Arsenic and Old Armor (36 page)

“
Get up, Bane!” Jack
shouted. “By God, you come here or I’ll—”

Suddenly, from the passageway behind Jack,
Sir William sprang out into the hall shrieking like a banshee,
sword drawn.

“
The English are coming!”
he shouted.

As Jack’s head jerked around in surprise,
Marion drew the dagger out of her belt and drove it deep into her
cousin’s thigh.

The outlaw’s knife hand dropped from her
throat as he roared in pain and reached his wounded leg.

Iain charged, pulling Marion behind him and
smashing Jack backward along the wall. The dirk, still in her hand,
went clattering to the floor as Jack raised his dagger and lunged
at Iain. Although Jack Fitzwilliam was the bigger man, Iain was
much faster. Fending off the blow with his arm, he scooped up his
dirk and faced the outlaw.

They circled, each looking for his
advantage. Jack slashed out with the dagger, and Iain eluded the
blade, staggering his foe with a fist to the face. With each
passing moment, with each lunge and return blow, Iain was gaining
the advantage. The blood was spurting from Jack’s thigh. The little
cleric was still sitting at the table, unwilling to help his
leader.

Iain knew he could finish the villain here
and now, but the ugly reality of killing Jack Fitzwilliam in front
of these people presented a grim picture. Marion was his wife and
the others were his responsibility, but they were also Jack’s kin.
Despite the outlaw’s evil intentions, Iain decided that he would
have the dog rot in some dungeon rather than have this family think
of him forever as the one who killed Sir William’s son.

Iain backed up a step. “Throw down your
weapon, Jack. This is finished.”

“
Never,” he snarled. “The
English are coming, and you’ll be the one they’re
after.”

Limping badly now, he started toward
Iain.

As he came toward him, Iain saw Sir William
lean his sword against the wall and snatch up the ancient shield
leaning next to it. As Jack lunged at Iain again, the old man swung
the shield at his son’s head.

Jack’s face showed momentary surprise and
his hand dropped at his side, the weapon falling to the floor. His
black eyes, so full of venom a moment ago, crossed and then rolled
upward in his head as he sank to his knees and then fell over.

“
I told you, lad,” Sir
William bellowed at the body at his feet. “The English are coming.
Arm yourself!”

Margaret rushed to her nephew’s side. “In
heaven’s name, William, what did you do?”

Judith was immediately beside her sister,
fussing over the fallen giant, as well.

Iain’s instinct was confirmed. He was
relieved that he hadn’t been forced to kill the man with these
people watching.

“
Well, he is still alive,”
Margaret announced, touching the man’s brow.

“
Still alive,” Judith
echoed, looking up and smiling at Marion.

Iain quickly kicked Jack’s weapon to the
other side of the room. He looked again at Bane, who still hadn’t
moved. As he turned to look at Marion, she rushed into his
arms.

“
You saved my life again,”
she whispered.

“
And you showed once again
what a fighter you are,” he told her.

“
But the English are
coming. What are we going to do?” she asked fretfully.

“
One thing at a time. I
need to bind Jack first, so he doesn’t get any fresh ideas when he
comes around.”

“
That was a very accurate
blow, Sir William,” Margaret told her brother proudly, looking up
at him from beside Jack, who was starting to moan. She turned her
gaze toward Marion. “And that was such a senseless quarrel between
you and your cousin.”

“
Totally senseless.” Judith
waved a hand in the air.

“
There is no reason for him
to carry such a grudge against someone who is not even his
kin.”

“
Not even his kin,” Judith
agreed.

Iain felt Marion stiffen at his side. “What
did you say?” she asked.

As always, the McCall sisters were not
hearing her. They continued to carry on their own conversation.

“
It was our good brother’s
wishes. As the earl, it was his right. And Jack should have let it
go at that,” Margaret advised.

“
The Earl of Fleet was our
brother,” Judith explained, as if none of them knew that small but
important fact.

