Page 13 of Highlander’s Captive Bride (Troubles of Highland Lasses #4)

13

“D o we have to? I dinnae want to move,” Daisy groaned. “Cannae we just stay here a while longer and forget everything else for a while?” she wheedled, feeling relaxed and contented.

“Nay, me bonny lass, for there’s work to be done,” Bellamy told her, tilting her chin with his finger and looking at her with mock sternness.

“I suppose so.” She sighed.

They kissed one more time, then disentangled themselves and rose from the bed. Daisy put on a fresh shift and retrieved her robe from the floor, retying it around her waist and putting on her slippers. She brushed her hair, which had come loose during their intimate tussle.

Bellamy found his shirt and coat and donned them, then he sat down on the bed to pull on his boots. Daisy came and stood between his knees and brushed his tousled hair back into some semblance of normality. He put his arms around her waist and gave her a squeeze before letting her go and standing up.

“D’ye have any more of that wine?” he asked.

Daisy nodded and fetched the wine bottle as he sat at the table. She sat opposite, pushing aside her books and papers to make room before pouring them a fresh beaker each.

Bellamy took a long sip of wine, then, leaning his elbows on the table, said, “Now, this is what I think should happen…” He then proceeded to outline his plan to expose the culprit.

Daisy listened intently, and when he had finished, she frowned. “It’ll be difficult, for ye’ll have to somehow make Elodie understand the importance of it and get her to play along. She’s only seven, and although she’s bright, I’m nae sure how much of it she’ll understand or if she’ll be able to do it convincingly,” she said, playing devil’s advocate. “And ye’ll have to swear Poppy to secrecy, too,” she pointed out. “And ye ken how she loves to talk,” she added, resting her chin on her hands.

“Wheesht, woman. We’ll nae tell Poppy the truth. The less she kens the better. As far as she’s concerned, Elodie will be getting sicker, and that’s all she’ll ken,” Bellamy explained, dismissing her concerns.

“Ye’ll have to keep everyone else out of Elodie’s chambers except for us and Poppy, too. What about Jamie and Nadia? They often visit her.”

“Dinnae ye worry about Jamie. He kens how to keep a secret.”

“And Nadia? She could get suspicious if we don’t come up with a good explanation,” Daisy cautioned.

Bellamy thought for a moment. “If we’re goin’ to tell everyone that Elodie’s much worse and cannae have any more visitors, that has to include Nadia. She willnae dare disobey me,” he told her confidently.

“All right. But I still dinnae quite understand how all this will draw out the culprit.”

“Well, the way I see it is that when they find they cannae get to her so easily, either they’ll start asking a lot of questions and give themselves away, or they’ll do something stupid to try to get her to keep taking the poison, and we’ll catch them that way.”

Daisy nodded her understanding. “It might work.”

“’Tis worth a try, eh?” Bellamy said, reaching over and covering her hand with his, his eyes gleaming like polished silver in the lamplight. “I’ll talk to Elodie first thing in the morning,” he stated. “There’s one thing more,” he added. Daisy looked at him questioningly. “I need ye to write some more letters to yer family.”

She gave a wry smile. “All right. Tomorrow, though.”

“Aye.” He nodded, then lifted his hand off hers and rose. “It’s late, and ye must be tired. Go to bed and get some sleep. I’ll see ye tomorrow.”

Daisy got up and walked him to the door. “Good night, Bellamy,” she said.

They embraced and kissed lightly before he opened the door.

“Good night, bonny lass. Sleep tight, for tomorrow, there’s much to do.”

* * *

Bellamy strode through the empty, silent castle halls until he came to his chamber on the first floor. He went inside. As always, lamps had been lit for his convenience, and a fire burned low in the grate. The room was pleasantly warm, so he stripped off his clothes and threw them on the floor before pouring himself a generous dram of whisky and sipping it, standing in front of the fire, buck naked.

He thought about washing but rapidly dismissed the idea. He could still smell Daisy’s scent all over him, and he was loath to wash it off. The dreamlike time they had just spent together was unlike anything he had ever experienced with a woman. He wanted to preserve it, for one day soon, she would be gone, and they would likely never meet again. That, he knew, was going to hurt as badly as losing Bridie.

