Page 81 of Wolf Heir
“And? I will learn the truth, you do ken?”
“Aye.” Then Coinneach told him everything he knew—even about Blair’s part in it. “Blair was young and scared. Morag threatened to kill her. She didna know what to do.”
“I remember seeing Blair take a swaddled baby in a basket and hurry out of the castle, and through the gates at the same time you were getting the news that Orla and the baby had died. I wondered at the time about it since I knew Blair didna have a child,” Collum said.
“God’s wounds, what else has that woman been up to, Morag, I mean?” Hamish ran his hands through his hair. “Come, we will speak to Blair and the other women who were there that day, and Morag last.”
As soon as he reached the inner courtyard, Hamish glanced around, then spied Blair and saw her heading for the back gates. Aisling and Coinneach’s family were also headed out. Coinneach didn’t see any sign of Morag, though she was supposed to be watching the fight. And Rupert, who always managed to get out of fighting, was nowhere to be seen.
Coinneach didn’t like seeing that his family was leaving when he suspected they had been asked to be there. Immediately, he went after them.
But Hamish and Collum did also.
Coinneach thought it might be some trouble with Morag, and they decided to go home, where they would be safer.
18
As soon as Aisling saw two men guarding the gates at the back of the castle, she drew alarmed. They pulled their swords out of their sheaths and motioned to the castle. One of them said, “Morag wants an audience with you. Didna you get her message?”
“Go,” Aisling said to Coinneach’s family. “They came about a bairn in trouble at one of the crofters’ homes when they were on their way here, and my mother is going to help them. I also wished to ask if I could offer some assistance.”
“Nay, Lady Morag said that both of you are to meet her in her solar.”
“But she is no’ in her solar. She is there to watch the men practice fighting. By the time she returns, I will be there.” She heard footfalls crunching on stones underfoot and turned, figuring more guards were coming for them, but was surprised to see Coinneach, Aodhan, Collum, and Hamish all abreast of each other, now wielding their own swords.
“Drop your weapons,” Hamish commanded. His voice was deep and commanding.
“My laird, Lady Morag wanted to see Aisling and Blair in her chambers,” the guard insisted as if Morag’s wishes were more critical than Hamish’s.
Hamish took another step toward them, the other men with him following his lead. “What did I tell you?”
Then the men sheathed their swords.
“I told you to drop them.”
The men looked startled, afraid of what their laird intended to do to them. They slowly pulled out their swords and dropped them on the rocky ground. Then Collum and Coinneach retrieved the men’s swords.
“Why would you threaten the women in such a manner?” Hamish asked, his voice booming in the archway over the big, burly gates.
“We were supposed to take any force necessary to detain them,” the one guard said, the other nodding emphatically. “Look, Aisling is armed with her bow even.”
“And she could have shot you how at this short distance before you knocked it away from her with your sword?” To Aodhan and Collum, Hamish said, “Take them to the dungeon until I can determine what's going on here.”
Aisling wondered if he feared there was about to be a coup at the castle. “Armed guards might be at Morag’s chamber also.”
“I’ll check it out,” Coinneach said.
But she didn’t want him to go alone if two men were waiting for her and her mother to show up at Morag’s solar.
“I will go with you,” Hamish said.
The two of them strode off to Morag’s quarters.
Hamish asked Coinneach, “Do you believe Morag had something to do with attempting to poison Aisling?”
“Aye, I do. Morag could have wanted Aisling dead for any number of reasons. To keep Blair from telling the truth about me. To punish Aisling for getting her son in trouble. Or Rupertcould have been behind it. Gormelia was interested in Rupert and was angry that he was only intrigued with Aisling, especially when I became part of her life.”
They finally reached Morag’s chamber and found the two guards waiting there. They appeared shocked that Hamish and Coinneach would arrive and not Aisling and her mother.
