Chapter 8 Daniel’s Threat
83%
#Finished
Brielle’s expression did not falter in the face of all those accusing voices. She walked straight up to the servants who were kneeling on the cold stone flags and asked, her voice level and unhurried, “You claim I sent you here?
“Then tell me. Where exactly did I give you these orders At what hour did I tell you to slip into this chamber? And what instructions did I provide regarding the timing of your entry?
“Furthermore, this chamber is my own. Why would any of you agree to come at all? What did I promise you that was worth gambling your lives over?”
She fired one question after another, and the servants’ faces shifted from defiance to unease. Their eyes darted toward Sarah, silently begging her to supply the answers they lacked.
Daniel narrowed his gaze and observed the scene without interruption.
He also took a longer look at Brielle. Even though she stood practically alone against a crowd of hostile voices, she remained composed and her words came our sharp and clear. This Brielle, he had to admit, possessed a certain shrewdness.
“Well?” Brielle pressed, a faint, mocking smile touching her lips. “Did I send you or didn’t I? You cannot even repeat the words I supposedly spoke to you?”
Sarah felt panic clawing at her throat. Their scheme had crumbled, and they had rehearsed none of the answers to these particular inquiries.
Seizing upon a desperate thought, she blurted out, “The powder! She must have slipped me some sort of drug! Daniel, she did the very same thing to you once before. This is precisely the sort of vile trick she favors.”
Daniel’s eyes grew colder.
Brielle seemed to sense what Daniel was about to say and cut in swiftly before he could speak. “Lord Daniel, if I had used a drug of this potency on our wedding night, do you truly believe you would have been able to sober up at all?
“And besides, I exhausted the incense I brought with me that very evening. I arrived at this manor alone, with not a single trunk of belongings to my name. Where would I have obtained such a powerful substance?”
The incense Brielle had used that night had been nothing more than a simple love philter. Its effects were feeble when compared to the Dreamer’s Dust now in question. One needed only to look at Sarah tonight- she had been hauled out into the courtyard and still had not grasped what was happening. She remained lost in her own fevered visions. That was proof enough of how potent this drug was.
Had Brielle used Dreamer’s Dust on her wedding night she and Daniel would certainly have shared a bed.
Sarah grew frantic and pressed on stubbornly. “Lord Daniel, the very fact that she recognizes the nature of this powder proves her guilt! She knows what it is! She must have been the one to obtain it.”
Brielle glanced at Sarah with a calm, steady look. “This manor is not so vast that secrets cannot be uncovered, nor is it so small that a thorough search is impossible. Let the guards search every room and find out who truly possesses this drug. I came here as a false bride. I possess nothing of my own. Search my quarters all you wish.”
<
1/4
09:51 Thu, May 7 0
Chapter 8 Daniel’s Threat
味完83%專
Finished
Sarah flinched involuntarily and dropped her gaze, a guilty flush creeping up her neck. She had not used all the Dreamer’s Dust. Half the packet was still tucked away beneath her own mattress. If they began searching…
Donna was equally stunned. Since when had that simpleton Brielle been capable of arguing like this?
In the past, if people merely pointed at her and whispered behind her back, she would scurry off to her room and hide. Tonight she was standing her ground against Sarah, and her arguments were sharp and clear-headed-not the ravings of a hysteric.
Donna looked toward Daniel with mounting anxiety. Daniel had not yet given the command. He must have been weighing Brielle’s words. What should she do now?
Brielle arched one eyebrow at Daniel and prodded him with a deliberate edge to her voice. “Surely the wise and mighty Lord Daniel would not permit an innocent to be wrongly condemned?”
Daniel’s expression hardened, and his brow creased faintly. He could see perfectly well what had transpired here.
“Guards, seize Sarah-”
Donna’s heart seized at those words. She realized the plot had collapsed entirely. She interrupted quickly, her voice soft and beseeching. “Daniel… Sarah has already endured such grievous shame tonight. What has befallen her is a terrible humiliation for any woman. Might I beg you, my lord, to show her mercy?”
