The next morning, Rhona seemed friendlier than I’d ever seen her and moved busily about me in the castle kitchens trying to prepare whatever I wished.
“I’m fine, really.” I’d already eaten enough food to last me a week and, truth was, if she tried to force anything else down my throat, I knew I might throw up. Standing to avoid another round of food, I moved to the doorway. “Can I ask you a question, Rhona?”
“O’course ye can, lass. What is it that ye need? I’m pleased that Baodan dinna wish for ye to be locked in the bedchamber this time.”
“Oh geez, I am too. Listen, I can’t stand to do nothing all day. It’s not in my nature, and I’m worried anyhow. Lying around will kill me. Is there anything I can do around here to help you? Anything I can do to keep busy?”
She smiled wide and moved next to me, pointing up the staircase. “I’m pleased that ye are no satisfied to spend yer days abed. Far too many lassies find it pleasing, and ’tis how death finds ye. I doona plan to slow down long enough for it to ever catch me.”
I laughed as I waited for her to give me some direction. “Good plan.”
She grinned at herself and continued. “Lady Kenna is much the same way as yerself, lass. Before she fell ill, she busied herself by working in the room at the verra top of the castle. See,” she pointed upstairs. “All the way to the top. I doona think she would mind if ye piddled in there. Looked through the books. Perhaps ye can figure out how she meant to place them and aid her in the quest to clean the room up a bit.”
“Perfect.” It sounded like tedious work, which was just what I needed. Something to require enough concentration so that I would not have enough time to worry. “I’ll go there now.”
She waved me on, and I smiled over my shoulder at her as I walked out of the kitchen. Directly into a very distressed Eoghanan.
Chapter 29
“E-o! Where have you been?” Dark circles lined his red eyes and his face seemed abnormally pale, making him appear visibly shaken. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.
“Ach, lass.”
He gripped me tightly as he pulled me against him in such a way that it seemed like I had known him for years.
“I am pleased to see that ye are well. I knew that ye would be, but I was still verra worried about ye. Where is Baodan? I must speak with him at once. We must leave for Cameron Castle immediately. I have reason to believe that our mother is in grave danger.”
“Wait. What?” I pulled back so that I could look at him straight on. I assumed that his cousin’s death upset him, but he spoke of something else. “Why are you worried about your mother? She’s not at Cameron Castle.” Shock immediately spread across his face, and I reached out to lay a reassuring hand on his arm. “You don’t know what’s happened, do you?”
“Oh God, I knew I would be too late. I was verra afraid that I would be, but I had hope. I hoped that…”
He stopped as he broke down into a sob. I put my arm around him as I moved him to sit down on one of the steps at the bottom of the staircase. “Hey, calm down. I think you’re mistaken. You don’t even know what’s happened. Too late for what?”
“She’s dead, is she no?”
I sat next to him and grabbed his hand, shaking it against his knee so that he would look up at me. “Your mother? No, she’s not dead. I told you, she’s not at the Camerons’. She’s at Conall Castle. She went to see the new baby. It’s your cousin, Griogair, who is dead.”
“I’m sorry, lass, I doona understand.”
He was such a mess. He needed a bath, a meal, and some sleep. Still, I knew that he would find none of those until he knew what happened. “They found Laird Cameron collapsed over the dining table in his mother’s cottage, and they can’t find Nairne anywhere. In the meantime, Niall stepped in until arrangements for a new Laird can be made.”
Eoghanan’s eyes darted back and forth as I watched his tired brain try to understand all that I’d said.
“God, lass. All of this wasna his plan, but he willna let it deter him for long. Ye said that me mother is no at Cameron Castle? I am pleased to hear it.”
“Yes, she’s at the Conalls’. Whose plan?” He looked away suddenly, and I knew he’d not meant to tell me all that he had.
“I should have said nothing to ye, lass. ’Tis no yer concern. ’Tis Baodan I need to speak to.”
“Well, Baodan’s not here and, unless you plan on riding after him, which you are in no shape to do, I think you should just tell me.” I leaned back so that Rhona could see me inside the kitchen, and I waved to get her attention. “Will you get E-o something to eat? I swear he’s about to fall over.”
For a brief moment, Eoghanan’s frown faded and he grinned at me weakly. “Thank ye, lass. I could indeed use a good meal, but I thought I told ye no to call me ‘E-o.’ ’Tis no me name, and it sounds foolish.”