“Nellie, look.” Lachina pointed to the side of the house. “What does it say?” the old woman asked.
Nellie’s mouth went dry as she read the words. “Witch.”
Elspeth blanched. “Why would anyone write that?” She then glanced at Nellie. “Oh.”
“Right,” Nellie agreed. “This has all to do with me. Some people just don’t like me. Lachina, I am so sorry.”
“This could very well be directed at me, too. People are growin’ increasingly suspicious of wise women, calling our work the work of the devil.” Lachina shrugged. “Things can be replanted,” she told them. “The mud can be washed off.”
“Aye,” Nellie said sadly.
Still, she felt guilty for what happened to Lachina’s garden. She worked well into the evening to save what plants she could, although it seemed that more than half of the crop was ruined. With her back sore and her hands covered in soil, she was about ready to retire for the night when the cold steel blade of a dagger pressed against her throat.
Nellie relaxed her arms beside her body. In a calm voice that surprised even herself, she asked, “What is it that you want?”
“I want for you to die.”
The person behind her was Mary. I should have known, Nellie thought. “Can we talk this through before we do anything we both might regret?”
Mary laughed. “Oh, I don’t think I will regret this,” she paused. “But I willna let anyone else hear this. Nobody is gonna know I did this. Stand up. We’ll go over to the stable.” Nellie had no option but to stand and she walked with Mary close behind her.
The blade in Mary’s hand shook. She is nervous, Nellie thought. Good. I can use that to my advantage.
But how? Nellie had no weapon. She knew not how to defend herself. Lachina and Elspeth were inside thinking she wasn’t in any danger. But what could they do? Lachina was old and Elspeth but a scrap of a girl.
“You took Adam away from me,” Mary said to her. “If you hadn’t had come to Dunaid, I would be happily married to him.”
“Is that what you think? Is that why you called me a witch?” Nellie asked, then stifled a gasp as the blade pressed closer to her skin. She would not be a victim to this menace any longer. Nay, and she would not let Mary take her life.
Nellie knew from cleaning out Lachina’s stables a few times that a rake lay nearby, leaning against the wall. “You know,” Nellie told the woman. “I don’t think Adam would be very pleased if you were to kill me. In fact, you are free to pursue him. Leave me here in peace and you will not have to live with a guilty conscious.”
If she were to kill me, she would have done it already. She doesn’t really want to do this.
“You stole my man. An’ also, MacKenzie tells me you’re bringin’ this blue sickness to Scotia. You blame Lady Una Maxwell of being a leannan sith, but it’s really you. I can see behind your disguise!”
Without Mary realizing it, Nellie was backing Mary towards the wall. When they were close enough, Nellie reached back with her leg and kicked the rake over, sending it crashing to a few empty milk jugs, making a loud, racketing noise.
Mary jumped, startled. In her confusion, she dropped the blade—goodness, it’s my dagger!—onto the ground. Now that Mary was disarmed, Nellie swiftly pulled away from the woman, picked the dagger up, and pointed it at her assailant.
“Stay away from me,” she warned.
“How dare you!” Mary screeched. “MacKenzie should’ve killed you in the courtyard.”
“That was his doing?” Nellie asked.
“Aye, it was both of our doing.” Mary picked up the rake and lunged at her with it. Nellie ducked and sent the blade straight into Mary’s thigh. Mary cried out in pain and collapsed onto the ground, sobbing as she clutched her leg.
As she watched the woman writhe in pain, Nellie began to feel sorry for her. “You could have just walked away. You could’ve just been done with it after what you did in the courtyard, but you had to come back and finish me.”
“Are you going to kill me now?” Mary asked angrily.
As much as she detested the woman, she did not desire to watch her bleed to death. “Nay, I’m not like you, Mary.”
Instead, she retrieved Lachina and Elspeth. And with deft hands, they removed the blade from Mary’s leg and wrapped her wound with bandages.
Nellie took Lachina aside. “Mary tried to kill me,” she said, pointing to the small cut in her neck. “She and MacKenzie also tried to kill me in Dunaid’s courtyard.”
