Copper was going to kill her but he was going to have a hard time trying. She had not come this far to lay down her life when she had finally found a home. Leith had not said anything definitive, but she had begun to entertain the images of her being his wife, them having a lovely wedding, perhaps the look on his face after seeing their first child, and of them living in peace.
I’m going to fight for that. I may not get it, but I’m going to try anyway.
A horse came to her side and she twisted enough to see Cooper there, his head up and his eyes trained ahead. “We have another mile to go, Lachlan, we need to get to the river.”
“River?” the man, Lachlan, said.
“Aye,” Cooper grinned. “Ye ken the one where she had run off to, after the whole castle kent of her murderous actions to the Laird, in shame and fear. Coincidentally, the same one where she stopped to drink water and where she accidentally slipped in and drowned.”
“I kent ye were going to slit her throat,” Lachlan said.
Hearing them, Mary felt as though a cold instrument had carved a hole in her chest. These men were discussing her death as casually as if they were talking about the weather. She did not matter to them as another human being. To them, Cooper especially, she, was just a problem he had to solve.
“I was,” Cooper said casually, “but I kent it easier for the boy to let go of her knowing she was foolish enough to drink from a flooded river.”
She had heard him call Leith ‘boy’ enough times to know who this boy he was referring to was.
When he finds out about this, Leith is going to draw and quarter you.
They kept riding on, and while Cooper and Lachlan were detailing her death, she began to work on the ropes binding her hands.
* * *
It was a mere minutes before dawn when Leith and Magrath got back to his home. On their way back, the sky grew from dismal black to angry gray and the sun was a mere pale golden disk in the sky. No warmth came from it, and as he entered the castle, the coldness grew.
The very stones that made up the castle seemed grim but the foreboding sense did not stop him. He took Magrath right up to his father’s room, and hailed Finlay, who sat outside, this time with a scabbarded sword point down between his knees.
“Has anyone been inside?” he asked.
“Nay, Sir,” Finlay said as he nodded to Magrath, “Welcome back, Healer.” His voice dipped, “Sir, I need to say—”
“It can wait,” Leith cut him off. “Has he made any noise since he went in?”
“Nay that I’ve heard, Sir,” Finlay said as he rose to knock on the door.
The slab was yanked in and Dugald shuffled back to let the two men in. Leith looked at his father, laying on the bed on his side, and not moving. Magrath went to check him while Leith went to the table where a tray with the remains of his father’s cleansing concoction lay.
He took the goblet up and sniffed it. Instantly, his nose began to burn. Looking at Magrath, who was feeling his father’s forehead, Leith excused himself and took the goblet with him. It did not take him long to find a balcony where a few potted plants were and upended the cup unto one of them.
The dark liquid, now as thick as sludge based on the time it had been allowed to settle, slid out and dropped on the thin leaf of the plant. As the rest came out and coated it, the leaf began to wilt right before his eyes. Soon the limb turned brown and even the ground under it was black.
This was poison for sure, but how had this happened? Had the person in charge of making it deliberately gone and switched the herbs? Was the killer in the kitchen? He had to make sure.
Heading back up in quickly, he went in to see that Magrath had his father sitting upon his bed. He was relieved though his father looked like he had aged ten years in a day.
“Faither, I’m happy yer back in the land of the living, but before I celebrate with ye, I must ask. Magrath, what herbs did ye leave in the kitchens for the cleanse?”
“Marigold, rhubarb, milk thistle, and dandelion root,” Magrath said as his face took on a curious look. “Not at the same time, but staggered. Each cleanses another part of the body from the blood humors to the heart. Why?”
“I just need to check,” Leith said. “I’ll be back, do what ye can to get him back.”
Heading down to the kitchens, he strode in determined to get to the bottom of this. He went inside to see the cooks manning the firepits and washing women at the tubs. He frowned…Where was Mary? Was she with his mother still?
“Nessa,” he called, “Show me where the herbs Magrath left for faither.”
The cook hopped to his order and said, “Aye, Sir, this way please.”
He nodded to those he passed by and followed Nessa directly into the storerooms beyond where they housed the herbs for seasoning and soups. Nessa took him to a wall where the herbs dangling on strings, hanging from tacks. Under them were cupboards with empty baskets on top.
These herbs, however, were nothing but dry stalks. The leaves were withered and not one of them showing any marks where something had been plucked from. No one had used them to make anything.
“Nessa,” he asked tightly, “Who
