(Back to Mary's POV)

I was upstairs in the master bedchamber with my son and daughter, yet I could hear my husband yelling at his father from all the way downstairs and out the door. Then I heard heavy footsteps up the stairs and William stood framed in the doorway, white and shaking, a cocked pistol in his left hand.

"William…"

William took a couple of steps into the room. Then without warning, he collapsed in a heap, the pistol sliding across the floor, miraculously not firing.

"Papa!" Brielle screamed in fright, hurrying over to her father as he lay on the floor.

"Mama! Papa's not moving!"

William was unconscious.

Braden looked up at me with frightened eyes.

"Braden, take your sister with you to the stables and saddle Lightning; then ride as fast as you can with Brielle to your Uncle Edward's."

"Mother, come with us, please!" He pleaded. "We've never gone alone!"

"I can't Braden. The road isn't long and you know the way. Now go!"

Braden nodded, took his sister by the hand, and left the room.

I got up from the armchair I was sitting in and picked the pistol up off of the floor, uncocked it, and set it on top of William's chest of drawers. Then I walked over to where William lay and knelt down beside him. He was still unconscious and the colour still had not returned to him.

"Oh William.." I said, stroking the side of his smooth, clean-shaven face. "How I wish you had stayed in the stables just a little longer."