“I don’t ken.” Brodie shrugged. Beyond her being a servant in the keep, he didn’t know the specifics of Gara’s personal life. He knew a couple men showed an interest in her, but he didn’t think she was involved with anyone.
“I’m thinking aboot what Donnan said. Other than the lethal strike, the other stabs are shallow. Would a mon do that? Wouldn’t you expect them to be deeper?” Graham asked. He pulled a dirk from his boot and one from his waist. “And look at the size of the holes. A mon’s blade isn’t that narrow. Even asgian dubhwould create a wider cut. These look like they came from an eating knife.”
“You think it was a woman,” Brodie said to Graham, who nodded. “But why would a woman lead her back here? Or rather, what could a woman say to lead her back here? A mon I could understand. He could lure her back here for a tryst or force her.”
Donnan pushed up Gara’s sleeves, twisting her arms side to side, but there were no marks to show someone pulling her. Graham shifted uncomfortably, and it caught Brodie’s attention. He narrowed his eyes at his second.
“Speak.”
“Laird, we assume it’s someone she trusted. What if it was someone who ordered her?”
Brodie rose in one fluid motion as he turned to look at Graham, a man he trusted with his life. A man, who just that day he thought he could trust more than his brother, now stood before him, implying Laurel killed the woman at his feet. Graham took a step back, unnerved by an expression he’d never seen on Brodie’s face before.
“Laird, there’s more than one woman with that authority,” Graham rushed to say. Brodie’s expression didn’t change.
“It’s not Laurel,” Monty stated matter-of-factly. “I saw Gara’s rudeness to Laurel last night, so I asked her aboot it when you stepped off the dais this morn to speak to Dominic. She told me what happened yesterday over the bath. She may have been unimpressed by Gara, or even disliked her, but she wouldn’t kill over such a slight. If she would, there wouldn’t be a lady-in-waiting still alive. And aye, I ken, she’s never had a mon she’d fight for, but that isnae Laurel. She’d tear the woman apart with her words and leave her a shell of her old self, devastated for days. That is how Laurel punishes.”
“And she wouldn’t have used an eating knife,” Donnan chimed in as he rose. With a shrug, he explained. “After what happened with the wager and being left among strangers today, I didn’t like kenning she only had her eating knife. I left her with a dirk this morning. Monty and I ken she knows how to use it. We taught her.”
“True. And she would have gone for a clean, swift kill like we showed her. She would have gotten this right with the first strike and not waited around to do more. This isn’t Laurel,” Monty repeated.
“Then who?” James chimed in. He’d remained still and silent while the other men spoke.
“Who’s left in a position to order her to do aught? Aggie, Berta, and Colina,” Brodie answered.
“None of them would do this,” Graham stated. Brodie’s eyebrows twitched, and he sighed before nodding.
“Graham, James, tend to Gara. Don’t let anyone ken aboot this until we find Lady Campbell. I don’t think these are unrelated.” Brodie fought against the returning panic. If Gara’s death and Laurel’s absence were connected—and Gara was dead—he feared how he would find Laurel. He, Monty, and Donnan left Graham and James to move Gara’s body and cover it. He scanned the bailey as he tried to imagine where Laurel could be. He spotted Aggie speaking with the laundresses, clearly still agitated. He called out, “Aggie.”
The woman met him halfway. She still trembled and appeared distraught. But she greeted him with a steady voice. “Did you give Lady Campbell the chatelaine’s keys?”
“Aye, ma laird. Berta gave her a wee tour of the undercroft, then she came to me and asked for them. She wanted to look in the barrels and crates in the storage buildings.”
“The undercroft? How brief was the tour?” Brodie asked.
“I dinna ken. Nae long. I think Berta only took her down and pointed out the doors and what we use each room for,” Aggie answered.
“Take me down there,” Brodie ordered. He knew where his wife was. A brief tour wouldn’t have satisfied her. She would want to count every barrel and cask, check all of them herself. Aggie nodded and picked up her skirts to keep up with the three men and their long legs.
