The men were talking quietly but fell silent when she entered. Suspecting they would wait for her to leave before continuing their conversation, she merely carried the tray over to set on the table beside Domnall and turned quietly to leave.
Her gaze slid up the hall to the rooms at the opposite end, and she listened for a moment, reassured when all she heard was silence. Hoping Kade's father and brother were sleeping and would not cause trouble tonight and scare off those servants who had returned today, Averill made her way to the room she shared with Kade and slid inside.
She was tired enough that she'd forgotten to grab one of the torches in the hall to light a candle, but a lit one sat on the chest by the door. She peered down at it with surprise, then whirled around when a rustle sounded behind her.
Averill stiffened, eyes going wide when she saw the man moving toward her.
Chapter Sixteen
"Br-Brodie!" Averill gasped with surprise, and instinctively began to back away when he started forward. "I-I...W-what are y-you d-doing here?"
"I came to see me brother's new bride," he growled, following her. "And to ask ye why ye've been poisonin' me."
Eyes widening with alarm, Averill glanced sharply to the door, but she'd already backed too far away for it to be a useful escape. Her next thought was to scream for Kade, and she opened her mouth to do so, but before even a peep of sound could leave her lips, Averill found Brodie's hand covering her mouth. His body immediately followed, pressing against hers as he forced her to continue backward, steering her toward the bed.
"I thought someone might be messin' with the whiskey when it started me barfin' every time I drank it," Brodie told her grimly, as they moved, "but I didna ken fer sure until tonight. Tonight, after I ate, I was feelin' much better, and used the secret passages to sneak out o' the keep and down to the inn fer a nip o' whiskey. And diya ken what happened?"
When she merely stared at him wide-eyed over his hand, he gave her a little shake. "Diya ken what happened?"
Averill quickly shook her head.
"Nothin'," he said silkily. "I didna toss up me meal all o'er the inn. I didna e'en feel a tetch queasy. I felt fine as rain. So I had another one, and sat to ponder who here at Stewart would want to make us all ill? And diya ken what?"
Averill quickly shook her head to prevent him shaking her again.
"I recalled 'twas always you bringin' the whiskey. Smilin' sweetly and offerin' it like some heaven-sent angel, all the while cautionin' me about how me body may no' be able to stand it anymore, and 'twas the drink makin' us sick." He shook her furiously. "But 'twas ye, wasna it?"
Averill swallowed, not sure how to answer that one. Did she shake her head and possibly infuriate him by lying, or did she nod and definitely infuriate him? Either way, the result wouldn't be good, so Averill merely stared at him, wishing she'd shrieked for Kade the moment she realized Brodie was in the room.
"Wasna it?" he repeated, full of fury. Brodie shook her so hard then that Averill saw stars, and for the first time, feared he meant to kill her.
Closing her eyes, she nodded.
"I kenned it, ye murderin' bitch," he spat, and threw her away like so much filth.
Averill gasped in panic as she felt herself falling, then grunted with surprise when she landed hard on the bed at an angle with one leg on and one leg off. She opened her mouth then to cry out for Kade, but Brodie was on her at once, knocking the wind from her and slamming one of his beefy fists into her head.
Groaning, Averill closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to get past the pain and fight off the darkness trying to claim her. If she lost consciousness now, she knew she was dead.
"I'm gonna kill ye," Brodie growled into her ear as he dragged her skirts up. "But first, I'm goin' have a little fun."
Panic ripping through her, Averill jerked her knee up. She caught him square in the bollocks. Brodie immediately reared upward, gasping for breath, and she suspected he was the one seeing stars now, then Morag suddenly appeared behind him, swinging an empty tray over head. Her face was a mask of fury as she brought it down, and she slammed it onto his skull with all the might of a woman who had worked hard every day of her life and the rage of a mother whose daughter had been done wrong.
It did not take two hits this time. Brodie's eyes rolled up in his head, and he slumped on Averill, out cold.
Morag immediately dropped the tray and began to drag at the unconscious man, trying to pull him off and free her.
"Me lady?" she gasped with her effort. "Are ye all right?"
