“Mam was scared, and she went away.”
The poor child must think her mother left her. How could she explain to Ella that her mother didn’t abandon her, but was dead?
“I was only frightened because that flower could make ye ill,” Margaret said. “I will never leave you. Never.”
Ella was quiet for a time as she appeared to take this in, then she looked up at Margaret with her wide blue eyes, and asked, “Will Finn leave us?”
Margaret drew in a shaky breath. In making her plans to leave, she had failed to fully consider how attached Ella was to Finn. And he to her. But the longer they stayed, the harder it would be on all of them when the inevitable parting came.
“Finn is verra fond of you,” Margaret said, because she could not bring herself to tell Ella yet that they would be the ones leaving.
With her thoughts on Ella and Finn, it was not until they were nearly back to the castle that it occurred to her they may have discovered the poison the murderer used. Anyone at Helmsdale could have collected the henbane from along the path. Because the plant was commonly used—carefully and in small doses—to relieve pain, particularly toothache, someone gathering it would raise no suspicion.
She debated whether to trouble Finn with what she discovered, as there was little chance it would help reveal who the poisoner was. Everyone at Helmsdale had walked that path at one time or another. She herself had done so many times before today.
When she and Ella entered the hall, she saw Finn sitting alone with his father, which was unusual. Her skin prickled, and she feared more bad news had come to Helmsdale. Worry creased Finn’s handsome face as he got up and started toward her and Ella.
Before he reached them, wailing coming from upstairs stopped him in his tracks. A moment later, Curstag came flying down the stairs and threw herself into Finn’s arms, weeping loudly.
“He’s dead!” Curstag cried. “Bearach is dead!”
Margaret watched in horror as Finn’s father clutched his chest and fell to the floor.
CHAPTER 26
Frustration and guilt gnawed at Finn’s belly as he climbed the stairs. Someone had murdered three of his closest kin right under his nose. Not only had he failed to prevent it, he had not even succeeded in finding out who the murderer was. And ever present in his mind was his worry about Alex. With each day that passed without more news from Dunrobin, the weight of Finn’s unfulfilled oath to protect his cousin grew heavier and heavier on his shoulders.
He ought to grieve for his brother, but he felt nothing. Though they had buried him yesterday, Finn still could not quite believe he was dead. Bearach had survived so long after the poisoning that Finn had been convinced he would recover.
Thankfully, the shock to his father’s heart had not killed him as well—at least not yet.
Finn tapped on his parents’ bedchamber door, hoping Margaret would answer it. She and Una had been caring for his father since his heart failed him, and she had not come to bed again last night.
When Una opened the door a crack, he saw Margaret on the far side of the room. She had her back to him, wringing out a wet cloth, and did not see him, but Ella, who was playing on the floor at her feet, gave him a smile and a wave.
“Gilbert is resting,” Una said in a hushed voice, which was the same thing she’d told him the last time and the time before that. “Sleep is the best healer.”
He needed to be doing something. Anything. Instead of pounding his fist into the wall, he climbed the stairs to wait for Margaret in their chamber. When he opened the door, he found Curstag lying on their bed.
“What in the hell are ye doing in here?” He spoke in a harsh tone before he remembered she was a grieving widow.
“I can’t verra well be in my own bed, now can I?” she said, and sat up. “Isabel has locked herself in there again, weeping and smelling his clothes.”
Finn tried and failed to get that image out of his head.
“I’ll let ye be, then,” he said, but when he started to go, she leaped off the bed and grabbed his arm.
“Talk to me,” she pleaded. “I can’t bear to be alone just yet.”
Jesu.Curstag was the last person he wanted to have a conversation with, aside from his mother. But he did not want to be heartless, so he let her pull him inside.
“Ye know what this means, don’t ye?” she asked.
He had no notion what she was talking about.
“It means,” she said, running her hand up his chest, “we can be together at last.”
“What?” Finn said, and pushed her away. “Bearach is barely in the ground.”