“Don’t look up,” Finn said. “’Tis me, Finn.”
Alex froze a moment, but then he had the sense to rub the dog’s ears as Finn quickly told him of the danger he was in and the plan to rescue him.
“I knew you’d come for me,” Alex said in a choked voice. “I’ll leave supper early and meet ye while the others are still eating.”
“Good,” Finn said. “You’d better go now before someone gets suspicious.”
To make sure no one connected Alex visiting his cart with his departure, Finn waited another half-hour before slowly rolling his cart toward the gate with his new dog trailing beside him. As he passed under the iron portcullis at the gate, he felt a prickle at the back of his neck. When he glanced over his shoulder, sweat broke out on his brow and palms.
Barbara Sinclair was standing in the middle of the courtyard with her head cocked to the side and her cold gray gaze fixed on his back.
###
“Good day to ye, Isabel.” Margaret pasted on a pleasant smile on her face and got up from her knees holding the blanket. “Your husband was chilled and asked me to fetch this from your trunk.”
Her years of protecting herself by hiding her feelings behind a smooth mask saved her from showing how scared she was. She told herself that so long as she gave Isabel no cause to believe she had discovered the henbane, she would get out of this room.
“Just what I needed,” Gilbert said, giving her a wink as she spread the blanket over him.
Thankfully, Gilbert did not want his wife to know he’d had Margaret searching for his secret flask of whisky any more than she did.
“If there’s nothing else ye need, I’ll be on my way,” Margaret said, meeting Isabel’s icy stare with another bland smile.
Margaret’s heart pounded as she forced herself to walk in measured steps past Isabel to the open doorway. As she crossed the threshold, alarm shot through her body, urging her torun, run, run!Instead, she hummed a tune and climbed the first step as she imagined Isabel coming up behind her with a long blade.
Isabel had already brazenly murdered people close to her, so she would have no qualms about eliminating another threat. Margaret’s breathing seemed unnaturally loud as she strained to hear movement inside the chamber behind her. Now she imagined Isabel in the center of the chamber, standing as still as a stone and listening, just as Margaret was, for some sign that would reveal what the other knew.
At last, Margaret reached Una and Ella’s door. Her pulse jumped when the latch made a softclickas she lifted it. Moving quickly, she slipped inside and drew the bar across the door.
Una dropped her stitching in her lap, and Ella stopped playing with her rag doll. Neither moved nor made a sound as they fixed their gazes on Margaret. These two, one old and one young, had acquired a keen sense for danger.
Sweat beaded on Margaret’s forehead as she leaned her ear against the door. When she heard no footsteps coming up the stairs, she picked up Ella and held her close.
“Don’t be frightened, sweetling. Everything will be all right, but can ye find your shoes and put them on for me?” Margaret said, then she lifted her gaze to meet Una’s. “We need to leave the castlenow.
While Ella struggled with her shoes, Margaret quickly told Una about finding the henbane.
“I suppose the wicked woman was gathering it when we saw her that day in the wood with her basket,” Una said. “And she made that vinegary tincture for Bearach. Vinegar is used in many cures, but vinegar and mulberry leaves is for henbane poisoning.”
“I don’t think Isabel knows I saw the henbane in the trunk,” Margaret said.
“If she even suspects you’ve found her out,” Una said, “’tis not safe for ye here.”
“Then ’tis not safe for you, either,” Margaret said. “She’ll assume I told ye.”
“We’ll go to my grandson Lachlan’s cottage and wait for him and Finn there,” Una said. “It will be no easy task, but Finn will see that justice is done.”
“It will be hard for him to learn that the woman who raised him would do such a thing,” Margaret said. “And she’s probably already thrown the henbane down the privy.”
“What I meant is that it will be hard because Isabel will claim you’re the poisoner,” Una said. “Someone has already planted that seed. It hasn’t taken hold yet because the servants like ye. But I’ve heard whispers that you’re a spy for the Sinclairs.”
“Me? Why would anyone think that?”
“You’re a stranger among us,” Una said. “After no lass in Sutherland could capture Finn’s heart—and many of them tried—he comes home bewitched by a mysterious lass who claims she has no clan.”
Margaret swallowed hard. She was the perfect scapegoat.
“Of course, it will be far easier for her to blame ye if you’re dead,” Una said. “So let’s be on our way.”