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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“W hat in the bloody hell happened?” Curtis exploded.

Having just been awoken from a deep sleep by pounding on his door, he’d slipped on his breeches from the night before and yanked the door open, only to find Hugo carrying a bloodied Elle in his arms. Suddenly, it was as if the entire world was bursting into his chamber as Hugo, followed by Dustin and Christopher and Peter, rushed to the bed and laid Elle upon it.

After that, it was chaos.

“Is she breathing?” Dustin demanded, sitting on the bed beside her while Christopher took up position on the other side. “Can you tell?”

Christopher was leaning over Elle, carefully inspecting the dagger that was jammed into her shoulder right at her neck. “She’s breathing,” he said. “Her heartbeat is weak and fast. She’s in shock. Why is she all wet?”

“Because he tried to drown her!” Hugo said, distraught. “It was Amaro! He was here!”

Curtis, who was barely holding on as it was, looked at Hugo in horror. “ Amaro? ” he nearly shouted. “He did this?”

Hugo nodded, looking to his liege with the greatest of remorse. “He did,” he said. “My lord, I feel as if this is my fault. I should have told you… I should have told you what he was capable of!”

Curtis’ mouth was hanging open in shock, in terror. “Tell me what ?”

Hugo was in great distress. “The things he said,” he muttered. “He would make threats toward the lady, toward her cousin. He said you were not allowed to punish him for anything he did, but when he went to Lioncross, I thought he would forget. I thought the threat was over. But he came back!”

Curtis couldn’t decide what to do at that moment—go on the rampage, snap Hugo’s neck, or push his parents out of the way to get to Elle. Perhaps he would do all three, but his brain was broken in the sense that he couldn’t make a choice. He just stood there and quivered. He ended up emitting something of a roar of pain before turning for the door.

“Where is he?” he boomed. “Where is Amaro? I will kill him!”

Peter and Myles were in the chamber, too, grabbing Curtis before he could get away. But it was like trying to stop a raging bull. He’d already slugged Myles the night before in a drunken rage, and here he was again, fighting with his brother, whom he loved dearly. He elbowed Peter in the belly when the man grabbed him from behind and threw him into a bear hug to stop his forward momentum. As this was going on, Caius and Sean came into the chamber because they’d heard the alarms, only to see a full-blown fight going on between Curtis and his brothers while Curtis’ wife lay on the bed between Dustin and Christopher, a dagger sticking out of her chest. When Christopher saw Caius and Shawn, he threw a finger toward Curtis.

“Help them,” he bellowed. “Cai, help them calm Curt. Sean, I need you!”

Caius and Sean split up, Caius going to the tussling de Lohr brothers and Sean going straight to the bed. As Caius entered the struggle, Sean leaned over Christopher’s shoulder, getting a good look at Lady Leominster.

She was a bloody, wet mess.

“What happened, Chris?” Sean asked quietly, urgently.

Christopher sighed sharply. “Amaro de Laraga has tried to kill my son’s wife,” he growled. “Curtis is trying to escape this chamber to find the man and kill him, but I need him here. I need him calm for his wife’s sake, not running around like a madman.”

“Where is de Laraga?” Sean said ominously. “I will take care of him.”

Christopher shook his head. “I do not know,” he said. “But find out where he is. Find out what happened and where this happened. I want to know how this came about. And when you locate de Laraga… make it hurt, Sean. Cause him pain.”

It was a command to the man once known as the Lord of the Shadows. He brought pain with him wherever he went, and no one escaped his wrath. Nodding grimly, Sean headed out of the chamber on a mission. As he cleared the room, Christopher looked to Hugo, who was standing a few feet behind him, looking as if he was ready to collapse. But Christopher would have none of the man’s guilt or grief. It wasn’t his right.

“De Bernay,” he snapped. “Look at me and listen.”

Hugo’s gaze immediately shifted from Curtis and the men trying to calm him to Christopher. “My lord?” he said, his voice quivering.

“Find a physic,” he said. “We will do what we can, but she needs a physic.”

