Then he asked, “What should I do?”
“I think you could go tae the solar, the men are gathering there and we’re all supposed to be completely normal, it seems like that’s what you should do.”
He turned to Lizbeth, sitting by the fire in her chair. “Ye will be alright if I go meet the men?”
She waved her hand, “Aye, ye can go, I will be alright.”
Liam kissed her cheek. “Thank ye, m’wife.”
“Ye are welcome, m’lord.” Their hands were clasped, their grasp stretched, then a last squeeze of fingers, and he pulled away and left.
I sat down across from her and waited until the door was closed and the room quiet again. “Why did you do it?”
She met my eyes. “He threatened my Liam, I couldna let it stand.”
“Oh, Liam? What could he possibly have on Liam?”
“I canna speak on it, Kaitlyn, sometimes husbands and wives hae secrets. I dinna ken what I would do tae protect him, but I learned taeday that I would do most anything.”
“I see that, and I would go to great lengths to protect Magnus... I guess you take after yer mother in that regard. She will do anything to protect her family. But Liam? Really?”
“Aye, twas from his youth, Kaitlyn, and I honestly canna say it, tis between him and God.” She looked down at her hands. “I suppose ye think I shouldna hae killed him. That it was evil.”
I scoffed. “That is not what I think at all. No one thinks you’re evil. At least no one in your family.”
“Ye daena, truly?”
I shook my head. “In my past I would have, but now... I don’t know if you know this but I have killed people, I killed Magnus’s father and Archie’s real mother. Both times in self-defense... It was a shock that I would do it, but it was kill or be killed. I had to kill Bella, I had to, she was destroying our lives. I didn’t much like myself after that, but I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it. I had to survive. This is also the situation you find yourself in.”
“What dost ye mean?”
“You killed him. It’s done. Good or bad, it’s over. Whatever reason you did it for: because of what he said about you, about his treatment of Lady Mairead, some secret he was going to divulge, it’s over?—”
“He threatened Liam, said he would destroy us, and that I was never allowed tae come back.”
I shook my head and frowned. “That is terrible, Lizbeth.”
“So I killed him.”
“You carried poison with you?”
She said, “Nae, I had it hidden, I went for it and came back. I am diabolical.”
“Lady Mairead’s secret stash?”
She nodded.
“She might be the one who is truly diabolical with secret stashes hidden around the castle, probably every castle she resides in.”
Then she said, “Liam is the best of men, ye ken?”
“I do, he is steadfast and honorable.”
She nodded quietly. “He daena deserve the evil the Earl wanted tae unleash on him.”
“I would feel the same way if someone threatened Magnus, I would do the same if he was threatened and I had the power to end it.”
She looked me in the eyes. “Come tae find out I hae a great deal of power.”
