Page 21 of The Cruel Highlander’s Healer (Highlanders’ Feisty Brides #1)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“A listair!” Conall bellowed, stamping his fists down on his desk as he yelled for his guard for the third time.
Finally, after what felt like a blessedly long time, the sound of bumbling footsteps filled the air. Alistair appeared a moment later, stooped and wheezing.
His watery grey eyes fixed on Conall and immediately began bumbling out apologies.
Conall took a second to regard the man. Once one of his most favored guards, and an injury a couple months back had seemed to zap all the life from him entirely.
It had bowed his spine and stolen his once powerful voice and turned it meek. Conall would not cut the man loose, he would not do a disservice to the years of loyalty that Alistair had paid to his family. But perhaps he could reassess his duties once again.
Alistair had already been reassigned, not long after the injury. Guarding the dungeons and Conall’s most important prisoner, instead of out in the field. But perhaps they could find something else for him?
“I need ye to start investigatin’,” Conall said, his attention fixing on the man once more.
“Investigatin’, me laird?”
Doubt crossed Alistair’s face and Conall nodded.
“The poison in the water,” he explained. “I’ve been up here thinkin’ about it all day in me study. It had to be someone in the castle.”
Alistair cocked his head to the side, a question written clearly on the man’s face.
“What makes ye think it was someone in the castle?”
Conall didn’t like being questioned, but he’d always told his men that they could raise concerns with him. His father had taught him a long time ago that it was what made a good leader and what bred faithful guards.
He still bristled all the same.
“It was nae someone from the village,” Conall explained, his voice conveying more patience than what he truly felt. “Nae when it would be too big a risk that they could be poisoned as well. Everyone in the town made their food, washed their clothes, and drank ale made from the water of that lake.”
“And the only other people who ken the children play in that lake,” Conall continued, “are the people within this castle.”
He waited a moment for the information to wash over Alistair, watching his guard as he took it all in. The confusion on Alistair’s face slowly faded as he processed the information, slowly shifting into something else. Something that Conall couldn’t entirely read.
“I ken ye can be discreet,” Conall explained further. “I ken ye are able to get information out of people and win their trust. So I need ye to understand how delicate this matter is. I cannae have me men thinkin’ I daenae trust ‘em, and that I suspect them of somethin’ such as this.”
“But ye do,” Alistair pointed out.
Conall’s chest puffed up. He would allow his guards to question him, but he would not allow them to be disrespectful.
“I daenae ken if it’s one of me men,” Conall growled, and Alistair shrank back slightly at the shift in his Laird’s tone. “I just ken it’s someone in the castle. Servants, stable hands. All of them need questioned. Discreetly, if ye will.”
Alistair studied him for a moment more before bowing his head in acknowledgement. Conall heaved a sigh of relief, dismissing the guard as he turned back to his desk.
Conall had been to see the children before supper. When he’d talked to Kate that morning, when they’d first arrived back at the castle, she’d informed him of how much better they’d been doing, but Conall had wanted to see it all for himself.
He hadn’t wanted to see Eliza, though. Hadn’t wanted to impede on her space. So he’d waited until he knew she and Kate would be at supper and he’d gone to see them.
He still found it hard to believe, the difference in the children from when he’d left for Councilman Auld’s village just a few days ago. Conall had talked to a few of them, then made his way to the kitchens to get the servants to deliver them a hearty supper for the ones that felt like they could stomach it.
Which, admittedly, had been most of them.
He knew it would not be long before Eliza had him write to the families, informing them that their children were ready to come home. So he’d retreated to his study to begin preparing them. There were so many of them to write.
Sitting down at his desk, he took up the letter he’d been finishing. It was about a young boy named Balfour. He’d been one of the first to fall ill.
He felt joy, now, writing to them to tell them that he would be coming home soon. Conall took his time finishing the letter, deciding that there would be no more for the night. Thoughts of Eliza had begun creeping into his mind.
I need to explain to her about last night. I need to apologize.
