Chapter 20
(Author's note : Please forgive my poor English. It's not my mother tongue)
Candy was frozen and she hasted her pace toward her bedroom. Looking over the banister, she saw Terry talking with Mrs Hugues and thought that they were discussing about Cookie. The scene that the Duchess of Grandchester had made earlier had precipitated things and separated in a flash her poor friend from them. It wasn't so much the forced bath he had been subject to that worried her, but his fall as he tried to get up from his wheelchair.
- What an idea, getting up with a tibia fracture! - she thought, disapprovingly shaking her head.
Once again, Cookie had just proved how daredevil he was! As he was less and less suffering injuries thanks to the pretty Lucille's attentive care, she suspected him to have wings on his heels, wings that had royally broken on the soaked ground of the Grandchesters. Hopefully, he'll only have to deal with some bruises, it was at least all the bad she hoped for him. Anyhow, she had planned to go and see him before joining the guests. She would not have her mind at ease until she knows more about his state.
She turned the door handle and entered her bedroom into which darkness was creeping. Few minutes of quietness after such an animated day wouldn't hurt her!... Her wet dress sticked to her skin and she hastily made roll the straps of it along her shoulders. The dress fell down, leaving her with her underwear. The wind was gusting against the window and she shivered. She went to the bathroom and pulled the switch. The lamp above her crackled, lighting up the room with intermittent glows at the pace of the moaning sighs of the wind that infiltrated under the skirting boards in spite of the thickness of the walls. She heard then a clicking in the lock of her bedroom's door. It was probably the maid that was preparing her new gown... Reassured, she made slide the shower curtain, and was about to fully get undressed when two caressing hands laid themselves on her waist, pulling her backwards.
- Terry! - she said, chuckling of surprise – Come on, this is not the time...
As an answer, some lips brushed her shoulders, then gluttonously sticked to her skin. She moaned, tilting her head backward, then tensed up immediately by the unforgettable smell of alcohol that penetrated her nostrils, that smell she had been subject to all afternoon at each approach of … Rudolph!She sharply turned around, stepping back, horrified, her shaking body banging against the bathtub edge.
- Rudolph! What... What are you doing here? - She said in a toneless voice.
He was standing in front of her, eager-eyed and panting.
- You've enticed me all day, scamp, with your winks and smiles...
- Not on your life! How can you imagine this? Have you lost your mind?
- Indeed! - he exclaimed, grabbing her by her shoulders – You're driving me crazy! And I know that you desire me as much as I do, don't you?...
- Leave me alone! Help! Terryyyyyyyy ! - she yelled, struggling. But she quickly realized that Terry neither anybody else couldn't hear her because of the deafening wind that was shaking the whole castle. Her heart was beating loudly! She was so afraid that all her members were getting paralyzed and losing their vigor. She was at his mercy, in this cramped space that did not give any chance to escape!
Rudolph seized her and pulled her against him, searching her mouth, his whisky-filled breath spreading on her face. His powerful hands imprisoned hers. He was strong, stronger she had ever imagined! Firmly clasping her with his arm, his other hand wandered on every part of her body, pressing on them with hurry while he let escape little shouts of excitement. She was terrorized! Then he seized her face and forced her mouth, his rasping tongue looking for hers and ending over her cheeks with a viscous trickle of saliva. She screamed but her cry immediately died under the gluttonous lips of her assaulter, half suffocating her. He finally moved away with a sigh of satisfaction. She tilted her head to the side, out of air, feeling nausea growing in her throat and the bitterness of bile invading her mouth. She looked up and saw him smiling at her with one of these proud and satisfied smiles that she had so often seen appearing on another young man's face, whose features, though different, suddenly looked very similar to... Niel's! For a brief moment, she saw herself in this old mansion with him blocking the path, and this feeling of danger, of violence that she was about to live. She had escaped from it, terrified and unable later, to talk about it to anybody. Only Albert then Terry had been let into the secret but she had softened her tale for not throwing them into a panic. It was a wound she did not feel brave enough to share...
Rudolph tightened his grip then, his moisty hand following the discovery of her dread paralyzed body.
- You are mine now! - he groaned to her ear as he searched a way between her thighs – You'll see what a man is, a real one!
She opened wide her eyes of horror, struggling harder. She did not want, she did not want to end that way, raped on this icy tiled floor! She had to escape from this place at any cost! Suddenly, driven by the strength of despair, she managed to pull herself out and leaning on the bathtub edge, she violently hit Rudolph in his privates. Holding his crotch, he stood up straight with a scream of pain, and taking advantage of his inattention, she slipped behind him and pushed him in the bathtub, dragging the shower curtain down that wholly covered him. Without waiting any further, she hurried to leave the bathroom but while running, her hip painfully hit the washbasin. A little shaken, she followed her flight and ran towards her bedroom door, but well might she turned the handle, the door refused to open!
