Chapter 17 A Dozen Corpses
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“Look closely, everyone. This is the true culprit.”
Brielle thrust Donna’s arm aloft for all to see, her voice inging with authority. “Observe the cuffs. They are frayed, marred by fibers of hemp and stains of moss. The one who severed the rope at the precipice last night was none other than Donna.”
She angled her gaze toward the pale faces of the household staff. “Sarah’s death is a tragedy, but it is no crime of mine.”
The courtyard erupted into an immediate cacophony of shock and outrage.
Donna’s face drained of all color, and she wrenched her arm in a desperate attempt to break free. “No! You lie! It was not me! I did nothing!”
“The evidence is damning, yet you persist in your deceit Brielle cut in, her grip tightening like a vise. Her eyes were sharp as daggers, her words cutting to the bone. “Did you not deceive Sarah, lure her to her death, and attempt to saddle me with the blame? What has become of our professed sisterly love? What is it you truly hope to achieve?”
Again and again, they sought to entrap her. Did they truly take her for such a fool?
While Brielle might have suffered such indignities in silence, the spirit that drove her would certainly not.
But in the next instant, a pair of powerful arms seized Donna, yanking her away from Brielle’s grasp. A heavy, brutal backhand connected with Brielle’s face, accompanied by a roar of pure rage. “Brielle!”
In that fleeting moment, the signet ring on Daniel’s finger gouged cruelly across her cheek. It left behind not merely the red imprint of his fingers, but a jagged, bleeding gash.
The metallic tang of blood saturated the air. Brielle clutched her cheek, her mind reeling. For reasons she could not fathom, her heart convulsed-not with emotional sorrow, but with a visceral, physical ache.
The mortal vessel she inhabited still harbored a deep, abiding love for this man. Thus, when he struck her, the heart’s anguish was so profound it wept to cry out.
She forced the tears back with iron will, dabbing the blood from her cheek, and lifted her gaze to Daniel. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but he stood before her his expression dark as a thunderhead, looking as though he wished to murder her where she stood.
Donna was ecstatic at the turn of events. She leaned heavily against Daniel’s shoulder, playing the part of the fragile, damsel in distress to perfection, her face a mask of pale feigned terror. “Daniel, my sister was not in her right mind. Pray, do not be wroth with her.”
As she spoke, she cast Brielle a look of triumphant victory, her eyes dancing with provocation and the thrill of her success.
Witnessing this, Brielle could not help but clench her fiss until her knuckles turned white. A fire of indignation roared to life within her chest.
One day, she vowed, she would peel that deceitful mask right off Donna’s face.
That Daniel had struck Brielle was a matter of course to the servants gathered in the courtyard. After all, Daniel held no affection for her. She had been the one forced upon him in matrimony, a poor substitute for the woman he truly cherished. The only reason he had not cast her aside was out of duty to the Whitmore
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And atop that, she dared to accuse the woman Daniel adored? Naturally, she deserved the lash of his hand.
“Daniel Clarke, are you struck blind?” Brielle held her simmering anger in check, staring him directly in the
cye.
At her words, a collective intake of breath swept through the onlookers-even Owen and Reid were stunned speechless.
No one had ever dared address Daniel with such insolence. Especially not to call him blind to the truth.
Everyone silently pitied the pitiful substitute bride. Daniel would surely never let this transgression pass unpunished.
Daniel’s visage darkened with apoplectic fury, his eyes turning cold and predatory.
Donna was quick to fan the flames. “Brielle, do you realize what you are saying? Daniel is your lord and husband. How can you speak to him so? Apologize to him this instant. Daniel is a man of mercy; I am certain he will not hold your madness against you.”
Brielle’s gaze remained cold, unyielding as stone. When Daniel saw the look in her eyes, something deep within him shifted, an inexplicable sense of unease settling over his heart.
Just as the volatile tension between them seemed poised to erupt into violence, two more guards hauled themselves out of the well, dragging another sodden corpse with them.
“Lord Daniel! There are at least a dozen more bodies lain below!”
A hush of stupefaction fell over the crowd.
A dozen? More bodies?
“Good heavens! A dozen corpses?”
The crowd gasped in unison.
Daniel’s brow furrowed deeply. He strode forward urgently, his attention entirely diverted from Brielle.