Sir William was leaning out the window and
shouting to the two men in the courtyard. “Tom Halliday, John
Blair. Keep the gates closed, lad. The English are coming.”

Marion grabbed Iain’s hand. “Please, ask
them what they mean about me not being Jack’s kin.”

He repeated her question.

The two sisters exchanged some whispers, and
then Margaret explained. “Our brother the Earl of Fleet married
Marion’s mother when she was already with child.”

Judith held out four fingers and nodded.
“Four months.”

Iain and Marion stood in stunned silence for
a moment until she found her voice. “Who was my father?”

There was silence from the two sisters.

“
Who was her father?” Iain
repeated.

“
We never knew his name,”
Margaret said.

“
Never.” Judith shook her
head.

“
We think he was a noble
friend who died in a fight with the English, though,” Margaret
continued.

“
A noble friend,” Judith
sighed.

Jack still hadn’t moved, and neither did his
partner at the table. Sir William continued to busy himself, giving
orders to Iain’s men through the window. The two sisters were again
whispering to each other. Marion clung tightly to Iain’s arm.

“
Who was told this? Who,
other than you two, knew this?” she asked her aunts.

They continued with their own talk. Iain
repeated the question. Margaret looked up and smiled at both of
them.

“
Only us and, of course,
Marion’s mother. But the poor dear died at childbirth.”

Judith sighed. “She died.”

“
Sir William was too busy
preparing for his battles, so there was no point in telling him,”
Margaret added.

“
We didn’t tell him.”
Judith nodded.

“
So Jack didn’t know,
either!” Marion said.

For once, they decided to hear her. They
answered together. “He certainly did not.”

Marion turned to Iain. “How
ironic. He is the true McCall, not I. He really
is
the true heir to Fleet
Tower.”

Iain had Marion at his side. She was alive
and well. There was nothing else that mattered.

“
But that’s not the way the
earl wanted it to be,” Margaret countered, shaking her head
adamantly.

“
Not the way,” Judith
echoed, mimicking her sister.

“
Our brother said the
family wanted new blood.”

“
New blood.”

“
That’s why he didn’t want
any of us to marry and have children,” Margaret said in a
matter-of-fact manner.

“
No marrying, no children.”
Judith shook a finger.

“
Jack Fitzwilliam was a
mistake.”

“
A mistake, to be
sure.”

“
The earl was very upset
about that.”

“
Very
upset,” Judith said, making an angry face.

Marion’s hold on Iain’s arm had tightened
even more. Iain wondered if the same thoughts were running through
her head. The Earl of Fleet knew that madness was running rampant
in his family. That was why he wanted an end to their line. By
making Marion his heir and then arranging the marriage with Iain,
the earl was taking care of the future of his clan.

How consistent with his thinking, Iain
realized, to insist that Marion would not be raised by his own
sisters.

Perhaps the old earl thought madness of this
magnitude could be contagious.

Dead and unconscious bodies lay around her,
blood covered the floor, but all Marion wanted to do was to dance
across the great hall.

She was not related to them. She was not a
McCall. Any child of hers and Iain’s would not inherit their
lunacy.

Reality returned quickly enough, though. Her
cousin, Jack, began to move his head. There were more calls from
outside. Sir William kept shouting, “The English are coming!” at
the top of his lungs.

“
How are we going to
explain all of this?” she said in a loud voice to Iain.

“
Stay away from Jack. I
need something to tie him with.”

Marion let him go. She was certain that Jack
had been about to kill her. She watched her husband pull pieces of
cloth from the window seat and tear them into strips. Jack was
beginning to mumble something under his breath.

“
Get him a drink, Judith,”
Margaret ordered, holding her nephew’s head in her hands. “I think
he wants to say something.”

“
Definitely a drink,”
Judith repeated, pushing to her feet and scurrying to the
table.

As Judith came back with a cup in her hand,
Marion saw Sir William turn quickly from the window and look
directly at Iain.

