11
It happened again.
Leila was awakened in the night by Fergus’ agitation.As every night thus far, they had loved sweetly and afterward she had told him more of Scheherazade’s tale.As had happened once before, he had shouted Isobel’s name in the darkness.
On this occasion, he turned away from her when she would have consoled him.His action left Leila awake and filled with dread.Did his gesture reveal the truth of his heart?She could not say.
She rose early and said her prayers in the garden, striving to keep from making much of little.Like every other day thus far, she went to her lesson with the priest afterward, Murdoch by her side.When she returned to the hall, Fergus was breaking his fast with his father.His mood was good and she wondered if he even recalled his dream of Isobel.
Or if it pleased him to so dream of her.
The notion was like a knife twisted in a wound and added to Leila’s sense of discontent.It irked her that Hamish had not yet found the reliquary and began to fear it would be lost forever.What if Agnes had somehow sent it away?
Fergus had sent Hamish to the miller’s son after two days of the boy watching Agnes, for it seemed that the girl grew suspicious.She had challenged Hamish about his interest in her after mass on the Sunday, so Fergus had bidden Hamish to be more subtle.
The lack of resolution troubled Leila beyond all else.She feared the reliquary might be journeying ever farther away from Killairic and worried about the repercussions of its loss.That could be the meaning of Fergus’s sense of doom.She had no doubt that as an infidel, she would be blamed for the reliquary’s loss, no matter what Fergus said in her defense.The Templars had no greater fondness for women than for Muslims.She wanted to solve the riddle, lock the reliquary where it belonged, and be rid of the scheming Agnes—and she wished to do it immediately.Fergus had more patience than she.
Leila forced a smile as Fergus surrendered the key to the solar to her, then continued up the stairs to put the rug away.Murdoch remained in the hall.
She opened the shutters on the windows before leaving the solar, for the wind was crisp this morning and the sun was already warming the air in a most pleasant way.She took a deep breath of the scent of growth and greenery, then went to the last window.This one faced away from the village, to the north and west of the keep, and she was not certain she should open it.The wind from this direction was often chilly, though she supposed it might offer some relief in summer.
Leila could not wait to feel the sun’s heat again.She had just moved the shutter an increment when she spied a movement in the forest below.Some instinct encouraged her to freeze and watch.
It was Agnes.She carried a bucket of slops, presumably to dump it in the river on the quiet side of the keep.Leila was surprised to find the girl actually performing her labor in a timely manner, but perhaps Iain had chided her.She was about to open the shutter all the way, when Agnes did the most curious thing.She put down the bucket on the bank of the river, then looked up at the keep.
As if she feared to be observed.
Leila could not imagine why the girl would be afraid to be seen dumping slops, which was one of her tasks.She remained motionless and watched.
Apparently reassured, Agnes abandoned the bucket.She crossed the river on a number of stones, then leaped to the opposite bank.Leila caught only a glimpse of her running through the forest, for the trees were coming into leaf and obscured Agnes from view.
She waited, watching and counting steadily.She reached eighty-two before the maid reappeared.
Agnes carried nothing, though again, she spared a glance at the keep.
Had she been checking on her prize?
Leila intended to find out.She left the solar in haste, locking it quickly, and fleeing down the stairs so that she could appear to have been there all along when Agnes returned to the hall.She took her place beside Fergus who spared her a questioning glance.She smiled at him and took his half-eaten piece of bread, feigning it was her own just as Agnes appeared in the portal.
The girl seemed to check that all were present before continuing up the stairs with the empty bucket.
“I believe she visited her prize,” Leila murmured to Fergus.
“Indeed.”He took the bread back from her with a smile and gave her another, as well as a comb of honey.
“I saw her from the window.She went to empty the slops, but left the bucket.She crossed the river and ran into the forest.I counted to eighty-six before she returned.”
“At what speed?”
“The speed of my heart.”Leila tapped her rhythm on his thigh, her hand hidden from view, and he nodded.
“I will speak to Hamish,” he vowed.“Let us put an end to this.”He kissed her brow and left her at the board.
Leila ate her breakfast with leisure, hoping against hope that Hamish would find the reliquary.She realized that she wished even more for Agnes to be shown for what she was.The girl reappeared at the base of the stairs in search of a broom and Leila ignored her, speaking instead to Calum, as if she were more calm than she felt.
A storm was brewing, to be sure, and she could only hope that she could outwit the maid.
Hamish had usedthe days since Laird Fergus’ assignment to make preparations to hide the reliquary again once it was found.His scheme gave him great pride.Recalling how Lady Ysmaine had made a substitution for the prize on their journey, he had devised a means of doing much the same.He had found a block of wood at the carpenter’s shop of suitable size and shape, then purchased a half sack of barley from the miller.This last he left hidden beneath his own bed at his aunt and uncle’s home.