“Adam needs to be told.”
“I can go to Dunaid.”
“I’ll come with you. You’ll need as much support as you can get. Elspeth,” Lachina called the girl over. “Stay here and watch over Lady Tod. Nellie and I are going to speak with the laird.”
“Yes’m.”
They didn’t bother saddling up Apple, but instead, walked through the brisk twilight to Dunaid.
Chapter 19
Adam kept himself busy, but not by his usual work as laird, but more of a housekeeper in an attempt to make his home as presentable as King David’s castle.
It surprised everyone in Dunaid Castle, but it surprised himself the most. Why, then, was he doing this? Well, Nellie did inspire him, no doubt, and he was tired of his castle looking as though it only housed ghosts.
At least that was what he was trying to convince himself. So, he ordered his servants to help him sweep, mop, dust, and get rid of a bunch of moldy and tired furniture and decorations that had, to his embarrassment, sat in the same spot, untouched, since his grandfather was laird.
The courtyard garden was to be redone completely, with trimmed hedges and new plants. He thought perhaps even to expand on the existing herb garden so that the cooks could use it for culinary purposes… and perhaps he’d grow some valerian for himself so he wouldn’t need to ask Lachina for more.
The tiny stone building at the end of the courtyard needed to be rebuilt. He hadn’t noticed until a few days prior that it housed a stone bench dedicated to his mother, Isabel. As such, he had not the heart to remove it.
Nellie mentioned her dagger had been in the courtyard during her ill-fated attempt to retrieve it, but he searched top to bottom and could not find the damned thing.
Adam sat on the bench, taking a break from his work, and watched his servants as they continued to make the courtyard presentable. He wanted to apologize to Nellie for how he acted at Rosach Castle. She had been so kind to listen to him as he spoke about his past, but when it came to be her turn to share her story, he did not give her a chance. He didn’t want her to think that she didn’t matter. At the next possible opportunity, he would tell her how sorry he was.
MacKenzie’s son, Thom, ran up the stone steps to him. “M’laird. Somethin’s happened to Lady Tod.”
Lady Tod? Now, that was a name he hadn’t thought of in a while. Indeed, he hadn’t heard from Mary in more than a few sennights. “What do you mean, somethin’s happened?”
“Miss Lachina came by to say that Lady Lyall stabbed Lady Tod.”
“She what?” It was difficult to picture such a thing, so much so that he wanted to laugh. “Is Lachina present?”
“Aye, she came with Lady Lyall.”
Shaking his head in disbelief, Adam walked to the entrance hall where Lachina and Nellie sat in chairs, both looking distraught. He was quick to notice a red welt across Nellie’s neck.
“What in God’s name happened?” he demanded.
Nellie was about to speak, but Lachina stood up in front of her, preventing her from doing so. “Adam, Nellie was workin’ in my garden when she was attacked from behind by Mary. Mary held a dagger to her throat an’ threatened to kill her. Nellie says she was able to disarm Mary an’ proceeded to stab her in the leg when the lass came after her again.”
Mary? That docile creature? It seemed too outrageous to be true.
“Is that so, Nellie?” he asked.
“Yes.” She reached up to her throat and shuddered. “She h
ad my own dagger, Adam. The one I tried to look for before…. Before MacKenzie hit me in the courtyard.”
“MacKenzie?”
“Mary told me that she and MacKenzie were the ones behind the attack. They both wanted me dead.”
His friend and loyal clansman did this to Nellie? MacKenzie had lied straight to his face, and the betrayal hurt.
“How does Mary fare?” he asked.
“She’ll live,” Lachina replied. “Perhaps she’ll walk with a limp for the rest of her life, but she’ll live.”
It’s less than what she deserves. “Bring her to Dunaid. I’ll settle this.”
The shock of the situation still rang through his body as Adam sat down in his study. What was he going to do? He was wont to believe Nellie’s story based on the circumstantial evidence; her dagger had been in the courtyard where she was hit in the head and Mary ended up with the same dagger when she threatened Nellie’s life.
