She kept her voice calm and even. This was a negotiation, like negotiating cargo for a ship. And the longer she kept him talking, the better chance she had of winning.
The man’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her, then he took another step toward her.
Sapphire stood her ground as she raised her sword. “How many times have you worked for my grandfather? How many people have and are still alive?”
“More than little girls who try to kill me with a toy sword.” He leered down at her, but Sapphire met his gaze.
“Even if he pays you, what do you think will happen to you when the Knights of Valor learn you killed one of their own?”
The thug paused.
“Didn’t my grandfather tell you my husband is a Knight?”
“Then he’ll pay extra.” He lunged at Sapphire.
She dodged and brought her sword down as hard as she could.
Pain jolted her, burning through her arm and stealing the breath from her chest. Hitting a human was far harder than the straw dummies she’d practiced with.
The coppery scent of blood stung her senses, and he launched himself at her, dragging her down to the floor with him.
Everything her father had taught her, that Mary had taught her, came flooding back. Sapphire clawed the thug’s face, aiming for his eyes as she rammed her knee into his groin. He doubled over in pain, but he wrapped his hands around her throat.
Sapphire fought, kicking and struggling as he caught off her oxygen and the world dimmed. Her skirts tangled around her legs, and she flailed, trying to free herself.
Trying to take another breath.
He leered down at her, assured of his victory, when a heavy brass candlestick hit him in the side of the head.
His grip loosened on Sapphire’s neck, and he reared back at Celena, who still clutched the candlestick.
Sapphire shoved the man hard, using his awkward position to knock him over and away from her sister-in-law.
Grabbing her father’s sword, Sapphire buried it in the thug’s chest.
He clutched at it, trying to yank it out.
Sapphire took the candlestick from Celena and hit him again.
Chapter 18
Sir Matthias raced into the house, and his father caught the door before it slammed closed.
Fear nearly toppled Matthias as he saw the man sprawled across the floor and the sword in Sapphire’s hand. A mass of angry bruises was already forming around her throat.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine now,” Sapphire said, but she didn’t sound fine. Her voice was horse and broken.
Thomas and Ryland bounded up the stairs as Matthias sheathed his sword and whispered a prayer of thanks to Dracor. He then inspected the nasty bruises on his wife’s neck and called forth the healing power.
Sir Matthias laid a hand to her throat, filling her with the golden glow of Dracor. Sapphire closed her eyes and leaned against him, her lithe form trembling as the healing light infused her.
The Knight of Valor held his wife, letting relief wash away the overwhelming fear. He was still angry and upset, but the gods had spared her and his family. Sir Matthias silently thanked Them for Their grace.
He kissed Sapphire’s temple, then turned to his mother and Celena, but neither needed healing.
A quiet whimper from Lilly drew Matthias deeper into the room where he found his niece and nephews, the kids all three women had been protecting. Matthias’s heart ached as he stared into the children’s terrified faces. They shouldn’t know such fear, shouldn’t go to bed each night and wonder who would try to hurt them or their parents while they slept.
Kneeling beside the sofa, he whispered a prayer to Dracor and asked the Dragon God for a whisper of his light to do justice for the children. The holy energy responded, and Matthias touched a hand to each child’s cheek.
After a moment, the kids yawned, then curled up on the sofa together, their eyes closed in slumber.
“Will they remember anything?” his mother asked.
“They’ll think it was a bad dream.” Matthias closed his eyes and thanked Dracor for His justice and Thalia for Her compassion.
“I’ll take them upstairs,” Thomas said.
“No one else in the house,” Ryland said. “Searched the attic, too.”
Sapphire stared down at the man sprawled across the floor. “Check outside the house and the barn. If they were worried about witnesses, they might have tried to cover their tracks.”
Ryland raised a brow, but he headed back outside.
“He looks bad.” Leanne nudged the leg of the unconscious thug.
Sir Matthias stared down at him. “Probably won’t see dawn.”
“Can you do that healing thing on him? I hit him with a candlestick.” Celena’s voice trembled.
“I stabbed him with a sword and hit him a second time. If he dies, it’s my fault,” Sapphire replied.
Celena stared at Sir Matthias.
“Healing is a way of channeling Dracor’s love and light. Seeing the good and beauty in the person you’re helping. I see none of that in a man who tried to hurt you.” Sir Matthias squeezed his eyes closed as he turned away from the injured man. There was nothing he could do to help him. No part of him that could see the good in someone who had almost cost him everything. “I’m going to help Dad inspect the farm and make sure it’s safe.”
Sapphire touched her throat as she watched her husband leave, but the constriction wasn’t from the hired thug’s crushing grip. She wanted to hold Sir Matthias, to tell him everything would be okay, but she was the reason such darkness blackened his home and family.
Sapphire had given in to Rashalee, and just as her mother had warned, bad things had happened.
“Boy’s hurting,” Leanne said. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen him unable to find the good in a person. You need to talk to him, and when you get back, we’ve got some talking of our own to do.”
Sapphire heard both the wisdom and the threat. Leanne deserved the truth, and Sapphire would do whatever she could to make things right.
Hurrying outside after Sir Matthias, Sapphire paused at the charred bodies, then uttered a string of curses that would’ve made her mother faint.
Her presence had brought pain and death to some of the kindest people Sapphire had ever met. People that had welcomed her into their home and into their family.
And it was because of Lord Henry Carsons.
Her grandfather would twist it, blame Sir Matthias for marrying her and claim he’d brought it on himself and his family.
But Lord Carsons was the one that had hired the thugs to kill her. He was the one whose actions had terrified children and made them fear the dark. The one that had made Celena defend her family, and the one that had forced Sir Matthias to call on Dracor for something other than healing.
Sapphire was done playing Henry Carsons’s game.
She had not sold her daughter into marriage. She had not killed to steal another man’s fortune. And she had not tried to force another to marry against their will.
Those were Lord Carsons’s choices, and he bore responsibility for them.
Just as she bore responsibility for playing on Sir Matthias’s sense of honor to get him to marry her.
Sapphire clenched her fists. She would show her grandfather the meaning of Rashalee’s wrath.