“I doona believe that ye are with child, Edana. Ye have no swollen at all, and it has been too long for ye no to have done so.”
She stood from the table, and Arran could see that her hands shook with rage. “I canna believe that ye would insult me so. ’Tis only that ye canna see how I’ve grown with me clothes on. Kinnaird women never swell much with their children.”
Arran stood as well, his confidence in his suspicion growing with every word she uttered. “Aye? Is that so, lass? Then, why doona ye take yer dress off for me right here and show me how yer belly grows?”
She stepped away from him as if she was afraid he would rip her dress right off of her. He couldn’t deny he was tempted, but he was not the sort of man to disgrace a woman in such a way. Besides, he didn’t need to. Her reaction was more than enough to make him certain she was not carrying his child.
“I’ll do no such thing, ye wretched bastard. Do ye think ye can no touch me for months and then have me take me clothes off? I willna allow ye to do so. When yer child arrives, ye will see what an ignorant fool ye have been.”
She turned from him, fleeing the castle, but he did not go after her as he sat down to finish his meal. She was right about one thing. He was a fool. A fool to believe his wretched bitch of a wife, and a fool to have denied the one woman who had really ever loved him when deep down, he had sensed that Edana had lied to him the night she’d come to him with news of their coming child.
Whatever misery a life with Edana would bring to him, tonight he felt as if he deserved every bit of it.
*
If it was the Conall messenger again, Tormod would kill him. Surely the lad wouldn’t be so foolish to knock upon his door twice. ’Twas late, and night had long since settled over the village.
He opened the door and was nearly knocked to the floor as Edana threw her arms around him, weeping. “’Tis over, Tormod. Arran knows. He knows that I am no carrying his child.”
He unwrapped her arms from his neck and pushed her away from him. “Slow down, lass. What do ye mean? Did ye tell him that?”
His face flushed red with anger at the thought. If she’d been so stupid, he would kill her this night. If she’d ruined their plan with her mouth, he would not put up with her a moment more.
“Nay, I dinna tell him anything, but he told me that he doesna believe that I am carrying his child. He has noticed that me belly has no grown, and he thinks that I have lied to him.”
He turned away from her to grab the glass bottle that he’d patiently held on to for months. “Then doona worry, lass. All is fine. If he suspects that ye are lying then it only means that now is the time for ye to take the herbs. Once he believes that ye have lost the child, he will blame himself for upsetting ye so. Here.” He extended the bottle in her direction. “Take it tonight, lass, once ye are abed. Take every last drop. I shall see ye in a few days after all is done.”
She wrapped her arms around him once more and kissed him quickly on the cheek. “Aye, I shall drink it as soon as I return to the castle. I love ye, Tormod.”
He opened the door to show her outside. “Aye, lass, I know ye do.”
Once she was gone, he shut the door to his home waiting until she was far enough ahead of him that he could follow her unnoticed. Tonight would be a wonderful night. Edana’s death was finally upon him.
Chapter 33
Edana took her time getting back to the castle after obtaining the herbal solution from Tormod. She wandered the streets of her small village, the only home she’d ever known, with an inexplicable feeling of unease. ’Twas as if she was seeing the village and the people in it in a way she’d never seen them before, as if she were saying goodbye.
As a young girl, she’d taken after her mother. She’d had a sweet spirit and never understood why her father got angry when she would play with the children in the village. She couldn’t see the difference between herself and the people that lived under their protection outside of the castle walls.
She’d had many friends. Her mother ensured it, taking her out daily to interact with the people of the village, doing her best to make sure that Edana understood how blessed she was to live a life in which things came easy to her.
If only her mother had lived, Edana suspected that she could have ended up being a better person than the woman she became. Her father had always been a terrible man, but her mother’s death released him from his cage, and darkness descended over her own life after that point.