Page 16 of Her Reluctant Highlander Husband

“I think your wife has been poisoned.”

Chapter Six

Poisoned? Bryce stared down at the woman lying in his bed with clammy skin and wide eyes. She surely didn’t look well, but poisoned? Who would want Dorie dead?

“Why do you think it’s poison?” he asked. He didn’t want to doubt Kenna. She’d become a fine healer in the years since coming to Dunardry, but still, she wasn’t Abagail.

“If it had just been a queasy stomach, I might have thought she’d eaten something spoiled. Even the weakness and the headache could speak to such. But her heartbeat—quickened and irregular as it is—is a telltale sign of foxglove poisoning.”

He led Kenna quickly from the room so they could speak in private. There was no reason to make his wife panic with such silly ideas.

“What are ye talking about?” Bryce accused.

Before Kenna could open her mouth to answer, a deep voice sounded close behind him.

“I love you like a brother, Bryce,” Lach thundered. “But if you don’t unhand my wife and stop hissing at her, I’ll take your arm off without blinking.”

Bryce hadn’t realized he’d grasped Kenna’s arm so tightly, or at all, for that matter.

“Forgive me,” he said, with genuine remorse, removing his hand. He’d been tense since seeing Dorie, but the thought of poison had his own heart racing erratically.

“I think she’ll be fine. If I understood her correctly, she threw out the ale after a sip, so she couldn’t have taken in much of the poison.”

Bryce understood that as well from Dorie’s gestures. The woman had a knack for communicating in every way but her voice.

“What? Who was poisoned?” Lach stepped closer and looked over Bryce’s shoulder to see Dorie lying in the bed. His brows came down in a menacing way. Lach took responsibility for everyone in the clan. It made him a great laird, but it was an impossible task for one man to take on.

“Have you angered someone?” Lach asked Bryce, as if the line of his enemies wrapped around the castle. Bryce winced. Perhaps just to the gate.

“Nay. No more than you have.” Bryce thought briefly of his altercation with Wallace McCurdy and the threat Bryce had made, but brushed it off. The man had wanted to be free of his sister, and he was indeed free of her now. What reason would he have to kill her?

“What about jealous lovers?” the laird reasoned, making Bryce laugh.

“You know well enough I’ve no one wanting to keep me warm at night.”

“True. Who would want to be stuck with a miserable old goat like ye?” The man scraped his fingers over his whiskers in thought.

Bryce wasn’t insulted by the comment, for it was true enough. He felt much older than his years. “Could it have been an accident?” Bryce asked.

Kenna shrugged. “I suppose so, but I’m not sure who would have made such a mistake.”

Lach’s eyes narrowed. Bryce recognized it as an idea.

“What are you thinking?” Bryce pushed.

Lachlan shook his head. “I was just wondering if mayhap it wasn’t an accident. You say she didn’t take enough to be permanently harmed. What if that was intentional? Maybe she only took enough for this.” He waved at Dorie lying in Bryce’s bed.

Bryce knew he should mention that he’d heard her speaking to the dog. How he’d heard her singing while in the cottage. It was proof she’d misrepresented herself. If she’d taken poison to gain access to the castle, she might truly be a threat.

The sound of a hand smacking Lach’s arm brought Bryce’s attention to Kenna and her unhappy scowl.

“Lachlan MacKinlay, how dare ye accuse the poor girl of such a thing? You saw well enough how the McCurdys treated her. She’s happy to be here, anyone can see it.”

“She could be a good actress,” Lach defended himself. “The tattered dress and no shoes could have been part of a ruse.”

Bryce gave the idea a moment or two to spin around his mind but eventually he shook his head. “Nay. Her fear of Wallace was real enough. As was her fear when he’d demanded her blood on a sheet. It wasn’t her idea to fake the consummation, and I doubt she would have been willing to give up her maidenhead for a bastard like Dougal McCurdy.”

Lach nodded, obviously agreeing with Bryce’s assessment. He frowned again and ran his hand over the back of his head. “Do you think she might be so unhappy she wished to do away with herself? You left her alone. Perhaps she doesna want to go on being cast aside.”