"Aye." Edith nodded, and then urged her horse forward, searching the ground for the path she recalled. It had been years since her father had brought them all out here, not since her mother died, and at first she worried the path might be completely gone by now. But after a surprisingly short search, a crow of triumph slid from her lips and she turned her mare onto the path. Someone had obviously been using the lodge for the path to still be there, Edith thought as she led the men into the trees. Probably one of her brothers. Both Roderick and Hamish had liked to hunt.
It took twenty minutes or so to reach the lodge. Edith didn't remember it taking that long, so was starting to worry she'd followed the wrong path or something when the trees suddenly gave way to the clearing where the small stone building and stables were. Relief coursing through her, Edith steered her mare straight for the small stable, slowed her as they approached the closed door and then quickly slid off and rushed forward to open it herself rather than wait for one of the men to do it for her. She was so eager to get out of the cold, damp rain, that even the stables looked attractive to her at that point.
She eagerly pulled the door open, and then staggered back, bumping into someone as the stench of rotting meat rolled out over her.
"Edith, what--?" She heard Niels say as hands clasped her shoulders, and then he must have caught the scent that now had her covering her mouth with her hand and heaving. Cursing, her husband urged her away from the stable and toward the lodge, only to stop and lead her to a tree that would offer cover instead.
"'Tis okay. Ye can take yer hand away now. 'Tis better here," Niels said.
Edith lowered her hand to take a cautious sniff and then sighed with relief and took several deep breaths to clear her nose and lungs and soothe her stomach. Once she was sure she wasn't going to be sick, she glanced toward the stables and was just in time to see Geordie and Alick come out. Both had the cloth of their tartans over their faces, but their eyes were grim as they collected the reins of the horses and led them to the tree.
"What'd ye find?" Niels asked solemnly as he helped them tie the horses to a low branch in the tree they stood under.
"Dead horses," Geordie said grimly. "Starved to death would be my guess. It looks like they tried to eat their stalls, or perhaps they were just trying to get out to find food."
"How many?" Niels asked when Geordie paused.
"Seven in all."
Edith stiffened and eyed him sharply. "Seven?"
"Aye." Geordie nodded.
"Husband," she said anxiously, grasping Niels's arm. "Brodie took six men when he and Victoria left, and Lonnie was killed in the woods, his horse presumably stolen. Ye do no' think . . . ?"
Mouth flattening, Niels urged her toward Alick. "Stay here with me brother, I'll be right back."
He turned to head for the lodge with Geordie on his heels. Edith bit her lip as she watched. She felt like she should be going with him too, but simply couldn't bring herself to do it. Her mind was painting an image of what they would find inside and it wasn't a pretty one. No man would willingly leave horses to starve to death, they depended on them too much. The owners certainly must be dead too, and had been for longer than the horses who had starved to death. If it was Brodie, Victoria and their escort . . .
Swallowing, Edith watched Niels open the door to the lodge. The way both men immediately jerked back and then drew a bit of tartan up to cover their noses and mouths before entering, told her there was definitely something dead inside.
Apparently, Alick thought so too, because he suddenly placed a supportive arm around her shoulders, and said, "It may no' be yer brother and his wife."
She knew he was trying to reassure her, but even he didn't sound like he believed it, and Edith found herself unable to see through the sudden well of tears in her eyes. Dashing them away, she bit her lip and simply waited. It seemed a long time before the two men came back out. Geordie immediately walked off into the woods and she could hear his heaving even over the rain.
While Niels was as gray-faced as his brother, he went in the opposite direction. He walked straight to the well. He didn't even have to draw water, the rainstorm had apparently left the bucket that sat on the well wall full of water. Niels dipped his hands in and appeared to be cleaning them. When he finished, he dumped the water on the ground and then walked over to the tree to join them.
"Is it them?" Edith asked quietly, already knowing the answer.
Niels opened his mouth, closed it and then sighed and admitted, "'Tis hard to tell. They've been dead awhile, but 'tis six men and a woman. The woman is wearing a gold gown."
Edith frowned. "Victoria was wearing a gold gown when they left."
Niels merely nodded, not seeming surprised, and then he held up his hand and said, "And the man beside her was wearing this."