- Will you open, cursed door? - she moaned, desperately shaking the handle.
- Is it what you're looking for, honey?
She started and saw, as she turned her head, Rudolph coming closer, a key hopping on the palm of his hand. Horrified, she stared at the key, her only means towards freedom and safety, and it was him, that monster, who was having it! It could not end that way! No, she would never let it happen!
Gathering her last strengths, she jumped on him. Surprised, he fell backward, releasing the key that rolled to the bed foot. She grabbed it and rushed to the lock. Her trembling hand couldn't find the hole. At last, the key spinned into the lock and the door opened! Relief filled her heart and she ran outside but in the same time, a vigorous hand held her backward, tearing up a side of her slip! She desperately hung tightly to the handle! The door would close on her and she would be trapped!
With a last burst, she grabbed hold of the door frame, and puffing up her chest, she screamed! She lustily screamed with all the strength of terror and distress! It was an inhuman scream, this kind of scream that you let out when you don't want to die...
Afterwards, like a simple rag doll, she felt she was catapulted inside. Rudolph had pulled her backward so abruptly and with such a rage that she stumbled, and her head banged against the bed. It horribly hurt. She felt she was thrown down the floor. She half opened her eyes and saw her persecutor above her.
- You wanted to escape, bitch! You'll get what you deserve! - that latter exclaimed as he unbuttoned his trousers.
She shook her head in all directions, trying to push him back with her hands that he strongly grabbed.
- Stop fidgeting, will you! - he cried out, holding her down. But as she resisted, he gave her, with the wave of his hand, a slap with all his might, leaving her half-stunned of pain. Then squeezing stronger her arm, he murmured to her ear – If you don't stop moving, I'll break your arm. Understood?
His crazy look stared at hers and she understood he would not hesitate to do it. Terrorized, she nodded with a blinking of the eyelids, and she gritted her teeth, moaning as he was laying down on her and finding a way between her legs, grunting like an animal. She wanted to scream but her mouth remained mute, paralyzed by fear. He was so heavy that she could not breath. His repugnant hands slid on her buttock and sharply, he pulled off the knot that held her panties. She moaned of horror and squinted with disgust. He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
-You are less clever with me now, lassie? But don't kid yourself, nobody will come to rescue you! They are all downstairs, drinking and dancing. You are mine, only mine!...
She craned her neck of revulsion, looking for any object in the room that would help her to push this abominable being away who was immobilizing her and was about to rape her! While struggling, she saw from the corner of her eye, one of her shoes that she had taken off when entering the bedroom. A pretty shoe with a very solid heel... It was within reach... If she could stretch out her arm! Luckily, Rudolph slightly moved away at that time to search in his pants for his equipment, which was obviously having some troubles to show up... Taking advantage of this break, she got out her arm, grabbed the shoe and hit his face with it as strongly as her imprisoned body could. He immediately stoop up, screaming of pain, and tumbled, pressing his hand on his eye. Released, Candy jumped like a spring, still squeezing strongly the shoe in her hand. Her assaulter was moaning, laying down the floor. Blood was running down his face. She looked at him, petrified, unable to make any move. The injured man who blocked her way looked inoffensive now, but she had to bypass him and run the risk to get captured again by him. She had to be fast!
Gathering all her courage, the young blond woman stepped forward while suspiciously watching him as he was moaning, his face between his hands. It was now or never! Stretching her muscles, she jumped with a plaintive shout above the still immobile body indifferent to her presence but when her foot touched the floor, she felt a hand gripping her ankle, and she fell down, collapsing with all her weight on the carpet. Getting out from her dizziness, she looked up and saw Rudolph behind her, who was crawling towards her.
- Where are you going, sweetheart? - he said, a predatory smile deforming his face. Some tears of blood were dripping from his injured eye. He looked like those hideous creatures described in horror books! His progression was slow but constant. Yet, his hand was moving up along her calf. The horrible scenario she had just lived was starting again!... She did not want to live it again! Nevermore!
Sharply, she turned around, forcing Rudolph to release her, and leaning on her elbows, she faced him. Surprise appeared a second on his face. He was not reading fear in her gaze anymore, but anger and determination. Without allowing him more time to think any longer, she kicked his jaw, making him fall on the side. Then she kicked his nose, which, as it broke, made him yell. Taking advantage of his dizziness, she jumped on him, screaming with rage, and beat him up with her fists, scratching him with all the fury her fear had generated. Destabilized, he tried to protect himself with his arms, unable to control this raving lunatic who was beating him with an incredible strength. She was definitely going to kill him!