Aye, he knew it was someone in his castle who’d done this to Nellie, he just didn’t think that the betrayal of his people would hit him so hard.
“Adam?”
Isla was standing by the door. “Come in,” she told her.
Isla sat down in the chair in front of his desk. “I wanted to talk to you about Mary.”
“What about Mary?”
“Mary is my friend,” she began.
“Yes, I know that.”
Isla stared at the ceiling as she struggled to hold back her tears. “An’ it hurts me to say this, but what she did was so very wrong. I can’t stand beside her any longer.”
“Isla, please just tell me.”
Isla sighed. “Mary never did like Nellie,” she told him. “She was jealous of her. An’ she was worried that Nellie would steal you from her.”
“I was never Mary’s to begin with,” Adam stated.
“Aye, I know. But Mary didn’t know that. She… at one point, she threatened Nellie to stay away from you.” Tears formed in Isla’s eyes. “I should’ve told her to stop, but I didn’t. I feel like this is my fault, too.”
“Isla,” Adam said slowly. “Did you know Mary was going to do this to her? Did you know about MacKenzie?”
Isla shook her head. “I knew not,” she said. “Mary an’ I got into an argument not too long after she threatened Nellie an’ we didn’t speak again, but I have reason to believe that she did it. She always talked about how she wanted to get rid of her. Although, I didn’t think she meant to kill her! Honestly, I didn’t!”
The woman was near hysterical. “Thank you, Isla. You may leave now,” Adam said. “I’m not mad at you,” he added as Isla began to cry.
“Thank you, m’laird.” She left, sniffling into the sleeve of her dress.
Adam dreaded what came next. He ordered Mary and MacKenzie to come to his study, then paced the room impatiently, waiting for their arrival.
Mary limped into the room, weeping, with MacKenzie’s arm wrapped around her shoulder to keep her upright.
“Are you going to kill me, m’laird?” she asked feebly.
He paused to consider it. Aye, it would be swift justice, but he was no killer. After Neville’s Cross, he never wanted to use his sword again if he didn’t have to.
“Nay, I am not going to kill you, Mary. I am, however, going to banish you from my estate.”
Through her tears, Mary’s flashed a look at MacKenzie. “He helped me out,” she said angrily. “It was my idea to hit her with a rock, but he was the one who went through with it.”
“Is that true, MacKenzie?”
MacKenzie’s faced looked ashen. “Aye, m’laird,” he finally admitted.
There was no more reason for him to have to look at their pathetic faces. “Leave. Both of you. Take your boy, too. Leave my lands before nightfall, an’ if I or any one of my clansmen see the sight of you, we will not hesitate to kill you. Alister will see you out.”
Oh, how he wanted to tie them both up and feed them to the fishes. When they left, he sighed deeply, feeling a bit empty-hearted.
At least he now felt like he had some control over his lairdship again.
He thought a few tankards of ale would do the trick to fill the void he felt, but all he really wanted to do was to see Nellie again.
Adam decided to be so bold as to invite Nellie for a picnic lunch to give her a formal apology after his actions at Rosach Castle. The excitement of Mary and MacKenzie being exiled from the Maxwell estate buzzed around the land for a good sennight and Nellie had decided to make herself scarce at Lachina’s house. He didn’t blame her, but he missed her greatly.
He had told Lachina about his plan to invite her to lunch the day before, telling the old lady to keep it a surprise. She was gracious to offer to pack them a delicious meal with some of her prized apple wine.
It looked like Lachina kept the surprise, as Nellie looked shocked to see him standing at Lachina’s front door when she answered the knock.
“Oh, hello, Adam,” she said. “What brings you here?”
“Are you busy at the moment?”
She shook her head. “No?” He noticed the question in her voice.
“I want to show you someplace.”
“Where?”
“No need to act so suspicious. You’ll see. Pack some food. We’ll make lunch out of it.”
Lachina appeared from seemingly nowhere with a basket in her hand. “I have everything you need right here!” she announced, giving Adam a wink.
Nellie eyed them both. “Something tells me you two were planning something without me,” she said.
