“Mr. Boyce is dead.” He stared at her, stunned by the revelation. She wasn’t finished with him. “What’s worse, he was poisoned.”
“What!”
What more could this day heap upon him?
“Mr. Boyce’s mill stone…thismill stone —” he looked at the moss-covered rock she indicated and read the wee sign embedded in the ground beside it “— well, it says it was cursed, however that isnae the case. Someone poisoned it. Shite, I dinnae even think to look up what it might have been.”
Aila bit her lip and lifted that flat, stiff object she’d presented to the castle’s majordomo upon their entrance before her face. Rendered speechless by her claim, Finn stared at her much as she stared at the luminous surface. As if it held the secrets to the universe.
“It could have been thallium, maybe, whatever that is,” she said as if that clarified anything for him. “It says here that it is tasteless and odorless and has a long history of use in murder cases since it’s difficult to detect.”
Whoitwas who knew these things and how they were being relayed to Aila were questions he couldn’t bring himself to ask. All that mattered at the moment was how his bairns had been affected.
“The poison on the stones passed into the oats that were ground on it,” she told him. “Everyone who ate porridge or oatcakes made from that flour everyday were sickened with the symptoms ye’ve seen in village.”
“And those in the castle who used wheat flour were no’?” he deduced. “What of my bairns then?”
“The levels of radiation on the stone itself were lethal.” She stopped gnawing her lip again, remorse clouding her eyes. “Both Effie and Niall handled the flour. They washed the stones. Effie touched it directly when Mr. Boyce showed her the channels on it. Perhaps that was why her symptoms were worse than Niall’s. Direct contact. It’s my fault for taking them there. Ye’ll never ken how much I regret it.”
“And this poison killed Boyce?” Trepidation greater than any he’d known that day curdled in his gut. “Will they die as well?”
“Nay! Nay, Finn.” She caught his hand between hers. “Mr. Boyce labored over those stones on a daily basis for hours at a time while their exposure was limited. And I’ve got medicine for them to take just in case. They’ll be fine.”
“This medicine dinnae save Boyce,” fear compelled him to point out.
“It was too late for him.” Tears glistened in the sunlight before one fell to her freckled cheek. “All I could do was assure that he was in nae more pain. He was a good man, Finn. He dinnae deserve this.”
With a grunt, Finn glanced back at the stone. Worn by the weather and virtually covered with moss, it appeared harmless. It was easier to believe it was cursed than to imagine a plot to poison a mere miller. “TheBlàr an Buiestone.”
“I have nae idea what it means.”
“It make nae sense.Blàris battle or battlefield.Buieis an old clan name meaning yellow or fair-haired. Bowie is more common these days.” He scratched his jaw but could think of no connection. “Why Boyce?”
“That’s far simpler.” She shrugged. “Someone wanted the necklace.”
“The one he gave ye?”
She nodded. “There was a key inside of it. Mr. Boyce told me before he died that it would unlock the truth. I can only surmise that someone was either trying to bury that truth forever or torture him into giving it to them.” With a shrug, she peered up at him from beneath her lashes. “He also said, truth prevails.”
“It has something to do with ye?”
“It could be a coincidence.”
“I dinnae believe in coincidences.” Finn’s brows rose as if something occurred to him in that moment and he turned back to the stone with astonishment. “Nay, I dinnae believe in them at all.”
“What is it?”
“The name Bowie can also be derived from the auld GaelicBuidheach.” He scratched his jaw with a disbelieving shake of his head. “From which other clan names have also been rendered. Bogue and…”
“Let me guess. Boyce?”
“Aye.”
The battle for Boyce? With him? Aila took a deep breath, wondering what the future held to result in the name. “Either someone is trying to make believers of us, or everything that’s been going on has been predestined. I’m no’ certain I like that explanation any better. I like to think I have a choice in certain matters.”
“I as well.”
Her lips twisted. “Either way. I was sent back to yer time to solve the mystery behind that necklace. The truth, whatever it may be. And I intend to do exactly that. For Mr. Boyce and for Niall and Effie. And I ken where to start. I think, anyway.”
