The kind lord had no friends at this table. Many would benefit from his untimely death; some would draw only pleasure from it. She looked at their faces, but none would meet her gaze. Suddenly she knew why.
She reached for her lord’s cup and drank deeply. The sharp taste of poison danced on her tongue, before flowing down her throat.
She smiled feebly at the shocked faces of the lord’s enemies. Tears ran down the lord’s face as he realized what she had done.
Her sacrifice had not gone in vain; her brother the lord would live another day.