“We do not have one, my lord,” Hugo said.

“Then go to the nearest town and find one,” Christopher nearly shouted. “I do not care where you go, but find one. Send men out to comb the area for one. You will also have the servants send up hot water and clean, boiled rags. The same ones they use for the wounded soldiers. Lastly, send Wrexham to me, now. I am in need of de Royans. Hurry! ”

He shouted the last word, and Hugo fled. Meanwhile, Elle was starting to come around, and Dustin had to practically lie on the woman to keep her still.

“Easy, lass, easy,” Dustin said soothingly. “Be at ease. We will take good care of you.”

Coming out of a dark and unpleasant fog, Elle had no idea what was going on. She was staring up at the ceiling, hearing Dustin’s voice, before finally turning her head slightly and catching sight of the woman’s strained face.

“My… my lady?” she said hoarsely, puzzled. “What is it? What has happened?”

Dustin forced a smile. “Be still, love,” she said softly. “There has been a little trouble, but we will take very good care of you.”

Elle still had no idea what she was talking about until she began to remember being in the water. Someone was holding her down in the water. She tried to fight back but couldn’t seem to gain any headway. She remembered panicking, and then someone pulling her out of the water. After that… Was she running? She thought Melusine had been there. But the feelings of panic returned, and she tried to sit up.

“The water,” she babbled, somewhat incoherently. “There was water. Where’s the water?”

Both Dustin and Christopher attempted to push her back down again, but the moment she jostled the knife in her shoulder, she cried out and fell back to the bed. In fact, that cry stopped Curtis in his tracks as he was fighting three men to get out of the chamber and find Amaro. That feeble cry had him pushing them aside so he could get to his wife.

His focus shifted.

“Ellie?” he said, his voice cracking. “Ellie, I’m here, my love. I’m here. Everything will be well, I promise. I’m here.”

Dustin had to move aside, because he was going to his wife’s bedside whether or not his mother was in the way. As Dustin moved away, helped by Myles, Curtis collapsed beside the bed, his big arm across Elle’s chest to keep her from moving.

“I was in the water,” Elle said, clutching at him with the only arm that was pain-free to move. “Someone pushed me into the water. They tried to drown me!”

Curtis laid his head on her shoulder, that horrible knife in his line of sight. “I know, my sweetest love,” he said softly. “But you are safe now.”

Elle wasn’t convinced. She was also still dazed. As she started to weep purely out of fright, Curtis looked at his father in agony.

“We must remove the dagger,” he hissed. “Help me, Papa.”

Christopher put his hand on his son’s blond head. “We need something to stop the blood before we can,” he said. “Dustin, you must get your sewing kit. We must get this out.”

Dustin was already on the move, sending Myles running for her kit. There was wine in the chamber, something to use for cleansing the wound, so she went around collecting what they needed in order to remove the dagger and plug the hole. As she looked for something to use as a rag, because she wasn’t sure they could wait much longer, Caius came up beside her.

“You cannot be sure that dagger did not puncture a lung,” he whispered. “If it has and you remove it, the lady will not be able to breathe.”

Dustin nodded. “I know,” she murmured. “We must be able to make a hole in her chest to make breathing easier, which will not be a simple or a painless thing.”

Caius lifted a dark eyebrow. “There is also something else to consider,” he said. “There is very little blood coming from the wound. Either it missed everything vital, which would be the best of all things, or it is holding back the flow.”

Dustin knew the implications. If they were unable to stem the tide, Elle could bleed to death in minutes. But they both knew that they simply couldn’t leave the dagger there. One way or the other, it had to come out.

Dustin sighed heavily.

“God help us,” she muttered. “We need a physic!”

There was desperation in her tone, and Caius patted her on the shoulder. “I will see to the rags,” he told her. “Go and keep Curt calm. He needs you.”

Dustin nodded, squeezing his arm gratefully before returning to the bedside. As Caius headed out to see what was keeping Hugo and the things Christopher had demanded, Curtis remained with his wife, his head on her shoulder, his enormous arm across her chest to hold her still.