As Daniel hurried away, he failed to notice Donna stumble slightly; she quickly righted herself, a fleeting flash of displeasure crossing her features before she glared at Brielle with unbridled hatred.
Brielle’s expression hardened into grave seriousness as she rushed to the well’s edge. In that moment, she felt a palpable wave of malevolent energy. It seemed as though black smoke hissed from the opening of the abyss. The astrolabe trembled violently in her pocket. Something terrible had transpired here. She had no time to waste on Donna.
The guards continued their grim task, descending into the well and retrieving the dead.
One of the servants watching pointed a shaking finger at a body and gasped, “Is that not Mark? Only yesterday he spoke of returning to his family home. How came he to be dead here? Almighty God!”
The bodies being hauled up were all men. By their attire they were clearly servants of the Clarke family.
Donna did not squander the opportunity to cast blame. She gasped with theatrical horror. “Brielle… surely you do not suggest this was also your handiwork?”
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Brielle cared only to ascertain what lay at the bottom of that cursed well. She had no patience for sparing with Donna. She turned a withering glare upon her. “Unless you seek to pin the death of all these souls upon me as well, hold your tongue.
“If you cannot, then shut your mouth.”
How many days had she resided within the Clarke family? Even if she had slaughtered two or three souls every night, there were over a dozen corpses down there. It was impossible that she could have slain them all.
Donna was rendered speechless, seething with impotent fury. She could only swallow her anger, choking on it.
Another body was dragged up-this time a woman. A maidservant of the Clarke family.
Every corpse had a rough hemp rope bound tightly about its ankles. Brielle questioned the guard tasked with the extraction. “How are the bodies arranged down there? All this rope… to what is it secured?”
The guard wiped the murky water from his face, looking shaken. “This is strange. The bodies are linked together, one after another, lined in a grim chain against the wall of the well.”
Hearing this, Brielle’s brow twitched.
No wonder she had sensed a hidden, foul energy here yesterday upon first receiving the astrolabe. The thunderstorm had served to mask the true extent of it.
She had not imagined the source of that vile miasma was right here in her own courtyard.
Daniel frowned deeply at the guard’s report. He commanded Owen to dispatch all the servants back to their quarters immediately.
The courtyard was swiftly cleared. Owen pressed a small pouch of coins into each servant’s hand with a stern warning: not a word of gossip was to leave their lips, nor a whisper of the events they had witnessed.
The courtyard fell into a heavy, silence.
The bodies were laid out side by side on the stone flags. Donna was visibly trembling. She had known there were many bodies, but not so many. It was a sight of pure horror.
Nineteen bodies in total.
They had perished at different times. Some were so bloated from the water that they had swollen to several times their natural size, their features rendered unrecognizable.
The death of one Sarah had unveiled a massacre. Daniels face was grim as thunder. Who dared commit mass murder within the walls of Clarke Estate?
“Take the bodies beyond the estate and bury them today Daniel ordered, his voice low. “Let no word of this get out.”
Reid bowed his head. “Yes, Lord Daniel.”
Daniel turned to leave, the matter settled in his mind. Donna was startled. She quickly seized his arm. “Daniel, what is the meaning of this? Sarah’s death…”
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Daniel frowned, placing a hand over hers in an attempt to soothe her. “The matter is complicated. I would not frighten you. Do not trouble yourself. Go back to your chamber and rest. I shall handle this myself.”
With that, Daniel swept out of the courtyard.
Donna stood rooted to the spot, at a loss. They were not to investigate Sarah’s death? Brielle had slipped the noose yet again.
At the thought, she shot Brielle a look of pure venom. Brielle’s eyes burned with a killing intent as she walked toward Donna, step by measured step.
For a moment, Donna was gripped by genuine fear. She stepped back, stumbling. “You…”
Before she could utter another word, Brielle seized her by the throat.
Donna’s mask of innocence shattered completely. She clawed at Brielle’s hands, struggling wildly. “Daniel! Daniel! Help!”
Seeing Donna’s panicked, terrified visage, Brielle shoved her hard, casting her to the ground. She stood over her, looking down with cold disdain. “Previously, I was ignorant of your true countenance. Know this now: if you attempt to harm me again, ask yourself how many ves you have left to pay the price.”
Donna was truly terrified. She scrambled to her feet and fled, running as if the hounds of hell were at her heels.
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Chapter 10
I had saved the Chloe in the book.
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Fate Binds Me to Lord Clarke
