Page 101 of The Winter Laird

Nioclas wasted no time. He grabbed his sword and leapt to his writhing sire.

“She’s the devil!” Burke choked. “Witch!”

“You will not speak of my wife as such,” Nioclas snarled. “Go to hell, Burke,” he said and drove his sword into Burke’s belly.

Wrenching the sword free, he barked out to his guard to ensure his sire died—and to ensure his wife lived.

* * *

“I’ll be fine, Nioclas,”Brianagh said, placing the cold cloth on her eyes. She took a deep breath.

“I can’t believe you hid a knife against your leg,” Colin said with admiration. “Brilliant, Bri. Just brilliant.”

Nioclas looked at Colin. “And you’re certain she’ll be all right?”

“Absolutely. She’s in shock, but eventually she’ll be back to her old self,” Colin said confidently.

“Why did you risk your life like that, Brianagh?” Nioclas asked, his face still twisted with worry.

“Because, I was tired of being the victim.” She pulled the cloth off and sat up, still a little shaky. “I decided that death by Burke was not how my life was going to end, so I made an executive decision.”

“You and the damn executive decisions.” Colin sighed.

“You were almost skewered on the end of that sword!” Nioclas exclaimed. He broke out in a sweat again just thinking about it.

“But I wasn’t,” she replied calmly. “I have a barely nicked finger. That’s all.”

“We need to address the issue of your guardsmen,” Colin said seriously. “They heard what Burke said, and they saw his face after you killed him. And they saw Brianagh’s eyes too.”

Bri bit her lip. “You’re sure they won’t want to burn me at the stake?”

He grimaced as what Colin said struck home. He knew his guardsmen heard everything Burke said about Brianagh’s time-traveling. They crossed themselves and murmured to each other, but they did not hesitate to follow his orders to dispose of Burke’s body and locate her cousins.

His cousins.

His grandchildren?

Nioclas rubbed his forehead. This was all too complicated after the day he’d just lived.

Brianagh was nodding at him from her bed. “My family can be overwhelming,” she said knowingly.

He put his head in his hands and laughed.

Donovan knocked on the open door, then entered and raised his eyebrows at Nioclas. “Has he gone daft?”

“We think so,” Reilly affirmed. “He does seem a bit overcome.”

“Distressed,” Colin agreed.

“The MacWilliam does not get distressed,” Nioclas announced through his hands.

“Uh oh,” Bri murmured. “He’s begun to refer to himself in the third person. That’s never a good sign.” She watched her husband through blurry vision, then brightened when she looked at Donovan. “Hey! When I squint a little and turn my head just so, you look like a Viking!”

He gaped at her for a moment. “The herbs you doused Burke with…did they addle your mind as well, my lady?”

“Herbs?” Reilly asked.

“Aye. The guardsmen said Burke spoke such nonsense, that he must’ve eaten some sort of herb to produce such alarming thoughts.” He gave her a conspiratorial wink.

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