“I cannae leave her,” Katherine replied, her voice low in case someone in the hall was listening at the door. “She needs me.”
Ainslee’s heart was torn. She wanted her cousin to join her, but she understood the need to protect Meredith in the same breath. “I cannae stay.”
Katherine laid a hand on her arm. “Of course not. Ye are dead, remember? Ye must leave this keep and this clan, and never return. I will find ye when the time is right.”
She wanted to beg her cousin to change her mind, but in the end, Ainslee pulled her into a tight embrace. “I will send word once I’ve settled.”
Katherine returned her embrace before pulling away and hurrying to her chest of drawers. She opened one and pulled out a small leather bag, thrusting it toward Ainslee.
“Here. I took this from Liam when he was not looking. ’Tis will be enough tae give ye safe passage.”
“I cannae,” Ainslee protested, but Katherine tucked it in one of her pockets, giving her a watery smile.
“Yes, ye can. Take it. Go live yer life, Ainslee, without the disguises and such.”
Ainslee lifted her chin, forcing back the tears. “I request one favor.”
“Of course.”
Ainslee spent the next few moments telling Katherine what she needed of her before grasping her cousin into a hug once more. “Be well, Cousin.”
Katherine hugged her quickly before releasing Ainslee and opening the door. “Thank ye, healer. I feel better. Perhaps I will see ye this evening at mah cousin’s table?”
“As always,” Ainslee replied in her raspy voice. “Forever yer servant.”
Once in the hallway, Ainslee squared her shoulders and started in another direction, where she knew she would find the kitchens. It was time to put her plan into action.
Two hours later, Ainslee walked down the hall back to the room the laird was being kept in, two tankards of ale in her grasp. To anyone that passed by, they looked like tankards, but inside, mixed with the ale, was starflower. It was not poisonous but would make the guards sleepier than normal once it was mixed with ale.
Ainslee hoped she had put enough in the ale for that reaction.
At least her brother had already started his evening activities, and the great hall was filled with their clan, the ale and whiskey flowing. She could only hope that he would not have the laird again this evening as the entertainment. Their time to escape was short either way and once the guards stumbled off, she would open the door with the keys she would remove from their person and they would take the old tunnels that led to the outbuildings. The tunnels had not been used in many years, so Ainslee was fairly sure she could get them out unseen.
Fairly sure.
The guards eyed her warily as she approached. Ainslee wished she didn’t have this disguise on so they would look at her more favorably. She was not a vain woman, but her own looks had to be a bit better than that of the healer.
“Here,” she said, thrusting the tankards at them. “For yer hard work.”
Thankfully, neither guard protested too much. “The laird said that ye may join the festivities,” she added as they drank them heavily.
One guard lowered his tankard, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “Wot about the prisoner?”
She shrugged. “Lock the door. I have no need tae be in the room this evening.”
They looked at each other, confused as to what to do, and Ainslee held her breath. If she could convince them to leave the key, then they just made their escape far too easy.
“Have ye not locked the door?”
“Nay,” one of the guards stated. “We were waiting for ye, healer.”
She gestured toward the door. “Then lock it! Do ye not know who ye have in there?”
The other guard scrambled to do her bidding and as soon as the key was in the lock, Katherine turned the corner. “There ye are!”
Both guards turned, and Ainslee quickly removed the set of keys, sliding them into her pocket.
“Ye are supposed tae be in the great hall,” Katherine was saying, her hands on her hips. “All the guards are.”
