around her waist, holding her securely against him. She tried to squirm out of his arms, but it was no use – he held her fast.
“Let me go!” she shouted, trying to stamp down on his foot, but he only laughed sinisterly in her ear.
“What are you doing out here alone?” Byron asked, and Hannah recoiled from his breath upon her neck. “Don’t you know better but to be accompanied wherever you go?”
“What do you want?” she asked, breathing deeply as she tried to rid herself of the panic that had overtaken her. “Why are you doing this?”
The cold steel of the gun came to her temple, and as much as she attempted to hold it in, a whimper escaped her.
“I came here with the expectation that you and my brother would be as miserable as I am,” he said, his voice bitter. “It’s what he deserves, after all. Then, much to my surprise, I find the two of you happily playing house together. I could have forgiven it, had he only made amends by providing me what I was due – a good portion of your dowry. But alas, my selfish brother turned me away at that. He told me to leave, in fact. So,” he continued airily, “I am only doing what is necessary, in order to even the scales.”
“Are you going to k-kill me?” she managed.
“Yes,” he said, as though pleased with her for understanding his motives, “then he can be as miserable as I will be.”
“I’m sure Edmund will reconsider giving you the dowry,” she managed, despite the quivering of her lip, which she willed to slow in order to not provide him with any satisfaction, nor fodder to use against them. “I’m sure he had no idea what was at stake.”
“I’ve decided I no longer care,” he sneered. “If I must be miserable, then so will he.”
Despite the fear quaking through her, Hannah’s heart dropped at her brother-in-law’s words.
“That’s so sad,” she lamented, “stealing someone else’s happiness will bring you no joy.”
“Perhaps not,” he returned, “but it may bring me some satisfaction, which is the next best thing.”
“Byron!”
Hannah nearly cried at the sound of Edmund’s voice ringing through the air – just as the first drop of rain hit her square on the nose with a sting from the force of the wind upon which it fell.
Byron chuckled in her ear as he turned her around to face Edmund.
“Brother! I am so glad you have joined us. This will make it all the better. I had planned for you to find your lovely bride’s body here among the ruins, but to have you watch her demise… well, that will be just positively delightful.”
Edmund’s face was so full of torment that Hannah forgot her own fears, suddenly overcome anew by the need to survive, if only to prevent her husband from having to suffer through watching another death.
“You are mad,” Edmund said with disgust, and Hannah could feel Byron shrugging behind her.
“Not mad. Simply bitter. Bitter that no matter how things seem to be going wrong for you, you rise up and are made well again.”
“You do know that you could have had it all,” Edmund said. “You still could. Let Hannah go and then return home. Make the best out of your marriage. It is possible – I know firsthand,” he said with a look over toward Hannah. “You have no suffering, no scarring. You can be a good man, Byron.”
“He may not bear scars,” Hannah finally spoke up, willing her husband to understand that he had nothing to be ashamed of, that there was far worse than the battle wounds he wore on his face and his heart. “But inwardly, his soul is black, Edmund. You have seen and you have felt the worst pain, but it has only caused you to be a different man, perhaps even a better man. Byron clearly feels nothing at all.”
Byron dug the barrel of the gun into her temple at her words, and Hannah cringed. Edmund stepped forward as though to stop him, but Byron must have warned him back, for he stopped short.
“Rethink this, Byron,” Edmund pleaded. “We may never have been close, but this is no way for brothers to treat one another.”
“It’s too late for that,” Byron said.
With a look of resignation, Edmund reached behind his back and quickly pulled a pistol from his waistband.
Hannah’s heart began to beat faster with the hope of rescue, but Byron was quick to put a stop to