But, for now, he had important things to consider, so he locked away their secret hours in a compartment in the deepest recesses of his heart and focused on the matter at hand. He needed nothing to help keep him awake, for he knew he would not sleep a wink for the remainder of the night. Nor did he wish to. He wanted to think.

The whisky on top of the wine Daisy had given him warmed his vitals, oiling the wheels of his mind as he plotted and planned how he was going to catch whoever had been torturing his daughter and repay them tenfold.

He downed his dram, then, taking the bottle with him, padded across to his bed—a huge, carved, mahogany construction his great-grandfather had made for himself and his wife many years ago. It was the place where Bellamy did some of his best thinking, which was exactly what he intended to do in the wee small hours before the new day began, and he went about putting his plan in motion.

He leaned back on his pillows, taking a long slug of whisky. “When I catch them, they’ll wish they’d never been born,” he muttered to himself through clenched teeth, his hand tightening around the whisky bottle, fervently wishing it was the culprit’s neck.

* * *

Early the next morning, Bellamy went straight to Elodie’s chambers. He sent Poppy off on an errand to the kitchens to bring back some hot, buttered bannocks for breakfast, which he intended to share with his daughter.

When the servant was gone, he checked the hallway for anyone who might be lurking. It was empty, so he shut the door firmly and returned to the bed, lying beside Elodie and putting his arms around her as they lay against the pillows.

“Now, me wee bonny lass, I have a secret to share with ye, and ye must swear nae to tell a soul. Nae Poppy and nae Nadia. ’Tis very important that ye keep it just between us and Daisy. D’ye understand?” he told her in a gentle, hushed tone.

“Aye, Da,” Elodie said, nodding and looking up at him, her expression half anxious, half excited. “I swear. What is the secret?”

“Well, this is goin’ to be a bit of a shock for ye, darlin’, but ye ken when ye were taken so bad last night?”

“Aye. ’T’was terrible, Da. I’m glad I cannae remember much of it, and I feel better this morning. I wish I could get better,” Elodie said plaintively.

Bellamy squeezed her gently in his arms. “Ye will. I guarantee it, hinny. Ye’ll nae have any more of those attacks. Ye’ll be as right as rain from now on,” he promised, his heart clenching with emotion.

She looked up at him quizzically. “Am I, Da? But how d’ye ken?”

“Because last night, when ye were taken so ill, Daisy found out what’s been causing ye to be sick all this time.”

Elodie wriggled around in his arms to face him, her little face a picture of surprise. “She did? What is it?”

Bellamy chose his words carefully before saying, “Somebody has been putting something nasty in the things ye eat and drink, lass. Something to make ye terribly sick.”

“Have they? Who? And why would they do that, Da? Do they nae like me?” Elodie asked, her face crinkling in confusion.

“Nay, ’t’was not that at all. They wanted to hurt ye because they kenned it would make me sad,” he explained. “By hurting ye, they were trying to hurt me.”

“Why, that’s a horrible thing to do!” Elodie exclaimed with childish outrage. “To make me so sick like that on purpose! Who was it, Da? I want to tell them off for doing such a mean thing to me.”

“Well, hinny, the thing is, ye see, we dinnae ken who’s been doing it. And that’s why I need yer help, so we can find out… and I can punish them,” he explained, a hard edge to his voice.

“Oh,” Elodie said, sounding disappointed. “But how can I help ye find out who it was? I’m just a wee lass.”

“A very clever wee lass,” Bellamy corrected, stoking her hair. “I have a plan, to trick them into showing themselves. And that’s what I need yer help with.”

“All right. I want to catch them. What d’ye want me to do?”

“I want ye to pretend ye’re still poorly. Very poorly.”

“What?! Even though I’ll get better now that they cannae put the nasty things in me food?”

“Aye. I’m afraid so. ’Tis the only way to catch them.”

“But, Da, I want to go out and play like I used to. I dinnae want to have to be in here all the time and act sick,” Elodie protested.

“I ken, lassie, and I’m sorry I have to ask ye to do this. But it willnae be for much longer, I promise ye. Just a few days, and then we’ll have them. And if ye can do it, I’ll buy ye something nice to make up for it.”

