Chapter Fifteen
She endured a hellish night. William had developed a high fever and no amount of cool cloths would bring it down.
Somewhere after midnight the old lady who insisted to be called Nan arrived with a satchel filled with different vials and bunches of dried plants.
Her bag of tricks, she’d called it. Neville had left for the village not long after they’d settled William into their chamber.
He told her that the chamber and the castle would be guarded and to let no one except for him and the old lady enter.
Agnes helped Nan mix and stir her ingredients all the while the old lady singing old tunes Agnes had never heard.
Old Gael’s tunes, she told her while they tried to position William so they could pour some in his mouth.
He spurted and sputtered, but eventually managed to get two cups of the mixture that oddly had little smell into him.
“And now we wait,” Nan said.
They did wait and somewhere around dawn his fever finally broke, and they were able to roll him so they could change the soaked bed covers and put on fresh.
Agnes was exhausted. Nan had fallen asleep in the chair by the hearth despite Agnes insisting on finding her a bed. She wanted to be close when William awoke as according to her, he would have a nasty headache from the poison for a few hours.
Agnes lay down beside him and though his fever had broken, his skin was still hot to the touch, as if the poison clung to him, unyielding in its purpose.
She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but images of him with arrows sticking out of his shoulder and thigh would give her no peace.
She rolled over to her side and put her arm across his chest hoping the steady thud of his heart would settle her.
After a time she finally dozed, but only for a few minutes before William started shaking. She got up to get a cloth, and Nan woke at the same time.
“Time to mix the next set of tonics, lass.”
While Nan pulled other plants from her satchel, Agnes mopped William’s brow. She hated this. Hated seeing him in such a state. And she hated not having full understanding of the true danger surrounding them.
Neville knocked and entered just as they were pouring more mixture into William’s mouth. This tincture reeked of something rotten. Thankfully, though he choked on it a little, he swallowed it.
“He will sleep now for the rest of the day and by then the poison will have run the worst of its course,” Nan said. “Now I’ll take that bed.”
“I have it already arranged,” Neville said. “Tell Connor outside to bring you to the white room.”
After she left, Neville turned to Agnes. “The king has sent many guards to ensure our safety.”
“But how did he know we were attacked?”
“William had anticipated such and instructed one of the guards in your party to travel to Stirling instead of here with a missive and a request for added protection.”
“He hadn’t told me that.”
“He didn’t want you to worry.”
“But I had good reason, didn’t I?” The stress of the last several hours welled within her, threatening to spill over. She didn’t want to unleash it on Neville, but he was unfortunately the only one present at the moment to whom she could vent.
“My lady, protecting his family is his lordship’s highest priority.”
“I understand that, but in doing so it is he who has been fighting for his life on that bed.”
Agnes clenched and unclenched her fists. She was tired of everyone around her making decisions having a direct impact on her without her consult or awareness.
“I am sorry, my lady. Is there anything I can have brought to you?”
“Aye, a platter of food and mead, and the same for Nan. And I want parchment, ink, quill, and wax seal.”
Neville tilted his head to the side, but thankfully said nothing.
She expected him to obey her without question.
He was not familiar enough with her to challenge her.
She was finished with letting everyone else work on solutions and, by God, she would take matters into her own hands.
She was the one who’d traveled to Stirling with her uncle.
She could have forewarned Fin, the queen, and William.
But she had been so enchanted by the king’s court and William that she’d focused on her own childish desires rather than the safety and protection of others.
She’d brought the devil to court.
And she would remedy this business if it was the last thing she ever did.
Neville returned with all the items she had requested and quietly waited. Good. He knew his place and that pleased her and made her respect him all the more. After she broke her fast, she sat down to write her own missive.
Your Honorable Majesty;
I write to you in good faith to express my sincerest thanks for your kindness to us in sending your guards for our protection.
Your generosity is unmatched, as is your grace.
