Enchanted Lover (29 page)

Before long, she was looking at some of the ailing
patients. She made notes on which of her medicines they should take and
promised to send along the potions as soon as possible. After about the third
house Asilinn noticed Osred and Friar Hogan were wandering along behind her and
questioning the people after she moved on. It seemed odd, but she was too busy
to be concerned over their devious little plots. Wynne finally convinced her to
stop for the day. Asilinn had been so involved in her work she had failed to
realize the sinking afternoon sun.

By the time they once again reached the security of
the castle, the sun was sending scarlet hues across the western sky. Asilinn
sank into a chair at the table in the kitchen. She was bone-tired. But the
people of Dunbocan had made her feel needed and welcome today. Perhaps she was
finally winning them over. She sighed and brushed back the stray hairs hanging
around her face.

Flanna and Toby entered the kitchen. The small boy looked
like he had been crying but he held the small puppy tightly under his arm.
Asilinn breathed an inward sigh of relief. She must have been wrong in her
thoughts about Ivy. Now she was glad she had chosen not to confide her fears to
anyone.

“Flanna, if you dinna mind, I'll have something to
eat now and retire for the evening. I'm exhausted.”

“Surely, Milady.” Flanna went over to dish up some
lamb stew.

“This is delicious,” Asilinn said as she polished off
a bowl with some fresh baked bread.

“I'm glad to see you have such a good appetite,”
Flanna said with a tentative smile.

Asilinn started to ask her what the problem was, but
she was interrupted when Osred and Friar Hogan came through the door. “Lady
Asilinn, I must speak with you,” Friar Hogan said solemnly.

“You may speak freely,” Asilinn replied with an arch
of her brow. She definitely didn't like the man's tone.

He looked at Flanna and Toby. “Perhaps you would
prefer more privacy,” he suggested.

“I'm very tired and plan to retire early. Whatever
you have to say, say it and leave me to my rest.”

“Very well,” the friar said. “I object to you using
yer black magic on our clansmen. I'm sure Laird Jared would not approve if he
were here. I beg you to stop or face the consequences.”

“I have only medicines, no magic. They are remedies
passed down in my family for years. I'm sure my husband would support the use
of my skills to help his people.”

“They are poison for the soul,” the friar railed.

“I have no poison among my cures.”

Toby ran to stand between Asilinn and the friar.
“Lady Asilinn is not a bad person,” he said. “She didna mean to kill my puppy.”

The words shot through Asilinn like a knife. “Toby,
what are you saying? Your puppy is fine. Look he plays by the fire.”

“My father gave me a new puppy after the other one
died. But, Lady Asilinn, you didna feed the poison to him. He just ran over and
drank it. I know you didna mean to kill him.”

“No, only to kill Wynne,” Osred said.

Asilinn went pale and gripped the table, her world
swimming in fear and confusion. “I will discuss this whole incident with
Garrick in the morning. Right now, I must go lay down. I'm too sick to continue
this….”

Friar Hogan turned to Flanna. “You will mention this
to no one until Lady Asilinn has a chance to see Garrick,” he ordered. Giving
Osred a sidelong glance, he left the room.

Asilinn got up with her hand to her mouth and started
out of the room. She was so dizzy she clutched the wall while she struggled up
the narrow winding stairs to the tower. She could hear someone approaching from
below. Tears streamed down her face as she fought the wave of nausea
threatening to erupt. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. They had
tried to poison her.

A strong hand grabbed her arm. Her eyes fluttered
open to look into the black, lifeless eyes of Osred.

“Lady Asilinn, let me assist you,” he said, guiding
her to the tower door. “Would you like me to call Ivy to sit with you?” The
look of horror on her face at the mention of Ivy told him all he needed to
know. His expression grew flinty when he gripped her arm.

Asilinn pushed him away and entered her room shoving
the door closed in his face and bolting it. She heard him mutter a curse under
his breath. His footsteps echoed through the stair-hall as he made a rapid
descent. He and Glenna were in this up to their ears. Asilinn was sure but she
was too sick to find Garrick now. She had to lie down awhile and pray for the
sickness to pass.

