AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ivy
Late that night, feeling upset and restless, Ivy put on a pair of soft slippers and a dress, then wandered the halls of the castle like a ghost. She carried no candle and simply walked through the gloom and the thick, inky shadows that seemed to accumulate everywhere like cobwebs.
She crossed an enclosed courtyard near the eastern wall of the castle. She breathed deeply, hoping to find solace in the scent of the flowers. She found none. Her mind and heart churned wildly, and she could not stop them. She looked up to the moon that hung high, fat, and full overhead. It cast the world in the courtyard around in her in pale silver, monochromatic light. It was stark and cold and matched her mood perfectly.
Feeling nearly despondent, Ivy stepped through a door and back into the castle. The sound of murmured voices, echoing along the corridors drifted to her and piqued her curiosity.
Who could be awake at such an ungodly hour?
She followed the corridor, her slippered feet barely making a sound. She rounded a corner and saw light spilling from a partially open door and determined that the voices were coming from there. Her curiosity getting the best of her - her father had always said she had more curiosity than common sense - Ivy crept along the corridor and paused just outside the door, straining her ears to listen.
One of the men inside the room was Castor, for she would know his voice in the dead of night from a thousand leagues off. She did not recognize the voice of the other man, though. She leaned closer to the opening in the door and listened closely.
“Everything is falling into place,” the unknown man said. “Perhaps not as smoothly as we would have liked, but it is falling into place regardless.”
“I am glad you think so because from where I am sitting, everything is an unmitigated disaster,” Castor hissed. “Neither the Duke nor Col is dead. And Gillian - the Duke’s bloody daughter - is near dead, from what I understand. How is that not anything but a disaster?”
“It is a setback, I admit. But a setback is all it is,” the mystery man replied. “We will try again, and this time, we will succeed. I have a pair of friends with skills--”
“You said that the last time,” Castor cut him off. “And look where we are now.”
“As I said, it is a setback, but one I will make right,” he replied. “Soon enough, you will have everything you desire.”
“You said that last time too,” Castor noted wryly.
“I admit my error. I should not have used - unreliable people,” the mystery man said. “This time, since I assume we will not have to be subtle, I will only send the best, and they will ensure the job is finished. Duke Hamilton and Baron Lennox will be dead, and you will be free to claim the land for yourself.”
Ivy’s heart thundered in her breast so loud, she was terrified they would hear her lurking out in the corridor. She could not believe what she was hearing. So, this was how Castor was going to raise the esteem of House Welton - by assassinating a Duke and a Baron, then claiming their lands and wealth for his own.
Only in English Court could the idea of murder and theft be a way to raise one’s esteem and prestige. The thought of it sickened Ivy and knowing her brother was behind it all, left her feeling angry, and yet hollowed out at the same time. It broke her heart because she knew now that her brother’s ambition led him right up to a line - a line that Castor was gleefully jumping over. He was a murderer.
Those four words - Castor is a murderer - reverberated through her head wildly, never dying down and never losing the sting with each echo. He was really going to kill to increase his land and wealth.
“I am anxious to have this done sooner rather than later,” Castor said.
“I understand.”
“I do not think you do,” Castor spit. “I want my revenge. I want my mother avenged once and for all. I have waited too many years for this.”
“Avenged for what?” he asked, casually.
“For my mother,” Castor growled, his voice low and throaty. “I want the Duke to pay for what he did to her.”
Ivy’s ears perked up, and she pressed her eye close to the gap in the partially opened door and tried to catch a glimpse of the mystery man, but could only see the back of the man’s head, which was encased in a hood on his cloak. Castor’s words hit her hard simply because she did not know what he meant. What had Duke Hamilton done to their mother? Or at least, what did Castor think he had done?
“Before he dies, I want you to tell your man to let him know it is me killing him. I want the Duke to know I am the one who ordered him killed,” Castor hissed. “And tell him it is for my mother. It is because he initiated an affair with her that she felt so guilty that she took her own life. So, I want him to know that is why he is being killed. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly.”
Castor’s words hit her hard and drove the breath from her lungs. She had never been told that her mother had taken her own life. Ivy had been told that her mother had succumbed to a long-term illness. Nor had she ever been told that her mother had an affair with Duke Hamilton, and it was that affair that had led her mother to kill herself.
Ivy shook her head, trying to deny it to herself. Her vision blurred, and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She was desperate to not believe a single word of any of it. But for whatever reason, she could not un-hear the ring of truth she’d heard in the words that were spoken.
She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sob that burst from her throat but was only partially successful. Before she could react, she heard the sound of shuffled boot steps, and the door was yanked inward suddenly. Ivy was so startled, she stumbled forward, and her suddenly weak legs gave out beneath her, and she was unceremoniously dumped onto the stone floor of Castor’s office.
She looked up to see her brother standing over her, glaring at her with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw, rage coloring his every feature. The mystery man also loomed over her, but he wore a mask under the hood of his cloak.
