Dwyn stared at Brodie, but wasn’t really seeing him. She was trying to come to grips with the fact that the sweet, smilingmaid, Katie, was a murderous, two-faced bitch. She could hardly credit it. The girl had been nothing but kind to her, alwayseager to help, always carrying trays of food up for her . . . well, food trays meant for Geordie while he was ill, she realized.But Katie was also always offering to fetch wildflowers to scent the rushes in . . . what was essentially his room. Besides,it was probably when she was able to slip away to meet Brodie. Still, she was always nearby, smiling and refreshing theirdrinks, bringing the platters of food to them . . . Perhaps she’d always refreshed Geordie’s drink first, and moved on tofill Dwyn’s only when Geordie pointed out her drink could use topping up as well, and perhaps the platter had been held betweenthem and a little closer to Geordie than her, but— Dear Lord, the woman was crazy in love with Geordie, Dwyn realized.
She took a moment to accept that, and then cleared her throat and asked, “How do ye ken Katie?” Dwyn had barely asked thequestion when another was shooting from her mouth. “And how did ye even ken me family was here?”
Brodie scowled briefly, but then said, “I kenned ye were here thanks to Deoiridh.”
Dwyn blinked. “Deoiridh, the chambermaid at Innes?”
“Aye. Her sister married one o’ me men some years back and lives at Brodie. The two visit though, and when last she visited,yer Deoiridh apparently told her sister—me man’s wife—all about the Buchanan bridal hunt business, and that ye were on yerway here. He, in turn, passed the information on to me. Unfortunately,” he added grimly, “that was near a week after ye’dalready left fer Buchanan. So, while I gathered me men together and rode out almost at once, ye were already at Buchanan beforewe caught up to ye. The best I could do was camp here on MacGregor land, and send a handful o’ men to lay low in the woodso’ Buchanan to watch the keep for an opportunity to steal ye away.”
He scowled at the inconvenience of it all, and then continued. “And that is how I encountered the lass.”
“You were in the woods with yer men?” Dwyn asked uncertainly.
“Nay.” He scowled at the very thought. “But she ran into me men in the woods the night she poisoned ye.” Smiling suddenly,he said, “Apparently, all the Buchanans were fussing over ye while ye were retching, including Geordie Buchanan, which wasthe exact opposite o’ what she’d intended with the poison. She left the keep in a fine dander, and headed down to the lochto try to come up with another way to be rid o’ ye. But she got distracted when she met me men. She serviced all o’ them fera coin, and as she did, they asked her a lot o’ questions about you. Katie asked questions o’ her own in return, and whenshe realized I wanted to marry ye, she demanded to be brought to me. She told them she could help.”
Smiling, Brodie shrugged. “And she did in the end. Katie’s the one who came to fetch me with the news that ye were out o’the keep and at the waterfall with Geordie.”
Dwyn stiffened at this news, her mouth tightening, and Brodie grinned, obviously recognizing her dismay and enjoying it.
“How else did ye think we came to be there waiting in the woods along the path at just the right time?” he asked with amusement.
Dwyn’s gaze narrowed on him grimly. “So ye killed Simon and . . .” Her words trailed off even before he started to shake hishead. The timing for that didn’t seem right. Simon had been dead for hours when they’d found him. Brodie wouldn’t have waitedthere along the path for hours; it would have been too dangerous. He would have come for them at the waterfall, and got offBuchanan land and back home as quick as he could.
“If Simon is the man who was lying on the path, ’twas Katie who killed him,” Brodie said now. “She needed a horse to get tous since me men could no longer hide in the woods after two o’ me men were killed and the others chased off. I had to sitidly by and wait here for any news she could slip out to give us when she was supposed to be gathering flowers, or performingother duties.”
Mouth tightening, he admitted, “I was angry at her for killing the warrior when I heard what she’d done, but ’twas handy inthe end,” he said dryly. “It was spying the body on the path that told us ye’d no’ yet returned to the keep from the waterfall.The body would have been gone otherwise. But ’twas late, nearly time fer the sup by the time we got to Buchanan, and we fearedmissing ye did we travel through the woods to the loch to get ye, so we waited in the trees fer yer return.”
Dwyn closed her eyes briefly, the panicked worry that she had to get away and get back to Buchanan before Katie poisoned orotherwise killed Aulay Buchanan rushing around inside her head. She couldn’t let Katie kill him; she liked Geordie’s brotherAulay. Aside from that though, Geordie loved him and would be crushed was he murdered on his account.
“So,” Brodie said. “Now ye ken I know ye’re no’ married. And all ye’ve
