The thought made her mouth tighten grimly as she followed Montrose’s mount out of the woods and along the dirt lane toward the castle gate. She would find the answer, but after that she had no idea what she would do. Or even what she could do. If her cousin was killing men, was there anything she could do to stop her? Nothing that wouldn’t include admitting her collusion in the death of Laird Kennedy. She may not have killed the man, but she had lent her aid in concealing who the murderer was. What kind of punishment was she likely to be dealt for that?
The question left Saidh in an unhappy silence as they reined in and dismounted at the foot of the stairs to the castle. A servant led them up the steps and through the keep door, explaining with a pained expression that, unable to find the laird, they had sent for Lady MacDonnell, who would surely greet them soon. He’d barely finished making those apologetic explanations when a soft rustle and the patter of footsteps drew their attention to the older lady descending the stairs. Allen MacDonnell’s mother, was Saidh’s guess as she looked over the still attractive woman. Certainly, it wasn’t her cousin.
“Lord Danvries.” Tilda MacDonnell smiled sadly as she crossed the great hall to greet them. “ ’Tis a pleasure to see ye again. I trust ye found yer sister?”
“Yes. Thank you,” Danvries said, his voice for once quiet and respectful rather than the bluff and arrogant booming sound it normally was. Turning, he gestured toward Murine and added, “This is my sister, Lady Murine Carmichael, of clan Carmichael.”
“My dear,” Lady MacDonnell took Murine’s hand and clasped it gently in both her own. “I was sorry to hear o’ yer father’s death. It seems Scotland has lost two good men in short order.”
“Aye,” Murine murmured, her eyes glazing with the tears that had filled them every time someone had brought up her father since she’d learned of his death.
Lady MacDonnell hugged Murine briefly, and then stepped back, dashing tears from her own eyes before turning to include Saidh in her smiling welcome. “And is this another sister perhaps, or—”
“Ah, no,” Montrose interrupted with a grimly satisfied smile that Saidh didn’t understand until he added, “This is Lady Saidh Buchanan, and the reason we stopped again on our way home. She is a cousin and dear friend of Lady Fenella’s and begged my escort so that she might see her cousin and offer comfort.”
Saidh’s mouth tightened at the bit about begging his escort. She’d never begged for anything in her life, and it had actually been Murine who had asked if they couldn’t escort her to MacDonnell on the way home. Her irritation with Montrose was forgotten though when she noted that Lady MacDonnell’s smile had frozen. In the next moment it dropped away altogether like so much ice slipping from an overhang to crash to the ground.
Face pale and eyes cold, she nodded stiffly at Saidh. “Ye will find yer cousin in her room. It is the third door on the left once ye reach the top o’ the stairs.”
Saidh hesitated, wanting to offer her condolences but suspecting they wouldn’t be welcome. She had obviously been dismissed and was no longer welcome in the woman’s presence, something Montrose was enjoying greatly, she noted with disgust.
Ignoring the man, Saidh murmured a quiet “thank ye” to Lady MacDonnell and turned to cross the great hall to the stairs.
Saidh didn’t encounter anyone on her way up. Once outside the door Lady MacDonnell had said was Fenella’s, she paused and listened, but heard no sound from within. Straightening her shoulders, she knocked sharply and waited for the softly uttered “Come in” before opening the door and stepping into the room.
It took one look to tell Saidh that this was not the master bedchamber where Laird MacDonnell and his bride would have slept. It seemed Fenella had already been moved to a lesser room and probably the lesser of the lesser rooms was Saidh’s guess. The chamber was tiny, with barely enough space for the single bed and the hard wooden chair that sat in the corner. There was no fireplace at all which would make it a damned cold room in winter.
If she were to guess, Allen’s mother had selected this room for Fenella and it appeared her cousin had not argued the point. But then Saidh supposed her cousin’s position here was now probably rather precarious. She was no longer the Laird’s wife, and had produced no heir to earn her any position in the household. Lady MacDonnell obviously had more power than her.
“Saidh?”
That bewildered, almost hopeful whisper drew her gaze to the woman on the bed and Saidh’s eyebrows rose. This was not the sweet, round and rosy-faced Fenella she recalled from five years earlier. It was not even the pale, round Fenella from the morning after her wedding. This woman was thin to the point of emaciated, her face wan, and eyes red with recent and repeated tears.
“Oh, Saidh!” Fenella lunged off the bed and threw her arms around her in a hard, hungry hug of desperation. “Oh, thank God. A friendly face. I have missed ye so. What am I to do? Me husband is dead. I loved Allen so. I thought surely this time I would be allowed to live happily with him. How could he go and die on me like that? I am being punished, am I no’? God is punishing me fer Kennedy. I—”
Saidh silenced her cousin by covering her mouth. Her gaze moved warily to the door as she replayed Fenella’s words in her mind and wondered how much she’d given away . . . and who might have heard.
Easing Fenella away, Saidh raised a finger to her lips and slipped quickly back to the door to ease it open. When a quick glance in both directions along the hall showed it to be empty, she let her breath out on a little hiss of relief and eased the door closed again.
Chapter 2
“Bloody hell,” Greer muttered as he rode through the castle gates and saw the horses and men filling his bailey. There were a good thirty or forty soldiers that he could see, and English soldiers at that. It looked like a bloody invasion party, he thought, and then recognized the banner they rode under and grimaced with disgust. Montrose Danvries had returned, he realized. No doubt the man was on his return journey from collecting his sister. He probably hoped to spend another night at MacDonnell, eating his food and sleeping in one of the guest rooms. Greer just hoped it would only be one night this time. He didn’t like the man.