Kel's ears began to ring, and her heart plunged into ice. Three little words resounded through her head 'I like you.'  Dom did not mean anything but in the romantic sense, he had feelings for her beyond friendships bounds, and she did not return them… How would she tell this man with his dolefully blue-eyes turned to her brimming in trust and hope and so much liking… how would she tell him she didn't return those feelings? Kel knew she once had, when she was a squire she began to melt at his sparkling smile rather than his cousin Neal's. But she loved him no more, now…

'Dom, I-' Kel faltered.

That was an answer in itself. Kel, his light and love, his joy did not care for him in return. Dom's eyes became dull and dark, his face sagged and his shoulders dropped. Life seemed to seep out of his skin. She does not love me. Dom felt his world falling away, leaving him forever in a dreary empty world, pain and despair were his only companions, no light would ever touch him here.

'Oh.' The small sound escaped his lips, in it carrying all the despair his heart held.

'Dom, I do care for you, I love you even,' Kel was unaware of the cruelty she dealt Dom, giving his heart reason to rise, when it was inevitable that Kel must send it sinking to the depths.

'I-' Kel's sentence that would have rendered Dom's heart into a shattered thing of the past, was cut short as a scream shot through the summer's scented air.

All through the gardens lovers tumbled from various places in the bushes, and into positions that made the noble ladies blush.

The shriek of pain and astonishment was coming from the hall, who was being attacked? And in the heart of the Duke's hall?

Kel and Dom did not hesitate, rising simultaneously. Neither of them carried any weapons, and Kel was clothed in this cursed encumbering dress, but nevertheless the two ran together to the defence of a victim. Inside people were rushing anywhere and everywhere not quite sure where to go but trying to get there all the same. Mass discombobulation (A/N my apologies for 'mass discombobulation' I simply have to add that phrase in, now that I've remembered it) reigned with chaos in its wake. Kel was not so foolish as to run into this commotion, more likely she'd add to the situation rather than resolve it.

'Silence! I command silence!' King Jonathon's magically enhanced voice quelled all but the screecher, and with the hush the aimless rush stopped. Jonathon strode down from the dais, towards one of the lesser tables were the howling woman was bent double in pain.

Dom had frozen for a moment at his king's command, but his pain was a lash whipping the tender most places of his soul. He roared his torment, and masked it as anger. He ripped one of the blunt edged ornamental swords from the wall and, frothing, he charged.

The Masbolle family could trace every member of its household back to a legendary warrior from the Age of War. Many of those daring men and women were famed as courageous fighters, but in truth, they had been slightly mad and prone to fly off the handle with any intense emotion. Generations of peace and gentle doings and docile court behaviour had quelled that blood, but not extinguished the flame. It lurked still, and that night reared its ugly head for all to see in the good and charming Dom.  He was heedless of the horrified gasps, and the repeated attempts to restrain him. Dom had one simple thought amonst the channelled pain. Kill the menace.

DUN DUNN DUNN….. tell me what do you think of this chapter, good or bad? Sorry for turning Dom into a psychopath, he'll get over it I swear.