The Red Throne | TUQ Book Two

12 | verdict

Since that dreaded day, the hall had been closed off and sealed shut, and all of the food served during the feast were thrown out. Even the servants did not want any of the food, fearing that it was poisoned.

The McCarthys spent their last days of summer holding a funeral for their little boy, one that we Winterbournes did not attend. Tension was swelling up inside Winterbourne Castle, and it was steadily becoming stifling and unbearable.
My mother openly defended Corinne, saying that she had had a momentary lapse in judgement, and that she should be excused.

Of course, when presented with the fact that an innocent boy had died due to Corinne's schemings, she immediately exploded with rage, unable to accept the harsh truth.

         "Well, what could have she done ?" my mother argued. "She thought that she would be marrying you, Gilbert, but then you went on to marry that ugly wench! She was scorned and humiliated, and I don't blame her one bit!"

         "Do you realise what you are saying, Mother ?" I scoffed in disbelief. "The boy died because of Corinne's actions, not because Gilbert married Cecily!"

          "She was heartbroken to see the man she loves being taken away from her!"

I sighed, not even knowing what to say. Mother was always harsh on her own children, even Lisbeth, but she treated our uncle's children as if they were the paragon of virtue, free of all sin.
She once slapped Lisbeth so hard that one of her baby teeth fell out, all because she had taken some candy from the kitchen without permission.

Meanwhile, I often had my arms pinched to the point that they bled, and even now, I have tiny little scars scattered all over my arms. 

My brother arguably had it the worst, and he had to endure every punishment method my mother could have thought about. Caning, slapping, kicking, tying him to a tree in the middle of the forest and leaving him there overnight, bashing his head against the wall, Gilbert has gone through it all. She claimed that it was to toughen him up, and she would proudly say that Gilbert's excellent performance in the military was due to her harsh training, that her method shaped him into the person that he is.

We were punished for the slightest mistakes, and she ensured to dish out the most extreme and severe punishments imaginable. But when it came to Corinne, her attitude changed completely. All of a sudden, Corinne became a wronged, scorned lady whose lover was stolen, and she had acted out of impulse. Where was all this empathy and concern when we were growing up ? I was seething with rage to see her blatantly defending Corinne, so much that my hands began to tremble.

        "Then, that is too bad, Mother," Gilbert sighed. "I doubt that the court would care about how she feels. Although, they do care about the fact that she tried to kill my wife, and that she indirectly murdered that McCarthy boy. Her punishment wouldn't be light, Mother."

While most killers are either hanged or beheaded, the ones who kill others using poison are given quite a unique way to die. They would be given a jar full of long, narrow wooden sticks, and they would have to pull out one of them. These sticks have names of various poisons engraved on them, and the stick they pull out would bear the name of the poison that kills them.

           "Since vie pelkia is still quite unheard of here, I will order for a stick bearing its name to be added to the jar," my brother added monotonously, making my mother's face darken in a heartbeat.

Vie pelkia was the name of the poison that Corinne tried to kill Cecily with, originating from Amaris. The island kingdom was several hundred miles away from the southernmost part of Phoenicia, Sutherland. However, the Amarisians prefer doing trade in the City of Merchants, which was within Rhyland, but incredibly close to Aldridge, where the Moreaus reside.