With that he turned on his heel and was gone, leaving her a trifle disappointed at missing another outing with him, and uncomfortably aware of Tyra’s pointed gaze directed at her from inside the room.
Elyne produced a distraction –volumes of her carefully drawn fashions for both Annora and Tyra to study before decisions could be made about what styles and designs would suit them.
After Annora had settled on her choices for the indigo wool, the pale blue linen and the green and red wool, and Elyne had noted her measurements, Tyra bade them both good day and retired to the solar to continue her embroidery.
Annora was happy to idle in the herb garden, picking a few sweet-smelling stems for strewing in the bedchamber. She bent over the hyssop growing beside the castle wall, and gathered an armful of the sweetly-scented herb, along with some tiny blue and white flowers growing nearby that captured her fancy. As she rose, she was startled by the sound of a large rock, dislodged from somewhere high above, that came plummeting down, landing fair in the midst of the hyssop, where, only seconds before, she’d been leaning.
She let out a loud cry of surprise and fright, which brought Elyne running from her room.
“Oh, me goodness me dear lady, ye’re as white as a piece of bleached linen. What has happened to ye?”
All her breath suddenly expelled, Annora was lost for words. She could only point with one hand, while the other she held to her chest covering her pounding heart.
Taking in the size of the large rock, Elyne shook her head. “Me dear ye’ve had a narrow escape. I fear that if that had landed on ye, ye’d be nay more.” She placed an arm across Annora’s trembling shoulders. “Ye must come sit down in the sewing room tae gather yerself.” She gestured to her two assistants who were standing at the door, wide-eyed.
“Mariot, hasten tae the kitchen and have them prepare a posset fer the Lady Annora. And ye…” She gestured to the other stricken lass that helped her as Mariot scrambled down the path, “…collect the bundle of hyssop and the other herbs the lady was gathering.”
Taking Annora’s elbow, she guided her into the room and bade her be seated by the fire.
Annora, whose legs had momentarily lost their strength, gladly slumped into the chair.
“Why, I’ve ne’er once heard of stones falling from the castle wall. From now on, we shall all need tae take great care as we walk near the walls.”
Mariot hurried in with a warm posset and handed it to Annora. The spicy aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg bloomed in the air.
“Now go and seek Dougie MacPherson, the Seneschal,” Elyne commanded. “Bring him here tae see this.”
After taking a few deep breaths and sipping the posset, Annora quickly regained her strength and her wit. Although she said naught tae Elyne, she recalled hearing movement from the chamber above moments before the stone had plunged down. It occurred to her now there may have been someone there when the stone fell.
Could someone have done this deliberately?
Hardly daring to breathe, she toyed with the thought. Surely there was no one at the castle who would wish her harm?
Just as Annora drained the last of the calming posset, Mariot arrived with the Seneschal. She rose to go as he hastened in the door, his face etched with concern, a deep frown drawing his thick brows together.
He bowed. “Me lady, are ye well? Did harm come tae ye?” There was a quiver of alarm in his voice that threatened to send another little wave of terror coursing through her.
She shook her head. Now that she’d had time to recover her senses, and the spilled herbs had been gathered, she was determined to view the incident as something of little or no consequence. “’Tis nay matter, Seneschal, a mere accident.”
He huffed. “A mere accident that could have caused ye great harm, or worse.”
Annora took her leave of the three seamstresses and went back along the path with Dougie accompanying her. When they reached the place where the rock had fallen, he bent to study it.
“I shall bring our stonemason tae examine this,” He mopped his brow with a colored kerchief. “This daesnae look like a stone from the castle wall.”
The implication of that chilled Annora to the bone.
If that is so, this is the work of someone who wishes me ill.
She shook head, needing time to think this over. “Until the stonemason has given his opinion in this matter, I would appreciate yer discretion, Seneschal. I dinnae wish tae cause an upset. If this was an accident it will be timely fer the stone mason tae make repairs. Otherwise…” She was unable to bring herself to give voice to her fears.
Leaving the Dougie to his puzzling, she made her way back to the bedchamber, breathing slowly, trying to bring calm to her rushing thoughts.
When she slipped into the chamber, it seemed Edmund had not yet returned, so she seated herself by the fireside and took up the embroidery hoop she was preparing to work on.
It was best to say naught to Edmund. He was troubled enough by the mysterious rider he’d glimpsed in the forest and the task the Elders had set him. The answer would come soon enough from the stone mason and, until then, she would say nothing. Yet she would be careful wherever she ventured.
She had lost track of time when she heard Edmund’s tread at the door and he entered their chamber.