I share with you, the earl has succumbed to injury due to poisoned arrows in his shoulder and thigh.
He has weathered the poison and will heal in full according to the healer who attended him.
I ask one further favor of you. Would you kindly spare one of your surgeons to come see to him to ensure his limbs will sustain no permanent damage.
I fear that expertise may lie beyond our healer.
I also wish to inform you, I am writing a missive to your wife to continue my friendship with her as I am hopeful I am no longer suspected of treason. I humbly await your reply,
Your faithful servant,
Agnes Montrose
Anges folded the letter and sealed it then pulled new parchment to start her next letter.
Your Honorable Majesty, my dear friend;
I have informed His Majesty of my husband’s injury and that of his expected recovery and thanked him for the extra protection.
But I write to you for a different reason.
As soon as my husband has proven he is no longer in mortal danger, it is my intention to travel to you in order to speak with my uncle to plead with him to order the immediate cessation of attacks on those under royal protection.
I am certain with my persistence we can resolve this matter once and for all.
I kindly await your reply and am hopeful of your compliance to my request.
Your faithful servant and friend,
Agnes Montrose
She folded her second letter and sealed it in the same manner as the first. Once done, she handed both to Neville.
“Have these sent to the palace in the safest and fastest manner possible. I wish the rider to wait for a reply.”
Neville looked confused for a moment as he looked down at the letters and then to her as well. “My lady, do you wish to consult with me regarding the content of the letters?”
“There is no need for you to worry, Neville. While you’re thinking about the safest and fastest way to do as I ask, also devise a way that you may offer the same way for me to travel there as well, as soon as I am sure my husband’s peril has passed.”
Neville looked over at William and back to her and shook his head. He looked positively mortified. “My lady, I don’t think—”
Agnes put her hand up. “I am not asking you to think. I am asking you to do two things and do them well. I have a lot riding on both and I assure you, your laird will not blame you for my actions. I will see to it with my third letter. Now go. Twenty miles is a long distance, and I will not rest until a reply is returned.”
To his credit, he left the chamber immediately. The sun was still low in the sky so she would wait to speak to Nan to find out how long it would be before William woke and would be aware. If he knew of her plan, he would forbid it, and she couldn’t let that happen.
Nay, she must get to her uncle and convince him she was a supporter. That was the only way she could acquire the intelligence the king needed to put a stop to all this madness.
Agnes took another piece of parchment and dipped the quill in the ink then hesitated.
How much of her plan would she reveal to him?
Would that put him in more danger? She had to tell him something so his anger would not be misplaced onto Neville.
But she did not want him tearing off to ruin her plot. She could do this.
My dearest husband;
*
William was somewhere between heaven and hell each time he woke.
He was either racked with pain and fever or he floated along on some cloud where his sense of touch had completely disappeared as though he did not possess a body.
How much time had passed since his injury he could not say but each time he woke, Agnes was by his side tending to him and cooing sweet words.
He would regain his strength and do everything in his power to make them safe again, so they did not need to live like they were in their own self-made prison.
William woke with a start and immediately searched the bed for Agnes.
He sat up and looked around the dark chamber.
A fire burned low in the hearth, and someone sat by the fire with white hair spilling over the back.
He whipped back the covers and swung his long legs down to the floor.
The movement made everything around him spin and he fell back onto the bed holding his head with his hands.
A low pounding started at the base of his skull. He closed his eyes to dull it.
“Now, now. You are not ready to be out of bed yet. The poison will hurt your head for a few days yet, so you need to rest.”
He knew the voice immediately. The bed covers were pulled up over him as she said, “Here you must drink this. ’Tis not pleasant, but it will aid the pain in your head.”
He opened his eyes and took the cup from Old Nan. He drank the liquid which tasted like rotten meat, but he downed it anyway as he trusted her as much as anyone.
“Where is my wife?”
“You need not worry about her now,” she said. “Wait a minute and the tonic will help with your head.”
William sat up though his head started spinning again.