Suddenly, the hitting stopped and he opened his eyes. With his valid eye, he saw Terry's somber face, and a thrill of anguish ran along his spine. He thought that if she wouldn't kill him, it would be then his own brother because the way he was looking at him augured no good. He felt he was scooped up and dragged by his hair on several meters. Then the hitting increased with such intensity that he thought his own number was up, that he was going to die like a miserable one in this bedroom. Every punch was pushing him into unconsciousness, he did not have the force to defend himself anymore, neither to beg for mercy.
- I'm begging you, Terry, stop! - he suddenly thought in his half-consciousness. It was Candy's voice – I'm begging you, stop, you're going to kill him!
- This is what I mean to do! Come on, bastard, stand up and fight!
- You can see he is unable to do it! He had enough, trust me! Leave him, please!...
Breathless, Terry stepped backward. His hands were covered with blood that was not his... Candy passed her arm around his and lifted wet eyes up to him. She was shaking...
- It's over... - she said, leaning her head against his shoulder – It's over...
Then she looked at Rudolph and shivered of disgust in front of the pitiful scene he was sending back to her. This odious being, this coward who had assaulted her by surprise had changed into a poor miserable thing, ridiculous with his trousers folded on his ankles. He really looked grotesque!
- Terrence, Candice?! - a male voice cried out. The Duke of Grandchester had just burst into the bedroom. He looked pale, like emptied of his colors. He was understanding what had just happened... He gave an icy gaze to his son who was laying down and moaning, then he turned to Candy, nestled in Terry's arms.
- Are... Are you fine, Candice? - he hesitantly asked, overwhelmed by the chock of what he had just discovered.
- I am... - she nodded – I'm fine. Don't worry...
He sadly exhaled and tried an affectionate gesture to her, gesture that got interrupted in its impulse by his wife's hysterical yells.
- My goodness, Rudolph, what happened to him? - she exclaimed, rushing toward her glorious son, whose head had trebled in volume. She sat down next to him and took him between her knees, caressing him as it would have been about a child – Everything is all right, darling. I am here...
She looked around her then stopped on Candy and Terry who were silently staring at her. Their torn clothes and their injuries to the face proved the violence that had unleashed in the room. With her chin trembling with emotion, she caressed even more her son who was moaning between her arms. Suddenly, she looked at them and opened her mouth, arching like a cobra about to spit.
- Which trap have you set for him, little coquette?! You will not get away with this! I will have you both thrown into prison and you will not get out from it before a very long time! You are criminals, you are...
- Enough, madam! One more word and I will have you chased from this house for never coming back! Your blindness is an insult to our family! Your son, by his unspeakable behavior, has just besmirched it irremediably, an unforgivable dishonor that will pursue us from generation to generation!
- This son you're blaming is also yours, let me remind you!
- He is, much to my regret and to my greatest misfortune... - he sighed – I can't ignore blood ties, but I still can ignore up to his existence...
Incomprehension could be seen on Beatrix' face.
- What do you mean, Richard?
As an answer, the Duke went forward to his son.
Rudolph! - he said with an imperious and icy voice – You'll leave the castle tonight and will never come back! I'm taking all your titles and all your goods back. You are not a noble anymore, you are less than nothing. I'll have the least of your things sent to your apartment in London. I want you to empty it of your presence by tomorrow since you'll take a boat for Canberra, in Australia. I don't want to hear anything about you anymore! I want to forget up to your existence!
My Goodness, Richard, you can't be serious? What's going to become of him?
Let me tell you, madam, that it's none of my concern anymore!
Richard, please, for God's sake, have mercy on him! Don't do that, he's our son!
She had thrown herself at his feet, her hands gripping the end of his pants.
I've taken my decision, madam, and I won't change my mind. You are lucky I don't call the police! You are free to go with him if you like. I won't force you to stay!...
Then he turned to Terry and said with a tired voice.
Take Candy as discreetly as possible to your bedroom. Get changed and leave the castle quickly! This family enough harmed you...
But, Father!...
Don't worry. I'm going to join our guests and pretend that everything is fine. I can be a very good actor too when I want... - he added, smiling sadly. He laid a comforting hand on his son's shoulder and left the room, without any look at Beatrix and Rudolph.
This time, Terry listened to his father and led Candy to his bedroom. A few time later, a maid came with new clothes for Candy. As she was changing in the bathroom, Terry wrote a note to Slim's attention and asked the maid to give it to him. Few minutes later, they were joining this latter who was waiting for them with his car in the courtyard. The young couple rushed into the vehicle that went away at high speed towards their friends' home, benevolent shelter for their harmed souls...
End of chapter 20