Elodie thought for a moment. “A pony?”

“Aye, a pony if ye like.”

“And can I go to the Beltane party?”

He hesitated. “I’ll think about it.”

Elodie thought some more, her face screwed up in concentration. Finally, she said, “All right, Da. I’ll do it.”

Bellamy smiled and hugged her close, kissing the top of her head. “Ach, ye’re a grand lass. I kenned I could trust ye to help me. Now, dinnae forget, ye have to fool Poppy into thinking ye’re really, really sick. Much worse than before.”

“But why, Da? Poppy’s me friend. She wouldnae tell.”

“’Tis not that, hinny. ’Tis to protect her from the bad person. They might try to hurt her, to find out what she kens. If she kens naething, she’ll be safe, d’ye see?”

“Aye, I suppose so. I dinnae like lying to her, though, all the same,” Elodie said sadly.

“Aye, lying isnae good, of course. But sometimes, me lassie, we have to tell a wee lie to find out the truth about something important. That’s allowed,” Bellamy told her.

“All right, Da.”

“Good lass. Now, remember, nae one else can ken about this secret plan. Just ye and me, and Daisy. All right?”

Not long after that, Poppy came back with the bannocks, and Bellamy told her that he had to leave on some urgent business. He left her standing with the plate of hot bannocks, looking after him in puzzled annoyance.

“Well, d’ye want to try one of these, lassie?” Poppy finally asked when he stepped out of the room, turning to Elodie with the plate.

But the little girl shook her head and said, “Nae, thank ye, Poppy. I dinnae feel very well. Me tummy’s all sore again.”

Satisfied his plan was in motion, Bellamy headed off to find Jamie, to tell him all that had happened and enlist his help. As he passed Daisy’s door, a vivid vision of her moaning with pleasure as she lay spread out naked before him on the bed made his groin twitch.

He was tempted to go into her room, where he was sure she was still asleep in her bed, and simply tear off his clothes and get in with her. He knew he could never have his fill of her, and that was the reason why he kept on walking past her door.

As he took the stairs two at a time, he told himself that the way he felt about her risked distracting him from his mission. But deep down, he knew he was really scared of the way he was starting to care about her, and of the heartbreak and mayhem that could ensue if he ever let her all the way into his heart.

Despite that, by the time he went outside to the training yard behind the keep to find Jamie, he decided he wanted to do something nice for Daisy. He wanted to show his gratitude for all she had done, and was doing, for him and Elodie.

Just as he thought, Jamie was in the training yard, sparring with one of the younger soldiers. He and Bellamy often trained together in the mornings, trying to hack bits out of each other with their claymores with boyish enthusiasm.

“Are ye done yet? I need ye,” Bellamy shouted to Jamie, who immediately bowed out of the session and came over to join him. His face was red and sweaty, and he was puffing with exertion. He laid aside the wooden shield he had been using and sheathed his sword.

“A bonny morning to ye,” Jamie said with a grin. “Have ye come to let me beat the living daylights out of ye?”

Bellamy laughed and put an arm around his friend’s shoulders, drawing him aside. “Nae today, thank ye. I have something important I need to speak to ye about. Will ye walk with me?”

“D’ye nae want some breakfast? I’m starving after that training,” Jamie asked hopefully.

But Bellamy shook his head. “This is too important to risk being overheard,” he explained and then guided Jamie further away, into a secluded area of the castle grounds.

They sat down on a stone bench.

“So, what’s all this secrecy, then?”

“Ye willnae believe what I’m goin’ to tell ye, Jamie, but I assure ye, it’s the truth.”

Jamie’s brows shot up. “Why, that sounds serious. What’s going on? Ye’re nae getting wed, are ye?”

“Shut up, ye fool, and listen,” Bellamy huffed. “Last night, Daisy found out what’s been making Elodie sick.”

“She has?! Why, that’s grand news, Bel,” Jamie exclaimed, gripping his friend’s arm tightly. “And can she heal the lassie?”

“She disnae need healing.”

“What? What d’ye mean?”

“She was never sick. She was being poisoned. Some bastard has been putting belladonna in her food and drink.”