***

Glenna was startled when Osred burst into her cottage
in frenzy. “The bitch knows!” he cried. “We must act swiftly, tonight—it must
be tonight. She has told everyone she is sick.” He paced the floor.

Glenna got up from her chair by the fire. “Settle
down,” she chided. “How could she know?”

“Toby's dog drank the milk and died. That's why she
was still alive this morning. You did not have the dose wrong. She did not
drink it. She knows and tomorrow she will tell Garrick unless we do it
tonight.”

“The other plan?” Glenna did not like the way this
was going. If she was discovered it meant certain death at the hands of her
former lover.

“It is the only way. We must appear above reproach.
We'll take her tonight and pray we receive good news from Edinburgh before
Laird Jared arrives home to save her.”

“She has gained much support among the people,”
Glenna warned. “If we openly arrest her for witchcraft, I'm not sure they will
stand for it.”

“We aren't going to,” Osred said. “Everyone knows she
has been ill because of the baby. Tonight we'll hide her in the dungeon and
tell everyone she is too ill to receive visitors. They will think she rests in
the tower room. We'll need Ivy's help with this, but I wager she'll be more
than willing.”

“We'll say she is in danger of losing the baby and
only Ivy can tend her,” Glenna suggested.

Osred shrugged. “We have no choice.”

***

Asilinn lay on the bed shaking until she regained her
composure. She managed to avoid losing her dinner to the chamber pot but the
knowledge Ivy had tried to poison her weighed heavily on her mind. Osred and
Glenna were involved in the plot against Jared and she had no way to warn him.
They had expected her to be dead. That's why they were in her room.

Easing out of bed, Asilinn slipped on her heavy robe.
She sat down at the desk and recorded the events of the past several days. She
wanted an accurate record for Jared when he returned. She wrote awhile and read
it over. Her uneasiness would not dissipate in spite of the heavy bolt that now
kept out unwanted intruders. Perhaps she should dress and try to find Liam.
What if she was wrong about Liam and he was behind the whole thing? But she had
to tell someone.

Knowing she couldn't wait until morning, she went
over and dressed in the men's clothing she had used to retrieve Jared from
Burnum Woods. At least if they spotted her, from a distance no one would realize
who she was. She hated the thought of going into the passageway alone,
especially at night. But there was no choice. It was her way out. She walked
back over to the desk, shoved her writing materials into a small leather pouch,
and stuffed it into the large side pocket of the leather jerkin she wore.

She went over to the main door to the chamber and
opened the bolt so she had a direct route in if things went awry. She would go
out through the passageway, but she may not want to come back that way. At
least with the door open she had another option.

Lighting a torch from the fire, she opened the door
to the secret passage and listened for any noise from below. It was silent as a
tomb, perhaps her tomb. She shoved the thought aside and headed down the winding
stone steps. It was her destiny to survive this threat and give birth to
Jared's child in the tower. She kept telling herself that as she went deeper
into the bowels of Dunbocan Castle.

Asilinn had determined to try to find her way to the
exit near the east gate. She knew Liam resided in one of the cottages near
Glenna's and she had made up her mind he would be her confidant. She peered
through the peephole which gave her a view of the large hall near the dungeon.
No one seemed to be about. She shoved the lever to release the door. It stuck
stubbornly refusing to budge. She tried several more times before it finally
swung open with a loud groan.

Terrified by the noise she made she stepped out into
the hallway, shoved the door closed, and leaned against the wall to catch her
breath. She heard footsteps coming from the direction of the dungeon. There was
no time to duck back in the passage. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she
walked rapidly toward the entrance to the next secret passage. She hoped whoever
was coming would take her for a servant and pass by.

The footsteps quickened when they rounded the corner.
She knew they could see her now. Keeping her back to them, she hurried on her
way. “You there!” a voice shouted from behind her. “What are you doing down
here?”

Asilinn turned to come to face to face with Osred and
Glenna. There was no use pretending. It was obvious they recognized her. Osred
gave her a devilish sneer. “What are you up to, Lady Asilinn?”

“She's come to meet us halfway,” Glenna said with a
cruel laugh.

