Gara stood and nodded before turning away from him, but Arran called out to her once more before she could leave the room.
“I know that things have no always been good for the people of this castle and while I claim no responsibility for yer suffering, I am sorry for it. I vow that I will do all that I can to change things from now on. Doona ever be afraid in me presence.”
“Thank ye, sir.”
She slipped out quickly leaving Arran alone to think about the unborn child that was seemingly on its way to him.
*
Gara hurried down the hallway, breathing in deeply and swiftly wiping at her face to hide the tears.
Arran Conall was a fine man. He would be a good laird to her and to her people. It did not sit well with her to lie to him, but she needed the payment for her family. The death of her husband had placed a burden on her that she’d been unable to adequately meet for some time. This lie would guarantee her family a roof over their heads for a long while. She was willing to put aside her morals for the sake of her children at home.
Still, it was not right, and she’d live with the guilt over such an injustice for all of her years to come. With each passing day, she would search for a way to make amends.
Chapter 25
“Did she do it, Tormod?”
He walked through the doorway of his home, not surprised to find his sister there waiting. She did her best to make him feel as if each new plan was his own, but he was no fool. He knew his puppet master well, and he needed her. Without Fia to guide him, he had no chance of destroying Arran Conall so that he could take over as laird and put a Kinnaird back in power over their territory.
She was talented at deceit and quick to think of each new step in their plan. He hoped today her ideas would be at their best. He had to find a way to rid himself of Edana for good.
“Aye, she told him last night, but his reaction was no what we had hoped. He was no so pleased to hear about his coming child.”
Fia waved her hand dismissively in front of him. “’Tis no matter to us. Such news is difficult for any man when the woman carrying his child is no the one he loves. The newness will wear away. Soon he will fall in love with the child, real or no. Why do ye look so upset, brother? The wretch did as ye bid, did she no?”
“’Tis no enough to destroy Arran. I canna be with Edana. ’Tis time that we rid ourselves of her as well and find another way to ruin Arran.” Tormod paced around the room, frustrated and tired of his act with Edana. Each time he saw her, she clung closer to him, and his patience was growing thin.
“Nay, ye are too filled with haste. As long as Arran believes that Edana is carrying his child, she is of use to us. If we were to end her life now, Arran would no have the attachment to the thought of a child as he will in a few months. When it comes time for her pregnancy to show, we shall release ye from her so that Arran does no find out that she wasna truly carrying his child.”
Tormod could see the sense in her words, but it did nothing to ease his impatience. Still, he would have to spend the months until Edana’s death imagining it, savoring each image of her slowly taking her last breath. “How will we kill her when the time comes?”
His sister turned to him slowly, a smile spreading across her thin face that sent chills down even his spine.
“I know a woman, a witch really. She has given me a poison that will kill her. When it comes time that Arran could see that she is no carrying his child, ye will give it to her and tell her that it is an herb that will make it appear as if she lost the child by starting a bleed. She will no know when she takes it that it shall kill her. When it is discovered that she is dead, it will look as if she died from an early labor with the child.”
It would be perfect, far better than any plan Tormod could have devised on his own. Not only would the lass die in a way that would appear natural, but she would realize before she died that she’d been betrayed, that Tormod did not love her.
He could tolerate Edana a few months more, and then her perfectly tragic death would be the reward for his patience.
Chapter 26
After his conversation with Gara, Arran sat absorbed in his own thoughts of regret and self-pity inside his bedchamber. He knew it was wrong for him not to go to Edana, not to express to her how pleased he was that she was carrying his child, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to the lass once more.
Their marriage was a lie, the reasons for which Arran had married her invalid. For Edana was not the woman she’d made herself out to be while staying at Conall Castle. Not only that, but each time he’d taken her to his bed, he’d been dreaming of another, a lass so special to him that the only children he’d ever imagined himself having were hers.