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“I swear to God, Ballantyne, this has to stop,” Sebastian demanded wit

h a growl

“Sebastian” Ath to knoas nearby Her gaze locked on hily

“Keep your distance, or I will slit her throat,” Ballantyne warned, his voice deadly as he swept around in a circle “You can then watch your whore die, knowing that not only is she soiled with our seed, but she is dying slowly and painfully”

Amelia whimpered as her feet landed on the sharp stones on the pathway leading away from the churchyard She was already nu into her bruised flesh with agonising accuracy

As she was dragged out of the churchyard, she could barely put her feet down Her weight was tooWith a curse he picked her up bodily, and ran along the cart track with her, heading away froe

A water with a sense of dread

She began to fight and writhe against him until he dropped her Her feet had no sooner hit the floor before she was pulled upwards by the hair, and dragged towards a large river running along the side of the track

The noise of the rushing water flowing fast and furious was deafening Ae of the stone outcrop, directly above the raging water

“Suicide?” A darkness below

“I’ll survive,” Ballantyne replied absently, squinting through the gloons of Sebastian and the others Within seconds they pounded to a stop a few feet away

Amelia screamed when she was i waters, held by nothing more than her thin shift The whisper-thin an to tear She frantically clawed at Ballantyne’s arht

“What has Amelia done to you, Ballantyne? She is an innocent party in all of this Let her go It’sof water in her ears

“It isn’t you either, you buffoon,” Ballantyne spat “You don’t understand do you? All of my life I have been the second one in the fa The title The estates The wife The family would always look atI did It is all hts All of it I shouldn’t be denied it because of a stupid whore!”

“If only Bertraned the house over to et my hands on that bloody letter It seeet access to the house to look for it, was to buy the bloody place I tried to pay for it I offered your idiot uncle a good price, but he refused I had already got the title and lands from my brother All I needed to make the empire complete, and safe, was the damned house and its contents Then you turned up”