Leith spotted a calculating look in his father’s eyes but did not ask. His father had given him his trust but Leith would be a fool to not think his father had more plans in mind. He tugged the door open and his eyes landed on Mary. She was just handing over a tray with his father’s meal, a bowl of soup, to Dugald.
Her hair was pinned up and his eyes instantly dipped to the fading, barely noticeable mark on her neck. One of many. His body reacted and he urged to reach out and touch her but held back.
“Lady Lenichton had this made and send this up, eh?” Dugald asked while taking the tray. Mary nodded. “I can guess. She’s so set on soups and porridges.”
“Mary,” Leith said, she spun and went red before curtsying. “Thank ye for taking up me Faither’s meal.” He then jerked his head to Dugald, silently ordering him to take the food in. “Come with me, Mary, I’ll walk ye down.”
He did not take the right route for a reason, instead, he led her right up to the empty rookery. The door barely closed before he had her in his arms. Mary lay a quick kiss on his neck and folded into his embrace without a word. She warmed his soul. Her touch, her smell, her softness, her care. He loved her. He did. It was as simple and complicated as that.
Tempted to re-redden the mark on her neck, Leith held back from temptation and only kissed it. “Leannán, ye dinnae even ken how much just holding ye is doing for me.”
It was Mary’s lips who met his first. Her kiss was soft but grew stronger and he allowed her to take the reins, kissing her back tenderly. He smoothed her hair back, “I ken I need to send Robasdan an apology.”
Her head cocked to the side, “Why?”
Shaking his head wryly, he stepped away, “Nothing much, go back to the kitchen, I’ll try to see ye this evening.”
Mary did not move, instead, she began to nibble her lip. Reaching up, Leith tugged on her chin to move her lip from her teeth, “Nay biting, if anyone’s going to bite ye, it is me. What’s troubling ye?”
Her features went pinched for a moment before she reached into her dress and pulled out a piece of paper. “I found this under my pillow last night.”
Taking it from her, Leith’s whole body went colder than ice. Leave or yer dead.
A litany of curses not fit for a lady’s ears slipped from his lips. His fist clenched the note into a tight ball, “Who could have sent ye this?”
“I don’t know,” Mary said worriedly, “The one enemy I know I had was—is —Mister Cooper but now…”
“He’s isnae here so another one is against ye,” Leith nearly snarled, “Just when I kent all was going somewhat well.”
He could see that she was biting the inside of her cheek and her hand was twitching to come up, touch him and offer what comfort she could. Against her desire to confide in him and take the comfort he would offer. He felt troubled, twice over. Cooper might be a part of an external conspiracy and now, Mary might be the victim of an internal one. In the light of the latter, he should be the one giving her comfort, not the other way around. Had she slept last night? No one getting such a direct threat would dare close their eyes.
“Have ye shown anyone but me this note?” he asked.
She shook her head, “I didn’t want Rinalda to worry.”
“Stay as close to her as ye can,” Leith advised. “I’ll take care of this.”
Her trusting smile was cold comfort to him as they parted ways, him to the stables and her back to the kitchens. Another day of digging into Cooper’s machinations while trying to figure out who had sent Mary that note.
Cooper was gone, so who could it be? The one flicker of light to his darkness was that his father was on the mend and would be back in less than a week. He needed to get things in order to prepare the celebratory dinner soon.
He needed to find out for certain if Cooper had any ties with enemy clans or the English. Cooper tended to keep all his acts to his chest, his suspicious nature did not let him share anything. The man was a human vault. He might even have to go to the capital and track down Cooper’s movements, and that had him grimacing. Now that he knew there was another threat to Mary here, it was unwise to leave her alone. But he had to go and she had to be kept safe.
His eyes lit upon a guard, pacing the parapets on the roof of the castle and he smiled. I’ll have a guard follow her in me absence.
* * *
It was just past dawn, the sky was barely lit while Mary was coming from emptying her chamber pot in the outside latrine when someone pushed past her and bumped her so hard, she fell to the ground, right into a pile of mud. The rains had battered the soil so hard last night that the ground was sodden.
“Coimheach,” Mary heard Fiona mutter under her breath.
Heaving herself up, Mary had to clamp her teeth down from crying out to her frustration. This woman was getting out of hand. There was not one day when Fiona did not insult her. The words were in Gaelic so she did not understand them but her sneering tone said it all.
She bore the hatred with aplomb though, not telling anyone. Perhaps it had been a bad move as she began to see more side-eye glances and sneers from those who had welcomed her into the fold weeks ago. Clearly, Fiona was poisoning those around her. She still held her head up high though. No level of slurs or bad-mouthing could lower her
