She’d just felt the prick when Hew hauled Peris forward by his leine and set the edge of his axe at the physician’s throat.
“A hostage for a hostage,” he bit out.
The physician squealed, rolling his eyes in fear.
But the prior was too concerned for his own survival to care about his accomplice.
“Go on,” he growled.“Kill him.”
Hew was afraid of that.There was no leverage against a rabid animal that was cornered and desperate.
His heart thundered.His breath froze in his chest.The single crimson drop of Carenza’s blood rolling down the blade made him shudder with rage.
But in the end, there was only one thing to do.
Even though it went against his every instinct as a warrior, he couldn’t let harm come to the woman he loved.The woman he intended to wed.The woman who meant the world to him.
He tossed his axe away and released the prior, who sank onto the floor.
“Let her go,” he croaked.“I won’t follow.I give you my word.”
“Nay,” Carenza sobbed in protest.
Hew understood how she felt.It was hard to surrender.To accept injustice.To fight for what was right and still fail.
But some things were more important than winning.Sometimes you had to pick your battles.Amor vincit omniawas more than just the Rivenloch creed.It was a truth.Love was the most powerful force of all.
For one awful instant, Hew feared the prior wasn’t going to let her go after all.He hesitated.His eyes darted around the room.His hand tightened on the grip of his dagger.
Somehow Hew managed to keep his voice steady as he rasped out, “You don’t want her blood on your hands.If you leave now, we’ll remain here until dawn.”
As further proof of his surrender, Hew raised his arms up and sat in the corner on one of the chairs.
It seemed an eternity before the prior finally decided he could make a clean escape.He shoved Carenza away from him so that she fell at Hew’s feet.Hew curled his arm around her, less to protect her and more to keep her from lunging toward the prior to scratch his eyes out.
Still wielding his dagger, the prior slowly backed out of the room.
But he forgot about the physician, his accomplice, his partner in crime, that only a moment ago he would have happily allowed to be killed.
Peris was understandably bitter about that.And he was in no mood to forgive the prior.He seized Hew’s axe where it lay on the ground and turned the blade upwards.Then he tripped the prior so that he fell backwards onto the edge.
The blow didn’t kill him at once.Hew covered Carenza’s face so she wouldn’t see the prior’s thrashing or hear his piteous screams.But within moments, the physician opened a double locket from around his neck and poured the contents—a white powder—into the prior’s mouth.It must have been fast-acting poison.Foam spilled from between the prior’s lips, and then he went still.
Hew wondered if this was the sort of mercy killing Peris had been doing at Kildunan in order to steal the nobles’ jewels.It might be quick, but it was still murder.The physician would likely be tried and executed.
Looking into Peris’s eyes, he saw the man’s dark fate written there as well.Execution was not what the physician intended.Before Hew could prevent him, Peris opened the second side of the locket and ingested the rest of the powder.
Hew held Carenza close while Peris suffered the thankfully brief paroxysms of agony.The physician might have been a thief and a murderer, deserving of death.But at one time he’d cared for her mother.This was something Carenza didn’t need to see.
Chapter 23
Carenza scratched Troye behind the ear as they stopped in a sunny spot of the rain-washed glen.He had only a wee scar left on his jaw from his violent altercation with Peris, thanks to Dunlop’s new physician, Thomas.Thomas adored animals, to her delight, and could be seen tending to them as often as his human patients.
Since Kildunan didn’t want it bandied about that they’d had a thief in their employ or that anyone had met an untimely death on their watch, the monastery thefts were mostly kept secret.Father James was never privy to the nefarious activities that had taken place at the monastery.The monks, for their part, kept silent.The treasures were quietly returned to their places, and the jewels were added to the monastery coffers to provide for the poor.The physician’s death had been deemed an unfortunate accident, and the abbot declared simply that the prior had gone missing.
Of course, Hew informed her father privately about the investigation, since it centered on Dunlop and their physician.Carenza’s part in solving the crime had to go unremarked.But she supposed that was for the best.Her father would never have approved of her taking such risks to life and limb.
Now that Hew’s work for the abbot was complete, he could be released from Kildunan.And since her father was fond of the Rivenloch warrior, Hew was free to linger at Dunlop for as long as he liked.
