Page 36 of Roses and Murder
“I’m Folcard’s first-born son. The title ismine.His wife was having trouble producing an heir. The only successful birth she had was a girl. Folcard got desperate. He started having bastardsall over Nestran. But I’m the first son and my mother has the proper pedigree. I was just taking out my half-siblings and then I would have killed the son he dropped me to recognize, and then Folcard finally would have given me what I was owed.”
Shit. This man would have murdered me and Mom because of Folcard. Then, he would have taken out Autar and his family when Autar’s mom didn’t have much choice in the matter. Autar was hopeless with women, but he was a good guy. If he actually learned to talk to women the right away, he would treat his future wife like the Queen of Nestran.
The bastards of Guttertown wanted nothing to do with the Barons. If our fathers showed up and offered us a title, yeah, we totally wouldn’t have trusted that. We knew we were going to end up getting screwed, and no one wanted to be a Baron unless we could change things.
We certainly weren’t willing to do allthisfor it. And the thing was, I didn’t know if Folcard would have been impressed by all the murder to get what he wanted. It seemed like the kind of thing the Barons found impressive.
“You know them better than we do,” I told Trevils. “Would that actually work?”
“Yes. Folcard would consider that kind of blood thirstiness impressive and his true heir. Especially if he’s got no other living sons. Which is stupid because his daughter is actually brilliant and better suited to inherit the title.”
“So, you see, youhaveto let me go to continue my work. I’m protected as Folcard’s first-born son.”
Ronan stepped forward and grinned.
“Except you haven’t actually killed Folcard’s heir. You’re at the point in your deranged plot where you’re just some bastard who threatened a Baron.”
That was it. It was how I got Mom the cure. Folcard didn’t care about his bastards. I was living proof. I presented the Ghouland let Folcard know his heir was next and hehadto give me the cure.
Except Neco Argent ruined everything when he whipped out his knife and slit the Ghoul’s throat.
Yeah, I didn’t give a shit if anyone noticed my tits. I just really needed to hit Neco again. How many times did I have to tell him that Mom’s life was on the line? The Barons were famous for loopholes in their contracts. I hadn’t found one when I read mine, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t make one up and I couldn’t do a damned thing about it.
Basselt caught the back of my shirt and yanked me back. I didn’t fight because I wasn’t mad at Basselt. He’d been nothing short of amazing and had risked everything for me. I appreciated that, and I was going to make damned sure no one found outhissecret, even though mine was exposed.
“He did you a favor,” Basselt said.
“They don’t usually care about their bastards, but Folcard probably wants to punish this man himself.”
“Unless he doesn’t. These are bloodthirsty men who torture women. They yearn for war. When you present this to Folcard, you are going to want therealnarrative. This man was butchering entire families to better his station. If Neco didn’t kill him, he’d put his own spin on it and it might impress his father enough that he got exactly what he wanted,” Basselt said.
“He’s right,” Trevils said. “Folcard is a sniveling wretch who sends people to fight his battles for him, but thinks he would win if he fought them himself. He would probably put his heir aside and consider this man the more powerful choice because he would consider this ruthless and not completely insane.”
“I’d never do anything to hurt your mom,” Neco said softly. “If we present this as one of his bastards who was taking out their half-siblings and had his sights set on Folcard’s heir,wecontrol how the story gets told. If I didn’t kill him, he could have said anything. If Folcard decided to make him his heir, then you assaulted him. It won’t matter he was about to slaughter an entire family and was going to killyou.You struck one of them. I’m not letting them kill you for that.”
Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that. My whole plan had been to get the Ghoul in front of everyone in Lower Cutwart and out him. I was going to convince the crowd if we got street justice and no one said they saw anything, then they couldn’t punish anyone. That was how it worked in Guttertown. Sometimes, the whole town needed to give someone a beat down, and no one saw shit after.
That all changed when he pulled a knife on me. We were going to salvage it by keeping him knocked out and carrying him to the barn. It changed again when he admitted he was one of Folcard’s bastards like I was.
“You hit him, too,” I pointed out.
“I was going to hit him again, but you stopped me. It’s different when you do it.”
“What if he kills you for this?”
I didn’t want Neco dead. He pissed me off all the time, but I’d miss him. It would destroy Theda and Rowena.
“He won’t because I did what he had me sign my name to a contract to do. I readyourcontract over your shoulder. It said to catch the Ghoul dead or alive. It’s not our problem he’s such a shit father he didn’t know it was one of his kids doing it.”
Just then, Ollie came out of the barn with the entire mob we were going to use to take out the Ghoul. They were pissed, and they had pitchforks from the barn. Some filled sacks with horseshoes to beat him with. Yeah, they might think they were above Guttertown, but beating the shit out of someone with a sack full of stuff you stole from the blacksmith wassucha Guttertown thing to do.
And they actually seemed pissed Neco had already done the deed. There were women out here. One of them marched over in the pouring rain.
“Is this the man whole slaughtered Elsbeth and her family?”
“It is,” Neco said.
She lifted her skirts, kicked his corpse, and then spat on him.
