Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
“What does a marriage of convenience mean?” Daisy asked, looking confused.
Keira shook her head. “I shouldnae have told ye.”
“Yes, ye should. I am nearly sixteen, and ye promised never to lie to me.” Daisy insisted, taking Keira’s hand and kissing it, looking at her earnestly. “I ken he cares for ye.”
Keira sighed. “Maybe he does a little, but it is a passing fancy. I could never marry a man who dinnae want me for a wife except to protect me.”
“That’s as bad as what Lucas was offerin’.”
Keira turned from her seat by the fire to find her brother standing in the doorway.
He entered, leaving it open, his jaw set and his face twisted into a scowl that did not suit him.
“That isnae true,” Keira said gently. “Noah isnae like him. He has our best interests at heart.”
“Aye. Perhaps, but Lucas promised he’d marry ye to protect ye from the rumors he had spread about ye. MacAllen is saying he’ll do the same.”
Keira nodded. “I ken it sounds that way, but he is different.”
She could not think of Noah and Lucas as anything close to the same man. Quite apart from the fact that Lucas had never looked at her as anything other than a possession, the way that Noah made her feel was unlike anything she had experienced before.
He made her feel alive—like she was worth something.
She sighed, looking into the dying fire.
As she contemplated ringing for a servant to ask for it to be refreshed, there was a loud rattle from the door, and Fenella appeared with a coal scuttle and a basket of logs. She looked a little harried, but her cold gaze was the same as it had been when she had delivered the note the day before.
Scott stood up a little straighter in Fenella’s presence and immediately walked across the room to help her with the scuttle and bring it to the fireplace.
Keira watched him carefully. He barely took his eyes off her, a slight redness to his cheeks as he wordlessly took the heavy pail from her hands.
But Fenella paid him no attention. Her easy manner and kindness had disappeared.
Keira watched her kneel before the fire, sweeping out the ashes, saying nothing at all to any of them. “What is it, Fenella?” she demanded, worry twisting in her gut as she contemplated the girl. It did not seem in character for Fenella to suddenly act like this. A lurking suspicion was forming in Keira’s mind that she did not like.
Her question appeared to surprise the maid, who dropped one of the logs she was holding as she spun round to stare at her. It was clear she was not used to being addressed so directly by guests of the castle.
“Are we nae friends?” Keira asked.
Fenella sniffed, looking her up and down primly and flicking a wary glance at Scott, but she was still defiant.
“I am nae friend of any witch ,” she hissed.
Scott took a menacing step forward, his fists clenching at his sides, all evidence of his admiration for Fenella forgotten as he angrily came to Keira’s defense. She tried to pull him back as he towered over the kneeling girl.
“It’s alright, Scott.”
“Daenae say that!” he thundered, as Fenella cowered back in fear. “It’s lies; whatever ye have heard, it is all lies.”
In his agitation, he pointed an angry finger at the girl, and she fell sideways in her haste to get to her feet and escape his wrath. Keira could see what would happen before it took place but was powerless to prevent it.
The poor girl’s hand went out automatically as she lost her balance, landing firmly on the red-hot grate around the fire.
She gave a cry of pain as her hand connected with the metal, snatching it back and scurrying away from the fire whilst still on her knees, tears welling in her eyes.
Keira rushed forward, kneeling beside her as Fenella shook her hand against her side to try and relieve some of the pain.
“Me hand! Och it burns,” Fenella cried as the tears began running down her cheeks. Keira gripped her wrist gently, helping her to her feet and leading her by the fire.
“Scott, me bag, could ye fetch it?” Keira asked.
“I—I’m sorry,” Scott stammered, paralyzed with shock as he stared at the maid’s hand. “Fenella, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, Scott, ye didn’t intend it. Me bag, quickly please! Bring the tallow,” Keira said, and he rushed out of the room. Keira examined the sight of the burn, which was already turning a nasty red. “Let me help,” she said stiffly as Fenella tried to pull her hand away. “I only wish to help ye,” Keira insisted.
Fenella could only nod through her pain, wiping at her tears.
Daisy appeared beside them with a basin of cold water, and once Scott had returned with her bag, Keira took her time bathing the burn and cooling it with liniment as the girl’s tears slowly subsided.
Scott hovered nearby, wracked with guilt, as Keira gently tended to Fenella. Once the wound was bandaged and she had placed some tallow over the site to soothe it, Keira sat back and leveled the maid with a hard stare.
“I am nae witch,” she said firmly. “I am a healer ; that is all I have ever been. I ken ye may have been told that I am wicked by a man of God, but he is nae a good man. He has made me family into outcasts because I refused to marry him. That is me only crime. I have never used magic. I simply wish to heal the sick.”