It was the only thing that he could think about. So it took longer than it normally would have to write the final, few sentences and sign it.
He couldn’t wait any longer.
Storming from his office, he made a quick pace as he traipsed through the corridors. He glanced at a clock as he passed, quickly noting the time.
Hopefully, if they’d eaten slowly or if they’d gotten caught up chatting, Eliza and Kate would only just be leaving supper. So he made his way toward the formal dining room, where they’d been having meals since turning the great dining hall into a sick room.
Turning a corner, two figures came out of a doorway, and as Conall’s eyes landed on them, he stopped short.
Kate and Eliot were a few feet away, turning and walking in the opposite direction. Kate laughed over something Eliot had said, the sound of it echoing off of the walls around them.
There was no Eliza to be seen.
“Eliot,” Conall barked, “Kate!”
The pair stopped in their tracks, whirling to face him. Kate immediately dipped her head to him in a solemn, respectful acknowledgment.
He was before them in only a few quick strides, eyes roving over their faces as if it might hold some clue as to where Eliza might be. But the pair just stared at him in question.
“Me laird?” Kate asked, tone hesitant.
“Eliza, where is she?” Conall grumbled, and then his eyes landed on Eliot. “And why are ye nae with her?”
“She went to her chambers,” Eliot began to explain. “We were havin’ food sent up to her when we left. The servants should be headin’ that way now.”
Conall grit his teeth. “Ye are supposed to stand watch outside her door.”
“She told me…” Eliot began, but his words were interrupted before he could finish.
“Where the hell was yer guard goin’ with me daughter?”
Marissa appeared in the hall, walking at a brief pace as she made her way toward them. Her arms were crossed, and her bright eyes stared daggers at Conall.
“What do ye mean me guard?” Conall asked, whirling to face the Witch of the Wood.
“I meant what I said,” she argued back, pointing a finger directly at Conall’s chest. “That guard of yers, the one that came back from the village with us. He had Eliza on a horse and was ridin’ away from the castle. Where are ye sendin’ her and why did she nae tell me she was goin’? If she’s goin to heal someone, I want to help her.”
Conall wracked his mind. “Dougal? She was ridin’ away from the castle with Dougal?”
Marissa shook her head. “Nay, nae the young one. The old one. With the stooped shoulders.”
“Alistair?”
Quick as a flash, the facts of the day started assembling themselves. Conall had identified that it had to be someone within the castle that was poisoning the lake. He had told Alistair to conduct an investigation to find out who it was. And now he was riding away with Eliza without telling anyone.
Eliza, one of the only people capable enough to heal all of the people who’d been harmed by the poisoned water.
Alistair was the one who poisoned it.
“We have to go,” Conall barked, eyes flashing to Eliot. “We have to ride after them.”
Eliot didn’t argue back. He simply nodded, the pair immediately turning and began sprinting down the hall. Kate’s mouth popped open in surprise as the men pushed past her.
Marissa, however, tried to run after them.
“Where is me daughter?” she screeched.
Conall wanted to answer her. He knew what it was like to worry about a loved one and fear for their return, after all. But he didn’t have time.
And while Marissa did her best to keep up, Conall and Eliot were faster than she was. And she didn’t know the castle like they did.
So as they sprinted, she fell behind, disappearing entirely when they rounded a corner.
“What’s goin’ on, Conall?” Eliot asked as they ran, arms pumping as the two sprinted as hard as they could.
“I think it was Alistair,” Conall explained, his lungs burning as he tried to push his limbs to move faster.
But they’d been near the front of the castle, and the stables were toward the back. It made sense that Marissa saw them riding out, her room faced the South side of the castle, not far from the stables.
Alistair must have gone there the moment he’d left Conall’s office. But why?
“Ye think it was Alistair that what?” Eliot asked, breaking Conall’s spiraling thoughts.
“That poisoned the lake. That made all our people sick.”
“But why?”
Conall just shook his head, not wanting to respond as he focused all his might on making it through this castle and out to the stable beyond.
He just had to pray he didn’t get there too late.