He’d never felt so helpless in his life.

“Everything will be well, I promise,” he said softly, trying to distract her because he could hear people scrambling behind him, preparing to remove the dagger. “When you are feeling better, and before our son is born, mayhap we can journey to some place lovely and warm. I’ve heard that there are beaches of white sand to the south, though I’ve never been. I think my father has. I hear they are very nice. Would you like to go to a warm beach of white sand?”

Elle was still weeping softly, but her eyes opened as he spoke. “A beach?” she said. “What beach?”

“To the south,” Curtis said, lifting his head to look at her. “I have always wanted to go. My father says they are beautiful. Aren’t they, Papa?”

Christopher, sitting on Elle’s other side, had been listening to the conversation. When Curtis looked at him, he smiled weakly. “They are, indeed,” he said, watching Elle focus on him. “When I was young, I went with Richard to the Levant. I spent years there, fighting on sand the color of clouds. And you’ve never seen water as blue as the water there. It was so clear that you could see all the way to the bottom of the sea.”

Elle sniffled. “It… it must have been beautiful.”

“Verily,” Christopher said, noticing that Caius had returned with not only de Royans on his heel, but also with Christin in tow. Servants were filing in after them, bearing the things he had asked for, but his focus remained on Elle in an effort to keep her calm. “It can be very hot there, so unless you are prepared to melt, you may want to think about staying in England, where the weather is much more agreeable. There are some lovely beaches to the south, at Brighton for one. Or mayhap Curt will take you to our townhome in London and you can lounge on the banks of the Thames.”

“I did not know you had a home in London.”

Curtis nodded. “Lonsdale,” he said, seeing that Myles had also returned with Dustin’s sewing kit. The time had come to remove the blade. “My lady, we must remove the dagger in your chest. There will be some pain, but I promise we will remove it as quickly as we can. You must be brave just a little while longer.”

Elle seemed to be calmer than she had been when she first awoke. “I can see something sticking out of me,” she said. “I have been afraid to look.”

“It is a dagger,” Christopher said.

“That is what is causing me such pain?”

“Aye.”

She smiled, without humor. “In all the years I have taken up arms, I have never been wounded,” she said. “This is a first.”

Christopher smiled ironically. “Then you have joined the ranks of Curtis and myself, and even Lady Hereford,” he said. “We have all been wounded in some way, at some time.”

Elle’s smile faded. “You told me of your wound at Tickhill.”

Christopher’s smile brightened, though it was forced. “I survived,” he said. “And so will you. You will survive and thrive, and my grandson will be born fat and happy. Everything will be as it should.”

Elle believed him. This man, who had once been her greatest enemy, was now someone she trusted. She knew he would never harm her or be dishonest. Much like his son did, Christopher had her respect.

She was in good hands.

“Then do what needs to be done,” she said, turning her head to look at Curtis. He was gazing at her with such distress that she forced a smile, just for him. “Your father says everything will be well. I believe him.”

Curtis nodded, too choked up to respond. As Christopher stood up and went to de Royans to ask the man to take command of the castle while everyone was wrapped up with this tragedy, Christin, who had been standing out of the way, slipped into the space her father had occupied.

“You will be feeling better very soon,” she said, smiling at Elle. “Is there anything you want? Anything I can get for you?”

Elle felt some comfort with Christin there. She had come to like the woman a great deal. “Mayhap you can help me change into dry clothing when this is over,” she said. “I seem to be wet.”

Christin’s smile faded, no matter how hard she tried to remain positive. “I will seek out fresh clothing for you right now,” she said. “When your wound is bandaged, I shall be ready to help.”

She tried to move away quickly, but Elle stopped her. “Where is Melusine?” she asked. “She can help you. But you must be gentle when you tell her what happened. She will be quite upset.”

Something in Christin’s eyes flickered when she realized that Elle must not have remembered what had happened in the kitchen yard. She glanced at Curtis, who seemed to be waiting for an answer too. He doesn’t know, she thought. Therefore, she proceeded carefully.