“I think our plan was meant to be successful,” Osred
said, grabbing Asilinn roughly by the arm. “Come with me, Lady Asilinn, we just
finished preparing your room.”

“Take me back upstairs,” she ordered. “I demand to
see Garrick.” Glenna's malicious laughter filled the hall.

“Shut up!” Osred snapped at Glenna. “We're not safe
until we get her tucked away.”

Asilinn struggled against them but they gagged her
when she sought to cry out and dragged her down one hall after another until
Asilinn knew she was in some remote corner of the dungeon. Cobwebs hung in
every corner and the terrible musty odor assailing her nostrils almost made her
retch. It looked like no one had been down these passages in years. Eventually
they jerked her into a small low-ceilinged cell and ripped off her gag.

“You can scream all you want now,” Osred told her.
“No one can hear you.” He shoved her to the floor and chained her to the wall
with manacles. “If you're lucky, we'll be back to feed you,” he said with a
wicked smile. When he left, he withdrew a large key from his pocket and turned
the rusty lock.

The sound echoed through Asilinn's brain when the
lock fell into place. She heard their footsteps fade into the blackness
surrounding her. An endless void enveloped her, sealing her in a curtain of
terrifying sightlessness. She screamed for Jared knowing he was miles away.
Leaning her head against the cool stone wall, she gave way to her churning
emotions. Sobs wracked her body while she clung to the hope her vision of the
birth of her child was true and not some cruel picture of what could have been.

The tall gray walls of Cairngorm Castle rose out of the mist ahead. Jared watched Skye's eyes follow the lines of the eerie
structure perched on a mountaintop high above the valley. She studied the sheer
cliff-face bordering one side of the manse.

“You climbed up that?” she asked incredulously. Jared
had been happily recounting the kidnapping of his bride.

He grinned at his little sister. “‘Twas not easy, but
Asilinn was definitely worth it.”

“My poor half-wit, love-besotted brother,” Skye said
as she burst out laughing.

Was he, he wondered? Did he love Asilinn as Skye
accused or was he just content with their current peaceful arrangement?

Morven rode up to join them. “What is so amusing?”

Jared grinned. “Nothing Morven, my sister has just
called me a half-wit, that's all.”

Asilinn was right. Skye was growing up. He gazed over
at her while she dusted off her skirt. “Getting pretty for Ian?” he taunted.

Skye blushed crimson. “How dare you suggest I would
be attracted to an Innes?”

“I thought you approved of my marriage to Asilinn.
Why would you see harm in being smitten with her brother?”

“I like Asilinn, but her brother's too young for me.
I think I’d like an older man too long in the tooth to tell me what to do,
mayhaps someone your age.” Skye's eyes danced when she threw the jibe at him.

“I'm not too old to throw you over my knee,” Jared
warned cheerfully.

Morven observed the two and shook his head. “This is
a serious mission and you two are full of the devil.”

No sooner had Morven scolded them than a contingent
of men rounded the bend in the road. Jared could see by their plaid that they
were Laird Innes' men.

“Halt!” their leader called out. “Why do you come
uninvited to Cairngorm Castle?”

“You have been watching us from the woods for the
last day,” Jared said, eyeing the man. “I sent a messenger to Laird Innes a
week ago declaring our intent to have a peaceful visit with him. Has no one
arrived to give you warning?”

“Nay, Milord, there has been no messenger.”

Jared looked pointedly at Morven for an explanation.
“Did you not send someone?”

Morven straightened in the saddle. “The man was
dispatched as you ordered, Milord. Perhaps these Innes dogs sent him to his
maker before they heard his message.”

Jared scowled at his cousin. “You will not insult
these men. Your hard words will not aid our cause.” Turning back to Innes' men,
he addressed their leader. “Tell Laird Innes Laird MacLean and his sister, and
a troop of ten men request his hospitality. We apologize for catching Laird
Innes at unawares and hope he will grant us an audience in spite of this
surprise visit. We shall wait here for his response.”

Dispatching two of his men to the castle, the leader
of the Innes clansmen pulled his men back up the road several hundred yards and
settled in to await word.