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A sick feeling in his stomach, Kade pulled the furs down to his waist, then straightened abruptly again.
"He has been stabbed," Will said in hushed tones.
Averill's first awareness was a pounding head and a miserable tenderness around her eye. Grimacing as she noticed she was only seeing out of one eye, she tried to force the other open and sighed when it was too swollen to manage it.
"Averill?"
Frowning at Kade's tone, one that suggested it wasn't the first time he'd said her name, she rolled onto her back to peer at him out of her good eye and found him looming over her, his expression one she wouldn't care to have to see too often. He looked cold and grim beyond countenance.
"Tell me what happened last night?" her husband demanded the moment he saw that she was awake.
"L-last night?" Averill stammered, recollection rolling back through her head.
Kade sighed, some of the coldness seeping from him as he settled on the side of the bed. "Do no' stammer. I am no' angry with ye, but this is important. What happened with Brodie?"
Averill hesitated, then rather than answer, she asked, "Have you banished him, or has he agreed to stop drinking?"
"Neither. He is dead," Kade said baldly.
"What?" She sat up abruptly, as shocked as if he'd poured cold water over her in the warm bed.
"He is dead, wife," Kade repeated quietly. "Now tell me what happened."
"How?"
"I will explain after you tell me what occurred last night," he said firmly, his expression determined.
Averill frowned at his tone. Kade claimed he wasn't angry, but his tone said otherwise. Deciding that it mattered little to tell him now if Brodie was dead, she dropped to lie back in the bed, and said, "He was in our room when I went in after taking up the tray for Domnall. I was weary and Morag had suggested I eat in our room, that she would bring up a tray. When I entered, he was there. He covered my mouth so I could not scream and said he had come to ask me why I was poisoning him. That he'd suspected something was wrong when he kept getting sick, but had known for sure when he went down to the inn that night and drank whiskey without his stomach rebelling. He called me a murdering bitch, threw me on the bed, came down on top of me, and punched me in the face." She paused briefly then, debating whether to tell her husband Brodie had claimed he was going to rape and kill her, but then decided not to bother. Brodie was dead, and it would only hurt Kade.
Sighing, she continued, "And then Morag hit him over the head, and he slumped on top of me, unconscious."
"And then what happened?" Kade asked quietly when she paused.
Averill shrugged. "Morag helped me roll him off and we left him there."
"He was covered up with furs," Kade said solemnly.
"Aye. I decided you and I would sleep in here and had Bess help me make up the bed with fresh linens, but we had no furs for the bed, so we took Brodie's from his room, rolled him around to get our furs out from under him, then tossed his furs over him before leaving." She frowned, and said, "I am sure he was not dead then, husband. He was limp, but still warm. You do not think it was the tincture that did him in, do you?"
"He was stabbed," Kade said quietly, and Averill jerked upright in the bed again.
"Stabbed?"
"Aye. In the back," Will announced, drawing her attention to his presence. He was standing on the left side of the bed, in her present blind spot, and she had to turn her head a good way to see him.
Averill turned back to Kade to ask with bewilderment, "But who would stab him?"
"Any number o' people," Kade said wearily. "He was no' well liked here."
"If he was the target," Will commented, and when Averill and Kade both turned to him in surprise, he shrugged, and pointed out, "He was in your bed, Kade. It could have been someone thinking it was you. You have already had other attempts on your life."
"But those were all away from the keep," Averill protested quickly, not wishing to believe it had been another attempt on Kade.
"The stone that was pushed off the curtain wall onto him was not away from the keep," Will pointed out.
"But that was outside, not inside the castle itself. Surely a murderer would not risk creeping around the castle and..." She fell silent as Kade covered her hand with his own and squeezed gently.
"I ken ye doona want to believe our home has been breached, but Will is right, it could ha'e been meant fer me, and we must consider that."
Sighing, Averill nodded and lowered her head, admitting to herself that it might very well have been meant for her husband. And then anger washed through her, and she lifted her head again to glare out of her one good eye. "Have you not yet figured out who would be behind these attacks? Surely for someone to be so angry at you and determined to see you dead, you must have an idea why or who?"
"Nay," Kade said calmly, and added, "I've wracked me mind, but there's no one I can think o'."
"Mayhap it is not someone you have angered," Will reasoned, then asked, "Who would benefit from your death?"
Kade shook his head. "No one. Well, mayhap Gawain. He would be next in line did me father no' reclaim his title and position as laird."
"Not Gawain," Will said with a shake of the head, and Averill tended to agree with him. She liked what she knew of the man, so far. Now, had Gawain been accidentally killed, she would have had no trouble believing Brodie behind it, but she just did not think Gawain the sort.
"Nay," Kade agreed as he stood. "I shall have to think on it some more."
"Where are you going?" Averill asked worriedly. If the person trying to kill her husband had brought his efforts inside the castle, Kade would not be safe anywhere, she thought, and said, "If you are correct, should you not arrange for a guard for protection?"
"Aye. I'll set two men outside the door while ye sleep," he said reassuringly. "They will follow ye throughout the day today, and another two will guard our door at night."
"Not for me," she said with exasperation. "'Tis you someone is trying to kill. I meant a guard for you."
"I will not leave his side, Avy," Will said quietly. "And if I do, I shall ensure someone else is with him to keep him safe."
Kade grimaced at the words, but merely said, "We'll go below and leave ye to get more sleep. I ken ye had trouble droppin' off last night."
Kade and Will started across the room, b
ut Averill called out, "Husband?"
Pausing at the door, he glanced back. When she hesitated, he quietly asked Will to wait in the hall. The moment her brother had stepped out of the room, he closed the door and returned to stand beside the bed. "Aye?"
"I am sorry about your brother," Averill murmured, and she was. She was not that broken up over Brodie's death, but she was sorry for Kade that his brother was dead.
He nodded. "Thank ye."
"Are you very upset?" she asked uncertainly, wondering how she was to comfort him.
"Nay," Kade assured her on a sigh, and tried to explain his feelings, something she suspected he did not often do. "He was me brother, but I hardly kenned him...and I didna like him. While I'm sorry he's dead, I feel no real grief at the loss. In truth, the news o' Ian's death saddened me more."
Averill nodded, supposing she wasn't surprised. She doubted if anyone but Kade's father would feel grief at Brodie's passing...and possibly Gawain and Merry...which seemed terribly sad, and yet the man had brought it on himself with his cruel actions. 'Twas hard to feel any real grief at the loss of a tyrant.
"Get some rest," Kade said, and turned away. This time she let him leave without calling him back, but she also tossed the bed furs aside the moment the door closed behind him and got up to dress.
There was no way she was going to be able to sleep now. Brodie was dead, and it was all her fault. Had she told Kade last night that the man was in their bed, he might have been moved to his own and still be alive.
Of course, then she and Kade would have been sleeping in their room last night, and her husband would have been the one stabbed, Averill thought grimly. Perhaps she didn't feel so guilty about her actions getting Brodie killed. She was selfish enough to be glad it was him and not her husband. And, truthfully, this was probably the first useful thing the man had done in his life. Too bad it was his last.
Chapter Seventeen
"Wife." Kade paused on the stairs as he encountered Averill coming down as he went up. "I thought ye'd sleep a while longer."
"Nay." She grimaced, but shook her head. "I am awake now and have things to do."
Kade hesitated, his gaze sliding to the room at the top of the stairs. He'd just finished breaking his fast with Will and Gawain. The two men were convinced Brodie's death was the result of another attempt on Kade's life. He tended to agree with them and had decided that two armed guards should be placed in the upper hall at night to ensure such a thing didn't happen again.