Throughout her speech, Fenella had been examining her hand, her expression slowly changing to one of shame.
As Keira waited to see how she would respond, Fenella flicked her gaze up to Scott and back to her hand, swallowing as she worried at her lip with her teeth.
“He said ye were in league with the devil,” she whispered.
“That’s him, nae Keira!”
Keira turned, surprised to see Daisy standing on her feet. Her little figure stood taut and angry as she looked at Fenella.
“He is the cruelest man I’ve ever kenned,” Daisy spat. “Keira was their healer; she cared for every one of the people in our village. Sometimes she dinnae get back until after midnight; she barely ate, she dinnae sleep, and then she would go out again the next day and tend to everyone, even though she was exhausted. She always looked after me and Scott, even when she could barely stand up because she was so tired.”
Daisy came forward and took Fenella’s uninjured hand.
“He’s mad—the priest. There are true men of God in this world who care for their people and love them unconditionally. He is nae one of them. All he cares about is power and takin’ what he wants. Me sister isnae the villain. He is.”
Fenella looked up at them all, glancing around and sniffing back the tears that were falling again. Her gaze lingered on Scott for a long time before she finally turned to Keira.
“He was so angry,” she whispered. “He was ragin’, tellin’ me I would be sent straight to hell if I went near ye—that I’d be cursed. I dinnae ken what to think. I am sorry.” She brushed a gentle finger over her injured hand and looked up with awe in her eyes. “Ye have a gift, Miss Keira.”
“I am sorry, Fenella,” Scott said hurriedly. “I lost me temper. I shouldnae have gotten angry with ye.”
Fenella looked up at him and blushed prettily.
“It is alright. I shouldnae have listened to the priest.”
“Come,” Scott said kindly. “I’ll take ye back, and I’ll carry eveythin’ so ye daenae hurt yer hand.”
“The housekeeper is goin’ to be so angry with me,” Fenella groaned.
“Make sure ye rest it as best ye can,” Keira said. “Come back tomorrow, and I’ll put more tallow on the wound. It should help with the pain.”
“Thank ye, Miss Keira,” Fenella said as she rose, and Scott came forward to help lift the coal scuttle and the logs, leaving some by the fire so that Keira could add them to the pile.
Fenella looked up at Scott gratefully, and he waited for her to get to the doorway before following her. They were just passing out into the corridor when they both turned back, Scott looking alarmed, and Fenella frowning as she looked over at the window.
“What was that?” Scott asked, instantly alert as a shout rang out from below them, and Keira felt fear uncoil in her gut at the sound.
Daisy tensed beside her as they all heard a familiar voice on the air. When she glanced at the window, there was a strange flickering light from the grounds around the castle. It could not be coming from the torches in the courtyard; it was too bright for that.
She stood up just as rapid footsteps sounded outside the room, and Noah appeared in the doorway, his eyes wide and fierce. He was dressed for battle, and Keira had never seen a man look more defiant, strong, and bold as he did in that moment.
Despite the way they had parted earlier that day, she was grateful to see him. He looked as though he was there to defend her, and her heart soared at the sight.
“What is happening?” she asked. In reply, he nodded his head at the window, waiting for her to move across to it. She did so, breathing heavily, almost too scared to look outside to see the truth.
She sucked in a long breath as she looked down into the lands below her.
On the ground, surrounding the edges of the castle on every side, were hundreds of torches. A huge crowd of people had gathered, their white upturned faces ghostly and terrifying in the cool evening air. She could hear the murmur of many voices and the dark chanting she remembered so well.
At the head of them, a familiar figure stood in his long black garb and bonnet. He held no torch, standing with his hands behind him, his back straight and certain, as though he had every right to be there. Upright and all-knowing, he seemed to dwarf every other person there.
Keira stared at that hated face until, as though sensing her presence, the figure looked up at the towering walls of the castle, a twisted, black expression on his handsome face.
“WITCH!” he screamed, the word echoing and bouncing around the castle walls like the tolling of a grim bell as silence fell across the crowd. “Come out and face yer punishment.”
Keira felt a hand rest gently on her lower back as Noah came to stand beside her. His presence, usually such a comfort, just made fear burst in her breast.
What will he do? No one must risk their lives for me. Please let there be nae fightin’.
She looked back at him, but Noah’s dark eyes were focused on the crowds below them. She could see the reflections of the torches dancing in his gaze.
“He is here then,” Noah whispered, his hand snaking around her waist as he pulled her close. “This ends tonight.”