‘Grabbing the barrel of a gun is not the most sensible idea,’ Lachlan observed and Mal gave him a look of such heavy sarcasm that it almost fell off his face.
‘Yes. Thanks. Ten minutes ago that would have been great advice. Now it just comes over as smug, and, seriously? When everyone is shouting “Stop him, Mal!” I was running low on options.’
‘Good move luring the goat though,’ I said. ‘And you did an amazing job getting to George so fast.’
‘No commendations on my bravery?’
‘Any bullets would probably have gone straight through you,’ Lachlan said, clearly not sounding quite certain enough to reassure Mal. ‘I don’t think we can die, because of the paradox it would create. But I’m glad we didn’t have to test that theory.’
Mal just rolled his eyes and went back to nursing his hand. I left them all to it and approached George, who had lost some of the worst of the green tinge to his face but was still glassy eyed.
‘You’re sure you’re all right?’ I asked him.
He glanced around, making sure that nobody was watching. Nobody was – all the workers were treating an earl collapsing outside his own castle following the ‘accidental’ death of his brother-in-law as an everyday occurrence and getting on with their various tasks.
‘I’m not altogether certain,’ George said, his voice low and his eyes fixed on the horizon. ‘But I’m not shot, and for that I must thank you, my demon.’ Now his eyes came back from contemplating the hereafter and rested on my face. ‘I am assuming that you bewitched the goat, yes?’
I thought about explaining the ongoing antagonism between a completely invisible demon and the goat, tried out several sentences in my head, dismissed them and just said, ‘Yes.’
George sighed. More colour was coming back to his face now. ‘I trusted him, you know,’ he said quietly. ‘Like my own brother. But he was raving, come the end. You know he planned to kill me under the confusion of riding to the battle? So, when I refused to ride, he had to come up with another plan.’ George sighed. ‘All because his family have no castle nor lands for him to inherit and I and mine benefit from his sister’s dowry.’
‘Shooting you outside your own castle isn’t really a plan though, is it?’ I objected. ‘It’s expediency. What if someone saw?’
George’s expression now turned slightly pitying. ‘You think anyone would admit to seeing? When he would be the new master of the castle? Aye, Jamie was my heir, I made him soin order that Isobel and the girls would be looked after, should anything happen to me.’ He sighed again. ‘I never considered that something might happen to me at his hand.’
A cold wind blew across us. George shivered. He still looked a little bit ill, but the fixed stare had gone and the hand that rested on the pommel of his sword no longer shook.
‘What will you tell Isobel?’ I asked. Across the yard I could see Kenna advancing on us holding a small cup carefully in both hands, as though it contained explosives.
He swallowed and I saw his lips writhe as though he were tasting the words that must be said and finding them bitter. ‘I shall tell her he fell. As I told those here; an accident. Only an accident.’ He shook his head. ‘She does not need the truth.’
‘Here, my lord.’ Kenna reached us and held out the cup. She glanced around and then smiled to herself. ‘The wee spirit is still here. Is she protecting you?’
George looked suspiciously at the contents of the cup and then up at Kenna. ‘Yes, Kenna,’ he said evenly. ‘She and the other spirits are my guardian angels.’
Kenna nodded wisely. ‘I was thinking more that the goat may be your guardian angel,’ she said, watching him gulp down the liquid. ‘But spirits are probably more ethereal. Nobody wants to be saved by a goat.’
She took the empty cup from his hand and walked away with it.
‘She’s right, though,’ I said. ‘You can thank the goat.’
Cellar Dog had his head on George’s knee again, and was having his ears rubbed.
The wind came again, bladed with shards of ice. The sky had greyed over and I could see Fergus leading the horses back into the stable building, casting mutinous glances at the sky as he went.
‘More weather,’ I observed idly. ‘Are you going to ride after your soldiers now?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ll stay here the night. Wait for the storm to pass and then set out in the morning. I’ll have a few days to think how to tell my wife that her brother is dead.’
The words seemed to bring home the gravity of the situation again and he took a deep breath but stayed sitting.
‘Pax! Come on, let’s get under cover,’ Lachlan called to me from where he and Kaylinn were waiting at the top of the castle steps. ‘Looks like it might be snow this time.’
As he spoke the first whispers of snowflakes began to descend from the heavy sky and George stood up.
‘I’ll take myself away indoors,’ he said and then gave me a very George-like grin. ‘I’ve had Kenna’s potions before and I don’t want to be too far from the garderobe for a while.’ A hand came up as though to touch my cheek. ‘Thank you, Pax, my demon,’ he breathed. ‘Be safe. I hope you get home.’ Then he stood up and walked confidently and strongly up the remaining steps and into the castle, passing through Lachlan without so much as a shiver.
The wind whistled. There was an ominous note to it, and overhead the sky was the dark of gathering night, even though it could only be mid-morning.
