Hew smiled.“The sooner we solve this,” he said, reaching out to caress her jaw, “the sooner we can be together…for aye.”
She sighed.“Then get out of here,” she said, pushing him away.“Go on.Shoo.”
He laughed.
Making sure everything was as they found it and their clothes properly fastened, they left and locked the chamber.
Carenza’s father was almost as sorry to see him leave as Carenza was.But Hew vowed he’d return within a sennight.A fortnight was too long to be away from his ladylove.
Carenza watched for him, but Peris didn’t return to Dunlop that night.She presumed that meant his patient was in critical condition and might not recover.But it also meant this might be an opportunity for robbery.
She wondered if Hew had found anything in his satchel.
The morn flew by.Noon came and went.The afternoon passed.Night fell.
The physician still hadn’t come home to Dunlop.
Had Hew found the store of treasure on his person and exposed him to the abbot?
Or was Peris waiting for a safe time to return?
After he missed supper, Carenza stayed awake, warming her toes by the fire in the great hall as the hour grew later and later.
She was just about to drift off when she heard the front door open.It was Peris.
Shaking herself awake, she scrambled to her feet and smoothed her skirts.Then she picked her way through the dozing clan folk to intercept him.
“Psst!Peris.”
He flinched once, but ignored her and kept on rushing toward his chamber.
Surprised, she hastened her pace.“Peris.”
He didn’t look up.
She knew he could hear her.Why wasn’t he responding?
He seemed terribly nervous, which made the hair stand up at the back of her neck.Was it true?Had he stolen valuables off of a corpse?
Determined to find out, she followed him as he left the great hall.
“Peris!”she called out as he rattled his key in the lock of his door.
That he couldn’t ignore.He licked his lips and turned the key.“Can it wait until the morrow, m’lady?”
When he turned to her, she could see tears standing in his eyes.Lines of worry and fatigue were etched in his forehead.Against her better judgment—after all, this was the man who’d almost poisoned the man she loved—her heart went out to him.She remembered he’d just come from the bedside of a dying man.And she remembered he’d looked exactly the same way on the day he told her father his wife was gone.
She asked him gently, “Did ye have a difficult day?”
“Aye,” he said, dropping his gaze to the ground.
“A death?”
He nodded.
“Would ye like to tell me about it?”
“I’d just like to get some sleep, m’lady, if ’tis all right with ye.”