“I will be gentle,” she said after a moment. “Now, you must lie still and quiet. I will take care of everything.”

As Christin darted away, Elle’s gaze moved back to Curtis, who smiled bravely and kissed her hand repeatedly. Comforted, but quite weary, Elle closed her eyes to rest as Dustin and Christopher brought everything they would need over to the bed. Dustin gently shooed Curtis out of the chair she wanted to take, next to Elle, and as Curtis stood up, he could see Christin motioning frantically to him. Leaving his parents with Elle, he went over to her.

“What?” he asked curiously. “What is it?”

Christin was clearly upset. “Her cousin was killed in the attack,” she whispered. “I could not tell her, Curt. It would only upset her more. Let Mama and Papa do what needs to be done, and then you will tell her, please?”

Curtis closed his eyes tightly for a moment, greatly distressed at the news of Melusine’s death. “You know she is dead for certain?” he said. “Did you see her?”

Christin was fighting back tears. “Aye.”

Curtis was expecting more of an answer. “Well?” he demanded, trying to keep his voice down. “What happened?”

Christin sighed heavily before answering. “Curt, I am the one who stopped Amaro from killing your wife,” she hissed. “I was just coming into the kitchen yard with Melusine as Amaro was trying to drown Elle in the laundry basin. That’s why she is all wet. I attacked Amaro and drove him away, but as Melusine was pulling your wife out of the water and trying to flee with her, Amaro produced daggers from somewhere on his body and began throwing them. That is why Elle has a dirk sticking out of her chest. Amaro threw one at Melusine, also, but it hit her right between her breasts. She was probably dead before she hit the ground.”

Curtis was listening in horror, his hand over his mouth. “My God,” he gasped. “Is… is that what happened?”

Christin nodded. “With God as my witness, it is,” she said. “I am so sorry, Curt. I wish the outcome had been different.”

He shook his head, his hand coming away from his mouth. “This is not your fault,” he assured her. “None of it is. But what about Amaro?”

Christin could see that he was getting worked up again, and she grasped him by the shoulders. “Asa came to our rescue,” she said. “He killed Amaro, and when he realized Melusine was dead, he hacked the man’s body to pieces. I do not know what has happened after that, but Sherry is with him. He is making sure that both Melusine and Asa are taken care of.”

Curtis digested what had happened. It was the first time he’d heard the entire story. When he realized what his sister had told him, and how close Elle had come to death, the situation overwhelmed him. Closing his eyes tightly, he felt tears stream down his face as Christin tried to comfort him.

“Don’t weep,” she said softly. “Elle will survive. Mama and Papa will take great care of her.”

He shook his head, his hand coming away from his mouth as he suddenly threw his sister into a tight hug. “You saved her,” he murmured. “You saved her and risked your life to do so. How can I ever thank you enough for that, Cissy? You saved my life, too.”

Christin hugged her emotional brother before finally forcing him to release her. “Everything will be well and good again,” she assured him, wiping the tears from his face. “It was not my intention to tell you everything right now, but I had to because your wife has asked for her cousin. Melusine died bravely, Curt. She died trying to take your wife to safety, so she must be well remembered for that.”

Curtis nodded, taking a deep breath and trying to steady himself. He heard his mother calling for him, and he turned to see her waving him over.

“They are going to begin,” he muttered. “I must help them hold her still. But Cissy… truly, you have my deepest gratitude. I love you for it.”

She smiled, encouraging him to go to his wife’s bedside, where their parents were beginning the process of removing the dagger in Elle’s chest. As she watched, Curtis knelt down next to his wife’s head, holding her left arm still while Myles got in behind their father and held her right arm. The entire de Lohr family was pulling together to save the young woman who had become Curtis’ all for living. Perhaps they didn’t know her very well, but that didn’t matter. She was precious to Curtis, and that made her precious to the rest of them. Like a pride of lions, the House of de Lohr banded together. When one was hurt, they were all hurt.

This was their way of preventing any more hurt to one of their own.

Elle was going to live.

The de Lohr family would make sure of it.