Page 89 of Her Dark Seduction
She nodded, fear still in her eyes.
“Something else is wrong is it not?” I asked her. “Why would he be angry about the water?”
“We are under siege. The well is nearly empty.”
“Siege!”
“Aye,” she sobbed. “Shoreton has been surrounded for four days; they came almost as soon as de Tourrard returned. The men say the castle will fall soon. There is food aplenty without the villagers here but the water… I don’t know what we will do if my lord does not yield.”
“We will burn,” I whispered, remembering Mortlock. Burning might be the kinder death. With the well running dry, disease would spread more quickly than a flame. Death would be slower, the agony more prolonged.
De Tourrard would never surrender. Shoreton would be destroyed along with the people within its walls. I could only hope that Henry’s men would let the servants go free. But for me, there was only one way out.
“Elspeth,” I said urgently, “there is one thing you can do for me.”
“Anything, my lady.”
“You must dress me first. I want to be ready for my lord when he comes.”
As the sun began to set on my last day in this world, a servant brought a tray of bread and wine to the solar and told me de Tourrard would attend me shortly. I tasted the wine. As I suspected, the better quality wine had all gone, the remainder having to be spiced to mask its sourness. I took out the phial Elspeth had brought and emptied the contents into one of the goblets before filling it to the brim with more wine. The honey and ginger in the wine would disguise the sweet taste of the poison. I prayed to God that instead of condemning me to hell for taking my own life, He would reunite me with those I loved.
Closing my eyes, I lifted the goblet to my lips.
