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Bliss left the safety of the cottage and followed her instincts, the snow tapering off as she traveled. She had decided against telling Trey she was on her way home. He would worry, and he presently had enough to deal with.
She couldn’t help but wonder if fate had a hand in what was happening tonight. Had she grown tired of waiting? Was she forcing secrets to be revealed?
Whatever the answers, Bliss was glad of one thing ... Trey’s love.
She tucked her cape tightly around her and hurried her steps. It wouldn’t take her long to reach the keep though by then more trouble would be brewing.
Trey was still trying to comprehend what Leora had said as Mara and Mercy helped the weeping woman to the table in front of the hearth and wrapped a soft wool blanket around her shivering body.
He noticed that she had gotten much thinner than he had first realized, her gown hanging on her where once it had clung to her every curve. He felt bad for what she must have suffered, but it also made him wonder who this woman was. Had he ever known her? Had she ever loved him?
He shut his eyes for a moment against the unthinkable. Had she been a spy for King Kenneth all this time? He opened his eyes and saw on all their faces that their thoughts were similar to his.
Trey walked over to Leora and gently moved his mum aside. She looked ready to protest, but the resolve on his face warned her otherwise, and she stepped aside.
“It’s time to tell me the truth, Leora,” Trey said, sitting on the bench beside her.
The others gathered behind them, all eager to hear.
Her thin hand slipped out of the blanket and took hold of his. “I never meant to hurt you. You are a good man.”
“What have you done?” Trey asked, not knowing if he’d be relieved or hurt by her answer.
“You must understand that I had no other choice. King Kenneth took my da and held him prisoner. The only way he would even consider freeing him was if I”—she choked back tears—“if I infiltrated the MacAlpin clan and pretended to fall in love with one of the four warriors, one of whom would be king. I was to feed all information I learned to him and try to find out who was the true king. When I did, he promised he’d release my da.”
Trey sat silent. Their love had never been real, and yet he had believed it was. How could he have been so blind? He had brought peril on the true king. Did he continue to do so all in the name of love?
“You never found out the true king’s identity, so why was your death staged? Why did you leave?” Trey asked.
“The king was in a fury. He had discovered that a spy had infiltrated his court at the deepest level and was going mad with the need to find him. So he insisted I return and tell him everything I knew and help him find the spy.”
“We pulled our spy out before he could be discovered, and he didn’t go that deep in the king’s court,” Trey said.
“It wasn’t your spy,” she said, shaking her head. “I helped the king discover that his mistress was a Pict, and her intention all along was to waylay his plans to destroy the true king.”
Mercy gasped and rushed forward, Duncan fast to follow her. “My mum was no Pict.”
“You must be Mercy, the king’s daughter,” Leora said, “and from what I have learned, it is the truth. Your mum was a Pict.”
“But she had no markings,” Mercy said.
Leora shook her head. “I do not know anything about that. I only know that she was a Pict.”
Mercy turned to her husband, and he wrapped her in his large arms.
“Why did you return here?” Duncan demanded.
“You all seemed to thwart the king’s plans at every turn, from taking his stepdaughter to robbing him of a significant bride price. He believed he had another spy in his court, and the only way for him to find out was to send me back here. He insisted I wed Trey and gain his full confidence as only a wife could.”
“He used the threat of harming your da to force you to do this?” Trey asked.
“He had my da moved to one of his hidden prisons, where they do unspeakable—” She shook her head as tears trailed down her cheeks. “I couldn’t let my da suffer when I had the chance to save him. And now it is all for naught; my da will die a horrible death.”
“What were you doing in one of those prisons?” Charlotte asked.
“I had been there only a day and was about to escape, allowed to escape, and make my way back here when you suddenly showed up. I couldn’t believe my good fortune.”
Charlotte nudged Bryce in the side. “Remember Donald’s story?”
