The Ghost Greyson, Maeve (reading an ebook .txt) 📖

out the window, taking care to aim the mess’s landing to where it would do the least amount of damage.

“Little wench,” he growled. Rage flaring hot and fast, ’twas best he didn’t cut loose with all that came to mind. Insolent, ungrateful, conniving little bitch! He turned to Greer. “I want Cadha brought here. Immediately. Bring Catriona and Mrs. Fitzgerald, too.”

Her rosy blush gone, Greer backed up a step. “Forgive me, but I canna fetch Cadha.” With a twitch of one shoulder, she shook her head. “She’s gone this verra day. Fool girl yelled at Mrs. Fitzgerald. In the kitchen. Front of everybody. Mrs. Fitzgerald took her by the ear, dragged her out, and told her to never come back. I dinna ken what Lady Catriona said about it, but she places great store in Mrs. Fitzgerald’s druthers.” She made a weak flip of one hand toward the door. “I can run and fetch Mrs. Fitzgerald and Lady Catriona if ye like?” With a nod at the table, she swallowed hard. “I’ll tell Cook, too, so’s this can all be carried off and fresh food sent. Who knows what else she did to what’s here? She helped us with all of it.”

“How do we know for certain Cadha did this?” Brenna asked quietly as Greer rushed from the room.

“Who else would do such a thing?” Magnus circled the table, pulling aside all the covers and tossing them to the floor. It wouldn’t surprise him if something even worse waited to be discovered.

Keigan wrinkled his nose, staring in horror at the sliced apples and bowl of soft cheese. “I ate some of that. Am I gonna die?”

Brenna rushed back into the bedchamber, emerging a few moments later with a small bowl in one hand. “Drink this, then run for the chamberpot, aye? Quick now. We need to get what ye ate out of ye.”

“What is that?” Magnus knew of several purges, but none safe enough for a child Keigan’s size.

“A mix of wine, rowan, and some other herbs. It will work quickly.”

Horrified, he blocked her way. “Rowan? And what else? Pray tell me ye didna include mistletoe.” Both rowan leaves and mistletoe, in the wrong dosage, could be as deadly as any poison Cadha might have used.

“I know what I’m doing,” she replied with a calmness that made him breathe easier. Kneeling in front of Keigan, she held the small wooden bowl to the boy’s lips. “We dinna ken if he’s been poisoned or not, but we can get it out of him to be certain.” She nodded. “Just a wee sip, dear one. Ye dinna have to drink it all.”

Eyes squinted against the taste, Keigan forced it down, then ran from the room. Sounds of the child retching followed soon after.

Brenna placed the bowl on the table. “I must watch him now. He willna feel well the rest of the day.” She paused at the bedchamber door. Without looking back, she pulled in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “There’s enough there for yerself, as well. Since ye ate a bannock, ye best use it.” Then she locked eyes with him. “I canna bear to lose ye. Not now.”

Chapter Fourteen

“We all knew she held Magnus in the highest esteem. Had a fondness for him even.” Catriona scowled at the tapestry stretched on a freestanding wooden frame in front of her chair. She worked a crimson thread through a pattern of flowers dotting a field of green, then pulled it taut with a sharp tug.

“Happens often enough, ye understand,” she added with a glance at Brenna. With the floss tied to suit her, she snipped it close with a tiny pair of shears. “’Tis easy enough to feel a tenderness for a person who saves ye. When someone gives ye yer first taste of mercy, they often claim a place in yer heart.” Rooting through the thread basket on the table beside her, she shook her head. “But none of us realized she had grown so obsessed as to be dangerous.”

“And no one knows where she might have gone?” That concerned Brenna most. It had been a fortnight since Cadha’s banishment. Had the addled banshee hidden somewhere close to strike again when she got the chance?

She snapped the thread she had just knotted and frowned at the mended tear. If she ever crossed paths with Cadha again, she’d thrash her. Poor Keigan and Magnus both had retched so long and hard from the remedy for any possible poisoning that they had collapsed on the rug in front of the hearth and slept for hours. Their suffering had stoked her protective rage into an inferno. “I owe her,” she said as she yanked another garment from her mending basket. “And I would give anything to repay that debt.”

“No one has seen her, but I doubt she went far. I’m sure she didn’t return to Glenfinnan. According to one of the other maids, the public house from which she escaped was more brothel than anything else.” Catriona’s mouth puckered as though she tasted something sour. “And it appears the services they offered were unseemlier than most.”

“That would explain a great deal about the lass.” Brenna felt for the girl, but that didn’t excuse the former maid’s actions. The young woman needed to be locked away before she did anyone, including herself, any harm.

The hallway door blew open. Alexander, with Graham on his heels, charged into the room.

A parchment in one hand, Alexander strode to the window and shoved both panes open wide. He leaned out over the sill, looking first to the left, then to the right. “Where is Magnus?” he asked while still hanging out the window. “The two of ye must leave Tor Ruadh. Immediately.”

“What…what say ye?” Brenna flattened a hand to her chest in a futile attempt at calming her pounding heart.

“Why would ye say such a thing?” Catriona rose and hurried to her husband’s side. “What has happened?”

Alexander, jaw clenched and hands