“You whore!” Lord Donald stormed towards her, but Sir Matthias stepped between him and Sapphire. “You’re ungrateful garbage, just like Gregory Darrington. My father tried to lift you up out of the sewers you were born into, and the only reason Lord Musgrave agreed to marry you was as a favor to the family.”
Sapphire rolled her eyes. “Lord Musgrave agreed to it because he’s already spent his first wife’s fortune, and we know what happened to her when the gold dried up.”
“Lies told by filthy ingrates.”
The weight of the pendant pressed against her chest, and Sapphire narrowed her eyes. “They weren’t lies. He killed her, and you have proof. That’s how you got your hooks into him. How you convinced him to marry me.”
“You know nothing!”
“You’re right. It wasn’t you. It was Lord Henry Carsons. He wouldn’t have trusted you with that.”
“Shut up!” Spittle flew from her uncle’s lips.
Sapphire ignored him. “We’re done speaking. You and your… I’ll be gracious and call them footmen, may leave now.”
“This is Father’s until you turn twenty-four, and he-”
“It isn’t,” Sapphire said. “My trustee has already signed everything over to Sir Matthias, and the Crown, the Dragon Church, and the Church of Serena have approved it.”
“They can’t do that!”
“They can. Sir Matthias is my husband.”
“You ruined my sister, your birth proving what a filthy whore she was. Now you admit to the same depravity. We’ll see how ready Sir Matthias is to stay married to you when I strip you of your fortune!”
Sapphire raised a brow. “If you could strip me of my fortune, you would have by now. But go ahead and try.”
“We’ll see how fast he turns against you when I reveal the proof of your father’s piracy.”
Folding her arms over her chest, Sapphire met the hatred in Donald’s eyes. Just like her grandfather, he despised her because she was living proof they’d sold her mother into marriage with a commoner. She wasn’t family and never would be. Wasn’t even human to them.
Sapphire was proof of the Carsons family’s failures.
“If you want to keep your pretty lifestyle and your fancy new friends, you’ll end this farce of a marriage and wed Lord Musgrave.”
Sapphire dug her nails into her palms as she stared down her uncle. “I will die a pauper before I marry Lord Musgrave. And you will die a pauper beside me.”
Lord Donald frowned.
“If you have proof of my father’s piracy and present it to the world, the Crown will not only strip me of my fortune, but the Crown will also require you to return every gold piece my father paid you as a dowry for my mother and every copper of profit that you made on any business dealings you engaged in with him.”
“You’re lying!”
Sapphire stepped forward, and her uncle retreated. “Go look up the law, and not just the parts that benefit you. Guessing Rashalee didn’t mention that.”
“You know nothing!”
“Like my father knew nothing when he wrote his will.” Sapphire shrugged. “We’ll just have to see who is right.”
Her uncle stared at her, contempt contorting his face. He snarled, and the men flanking him launched themselves at her and Sir Matthias.
Chapter 38
As the four men charged Sir Matthias, Sapphire darted to the side and grabbed a decorative sword that hung over the mantelpiece.
Her uncle smiled and walked toward the front door.
Matthias’s sword lit up with holy fire as the four men drew their weapons. The Knight fell back to protect Sapphire as he deflected first one blow, then another. These men were far more skilled than the ones that had cornered them at his family’s farm.
One of the attackers shifted to flank Sir Matthias as the remaining two grinned at Sapphire and closed in on her.
She hefted her sword, sucked in a breath, and waited.
The man on her left lunged at her. His sword glanced off her own, and she followed through as Mara had taught her, using her leverage and the element of surprise to knock the weapon from his hand.
As he scrambled across the floor to recover it, the second man lunged at her.
She spun to the side, his blow crashing off the sofa behind her. Sapphire kicked at his knees, and he cursed her as he rolled over top of the sofa to avoid her.
She backed towards Sir Matthias as the other two men circled him. One attacked the Knight head on, while the other came at him from behind.
Sir Matthias’s sword met the first man’s attack, then the Knight pivoted, his blade slashing across the man’s chest and burrowing into the second. Matthias’s sword flared white, and holy fire cascaded across the man.
He dropped to the ground screaming as he tried to pat out the flames.
Sapphire ran her sword through the burning man’s chest, then snatched his weapon as Sir Matthias blocked another blow.
The man grabbed at the sword in his chest, trying to yank it free as his screams echoed through the great room.
As Sapphire stood back up, she remembered another lesson from Mara and grabbed a vase from the side table.
The two men who’d attacked Sapphire regrouped with the one that had attacked Sir Matthias and circled around her and her husband.
She stood with her back to Sir Matthias as the attackers watched them, searching for an advantage.
One lunged at the Knight of Valor.
Sir Matthias parried his blow as the other two came at Sapphire.
She threw the vase at the first one’s head. As he lifted his arm to shield himself, Sapphire used the opening in his defenses and buried her sword in his belly. She twisted it.
The man dropped his weapon and staggered back, pulling at the blade as he crumpled to the floor.
Sapphire ducked, waiting for the blow from the second attacker to strike her.
Instead, steel clashed against steel as the warmth of Dracor’s light brush her cheek.
Sir Matthias stood between her and the remaining men, the Knight’s face an expressionless mask. He shoved the attacker back, his sword glowing so brilliantly that the man screamed and shut his eyes.
Sir Matthias drove his sword through the man’s chest.
The last attacker launched himself at the Knight of Valor. Rage and something more, something darker, contorted the man her uncle had brought into her home.
Sapphire swallowed the fear clogging her throat. She could not, would not, lose the happiness she’d found. Especially not to her grandfather who had already stolen so much from her.
The attacker grinned as he circled Sir Matthias, his sword swinging in impossibly fast arcs as he closed in on the Knight of Valor.
Sir Matthias stood his ground, his sword still alight with Dracor’s flame.
Crouching down, Sapphire waited until the last attacker was focused on the Knight, then she lunged forward and plowed into his legs.
As the man tumbled to the ground, the white light of Sir Matthias’s sword enveloped the attacker. The man shrieked a string of expletives in a language Sapphire didn’t recognize as Sir Matthias plowed his sword through the man’s chest.
Sapphire tried to roll away, but her skirts tangled around her feet, and with Sir Matthias’s sword still lodged in his chest, the attacker brought his own sword down towards Sapphire.