Page 74 of The Highlander's Auctioned Bride
She dutifully followed Lillian out of the room and down the corridor a little way. The rain was falling heavily outside, and the smell of cut grass wafted through the window behind them as they made their way to her uncles’ rooms.
Lillian looked up the corridor, as though to check that no one observed them. It was almost as if she knew there would be no one there. Maisie stiffened as she watched her open the door, wondering if this might be a trap. The door swung open,but on the other side was merely a small but neatly appointed bedchamber.
Marcus was clearly meticulous with his rooms. There was not a hair out of place. Dark emerald woolen blankets lay over the bed emblazoned with a leaping stag.
Lillian walked into the room, waiting for Maisie to cross the threshold before closing the door behind them.
As the door closed, Lillian crossed the room to the bedside table and opened the top drawer. It revealed some papers and a small bible that Marcus kept beside the bed.
Lillian dug about in the back of the drawer and drew forth a small vial of liquid.
Maisie frowned at it as Lillian held it up.
“I found it this morning. With everything that has been happening recently, I had suspected that me uncle might be to blame.”
Are those her words? She sounds like she is quoting from a script.
“I decided that it would be prudent to look through his things, and this is what I found.”
She gave a half smile. It was the strangest expression Maisie had ever seen. She was exposing her uncle, a man who had raised her—effectively sentencing him to death—and yet she seemed almost relieved. She looked like a child who’d recited her verses just right in the kirk, and was waiting for her reward.
Maisie kept her frown in place and approached her, examining the vial, which Lillian handed to her without delay.
“I am sorry, Lillian,” Maisie said gently. “That must have been a terrible shock.”
“It’s the poison that was in yer wine. It must be. Why else would it be here?”
Maisie decided her best course of action would be to play along until she could confide in James.
“Aye, ye have done well,” the girl preened as though she had solved a difficult mathematics problem with a tutor. “I shall go to the laird immediately. Wait for my word.”
Lillian breathed out heavily. It was a sigh of relief. The tendril of doubt in Maisie’s mind bloomed into full uncertainty.
Maisie left her, limping along the corridor with the vial pressed in her palm.
I have to find James, immediately!
CHAPTER 27
“I need to speak to ye.”
James looked up from his study desk and smiled as he saw Maisie enter the room. He had missed her through the night and was glad to see her looking less pale than she had.
“Ye are awake,” he said happily, going to her automatically, the same possessive urge to touch her skin finally sated as he took hold of her hand.
“I need to speak with ye,” she said again, more urgently.
“What is it?” James asked, noticing that the fingers of her hand seemed to be curled around something.
“I went to see Lillian.”
“Alone?” James asked—horrified.
“Dinnae blame Harris, James! I told him I would go with Jean, and I did. I simply wished to speak with Lillian—there is little threat from her alone.”
If only I believed that was true.
James looked at Maisie, unable to hide the fear in his gaze as he thought of what she might have exposed herself to.
