After that, Sebastian walked back to the table and leaned over Kai’s body. For a moment I thought he would begin weeping again. I didn’t know what to say or do. I wanted to offer comfort but didn’t know how. I wanted to weep for Kai myself, but I felt an outsider in this scene, someone who had no part in this mourning.
Light footsteps sounded outside the room, and Lady Violette walked in. The regret on her lovely face was genuine.
“Forgive the intrusion. My lord Jarrod, I cannot tell you how sorry we are for your loss, and we cannot fathom how this happened. I assure you that my husband is questioning the other men he hired for today’s match, to see if they know anything. He will get to the bottom of this, but there is no way we can amends.”
“It’s not your fault,” Jarrod answered, but his voice was strained. He loved Kai as much as Rolf and Sebastian did. “None of us blame you.”
“Perhaps the man was mad?” Sebastian said to her. “He hated nobles?”
“Perhaps so.” She seemed quite relieved by both their responses. “But please don’t take Kai’s body and ride out tonight. Stay here at least until morning. Dinner will be served, but we’ve cancelled any dancing. Stay and let us try to offer comfort.”
Jarrod glanced to Sebastian and then back to Violette. “Thank you, my lady. We’ll stay tonight.”
That night, at dinner, I couldn’t help feeling anxious. We were all supposed to pretend we knew nothing and were as lost regarding Kai’s death as everyone else.
I could feel that Rolf was on the edge of his own self-control, but he obeyed his father and simply avoided speaking to any of the Monvílles. In my mind, I kept seeing Kai laid out on that table, his life cut off in such a brutal and senseless way.
I wish I understood what Sebastian was going to do.
I knew better than to ask him.
Everyone was kind to us, and when Lord Allemond offered me his condolences, I managed to accept gracefully. Thankfully, he didn’t approach Rolf.
To my surprise, Sebastian not only accepted such sympathies, he treated Allemond like an old friend, and he sat with Lady Rosamund at dinner. I was convinced that neither Rosamund nor Phillipe knew anything of Allemond’s carefully orchestrated murder of Kai.
Still, I wondered what Sebastian was thinking by sitting with Lady Rosamund all evening, and letting her comfort him as if he were a child. She patted his hand and stroked his back and spoke softly in his ear. I noticed Lord Allemond glancing at them once or twice and frowning.
Rolf didn’t speak much to anyone, but no one seemed to expect him to.
Somehow, we made it through dessert and the after-dinner conversation and were able to excuse ourselves.
Alone in a guest room with Rolf, I sank down on the bed. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I know how you loved him.”
He came over to sit beside me. “I wanted to avenge him. Father was right to stop me, but he shouldn’t have given Sebastian a free hand.”
“What will Sebastian do?”
“I’ve no idea. That’s the problem. There’s something broken inside him. He doesn’t think or feel like other people.”
I found that an unfair assessment of Sebastian. Yes, he could be sly, but he was also capable of kindness, loyalty, and protection.
Rolf put his face in his hands. “I can’t believe Kai’s gone.”
Scooting backward, I piled some pillows against the headboard. “Let me hold you. Please.”
I needed this as much as he did. To my relief, he moved to me and laid his face against my stomach. I held him with both arms, rocking him gently.
He let me.
After a while, we both fell asleep like that, and the next thing I knew, I was awakened by the sound of a woman screaming.
Rolf sat up.
Loud voices and running feet came from beyond our door. Rolf bolted for the door, and I followed. He was faster than me, but I could see a small gathering down at the end of the passage. Lady Violette, Lord Henri, and several other guests must have had heard the screams. Jarrod was there. Coming to a stop near Rolf, I looked through an open doorway, into a room, and I went cold.
Lady Rosamund was on the bed of her guest room, on her knees, pressed up against the headboard, clutching the front of her gown.
Sebastian stood in the middle of the room over Allemond’s dead body. He had his pearl-handled dagger in his right hand, and Allemond’s hand gripped a dagger as well. But I had seen it before. It was Sebastian’s other blade, the plain one with the tan handle.
Blood flowed from a wound in Allemond’s throat and spread around him on the floor.
“What happened?” Lord Henri demanded.
This was the second death on the same day in his home.
Sebastian appeared distraught, but I could see the calm in his eyes.
He put his free hand to his head. “I didn’t . . . I would never have . . .” Looking down, he leaned over and picked up a small beaded purse on the floor. “Lady Rosamund must have dropped this earlier in the hall. I found it and brought it back to her. Lord Allemond came upon us in here, and he . . . he misunderstood and attacked me. I had no choice but to defend myself.” He turned to Rosamund. “My lady, forgive me.”
Henri was still staring at the scene. “Rosamund?” he asked. “Is this true?”
Her eyes were wide, moving from her dead husband, to Sebastian, to Henri. “Yes,” she answered. “It’s as he says. He brought me back my purse and my husband came to my room and found us and misunderstood. He flew into a rage. Sebastian had no choice.”
And then I thought on her earlier attentions to Sebastian, and I realized what he’d done. It appeared Rosamund and Allemond had separate guest rooms. Sebastian had accepted an assignation with her and then somehow arranged for Lord Allemond to come see his wife.
Sebastian probably had a message sent.
Upon Allemond’s arrival, Sebastian had killed him and placed a dagger in his hand and Rosamund had begun screaming.
But now, she was faced with a number of her peers asking questions. A little secret bed hopping could be overlooked so long as it wasn’t noticed. But a great lady like her being caught openly cavorting with a handsome young Volodane was something else entirely. She couldn’t let the truth be exposed. She’d lose her reputation and doors would be slammed in her face.
If she didn’t support Sebastian’s story, she would be ruined.
“It’s as he says,” she repeated.
I don’t know if everyone believed this, but it didn’t matter. They both told the same story: Sebastian had been forced to defend himself.
Lord Allemond was dead, and for Rolf and Jarrod, honor had been served.
But when I looked back to Sebastian, I could see that his pain had not been eased. I wasn’t sure it ever would be.
Chapter 6
We made the journey home and buried Kai in the family graveyard beside his mother. I had not seen this place before, as it was situated well beyond the kitchen gardens.
“I’ll have wild flowers placed on their graves as often as possible,” I promised Sebastian.
He nodded but didn’t answer.
There was nothing else for me to do but go inside the keep and oversee the unpacking.
Betty found me almost right away and handed me a letter. “From your father, my lady.”
“Thank you.”