The cook’s cheeks went ruddy with shame, “I left a man named Lachlan in charge. I havenae seen him since yesterday when His Lairdship…fell ill again.” Nessa’s words were laden with regret. “I suppose he ran when he realized he wasnae doing right.”
Leith fingered a dry plant, “He dinnae use any of it, so what was he using? These should give the brew a golden hue, but the one faither got was dark red.”
Crouching, Leith yanked the cupboard open and reached in. He pulled out a bunch of dried herbs that looked like basil. These could not be the belladonna Magrath had suggested. Shucking them back inside the cupboard, he stood and dusted his hands off. Heading back to the kitchen, he asked, “Where is Mary?”
“I cannae tell ye, Sir,” Nessa said regretfully.
There was a note in her voice that had Leith’s senses of pending crises going off. He spun, “Why?”
“I...we…,” Nessa said with a grim face, “were told to nay mention her name again.”
“But I can,” Rinalda’s voice cut in. “And I will. I dinnae care if I lose me position or be cast as a pariah. Sir, they carted her off to the keep and locked her up. And by they, I mean Me Lady.”
“Mother!” Leith was aghast, “Me mother send her there?”
“Aye, Sir,” Rinalda said. “She even ordered that Mary nay eat anything and that she must suffer for her crimes.”
“Her crimes?” Leith asked. Had the world began spinning backward? Who in their right mind would accuse Mary of a crime much less his mother? Was she losing her senses too? “Bloody hell, what crimes?”
“That I cannae tell ye as I daenae ken,” Rinalda said. “It’s been almost two days now.”
Cursing under his breath, Leith took the stairs to his mother’s room. He knocked and strode in, to see his mother in her bed, looking frail. He sat at the edge, “Mother, what is this madness I have heard about ye sending Mary off to the prison in our keep?”
“She took advantage of ye, Leith,” his mother said sagely. “She kent Aaron was ill and as soon as he was getting better, made sure he wouldnae. She poisoned him, son, she lied to ye, lied to us all about her dumbness, and even more, she’s English. And now, that ye are sleeping with her, she must have felt she would come in and step over our heads to become the top so she set out to poison him.”
Leith began to wonder if his mother has truly gone mad. “Mother, Mary would have never done anything to Faither and I ken she could speak. When I found her, I was the one who told her to play dumb as I dinnea ken how others would react to her kenning she was English.”
“What else are ye hiding from me, Leith?” his mother snapped. “Were ye going to marry her without saying a word to me?”
He stood, “I am going to marry her and aye, I was going tell ye. Pardon me, I’m going to get Mary out of that prison.”
“Leith,” she called as he had reached the door. He craned his neck over his shoulder. “Yer making a mistake, son, this woman is nay good for ye.”
“Mother, I’m old enough to ken what is good for me and Mary is,” he said. “Get some rest, mayhap it’ll get clearer to ye after ye sleep. Magrath is with Faither, he’ll have him back in a few days.”
Striding down the stairs, he swiftly crossed the green and headed to the tall, stone keep. No guard was there. That made him frown. He shoved the door in and crossed the inner room and took the narrow winding stairs down to the dungeons. He still could not believe the foolishness his mother had done and sent Mary to prison.
He jumped down to the lowest level and wrinkled his nose at the dank, rancid smell. There were only three rooms down this deep. He went to the dungeon and two were bolted shut. The third was not shut and he ran to it, as his senses were screaming that something was wrong, clearly wrong! “Mary, I’ve come—”
The room was empty. Leith had to look again, to make sure his eyes were telling him the truth. The room was still empty. Where was Mary? It was dim but he went in and looked to see scuffle marks on the floor and— good god! —he crouched and picked up a clump of hair. It was Mary’s, and it looked like it had been ripped out from her head.
He darted up and ran out, taking the stairs two at a time. He had to find Mary, but where was he going to start looking?
29
Faking unconsciousness this time was even harder than when she had done it before, that day when she had come to the Lenichton castle. She allowed her whole body to be lax and stay that way when Cooper ordered Lachlan to take her off the horse. She allowed her body to bang on the ground, sucking in the pain, just to let them know she was unconscious.
“Set her down near a tree or something until she wakes up,” Cooper grunted. “Go back and erase all set of our tracks; make sure no one will follow us. We’ll take another route back. Me Lady will be pleased with our work.”
“Aye, Sir,” Lachlan said and soon she heard the crunch of his boots on dead leaves and then the thuds of his horse’s hooves fading away.
Mary let her head loll to the side and breathed through her nose. She had hoped for the men to stay and do something that would give her time to work on the loosened ropes. The skin of her wrists were raw red from the rope rubbing against them while she worked them out. During the ride to wherever this was, she had to work them out tortuously slow because her hands were tied on