Daniel paused for the span of a breath, but ultimately he granted Sarah her life. “Confine Sarah to the rear courtyard,” he commanded.
His icy stare then settled upon the servants groveling on the ground. His voice dropped to a low, wintry murmur. “As for these men. Put them to the sword.”
The moment he spoke, the servants erupted in terrified cries. “Mercy, Lord Daniel! We’ll speak! We’ll confess everything!”
But Daniel’s expression betrayed no hint of clemency. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his countenance as rigid and cold as stone. “Any man who dares to foment strife within the Clarke family meets but one fate.”
The servants continued to wail for mercy, but Owen frowned and signaled to the guards. “Drag them out of here. All of them.”
The guards moved in, silenced them with swift blows, and hauled them from the courtyard like sacks of grain.
A deadly hush fell over the courtyard, so thick it seemed to stifle every breath. No one dared even to swallow loudly. Silence reigned absolute.
Sarah was dragged from the courtyard in similar fashion, and she did not dare utter a single plea for leniency. Yet as they pulled her away, her gaze fixed upon Brielle, burning with undiluted loathing.
In that fleeting moment, Brielle glimpsed the shadow of death settling upon Sarah’s brow. No matter how fiercely Sarah glared, her eyes were hollow and devoid of any future. She would not walk this earth much longer.
The disgrace of this night would shatter any woman. Even if Daniel allowed her to keep her head, she would not survive the aftermath.
09:51 Thu, May 7
Chapter 8 Daniel’s Threat
Owen then cleared the courtyard, sending everyone else away.
ས ཊཱི, 83%
Finished
Donna appeared to be in a state of profound shock. She pressed a hand to her brow and swayed as if she might faint. Daniel caught her arm and regarded her with genuine concern. “Are you unwell?”
Donna nodded gently, her cheeks coloring with a demure flush. “I am merely a bit shaken. You must be weary as well, my lord. Please, go and rest.”
Donna had hoped Daniel would offer to escort her back himself. But Daniel considered the matter for a moment and then said, “Owen, see Donna to her chambers. Summon the physician to attend her and prepare a draught to soothe her nerves.”
“Thank you for your kindness, my lord.”
Owen stepped forward and led Donna away.
The courtyard fell quiet once more. Only Brielle and Daniel remained.
They stood facing one another across the silent space. Daniel’s eyes were flinty, and his first words were a stern warning. “There will be no next time for you within the walls of Clarke Estate.”
Brielle let out a humorless laugh. “No next time? If you are so certain I stirred up this trouble tonight, why did you order Sarah locked away instead of me?”
Her challenging gaze seemed to grate on Daniel’s composure. His voice turned frostier still. “Do you honestly believe I am blind to what occurred here? Sarah may have intended you harm, but in the end, she was the one who suffered ruin. Do you mean to tell me your hand played no part in that outcome?
“I will overlook this affair once. But if you engage in these scheming games again, I will show you no further leniency.”
His words kindled a spark of indignation within Brielle. She met his gaze with unyielding eyes. “So what you are telling me, Lord Daniel, is that if someone seeks to harm me, I am simply to accept it without protest? If your vision is so clear, then surely you can perceive the bond between Donna and Sarah. Is tonight’s incident truly as simple as it appears?
“You despise me because I took the bride’s place at the altar. But have you ever stopped to wonder how a woman as feeble and defenseless as I managed to slip past every one of your guards and set foot inside this manor in the first place?”
Perhaps it was the lingering regret of the original Brielle still echoing within her bones.
She felt a pang of injustice on behalf of that other Briel as well. She could not stop herself from defending the woman’s memory.
Brielle might have been simple-minded, but the scheme to replace the bride had originated with Donna.
Why did he heap all the blame upon her head? Now it seemed every breath she drew was deemed a transgression.
Hearing her words, Daniel’s expression darkened considerably. He fixed her with a piercing, menacing stare. “This is my final caution to you. If you wish to continue drawing breath, you will conduct yourself with proper decorum.”
|||
O
3/4
09:51 Thu, May 7
Fate Binds Me to Lord Clarke
