Arsenic and Old Armor (29 page)

“
What’s that you say?” he
snapped.

“
Where are your men?” the
older sister asked.

“
Where?” Judith
repeated.

“
In hiding, awaiting my
orders.”

Margaret turned to the table, pulling the
platters of food out of David’s reach. “That’s a good thing that
they’re in hiding. We definitely don’t have enough food left to
feed an army.”

“
Definitely
not.”

“
Unfortunately, we can’t
even feed you and Bones.”

“
Definitely not,” Judith
agreed.

“
Cardinal Bane, if you
please,” David said, stepping back as Jack shot a deadly look at
him.

“
This is only left over
from dinner yesterday. We’ve had no supper.”

“
No supper at all,” Judith
repeated.

Leftover food, David thought. The taste of
the dry cheese was in his mouth. He eyed the pitchers of drinks on
the table.

Jack looked over the table and the four
settings. “Are you expecting guests?”

“
Not guests, only family,”
Margaret answered.

“
Only family,” Judith
repeated.

The twisted smile on Jack’s face was too
frightening even for David. The defrocked monk moved casually
backward until he was standing by the cupboard.

“
Tell me my dear cousin,
Marion, is here,” Jack said, glancing behind him toward the
stairwell.

“
You know there is going to
be a wedding,” Margaret said instead of answering.

“
A wedding.” Judith nodded
excitedly.

“
But they are already
married,” Margaret said lowering her voice.

“
That is a secret, though,”
Judith whispered.

A secret that Jack was already well aware
of, David thought. A secret that had played right into the outlaw
leader’s plan of setting up Iain Armstrong. He reached for one of
the pitchers in the cupboard and took down a cup, too, quietly
pouring himself some wine.

“
She is a dear.”

“
A bonny thing.”

Jack’s smile became a snarl. “Is she staying
here at Fleet Tower?”

“
She is really quite tall
now, as well,” Margaret said, carrying on her own
conversation.

“
Quite tall.” Judith held a
hand up above her head, showing how tall Marion was.

“
Not as tall as you,
Jack.”

“
Not nearly as
tall.”

“
Her eyes are
black.”

“
The color of onyx,” Judith
told them.

“
The devil take her. I
don’t care how tall she is or how she looks or if she has one eye
or three,” Jack snapped. “I want to know if she is staying here or
not.”

The two sisters moved closer together,
linking their arms to support each other. Jack’s temper had a way
of unnerving people. David found his own hand was trembling as he
brought the cup to his lips.

“
No wine,” Jack snarled at
him. “I want you sober.”

“
Just a sip, Jack, to wet
my lips?”

“
No wine!” he
barked.

With a longing glance at the cup, David put
it down.

“
I asked you before.” Jack
turned to his aunts, moving toward them with measured steps. “Where
is Marion?”

“
You shouldn’t really be so
against her. You two are cousins, after all,” Margaret
asserted.

“
Cousins,” Judith
averred.

“
She hasn’t done anything
to wrong you.”

“
Nothing.”

Jack glared menacingly at them. “Marion’s
every breath has become wrong. Her head sitting prettily on her
shoulders has become wrong. The wee bitch should never have been
born. She should never have lived this long. She is a thief who has
stolen everything that truly belongs to me. Because of her, I have
been denied my true place in the world. I should be the laird of
Fleet Tower and all that belongs to it. All of this land would be
mine. God himself has ordained it so. Is that not correct,
Cardinal?”

“
That is so, Jack. It is
the will of God.”

Silence fell over the great hall for a long
moment.

“
Aren’t you happy, Jack?”
Margaret asked weakly.

“
You do have nice friends,”
Judith suggested, motioning toward David Bane.

“
Friends,” Jack snorted
derisively, and then his face grew hard, his black eyes glittering
with hatred. “Because of Marion, I hide in caves like some wounded
animal. But this is the end of that life. This is the end of Marion
and her husband. No Armstrong dog will rule what is rightfully
mine. Now, where is she?”

The two women huddled together. There was
some whispering between them, but David couldn’t make out the
words.

“
The wedding is to be held
at Blackthorn Hall,” Margaret explained quickly.

“
Blackthorn Hall.” Judith
pointed toward a window.

“
You’re lying to me,
Aunties.” Jack nodded toward the table. “You’re expecting
her.”

“
In the morning,” Margaret
said.

“
Not before,” Judith
added.

The outlaw’s gaze moved over the platter of
food.

“
They are just leftovers.
Cardinal Bane can attest to that,” Margaret quickly explained.
“This afternoon, Brother Luke was here for a visit. The dishes have
been out since.”

“
Brother Luke.” Judith
nodded fervently.

Jack stared at the two quavering women for a
few more moments before walking to the window. “Who is bringing
Marion over tomorrow?”

“
The laird,” the McCall
sisters said simultaneously.

“
WHO?” Jack
thundered.

“
I mean, Iain Armstrong,”
Margaret amended.

David saw the look of satisfaction on his
leader’s face before he pushed open the shutters and looked
out.

“
Why is the portcullis
down?”

The two sisters looked at each other before
Margaret answered. “The lair--I mean, Iain’s men did it. They were
worried about our safety.”

“
Very worried.” Judith
nodded.

“
There are no servants left
at Fleet Tower,” Margaret said quietly.

“
We are all alone,” Judith
whispered.

Jack backed away from the window and turned
to his aunts. “Where is my father?”

“
In his chambers,” Margaret
answered. “Going over his maps, I should think.”

Judith nodded. “He likes his maps.”

“
Anyone else
here?”

Both women shook their heads from side to
side.