“Whatever gives you that thought?” Lachina asked innocently.
“Aye, c’mon,” Adam said. “Let’s enjoy the sunshine while we can.”
“Are we to ride to this place?” Nellie asked as they left the house.
“No. It’s a short walk.”
Nellie looked very bonny in the new dress she wore; it was a pale blue color that lit up her eyes. Her hair was pulled back from her face and Adam noted how quickly her injury seemed to have healed.
“Mary and MacKenzie are gone,” Adam told her. “And I pray that the threat has been neutralized. No one should bother you any longer.”
“I heard what you did. I thought it very admirable,” Nellie told him. “I mean, by not killing them. Most lairds are bloodthirsty, from what I have heard or read. But I suppose there is always a chance that someone can change and be redeemed.”
Adam picked a leaf from a bush they had walked by it and twirled it around his fingers, needing something to direct his nervousness towards.
“I wanted to apologize for how I treated you at Rosach. I did not mean to belittle you. Aye, I am perhaps jaded in the way I view my past, an’ that is somethin’ I am working through. I don’t deny that what you went through at Burrach was horrible. I saw with my own eyes how close you were to death when you first came to Dunaid.”
“Thank you,” Nellie told him.
Adam let out a breath. “It does make me happy that you don’t hate the sight of me,” he said, throwing the leaf down to the ground.
“Well, I never said that.” Nellie was grinning when he looked at her, “I kid,” she reassured him.
Adam laughed. He loved how he felt when he was around her. He had never felt so joyful and carefree in all his life, even as a child. Is this what love feels like?
How would I know if it is?
“Are you enjoying your stay with Lachina?” he asked her.
“Yes, but I cannot stay there forever. She says she doesn’t mind me being there, but sometimes I feel like I am getting in her and Elpeth’s way. It’s such a small house.”
Adam did not like the thought of her leaving, but he knew he couldn’t make her stay. “Where will you go to, then?”
“I know not. I am not ready to go back to Burrach Castle, especially not by myself. Maybe I will go to the next village, perhaps? I did rather like the one we traveled through on the way to Rosach Castle. I do reasonably well sewing or even wr
iting. Perhaps I will go into a nunnery. Are you all right?” she asked as she noticed Adam doubling over. “Oh, you’re laughing. What is so amusing?”
“I have trouble picturin’ you as a nun,” Adam chortled. “They would have to cut out your tongue before you don the robes, methinks.”
“Oh, you are terrible,” Nellie said, but she, too, was smiling.
The sun shone down on them as they walked, the warmth hinting of the spring to come. He thought he saw the flash of color of wildflowers blooming on the hills nearby, a sign of early spring. Overhead, a few seagulls called out, circling over toward Castle Dunaid. He breathed in deeply, praying to slow down time to make the day last a while longer.
Adam stopped by a large standing stone, which stood about twice his height, with jagged edges from years of withstanding the harsh Scottish weather. Ancient runes decorated one side in the language of his ancestors. It stood like a watchtower over Castle Dunaid and the entire Maxwell estate.
Nellie laid her breacan down on the grass and began to spread out the food from Lachina’s basket: some dried meat, cheese, and the small bottle of wine Lachina was kind enough to gift them.
“Lachina was generous,” she observed as she sat down on the breacan and smoothed her skirts. “What is the occasion?”
“I sometimes go out here when I need to get away. This is one of those times.”
“The parapet is not enough?” Nellie teased.
“Nay, my men know how to find me there. They don’t even know this place exists.” He scanned the land and pointed. “Over yonder is the village, Innes. That is where my grandfather built his church, if you are interested in livin’ as a renunciate. My parents are buried in that church. I haven’t been back in years.” He shook his head.
“In the event you are not able to become a nun, I also wanted to offer you the chance to once again live at Dunaid. Although, I know you don’t like it very much there.” He ran his fingers through his hair sheepishly. “I have cleaned it up a bit, polished the windows, and gotten rid of the spider webs.”
“Oh, I was beginning to take a liking to all those spiders,” Nellie said sarcastically.
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