The General Who Took My Lantern and Broke My Heart Chapter 05

The General Who Took My Lantern and Broke My Heart Chapter 05

For a second, Aveline thought she had misheard him.

She stared at Bram.

There was a little guilt on his face, but beneath it was something far worse.

Entitlement.

She had been forced to swallow that bitter drug. Her body had not recovered. Yesterday, she had taken a burning beam to the shoulder to save his sister, and the wound was still wrapped in fresh bandages.

Now he wanted her to take the blame for Cressida too.

Aveline almost laughed from how absurd it was.

She straightened her back and looked up at him.

“And what if I say no?”

“Are you going to drag me out there, Captain?”

Bram clearly had not expected that answer. His brows tightened.

“Aveline, don’t talk like that. You’re family. Is it so wrong to protect Cressida?”

“It’s just an apology. No one is asking you to take a real charge.”

Before Aveline could answer, a commotion rose outside the gate.

“The rite keeper is here!”

“It’s Thorne Bellwether!”

The noise from the crowd died almost at once, as if someone had cut a cord.

Bram turned toward the gate and said, “Open it.”

A houseman hurried to obey.

The crowd outside filled the road, shoulder to shoulder. Thorne had just stepped out of his motorcar.

He wore a dark formal coat, cut plain and severe, the fabric untouched by the dust and smoke hanging in the air. His face was as distant as ever.

He walked through the crowd, glanced over everyone present, then spoke.

“The fire at the Ridge Chapel was not a crime. The rumors should stop here.”

The townspeople looked at one another.

Someone found the nerve to ask, “Keeper Bellwether, that chapel stood for generations. If that girl didn’t knock over a candle, why would it burn?”

Thorne’s expression did not change.

His eyes passed lightly over Cressida, who was still wiping tears from her face.

Then he said, calm and cold, “The rite was defiled. Someone carried a shame into that chapel, and the fire was the warning.”

The crowd erupted.

Aveline’s stomach dropped. She looked up at Thorne on instinct.

Bram stepped in front of Cressida and asked sharply, “Who?”

Only then did Thorne’s gaze shift.

Slowly, he turned his head.

His eyes moved past the crowd and landed on Aveline.

“Her. Captain Caulfield’s wife, Aveline Rook.”

Every face turned toward her at once. She stood there with her shoulder still bandaged and her face drained of color, staring at Thorne as if she had not heard him correctly.

They had grown up together. They had known each other for years. Even after she learned he had fallen for Cressida and deliberately avoided taking her lantern, she had never hated him for it.

Love could not be forced. She understood that.

But this?

Had Cressida really been worth destroying her for?

Aveline met his eyes.

“Then tell me, Keeper. What shame am I carrying? What sacred rule did I offend?”

Thorne lowered his gaze.

“That is not for me to reveal.”

His voice was flat.

“You must complete three days of public penance to cleanse it. After that, you will copy the old prayers by hand until the debt is cleared.”

Aveline laughed from anger.

She was about to speak again when Bram caught her wrist.

His voice dropped.

“Aveline, you were born in Foxglove Gap. You know the Keeper’s word isn’t something to argue with. Stop making a scene.”

Stop making a scene.

Aveline parted her lips, but before she could say a word, Bram lifted his chin toward the house staff behind him.

“Take her.”

Two chapel matrons grabbed Aveline by the arms, one on each side, and dragged her toward the gate.

The movement tore at the wound in her shoulder. Pain crashed through her so hard her vision went black at the edges.

They pushed her into the street.

Someone threw a bucket of cold water over her. It soaked through her clothes and hit the wound beneath her bandage.

The pain nearly dropped her to the ground.

“She has to be cleansed!”

“Drive the curse out!”

Mud, wilted greens, and bits of refuse struck her shoulders and slid down her dress. Someone spat near her feet.

Aveline lowered her head. She did not dodge. She no longer had the strength.

All she could do was keep her feet under her and let them drag her on.

For three days, they paraded her through town for hours at a time.

She had no strength to fight.

By Lantern Night, the public penance was finally over.

Only then did Bram show his face.