Leith inched the door in and saw his mother holding a vial over a goblet. His father was laying on the bed, asleep. Leith shoved the door in and she startled.
“Leith, what are ye doing here?” his mother asked, her expression stricken with shock.
He crossed his arms, “I should ask ye the same question. What are ye doing here and what is that yer holding?”
“It a draught for calming Aaron’s nerves,” his mother said calmly. “It something yer healer, Magrath, told me to give him.”
“Funny, Magrath also told ye to make sure he be given those herbs to clean his body and to put his mind back in order, but ye ordered Lachlan to give him poison,” Leith waited for her to deny it, but nothing was forthcoming, instead she only shrugged. “If this is truly a calming draught, I ken I’ll drink it.”
Before she could stop him, Leith grabbed the goblet from her hand and tilted it to his mouth. His mother screamed and slapped the goblet from his hand. It crashed to the floor with a tinny clatter and a dark red liquid flowed out to stain the floor. Dark red—belladonna poison.
His chest went cold, “That wasnae a calming draught, was it? It’s red. It is belladonna poison, Mother?”
Sarah tugged a chair out and sank. She held her head in her hands and sighed. “It isnae fatal, but it makes the drinker see phantasms. I just wanted him out of the way so ye can take up the mantle that is truly yers. And Lachlan was a worthless pawn, more of a sheepdog than a man. I supplied what was needed, and he did it without a question.”
“And?”
She looked up, “And what?”
“I heard everything ye said, Mother,” Leith said. “How ye never loved Faither but only wanted him for a son. How long have ye been doing this to him? He never hurt ye but ye kent it right to hurt him! How long?”
“A-year-and-three months,” she said with a pitiless face. She even scoffed. “I kent the effects would have taken quicker, but he fought it and I had to increase the dosage until he finally fell under.”
Christ and his saints! His mother was a madwoman! Leith’s jaw went tight, “Why did ye make Cooper do all these things, Mother? Why did ye make him take control of so many things?”
She laughed scornfully, “Cooper is blind to anything but control. I kent if I told him to do it, it would be done without question. I kent ye would find out how he took control and force him away. I have wanted him gone for many years as I kent he was too power-hungry. But yer damned Faither wouldnae let him go, nay matter how I pleaded with him.”
She set Cooper up for his own fall! Faither was right, he had been under the control of someone but never would I have ever expected it to be me Mother!
“How did Faither fall ill again?” he demanded, even though he knew how, he wanted to hear it from her.
“I gave him the tea late the night before,” Sarah said. “He drank it and went to sleep quick. I ken it would have him act out again and I was right. I had to show ye that he wasnae worth fighting for, son.”
Deeply disturbed, Leith continued on, “Ye even maligned Mary, and even sent her to prison to cover up yer devilish deeds. Mary! The woman I love and who I am going to marry.”
Sarah hopped on her feet and her eyes were maniacal, “Over me dead body are ye going to marry her!”
Leith’s jaw stiffened so hard it was a miracle he had not chipped a tooth, “I will marry her and it is out of yer hands.”
It was like flipping a coin, the moment he said those words, his mother went from angry to morose, her face dropping and her voice getting low and beseeching, “Please nay, Leith, if ye marry that Sassenach, I’ll die. Is this what ye want, to send me to me grave unhappy?”
Swallowing over the lump in his throat, Leith grabbed her thin shoulders, “What ye need is help. I’ll have ye sent away to an abbess to get healed. Ye cannae stay this way. Let me help ye, Mother.”
Her spidery fingers grabbed the back of his shirt and hooked into the fabric like talons. Her voice was low and menacing, “Ye will nay do this to me. I will nay live in an abbess. Nay, I’m not going anywhere, nay when I worked me life away to give ye this chance, and ye turn on me like a traitor ye have become by marrying that outsider. I belong here, I built this castle, and I will die in it. Take this to yer grave, son, ye caused me to die this way.”
Before Leith could say anything, she ripped away from him, plucked a vial from her breast and downed in one gulp. Instantly, her body began to shake, the vial dropped from her quaking hands, her eyes bulged and she fell to the floor.
“Bloody hell,” Leith exclaimed as he grabbed at his mother. But it was too late, her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
Her head tilted to the side and a thin droplet of blood slipped from her lips. The vial rolled from her hand and the scent that came from it was the acidic scent of strong belladonna. His eyes clenched tight as grief and horror battled away in his chest.
Had this truly happened? Had his mother just…killed herself? For this? For him suggesting he was going to help her? For marrying Mary? For not getting her way moving Aaron from the lairdship? The questions kept coming, but no strong answers followed.
He sat back with coldness running through his body. His eyes were