“
The enemy is at our
gates,” he shouted. He spun back to the window after his
announcement, paying no attention to his son lying at his
feet.

Jack was quickly regaining consciousness
now, and Iain tied Jack’s hands before leaving him in the care of
the aunts. Then, as her husband stood up, Marion saw from the
corner of her eye a sudden movement by the table.

“
Iain!” she
cried.

Even as she called out, though, Marion saw
that the outlaw called Bane had simply fallen off his chair and was
lying flat on his face. He seemed strangely quiet.

She took a couple of steps toward him, but
Iain was at the man’s side first. He put a hand on Bane’s chest and
looked up at Marion.

“
He’s dead,” he said
incredulously.

“
Dead?” she repeated.
Bane’s unseeing eyes were open.

“
He’s not breathing,” Iain
told her. He rolled the little cleric over. “Though he doesn’t
appear to be wounded anywhere.”

“
The wine,” she whispered.
“He took a cup off the shelf. It must have been Aunt Margaret’s
wine.”

They both looked up to the table and where
he’d put the cup down before. It wasn’t there. Marion turned to her
aunts. Margaret had Jack’s head in her hands, and Aunt Judith was
holding a cup to the man’s lips as he drank.

“
Stop,” Marion blurted.
“Don’t give him the wine.”

She ran to them. Jack had been ready to kill
her tonight, but Marion didn’t wish the same fate on him.

“
Aunt Margaret, Aunt
Judith,” she cried, kneeling next to them and forcing the cup out
of Judith’s hand. She was too late. It was empty.

“
Give it back,” Jack
sneered, still groggy. “Must you take
everything
that is mine? I’ll kill
you. Before the sun comes up, I’ll kill you. I swear I
will.”

“
What was in this cup?”
Marion asked, ignoring the brute’s threats and smelling the
cup.

“
You be quiet, Jack,”
Margaret told her nephew. “That is far too much
talking.”

“
Far too much,” Judith
agreed.

“
It’s time you had a nice
rest.”

“
A nice long rest.” Judith
caressed the outlaw’s head.

“
What did you give him?”
Iain asked quietly, crouching beside Marion.

William turned from the window again. “They
are raising the portcullis. The Bruce and the Highlanders have
arrived ahead of the English. FREEDOM!” he shouted, raising his
sword and turning to the window again.

Marion didn’t know if she should believe Sir
William or not.

“
We gave him some wine,”
Margaret answered as soon as her brother had quieted
down.

“
Just wine,” Judith said
innocently.

“
What kind of wine?” Iain
asked.

“
Why, elderberry wine, of
course,” the older sister answered. “All of our visitors are quite
fond of it.”

“
She makes it like no one
else,” Judith added.

“
Is this the same wine that
you used to recruit the Englishmen in the dungeon?” Marion
asked.

“
Englishmen?” Jack croaked,
trying to spit. He struggled to sit up, but the sisters held on to
his shoulders. He didn’t seem to have the strength to fight
them.

“
Now, just stay calm,
dear,” Margaret assured him.

“
Calm and quiet,” Judith
whispered.

“
It will all be over very
soon,” Margaret said in a motherly fashion.

“
Very soon,” Judith
cooed.

Marion looked desperately at her husband.
“Is there anything we can do?”

He shook his head. He seemed as baffled as
she was. The McCall sisters were whispering gently to their nephew,
who seemed to be getting calmer by the second. He tried to say
something back to them.

Marion stared at them. If she didn’t know
better, it looked like a touching family moment.

“
They are in the
courtyard,” Sir William shouted. “Form your ranks, men! Prepare to
attack!”

Marion realized that perhaps there was some
truth to Sir William’s exclamations. She could hear the sound of
horses arriving in the courtyard. Iain stood up and pulled Marion
to her feet. It was obvious that Jack was no longer a threat, but
Iain wasn’t letting her get too far away.