Free Torn (The Handfasting) by Becca St. John Page B

exposed
themselves.
    "Anabal's
birthing came on too soon. That's not uncommon. Nor is losing a babe before
time."
    "Too
fast, Laird. A woman's first child does not come on so quick; one moment
standing and laughing the next folded up and screaming."  Conegell
insisted. "The women are talking, trying to remember the shock of your
first wife’s dying. They weren't easy in it then, even less so now."
    Talorc
fought despair that would only muddle his mind. He had to think, had to listen,
with a clear head. "If what you're saying is true, then someone among the
clan would have to be the cause of it."
    William
leaned in, "Old Micheil was betrayed." 
    Thoughts
forced Talorc to stand. His words put before the others for consideration. "We
don't know the man was betrayed. And I can think of no one who would do this. No
one who could live among the clan and remain an enemy."
    Conegell
took a deep breath. "Beathag gave her a drink."
    William
snorted, "Maggie knows better than to drink Beathag's concoctions." 
    Talorc
waved him away, weighed the accusation. "Maggie might drink one of
Beathag's brew, but not Anabal. And Anabal loved the old woman as much as
Beathag loved Anabal. I don't see it, but yes, the old woman might hurt my
Maggie. The hitch is, she would never harm the child she nursed from
birth."  Talorc frowned.
    Beathag
was an easy solution, but such things were usually the fault of shallow
thinking. He needed more information. "Conegell, you've followed the woman.
What do you think?"
    "You
asked me to watch, but when she goes to your Maggie's room, I can't follow. Una
does."
    Buoyed
by purpose and duty, Talorc waited, impatient for information. When none came
he looked up, gestured. "Well?  What did Una say?"
     Conegell
shifted. "Beathag put a goblet down, but Lady MacKay dinna' drink, not
then. She talked to the old nurse, sweet like, and thanked the woman. Una said
Beathag left, and then Lady MacKay took a sip. There were two flasks there; the
one from Beathag and one with fresh water."
    "You're
saying she drank from the wrong one."  Talorc closed his eyes. This made
sense, a stupid error. She knew which to drink from and took the wrong one. Life
was that fickle.
    But
when he opened his eyes, Conegell was shaking his head. "The women don't
know. Some say yes, some say no. They're all fretting about it, about the way
Lady MacKay made a face with the taste of her water, but swallowed
anyway."
    "She
knew it wasn't water?"
    "No,"
Conegell shook his head. "It's more like, she wasn't certain. She looked
at the goblet, as if something was wrong with the goblet, not the brew."
    "Did
Una understand why she would do this?"
    "You
know how Una talks round and round till it makes you dizzy. But she said she
was certain Maggie drank of the water.”  They all stared at Conegell, he
continued. “But she says it like it's a question, like she can't figure it out.
She says Ealasaid keeps saying Lady MacKay never drinks Beathag's drinks. They
use different goblets. Maggie knows Ealasaid's goblet and Ealasaid fetched the
water herself."
    Talorc
swallowed air, rubbed the base of his head where a knot twisted.
    "From
Una's description, Lady MacKay looked at the goblet again, smelled it then her
face turned ashen. She dropped the goblet, clutched at her inners and started
to scream as she fell. Both goblets toppled when she went down. No one knows
for certain which one was which. I'm thinking, Lady MacKay will be the only one
who knows if she drank from Beathag's or the water's flask."
    "Where's
Beathag?"  Rage, a powerful menace, threatened Talorc's control. With
effort, he breathed deep, forced his tightening muscles to ease. There was no
loosening the knot in his stomach, or at the top of his spine. The hollow calm
of his words obscured the tempers edge he rode. "Where is she?  Where's
the old hag?" 
    It
made perfect sense, after all Beathag was a Gunn. A Gunn spy, planted within
the MacKay clan. He smiled with thoughts of