Chapter 175 — The Investigation
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
At this the old man could not help but sigh a while, and had to take another swallow before he could go on. "We escorted the lady back to the castle, and at once sent men to Old Hill Slope to search for the carriage and the whereabouts of the lord and the young master. But for three whole days, apart from some bloodstains and splinters of the carriage, all we found were the carcasses of two horses."
"The lady wept her eyes out in the castle every single day. Ah, she was a good, kind soul—she always looked after the poor folk on the estate. From the very day she married into this place, every winter she would hand out firewood and black bread to the poor. And yet this had to happen to her. For three whole days her husband and son were never found, and so in the end she went mad. According to what the servants working in the castle said after they came out, she locked herself in her room and screamed and shouted, then ran to every dark corner of the castle, talking to the husband and son she imagined were there, and at last she shut herself into the cellar of the castle's north tower, where she drank poison and put an end to her suffering.
"On the fourth day, Lord Victor and young Master Belm returned to the castle alive. They had not died."