"Aye," Averill said weakly, and raised her hands to help shift the man off her. They ended up rolling him into the middle of the bed, then Averill quickly scooted off the bed to stand. Morag steadied her with a hand on her elbow when she staggered a bit in her rush, peered at her with concern, then turned to look down at Brodie.
"He was always a bad seed, that one," she said grimly. "E'en as a lad. He ran around here, bullyin' everyone and gropin' the lasses."
Averill sighed. "Aye, well, I suspect he will not be a problem after tomorrow. Kade said he would talk to him, and did he not stop drinking, he would ban him from Stewart. I suspect Brodie will choose the banning."
"I suspect Laird Kade willna give him the choice once he sees yer face," Morag said grimly. "The bastard'll be lucky if he's only banned then. And once the laird learns he planned to rape and kill ye..." She shook her head. "I'd guess he's no' long for this world."
Averill grimaced. She had no liking for Brodie, but would not wish Kade to have to live with having killed his own brother over her.
"Mayhap we should keep this incident to ourselves," she suggested quietly.
"What?" Morag asked with amazement, then immediately began to shake her head. "Nay, me lady. He--"
"Was drunk and had a right to his anger. I have been dosing his whiskey," she pointed out.
"Oh, me lady. Doona do it," she said with sad disappointment.
"What?" Averill asked with surprise.
"Yer givin' him excuses like his own mother did. 'Twas ne'er that he was a bad child, 'twas that his da was a bad influence, or he was missin' Kade, Maighread said when he was younger, then when he was older, 'twas no' that he was an evil man, but that the drink had a hold o' him." Morag shook her head. "And now ye, too, will give him that excuse?" she asked with disappointment. "After what he tried to do to ye?"
"I--" Averill began, then paused helplessly to peer at the man.
"Has yer husband ever been angered at ye yet?" Morag asked quietly.
"Aye," Averill murmured, recalling his reaction when he'd caught her dosing the whiskey. He'd been furious because she had gone near his father and brother, and she'd been scared of that fury she'd seen in him.
"Did he lay a hand on ye in anger?" Morag asked.
Averill shook her head. He hadn't harmed a hair on her head.
"Just so. Kade is a good man, and good men doona take out their anger on others," she said firmly, then scowled toward Brodie, and added, "and that one is no' a good man. Doona give him excuses. Tell yer husband what he did. Or I will," she added grimly and turned to leave the room.
Averill stared after her, noting the spilled drink and food on the floor by the door. Morag had obviously just dumped everything the tray had held to use it as a weapon when she'd entered to see Brodie attacking Averill.
A grunt from the bed made Averill glance warily that way, but Brodie was still unconscious. However, she wasn't taking the chance that he would wake up. Averill ignored the mess, moved to the door, grabbed the candle, and stepped out to pull the door closed.
She had to talk to Kade, Averill thought, then stilled as Bess came rushing up.
"What happened? Morag just passed me on the stairs looking like thunder. Did she--?" The maid paused abruptly, as she reached Averill and saw her properly. "My lady! Your face!"
"Shush," Averill murmured, and caught her arm to urge her up the hall. She led her past Will's room and urged her into the one betw
een that and Domnall's. Closing the door softly behind her, she glanced around and sighed, then said, "We need to prepare this room for sleeping."
"Who's sleeping here?" Bess asked with a frown. "And what happened to your face? It looks like someone hit you."
"That would be because someone hit me," Averill said dryly.
"What?" Bess's eyes widened in horror. "Not your husband?"
"Nay. Of course not," Averill assured her, setting the candle down and beginning to strip the bed of the old linens still on it. With a bit of cleaning and dusting, the room would do fine for one night, she thought, then admitted, "'Twas Brodie. He surprised me in my room. He had worked out that I have been dosing the whiskey."
"I knew that would come to trouble," Bess said grimly, moving around the bed to help her.
"Aye, well, it worked well enough for Gawain and his father," Averill pointed out. "And the two of them not drinking is better than all of them being stuck in a keg of whiskey the rest of their lives."
Bess just shook her head. "Your husband will knock him silly when he sees the bruise on your eye. 'Twas bad enough when he was beating on the servants, but now he's starting on you? Bah!" She shook her head.