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The farmer looked into his eyes for a long moment, then finally nodded. Terran raced from the room.

Chapter thirty-two

Terran rode into Castle Delaney hard and reined in his horse in the courtyard. His face was flushed and sweaty, his lungs straining with the exertion of the fast ride. The sun was inching its way over the horizon. The castle was just waking up, and the courtyard was empty of people. Cursing, Terran spurred the horse on, searching for someone, anyone, to ask of the herbalist’s whereabouts.

A young woman stepped out of the door to the keep, a basket of dirty laundry in her hands. Terran turned his horse toward her and kicked the animal to full speed. She took a few steps into the courtyard before he reached her and bent down to grab her arm.

She screamed and pulled back in fright, sending the basket of laundry tumbling to the ground.

Terran shook her. “Where is the herbalist?”

“The... the herbalist?” she stammered, trying to make sense of this wild man towering over her.

“The herbalist!” Terran demanded. “Where is the herbalist?”

“In the garden,” she replied, trying to pull her arm free of his hold.

Terran yanked the girl forward, grabbing her around the waist and hauling her onto the horse. “Where?” he ordered. “Show me where this garden is.”

“Why do you want the herbalist? Who are you?” she asked.

Terran gritted his teeth at having to explain to a peasant. “I am Lord Knowles. Lady Bria is in grave danger.”

“It’s that way.” The girl directed him deeper into the castle without further pause. “He should be in there. He’s in there early every morning tending to his plants.”

He looked over to where she was pointing to see a small enclosure built of stone with walls about two feet high. He could see greenery beyond the low wall. He released the girl, lowering her back to the ground, then rode hard toward the small garden. The horse leaped the wall easily. Terran scanned the enclosure, looking for anyone who could help him. Anyone at all.

A man suddenly appeared from behind a row of blackberry bushes and came running at him, waving a fist. “What do you think you’re doing? Get that animal out of here! You’re trampling the –”

Terran urged the horse forward with a kick. He grabbed the man by his tunic front, shoving his face into his. He didn’t have time for this. “Where is the herbalist?” he growled.

“I -- I am the herbalist,” the man replied quietly.

Anxiety tightened Terran’s stomach as he loosened his hold on the man. “Lady Bria has been poisoned. You must come with me.”

He heard gasps from behind him, but didn’t turn.

“What kind of poison?” the herbalist asked.

Terran shook his head. “I don’t know. We have to leave. Now!”

The man nodded. “I’ll get my things.”

Terran released him and the man raced toward a small thatched hut near the rear of the garden, leaving Terran alone for a long moment. He wanted to scream at the man, wanted to go in after him and pack his things, anything to make him hurry. Bria could be... He refused to finish the thought. He refused to think his wife, the woman he loved -- yes, loved -- was slipping away, and he couldn’t be at her side.

Terran’s hands gripped the reins so tightly his knuckles ached. How could this have happened? Why had she left him in the middle of the night? Where had she gone?

A sudden, vivid image of Kenric shoving poison through her lovely lips with his dirty fingers flashed through his mind. Terran’s jaw clenched. Kenric said there was no herbalist, and yet here he was at Castle Delaney at Bria’s urging, getting an herbalist to save her life. Had Kenric not known about this herbalist? Why would he try to kill Bria? What would it serve him? Was Bria lying? She didn’t lie about being a virgin, a small voice inside him reminded.

And what about Bria’s declaration Kenric killed Odella? Was it true? If Kenric had poisoned Bria, why not Odella, too? Rage simmered in Terran’s veins. All this time, I believed Odella’s death was my fault. All this time.

Terran cursed silently. There’s more to this. It doesn’t make sense. Why would Kenric kill Odella in the first place? I’ll discover the truth and see things righted. He shook himself. Where was that cursed herbalist?

Finally, the man ran out of the house, holding a large sack in his hand. Terran grabbed his shirt front and hauled him up behind him. Then he spurred his horse hard toward Castle Knowles.

Terran held the herbalist’s arm in a steely grip as he pulled him through the halls of Castle Knowles. He reached the door to his room and threw it open, then stopped cold at the sight that greeted him. Bria lay on the bed, unmoving, eerily still. But what made Terran’s heart freeze was Kenric standing at her bedside.

Where the hell was that wretched farmer? Had he abandoned Bria?