Page 45 of When a Highlander Weds a Hellion
“That Esmerelda is the murderer?” Brodee finished. “Aye.”
“We have to ride hard and fast,” Broch said, mounting his horse. “Katreine intended to visit the healer. If anything happens…” Broch could not finish the sentence. He could not even think of losing her. She was his home, his family.
Katreine knocked on the healing room door, which had taken her several attempts to find. The healing room was technically part of the castle, but it was set apart from the main keep, joined to it by a bridge to which the stairs had been difficult to locate. She waited a minute, and when no one answered, she pushed open the door and stuck her head in the room, deciding she would remain until the healer returned. One of the kitchen girls had told Katreine that Esmerelda had been headed toward her healing room the last she’d seen her, which had been moments before Katreine had asked where she could find it. Something or someone must have detained the woman.
She glanced around the sunlit room, drawn to the shelves packed with herbs, spices, and bowls, and she began to sift through them, sniffing and peering. The healing arts appealed to her greatly. Perhaps she could persuade the healer to teach her. Incense floated into the air in a white, spiral trail, and when she leaned close to smell it, she bumped a table. A box fell off the table, and its contents spilled onto the floor.
She glanced at the door behind her, embarrassed, and kneeled down to gather the fallen objects before Esmerelda returned. After she had everything back in the heavy, bejeweled box, she went to pick it up, but a stone sliced her finger open, making her almost drop it again. She grabbed it before it fell and started to turn it right side up, but when her thumb pressed against the bottom of the box, a small compartment popped open and a ring fell out. It hit her shoe, and she bent down to get it.
She froze. Sheer black fright blew through her like a storm as she pinched her sister’s long-lost emerald ring between her thumb and forefinger. Her heart pounded a deafening beat as she stood and brought the ring close to her face to look at it. She would have known this ring anywhere. It was a large emerald set on an unusual gold-twined band.
Her mind began to race, filled with thoughts and questions. Why did the healer have it? Had Esmerelda found it, or had she killed Lenora? And why? Why would she kill Lenora? Why would—
“Gavin, no!” came a woman’s voice from behind her.
Katreine whirled toward the voice, but all she saw was the hilt of a dagger coming toward her. The hit sent her reeling backward and snuffed out all the light.
Broch strode toward the stairs that led to Esmerelda’s room with Brodee and their father close behind. They’d encountered him moments before when they’d entered the keep, and as they made their way to the stairwell, Brodee had told Blackswell all they had learned from Alban. Broch did not bother to knock at Esmerelda’s door. He turned the handle, intent on barging in, but found it locked. He knocked, and when no answer came, he stepped back and kicked the door inward. It flew open with a bang on the inner wall to reveal Esmerelda lying on the ground, unmoving.
“God’s teeth!” Broch thundered, stunned.
He, Brodee, and Blackswell crouched as one and rolled Esmerelda from her side to her back. Blood streaked her forehead, and Broch could see she had been hit. He looked around for something to press to the cut and stilled. A ring glittered near the woman’s head. He picked it up, a memory stirring, and held it out to Brodee. “Is this—”
“Aye,” Brodee interrupted. ’Tis Lenora’s ring.”
“God’s bones,” Blackswell muttered. “What the devil is happening?”
“I dunnae ken, but I’m going to find out,” Broch ground out, worry for Katreine gnawing at him. He’d come straight here, so maybe,maybeshe’d not come to see Esmerelda. Maybe she was in their bedchamber. “Wake up,” he said, shaking the healer.
After several attempts, Blackswell said, “Let me try.” Broch moved to let Blackswell crouch before the healer.
“Esmerelda, ’tis me, Blackswell. Open yer eyes, please.” After a long pause, the woman slowly opened her eyes, looking confused at first, and then when her gaze focused on Blackswell, she gasped and tried to scramble backward. He gripped her wrist and held her still. “What have ye done, woman?” She pressed her lips into a thin line, and Blackswell gripped her by the shoulders, his face twisting with anger. “Tell me what ye have done, or so help me—”
“Ye’ll what?” she rasped. “Force me to wed the captain of yer guard again? Who will beat me until I submit my body, which I was saving for ye!”
Broch flinched at that revelation, as did Blackswell, whose lips parted in shock. “I did nae ken,” Blackswell said. “I only thought to give ye a good life.”
“Ye were my life!” she cried. “Ye took yerself away from me and replaced me with thatwoman!” Her accusing gaze swerved to Broch and Brodee. “My bairn died because of her!”
“Nay, Esmerelda,” Blackswell said, sagging.
“Aye!” she insisted. “But then I had another—Gavin. I wanted him to be yers so badly. I wanted to be yers. Thatban-druidhwas gone—”
“By yer doing!” Brodee thundered.
“Aye,” Esmerelda agreed, her lips turning up. “By my doing!”
Blackswell swore.
“Still, ye would nae come to me,” Esmerelda continued. “Nae touch me. Ye mourned for her, while all I wanted was to give ye Gavin to raise as yer own! Oh, but nae until I made ye hate her son so ye would replace Gavin with him. I whispered in yer ear how he was to blame, and ye grew distant but nae enough. I had Gavin kill to make Brodee appear a murderer, and still ye clung to yer love for him!”
“By God, Esmerelda, I’ll kill ye!” Blackswell roared.
“Nay!” Broch shouted. “Katreine,” he reminded his father. “Have ye seen her? Esmerelda? Has my wife been here?”
“Here and gone,” she said, waving her hand. “Gavin, the fool, took her to kill her. I tried to warn him that it was too soon, that we’d be discovered, but he wants his father’s love so badly,” she crowed, sounding demented. Her gaze bore into Blackswell’s. “He is yers,” she announced.
“We did nae ever lay together again, woman!” Blackswell thundered.
