CHAPTER 27: The Scandalous Hours — The Failed Decoy, The Bitter Spring, and the Night Hawksmere Almost Fell

In Chapter 27: The Scandalous Hours 🌙🔥, the darkest night in Hawksmere’s history unfolds in a cascade of deception, betrayal, and ancient dread. The decoy plan collapses spectacularly as Bess and Tom are exposed by Sir Jocelyn himself ⚔️😱, and Eamon’s desperate descent into the poisoned spring leads to a brutal underground battle dripping with danger, blood, and secrets buried deep beneath the earth. 🩸🕳️ As the poisoned water is finally sealed and a strange, impossible green light pulses from the depths 💧💀, the night shifts from political treachery to something far older and far more terrifying. Hawksmere Keep stands on a knife’s edge as signals clash, horns blare, and the forces of men and monsters converge on the same cursed hillside. 🏰⚡ On the battlements, Alianor faces the agony of watching her world split in two—her maid in one direction, her Thorn in another—each teetering between salvation and ruin. The scandalous hours have arrived, and nothing in Hawksmere will ever be the same. If you crave medieval intrigue, mind-twisting mystery, forbidden secrets, and the kind of peril that makes the air crackle, this chapter is the high-stakes, gothic heartbreak you’ve been waiting for. 💔🔥 Keywords: gothic medieval fantasy, poisoned spring, castle siege, dark historical fiction, The Scandalous Hours, Lady Aurelia Ravenshade, Chapter 27, Hawksmere Keep, betrayal, scandal, supernatural mystery, audio drama, medieval intrigue podcast.