“
As you know, we really
don’t have much room,” Margaret replied.

“
No room for guests,”
Judith agreed.

“
We never have.”

“
Barely room for
us.”

“
What are you telling me?”
Jack asked sharply. “No room for your own nephew?”

“
Since things are really so
cramped here, we thought you might want to leave,” Margaret said
hopefully. “Tonight.”

Judith motioned toward the doorway.

“
We can wrap some food to
take with you on the road, of course.”

“
But you didn’t come on the
road, did you?” Judith asked.

“
No, Judith. The portcullis
is down,” Margaret answered, turning to Jack. “How
did
you get in
here?”

“
They must have come
through the tunnels,” Judith answered brightly, not giving their
nephew a chance to answer.

“
Are the passages still
open?”

“
Obviously.” Judith
motioned with her brows to the two men.

It was almost amusing to David how these two
women could carry on a conversation like this. They asked
questions; they answered themselves. They never stopped talking. He
eyed the cup of wine on the shelf again.

“
So you are going.”
Margaret said it in a tone like it was already decided. “We’ll just
go in the kitchen and—”

“
No, we’re not going, Aunt
Margaret. In fact, we’re planning to stay here for a
while.”

“
But no room,” Judith
whispered.

“
Have you already
forgotten? I am family, and this is my home as much as it is
yours.”

“
Oh,” the two aunts
said.

“
And Cardinal Bane stays
with me.”

There was some whispering between the two
women, some shaking of the heads, a few nods. Again, Margaret was
the one who spoke for them. “You can have the earl’s old
chamber.”

“
It is certainly big enough
for the two of you,” Judith added.

“
We have stored a few
valuables in there.”

“
Valuables.”

“
But there is room enough
for you.”

Judith pointed to her sister to show that
she was in agreement with what Margaret said.

“
You really should be on
your way by the morning, though,” Margaret added. “The la--I mean
Iain won’t find it entirely satisfactory if he finds you
here.”

“
Not satisfactory at all.”
Judith shook her head.

“
Well, ladies, one of us
will find our meeting satisfactory.” Jack’s hand went to the handle
of his dirk. His gaze was commanding as it snapped back to the
sisters’ faces. “Up to your bedchambers, now.”

“
Aren’t you coming?”
Margaret asked, still clutching her sister’s arm and not taking a
step. “We’d like to be sure you’re comfortably settled into the
earl’s chambers.”

“
No need. We shall make
ourselves at home.”

“
But really,
Jack—”

“
And Cardinal Bane and I
have some business to discuss first. Now, GO!” he
ordered.

The two sisters scrambled a few steps toward
the arched doorway, but they both quickly returned, reaching for
the platters of food on the table, stacking one on top of the other
on the tray and taking the pitchers.

“
You can help yourself with
the wine in the cupboard,” Judith whispered to David once she had
her arms full.

David nodded. He waited until Jack was
watching the two women hurrying out before he reached for the cup
he had poured before.

“
Put it down,” the outlaw
barked without turning around.

“
Really, Jack,” David
whined. “I’m so thirsty and I—”

“
I’ll not tell you again,”
he growled menacingly.

The monk’s hand shook as he put the cup back
on the shelf. It was so unfair. He looked at the table. The old
women had managed to take the other pitchers with them, too. No
food, no drinks, nothing.

Jack waited until the sound of footsteps
moving down the corridors quieted before he turned to him. “You
will go back through the passage the same way as we came. Go to
where we left the men on the far side of the glen. Tell them to
return to the inn where we found our Englishman tonight. They are
to proceed as I planned. The English soldiers are to think it was
Iain Armstrong who abducted their commander. If my men are
questioned, they are to tell them that they followed Iain and his
men. I want the English soldiers here at Fleet Tower right after
Iain’s arrival tomorrow.”

The idea of crawling through that filthy
passageway wasn’t too pleasant, but David knew better than to
refuse. He’d already escaped with his life once tonight.

“
What about the body in the
stairwell?”

“
I need to find a good
place for the English to ‘discover’ him tomorrow.”

“
Don’t you want help moving
it before I go?”

“
No, he won’t go anywhere,”
Jack answered.

David considered taking the cup of wine with
him, but there was no way he could take it without Jack seeing him.
On second thought, perhaps he would just ride to the inn with the
men and have a drink or two there. Jack hadn’t said he couldn’t.
The thought cheered him up considerably.

“
And I want you back here
after you deliver the message to the men outside.”

“
Immediately?”

“
Immediately,” he
ordered.

Marion stopped talking and stood looking at
him expectantly.

In the moonlight, in any light, she was so
beautiful. Iain wanted her now more than he ever wanted any woman
in his life. He thought of how she’d looked kneeling astride him in
the bed at the inn on Loch Lomond. The moonbeams had set her hair
on fire and made her smooth skin glow. Her body, so perfect, had
enticed him then as it was enticing him now.

If she came one step
closer, he would take her here and now, and he didn’t care if Sir
William
and
the
two aunts were watching from the parapet.

She was waiting for an answer from him.

He tried to focus. For the life of him, he
could not understand why she would made up such stories. For weeks
in Skye, she’d tried to put him off with tales of her unbreakable
schedules of seclusion and such. And for what purpose? To avoid the
unavoidable.

And now what could be motivating such
behavior? She simply had to know that their marriage was fixed in
stone. No matter what wild tale she invented, he was not going
anywhere. Nothing she could say would ever convince him to walk
away. And he knew that she had come to want this marriage, too.
There were certain things that she could not lie about. There were
certain moments when he could look right through her soul. It was
during those moments that he was certain she wanted him as much as
he wanted her.