"Why did she leave them behind?"
"The lasses claimed they had no one to go back to and were needed at Clachthrom, could be more use, and, I suspected, gain a higher standing. I e'en thought they might have found lovers at Clachthrom." He frowned and took a deep drink of ale. "I concede I didnae pay much heed to the lasses, yet they did their work. The woman who rules o'er the lot of them said they were good workers. Ye would think someone would have noticed if one or both of them were slipping off somewhere too often or asking too many questions."
"Weel, we can find the answers to those questions when we get back to Clachthrom. May find your brother already has a few. He was thinking about trying to find that maid."
"That might help. What I am finding difficult to understand is why Margaret would try to kill Ilsa. Tis evident the marriage was but a means to seek revenge upon me, and that she has found men to help her try again to kill me. I am nay sure I can think of a reason for her to kill Ilsa. What could that possibly gain her? Ilsa has ne'er wronged her, either."
"Except to arrive at the church and ruin a verra good plan," said Liam, then shrugged when everyone looked at him. "Ye are dealing with someone who isnae quite right in the head, and ye expect to find logic in her actions? Ilsa ruined her plan to marry ye and wed ye. She tried to kill ye with hired fools again, and again failed. So, kill Ilsa and go back to the other plan of marrying ye and then killing ye. Actually, there may weel be a strange logic there."
"Do ye think she may have given up her plan of killing me for the moment and fixed her attention upon Ilsa?" asked Diarmot.
"There is a verra good chance of that. The poison was meant for Ilsa, there was no error there, nay a sad mischance. Ilsa was supposed to die. That would seem to prove that she has returned to her plan of marrying ye and becoming a widow as soon as possible."
"We dinnae leave until dawn," Diarmot said when he caught Sigimor watching him intently. "I ken it. I just pray I will find everything as I left it when I get back to Clachthrom."
"Everything will be fine," said Sigimor. "Ye have good men and women watching o'er Ilsa."
"That I do, but kenning that isnae really enough to still all my worry."
"I am nay sure anything could do that."
"Nay, especially since I doubt ye can assure me that my wife willnae do anything foolish." He sighed and nodded when none of the Camerons present offered him that assurance.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There was such a dark look upon Nanty's face as he strode into the garden that Ilsa felt her heart skip with alarm. Diarmot had been gone a sennight.
There had been time enough for him to have reached Dubheidland, get into some trouble, and have someone return to Clachthrom with the bad news. She slowly rose from the herb bed she had been weeding, telling herself to be calm, that she could easily be fretting over nothing. It did little to ease her sudden trepidation.
"Is something wrong?" she asked Nanty as he came to a stop in front of her.
"I am nay sure," he replied. "A lad has just come to Clachthrom to say he and his father have found the body of a young woman in a ditch."
"Oh, dear, do ye think it the maid who went missing?"
"I cannae be sure, yet who else could it be? No one else has reported that any other lass has gone missing."
"Nay, they havenae. So, ye must ride away and find out what this is all about."
"I am supposed to be guarding ye, Ilsa." He held up his hand to silence her protests. "I ken I havenae been at your side every hour of every day, have e'en left the keep for wee forays outside these walls. Yet it sorely troubles me to do so now. If this is the missing maid, and if she has been murdered, that alters a great many of the assumptions we have made since ye were poisoned."
"Ah, of course." She wiped her hands upon her apron. "Her murder could mean she wasnae the one who poisoned me. It could mean that the poor lass was led away and murdered just to make us all believe she was guilty. How sad."
Nanty dragged his hand through his hair. "Tis far more than sad, Ilsa. That would mean the one who did poison ye is still within these walls. E'en worse, that person is one who thinks naught of murdering some poor, innocent lass just to hide his own trail."
Ilsa grasped him by the arm and started to lead him out of the garden. "Then ye had best find out if that is what has happened, hadnae ye?"
"I told Diarmot and your brothers I would watch o'er ye."
"And ye have. This is also watching o'er me. We need to ken if this is the maid, if she died by accident whilst fleeing from her crime, or if she was naught but a pawn in someone else's deadly game. Twill tell us if the killer still lurks within these walls and that is verra important."