“Because if Kildunan wishes to hire their own physician, they’ll need to know such things.”
“Perhaps Peris is afraid ye mean to replace him.”
“Perhaps.But is that cause to poison me?”
“I do think it may have been an accident.”
He sighed.He wasn’t so sure.“I don’t trust him.”
She popped the stopper back into the bottle of wine and turned away to set it on the table.“Is that why ye were skulkin’ about the hills o’ Dunlop in the middle o’ the night?”
That he didn’t expect.
And he didn’t have an answer for her.
So he did what any clever adversary would do.
He created a distraction.
“Ahh!”he cried out suddenly, doubling up with a grimace of pain.He lifted his injured hand and gasped as if someone had just lopped it off.
It worked.With a look of horror, Carenza rushed toward him with the cup of wine.
“Here,” she said.“Drink this.Ye should feel better soon.”
He drank it down all at once while she paced, fretfully wringing her hands, distressed by his distress.
But the silence he’d purchased with his suffering couldn’t last forever.
Eventually the opium began to work.Soon he couldn’t recall why he was so concerned.In fact, he felt very calm.Pleasant.Delighted.
“Is the pain gone now?”she asked.
He smiled.Her voice sounded like bells.
“Aye.”
“’Tis my fault,” she said.“I should have given ye the wine sooner.”
“Nay, y’re not t’ blame.”The relief in her face made him happy, so he added, “Y’re…perfec’.”
She blushed at that.But he could tell the compliment pleased her.And suddenly he wanted to please her more.
“Y’r gown matches y’r eyes.Did y’ know that?”He could tell his words weren’t as smooth and polished as usual.But he wasn’t sure it mattered.
“So I’ve been told.”
“And y’r hair,” he murmured, gesturing with his uninjured hand.“How’d y’ get it in such wee braids…an’ coils…an’ loops?”
“’Tis my maid’s handiwork.”
“Ah.”He took a deep breath.“I like the way y’ smell.Like…roses?”
Her eyes twinkled.“Lavender from my bath.”
He nodded.“Y’r eyes look like stars.”Then he hesitated.“Did I already mention y’r eyes?”
“Ye did.But now I have a question o’ my own.”As it turned out, the wily lass hadn’t been distracted at all.“Whywereye skulkin’ about Dunlop that night?”
