I do not need saving!” I shouted back. “I am here of my own free will. These are good men; please leave them be.”
“That was not a man that I saw in the window,” someone else said. “Move back from the door, Sylvaine, we're coming through!”
“Damn it all,” I turned and saw the brothers on the stairs behind me, looking grim and ready for battle. “Those are innocent people out there,” I said to them. “Yourpeople.”
“They're here to kill us,” Lance growled. “That makes them the opposite of our people.”
“Because they found the mutilated body of their neighbor,” I said as another thud shook the doors. “Please, just hide.”
“Hide?” Audric laughed. “This is our home; we are not letting those ruffians run rampant through it.”
“And we are not letting them near you,” Blaise added. “We saw how well they treat you.”
Another boom shook the castle and a crack formed in the door.
“Damn your stubbornness,” I growled as I stalked away.
“Where are you going?” Blaise called after me.
“Let her go,” Lance said. “It's better if she isn't a part of this.”
“Stupid men,” I muttered as I climbed out of a back window and headed toward the stables. “Do I have to do everything myself?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Father,” I cried as I jumped out of the saddle. “I need your help!”
My father and sisters rushed out of the house, eyes wide with surprise.
“What's happened, Sylvie?” Bianca asked.
“The villagers are attacking my beasts,” I stammered. “I have to save them.”
My father stared at me steadily for a long moment and then nodded his head. Our family knew all about angry mobs. It was the whole reason we had moved here, all those years ago. We had fled a horde of vicious townspeople... after they had murdered my mother.
My sisters narrowed their eyes as they all started to smile maliciously. This may not be the mob that killed our mother, but it would do. Violence has a way of paying itself forward.
“I'm not moving again,” Anne, my youngest sister, said. “Not unless it's into that big castle of yours, Sylvaine.”
I smiled brightly at her and nodded. “Then we'd best go and save it from being burned to the ground.”
“I hate the smell of smoke,” Bianca said. “It's nearly impossible to get out of the drapes.”
“Armor up, my daughters,” my father said, his entire demeanor changing from that of a middle-aged merchant to a warrior in his prime, “the time has come for us to fight.”
