Page 50 of Kilty By Association
“’Twasme!” the other woman screamed. “I’m the only one smart enough, with enough ballocks, to see it through!”
Robbie spoke up. “What about the time I almost choked on that chicken bone?”
Agnes paused, lowering her knife a bit. “What? Nay, I didnae plan that.”
“Or the time I fell out of that tree?”
She scowled. “How would I have arranged that, ye little twerp?”
Robbie wasn’t done. “Or the time I nearly stabbed myself with my training sword—”
Agnes lifted the knife once more. “Look, ye worm, I’m no’ responsible foreverytime ye nearly died. Just the timesItried to kill ye!”
Obviously deciding that was enough of a confession, Craig stepped forward. “Agnes MacBeth Sinclair, I charge ye with attempted nephew-cide—”
“Nepoticide,” Roger offered helpfully.
Craig continued smoothly, “—nepoticide, and intend to bring ye to Scone to face trial. As a woman, the daughter of a laird, I willnae execute ye here, but—”
Mayhap that was all Agnes needed to hear. With another ungodly screech, she darted forward, that knife poised to plunge into Robbie. Craig was too far away to stop her, but Elspeth twisted, putting herself between her son and the madwoman.
But she was still able to see when a knife flew from over her shoulder to pierce Agnes in the middle of her chest. The other woman stopped cold, her own knife falling from her fingers.
Elspeth glanced over her shoulder to see Brigit grinning wickedly as she slid her hand into her opposite sleeve and came out with another dagger, held at the ready.
“Ow.”
Elspeth turned again to see Agnes’s incredulous glare as she frowned at the hilt of the knife in her chest.
“Ow!Thatreallyhurt!”
She lifted her glare to Elspeth, then Brigit. “I mean, thatreallyhurts. What the hell?” Her words became more vague as she stumbled to the side. “That might almost stop me, if I wasnae stronger than pain.”
Elspeth wasn’t the only one watching in fascination as the other woman pulled a smaller blade from behind her.
“Luckily, I always carry a spare.”
Craig, whose sword tip had fallen a bit as he watched Agnes’s response to being stabbed in the chest, now came to attention once more.
He needn’t have bothered, because another dagger flew from Brigit’s corner to knock the blade from Agnes’s hand.
“Ow! What in God’s name are yedoing?” She stumbled back again, until her shoulder hit the wall, then she sort of rolled to one side, supporting herself on the window’s sill. “Ye’re no’ being fair! Just let me get a little stabbing in, aye?”
“Do ye have a third blade?” Craig asked, his tone only mild curious.
“I might.” Agnes began patting her hips, then her waist, as if looking for a pocket with a hidden knife.
Elspeth and Robbie watched in horrified fascination as the other woman’s fingers found the hilt of the dagger in her chest.
“Oh, fook,” muttered Brigit from behind them. “Well, I’m out of ideas.”
Agnes, face pale but determined, closed her hands around the hilt of the blade. “This will do!” she declared forcefully, yanking hard. “Ow!Fooking hell, ow!”
She stared down at the dagger in her hands, then at the blood now pumping freely from her chest wound, muttered a faint, “Oh, dear,” and toppled backward.
Out the window.
Robbie was the first to move, squirming out of Elspeth’s hold and darting toward the window. He braced his hands and leaned out, peering straight down.
