The Heiress Queen (Season Series Prequel)

Chapter 39

Duke Francis died two days later.

Isabelle had insisted that they at least try to wring what they could of the antidote from the rug in the duke's study, but it was not enough to save him. Sam and his men had chased the Germanians through the castle, but Leopold had used the secret passages and service corridors to evade them. Had the foreign prince been foolish enough to attempt an escape through the main courtyard, he would have come up against the full brunt of Lord Callum Winters' men. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Germanians had warned him in time, allowing Leopold to instead slip out a back door, where his minions awaited him on horseback.

Desperate for an antidote, Isabelle sent all the Kentshire men she could muster after him. Unfortunately for her, the extent of Leopold's plotting was confirmed when her cavalry, supplemented by Lord Winters' men, came up against a sizeable line of Germanian troops stationed mere miles from Inverloch. Marcus confirmed that his scouts had been monitoring their movements, but that they seemed to have marched in the night, sprouting up as suddenly as dandelions in the rolling fields on the Kentshire side of the Germanian border.

Thankfully for Isabelle, Marcus, Lord Winters, and Sam took on the task of dealing with the Germanians and preparing the castle to defend itself, allowing her to spend every waking hour with her father.

Duke Francis deteriorated quickly, unable to speak, eat, or drink without coughing up thick, sticky gobs of blood. Isabelle remained by his side, holding his icy hand and mopping the sweat from his brow even once he slipped into the too-still sleep of the dying. Father Hammond arrived to perform his last rites at dawn of her second day at home and the duke slipped into the afterlife shortly thereafter. Isabelle had known he was gone before the healers did, his fingers giving hers one final squeeze before the duke loosed his final, rattling breath.

Isabelle shrouded herself in black for his burial, which took place with little delay, as was the custom in the north. While the castle prepared for the funeral feast and the townsfolk donned their black armbands, Isabelle, Sam, Lord Winters, and the other Kentshire nobles that had arrived in time braved the early winter winds for the castle graveyard.

As her father's coffin was lowered to the sound of Kentshire bagpipes, Isabelle couldn't help but wonder whether she'd made the right decision. She could have saved his life by sacrificing her own, but marrying the monster that had murdered her father was unthinkable. She'd throw herself from a cliff before she tied herself to such a man for the rest of her life.

Perhaps it was selfish of her to not even have considered Leopold's offer, but she knew that her father would never have forgiven himself had he lived only to see her carried off to Germania as Leopold's brood mare.

So she'd stood there and watched her father's coffin disappear into the ground, buffeted by the wind as a hole opened inside her heart. A hole filled with cold, empty, soul-crushing loneliness. He was gone. The only man she'd ever loved was gone. She'd never hear him laugh again. They'd never square off over his study desk again. She'd never get to learn what he thought of whomever she decided to marry...

The wind hissed through the dead grass of the frozen graveyard, all the other mourners save for one having long since returned to the warmth of the castle. Sam Winters lurked beside the graveyard archway, using the stone as cover against the wind, watching over her as he had since the moment they'd left Highcastle Palace. He stood as silent and still as a statue, his back turned to grant her some privacy.

The howling wind wasn't enough to hush the mournful sound of the bagpipes that still echoed in Isabelle's head, even though the pipers themselves were long gone as well. It whipped the shawl from her hair, as it had throughout the ceremony, tugging at her heavy black mourning dress as it twisted around her ankles. It had dried her tears, whisking them away before they could track down her cheeks as she stared at the mound of black earth covering her father's casket.