Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

gone far enough.” Raven stared grimly around him. The villagers cowered back in their pews under their lord’s terrible gaze, but they were enjoying the spectacle too much to leave. “Get on with this ritual,” he ordered the vicar, taking Evangeline’s arm and turning her back to face the altar.
    “No,” she said firmly, “I cannot marry you, my lord.”
    “You have no choice,” he ground out.
    “I have a very good reason, as you well know.”
    “Tell me, Miss Rutledge,” the vicar gently encouraged her. “Tell me what impedes you from marrying Lord Ravenscroft.”
    “It would be against the law.” She looked at the young vicar. “I cannot marry his lordship for the simple reason that he is married already.”
    The hum of the onlookers rose up once more.
    “I am not,” he protested. “Where did you get that idea, you silly girl?”
    “Oh, yes you are.” She planted her hands on her hips, glaring up at him. “I have seen Lady Ravenscroft with my own eyes.”
    “The mad woman!” The voice came from the congregation.
    Raven whirled round upon them. “Who said that? Who says my sister is mad?”
    “Your sister?” Evangeline asked. “She is your sister? Why did you not tell me you had a sister?”
    “The mad woman of Castle Haven,” someone else said in a whisper. “We thought she were dead.”
    “I will murder the next person who says Lady Ravenscroft is mad,” Raven raged at them. When he raised a threatening fist the congregation inched back in their pews.
    “That woman is your sister?” Evangeline asked. “The tall, beautiful woman with hair as black as your own?”
    “Yes, Dominica. She’s my twin sister.” He looked over to the side of the altar where Rory Dancer stood with Ethella to witness the marriage. “Rory, confirm that Lady Dominica is my twin sister.”

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    “She is, my lord.” His wife nodded.
    “If he’s got a sister, why didn’t he tell Miss Evie?” Mrs. Brackett asked.
    “That is irrelevant. The point is that I am not married.” He turned to Evangeline. “Therefore I am free to marry you.”
    “In that case I have no choice in the matter,” she said simply and faced the vicar, resigned. “Please proceed.”
    James Harding rushed forward to stand beside Evangeline. “No, my dear Miss Rutledge, I have come to rescue you. You need not marry this man, you must not.”
    “There is nothing you can do, sir, but I thank you for trying.”
    “Miss Evie, what’s the matter, lamb, has he hypnotized you?”
    “No, my dear Mrs. Brackett. The fact that you have come has made me very happy. I thought I might never lay eyes upon you again, but if Lord Ravenscroft has no wife, and it seems he has not, then I have no choice but to marry him.”
    Mrs. Brackett frowned. “You do, Miss Evie, we’re all on your side, even the vicar, aren’t you, vicar?”
    The young man looked at Evangeline with the same puppy dog eyes with which Mr. Harding regarded her. “I am,” he agreed.
    “You don’t understand, Mrs. Brackett. I’m ruined.”
    “No, you’re not, Miss Evie. I was there most of the time and I’ll attest you being as you should be. No one will hold it against you that you were forced to be alone with this monster.”
    “Mrs. Brackett, please, you don’t understand.”
    “No, lamb, I don’t.”
    “If you call me a monster again, you’ll understand my wrath,”
    Raven said through his teeth.
    Mrs. Brackett raised her umbrella defensively in Raven’s direction. “Tell me, Miss Evie. Why do you feel you must wed the creature?”
    Evangeline’s voice rose loud and clear for all to hear. “Last night his lordship threw me down and forced me in order that I had no 150
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    choice but to marry him.”
    “He raped you?” the woman gasped.
    “He did,” she confirmed.
    A protest rose to Raven’s lips, falling away when something hard and heavy bore down upon his skull. Mrs. Brackett began to clobber him unremittingly with her umbrella. Mr. Harding joined in, delivering several blows to Raven’s midsection with his fists while words like “scoundrel” and “cur” filled the air.
    All hell broke loose in St. Clement’s Church, Ravenscroft village.
    The congregation, at first wary, now outraged beyond belief at the demon from the castle, turned on him. He may own the land they lived on. They may owe him their allegiance as well as their rent. But a lovely, delicate young lady had been brought down by the man and all