Edith glanced down at his hand when he held it out. For a moment she just stared at the gold ring resting on his palm. It was a man's ring, gold with the Drummond family crest on it. It was the signet ring her father had worn up until the day he'd died. He'd pressed it into the wax on any messages he sent as proof they were from him. When he had died, Tormod had removed it and taken it to Roderick, and then he'd taken it to Hamish when Roderick died. The last she'd seen it Brodie had been wearing it as he left Drummond. He'd been wearing that ring, and Victoria had been riding beside him, her gold gown glowing in the sunlight.
It was them. The woman was Victoria, and the six dead men were Brodie and the five remaining men from his escort. She had now lost every last member of her family. She was alone, Edith realized dully and wondered where that high keening sound was coming from. She realized it was coming from her just before darkness closed in around her and she began to fall.
Cursing, Niels caught Edith before she could land in the mud, and then simply stood there, holding her and staring at her pale face, wondering what to do. They couldn't stay here. Even did they drag the dead out of the lodge and put them in the stables until they could arrange to return them to Drummond, the smell in the lodge would be unbearable. Besides, he didn't want Edith waking in the place where she knew her brother had taken his last breath.
"Do we ride on?" Alick asked hopefully as Geordie returned from the woods.
"Nay," Niels said grimly, and then sighed miserably and turned to carry Edith to his mount.
"I'll hold her while ye mount," Geordie said quietly.
Nodding, Niels handed her over and put a foot in the stirrup.
"But where are we going?" Alick asked with a frown. "We can no' take her back to Drummond. She's no' safe there."
"Nay, she's no'," Geordie agreed solemnly, and then pointed out, "But she is the last o' the old laird's children. She's now clan leader. She'd no' thank us did she wake up to find we'd made her as much a coward as Brodie by taking her to safety at Buchanan and leaving her people unprotected."
Niels's mouth tightened as his brother put words to his own thoughts. Much as he'd like it otherwise, they would have to return to Drummond. And then they'd have to keep Edith safe while he smoked out the killer. He just hoped to God he could do it before the killer could finish what he'd started and kill the last of the Drummond clan, his wife.
"They're lifting the gate."
Niels tore his gaze from Edith's pale, sleeping face in the moonlight and glanced toward the keep to see that the gate was indeed rising. Now that the storm had finally ended, the night sky was as clear as could be with a large full moon and countless stars making visibility pretty good now that they were out from under the cover of the trees.
Sighing, Niels urged his horse forward to cross the open area between the castle and the forest that surrounded it. He set the pace at a slow walk to avoid jolting Edith.
Niels had sent Geordie ahead to warn the men on the wall that they were returning and to get them to open the gate. While he did that, Niels and Alick had waited at the base of the hill, just outside the trees. He'd wanted to avoid getting too close and risking Edith being woken up by th
e shouting back and forth. She'd woken up several times on the return journey, and each time had cried herself back to sleep. The only reason he knew that was because, hidden under the tartan he'd wrapped around them both, she'd soaked his shirt with warm tears each and every time she'd woken.
Niels knew all Edith's tears weren't solely for Brodie and Victoria. Edith was finally mourning the passing of her entire family. She'd let a little out when Cawley had died, but that had merely been a drop in the bucket of the sorrow she must feel. He couldn't even imagine how he'd feel were he to lose all of his brothers as well as his sister in a few short weeks. But he did know it would be devastating. Niels wanted to spare her from that as much as possible for now. He knew that he was just delaying the inevitable. Edith needed to let her pain out and cry, and if she didn't do it now, she would just do it later. But between getting little more than an hour's nap last night after her poisoning, and their very long, very useless journey today, Niels was too exhausted to be able to offer her the comfort he felt she would need. He was hoping he could get her inside and to bed without waking her. Once he'd had a nap, even a short one, he could hold and comfort her as she spent her tears.
Geordie was dismounted and waiting at the gate with Tormod, Rory and several soldiers as Niels reached it. When Geordie moved out into Niels's path, he stopped his horse and raised an eyebrow in question.
Whether he could see that or not, Geordie explained. "The men are waiting to shield her from arrows," Geordie said solemnly as the group of men rushed forward with various items Niels didn't understand until they put them together next to his horse. A barrel, a crate and a bucket, one next to the other, made up a set of makeshift stairs for him to dismount without jolting Edith.
"Thank ye," Niels almost whispered the words. Bracing his left foot on the barrel, he lifted and shifted his right leg over his mount's head and stood up with Edith in his arms. He then walked down the crate and bucket as if they were stairs to reach the ground.