Chapter 1
It all startedwith that damned ghost.
Well, not everything, obviously. If Father John was to be believed, it all began as nothing, and then God sneezed or whatnot, and light was created. Then the world and the stars, then the water, then the animals, then the fishes and the oysters and crabs—that part was always her favorite—then the bugs that crawled on the water and fed the fishes, although Leanna had to admit she often grew bored by this point in the sermon and started examining the interesting carvings in the Oliphant chapel.
She was certain one of the gargoyles was planning something naughty, based on its expression.
But as Leanna frowned in concentration and mixed the green powdered malachite into the small amount of oil in the wooden cup she held, she had to admit the truth: the gargoyle, the Creation of Everything, and even Father John weren’t to blame for this mess.
It was most definitely the ghost.
“It’s all his fault,” she muttered.
“Ye’re absolutely correct,” agreed her sister Nicola, who was carefully measuring out some ground-up green flakes at her worktable along the wall by the door to their solar. “I’m certain I paid for a half-measure of goosegrass and that crooked merchant cheated me.”
Leanna’s brows tugged downward in confusion as she strolled—still mixing absentmindedly—toward Nicola. “Ye bought the goosegrass instead of growing it?”
Her older sister glanced toward her, then her eyes darted back to her work, and she frowned in concentration. Distractedly, she murmured, “Cannae grow goosegrass. It willnae…”
As she trailed off, Leanna leaned forward, waiting for the rest of the explanation. It wasn’t forthcoming, but that wasn’t surprising. Nicola tended to assume everyone knew what she was trying to say, which was ridiculous. No one understood most of her babblings about herbs and healing, except maybe Fen, who used those same herbs in her meals.
Actually, for that matter, Leanna couldn’t be certain no one else understood Nicola. Maybe she was the only odd one out, and her older sister’s blathering simply just made no sense to her.
But never let it be said she wasn’t interested in other people’s work.
“So ye have to buy it? What’s it for?”
Nicola jolted at the sound of her voice, obviously having forgotten Leanna was standing there. Which was ridiculous, seeing as how Leanna was almost as tall as Nicola, and her chin was all but propped on her sister’s shoulder as she stirred her paint.
Still, Nicola didn’t scowl, or do anything so uncouth; instead, she breathed deeply, focusing on scraping the last little bit of green into one of the jars she had carefully cleaned, then straightened slowly.
“There. Perhaps a wee bit less than the half-pound, but that could be accounted for by…” She blinked and glanced at Leanna. “I’m sorry, what were ye asking?”
“What’s it for?” Leanna jerked her chin toward the herb—one of many in jars spread across her sister’s worktable here in the ladies’ solar.
“Stomach issues, as well as healing bones and wounds,” Nicola immediately answered. “ ‘Tis no’ as common, since it doesnae grow here.” She shrugged. “I buy it from one of my merchants, since Coira tells me the men believe it works as well as others when it comes to healing them.”
Leanna nodded along, pretending she understood what in damnation Nicola was saying. “So this spikey-leafed bit of plant is actually useful?”
Her sister scowled slightly, which was the response Leanna had been hoping for. “Ye called rosemary a ‘spikey-leafed bit of plant?’”
“Aye,” Leanna agreed cheerfully, lifting her cup of green paint to check on the consistency. “And I was right.”
“Rosemary, for yer information, has many useful properties, no’ at all limited to its medicinal—”
This time, it wasn’t that Nicola had trailed off, but rather, had been interrupted. In fact, once she got started on something about herbs’ usefulness, she was likely to continue for ages, so Leanna was relieved when Robena struck a chord on her harp over in the far corner of the chamber, then began to play.
Still, Leanna couldn’t help but tease her older sister. “So, rosemary smells good enough for ye to grow, which is why ye dinnae need to buy it from the cheating merchant?”
Nicola scowled, as planned. “I’ll likely have to continue buying from him, despite his short scales, but what were ye talking about?”
“Eh?” Leanna was studying her cup. Was that enough malachite to achieve the color she was going for?
“Ye said ‘twas all his fault, but I doubt ye were talking about the herb merchant.”
Leanna clucked her tongue, deciding the shade of green likely didn’t matter; Mother would be devastated no matter what. “The ghost. ‘Twas all his fault.”
“The…”