A Laird and a Gentleman by Gerri Russell

Author:Gerri Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781952560057
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2020-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Mariam came awake with a start. Nothingness curled around her, black and thick and oppressive. Tension vibrated in the air of her bedchamber. She lay there on her bed, ramrod stiff, listening. Yet no sounds came to her.

Her heart sped up as she glanced around, searching for some source of light. She’d extinguished the candle when she’d lain down, and the fire in the brazier had long since died out. That there was no light filtering in from behind the shutters told her it was still night.

Everyone in the castle had gone to bed hours ago. And yet she couldn’t shake the sensation of peculiar oppression. Mariam brought her fingers to her brow, smoothing a sudden ache at her temple. Had she been dreaming?

Her eyes stared into the darkness as she tried to remember. Then recall came to her. Illness was coming to the castle. Mariam bolted upright in bed. It had been a fleeting dream—only images of the sick lying in makeshift beds in the great hall. Of her standing over them, not knowing what to do. The danger was real, and judging from her dream, it would affect many of those within Ravenscraig’s walls; she just didn’t know when.

Mariam lay back down, forcing herself to be calm. She focused on her breathing, pulling a soft breath in and releasing it in a gentle, regular rhythm.

A floorboard creaked.

Her heart gave a leap and then started to pound wildly. She sat up, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. There was a presence she hadn’t noted before. She stood and, with her hand, searched wildly on her bedside table for the candlestick. “Who’s there?”

A low laugh came from the corner of the room.

Her stomach twisted into a cold, hard knot as she recognized the source. The darkness, and the knowledge that her father was in her room suddenly made it hard to speak. “How are you here?” How had her father escaped his chamber upstairs and made it past the two guards at his door?

“It was necessary to have a little help. You have a traitor inside this very castle. Does that distress you, Daughter?”

Suddenly she remembered Thea’s odd behavior. The way she wouldn’t look Mariam in the eyes, and she knew. “Thea helped you.”

“Very good. Despite her hatred of me, she couldn’t resist the bag of coins I offered.”

Mariam shuddered at the thought of what he’d done to Orrin and Kyle. “Are the guards dead?” She tried to keep the quaver from her voice.

A shuffle sounded as her father crept closer. “Drugged—perhaps poisoned. I’m not certain what she gave them in their food. Either way, it rendered them unconscious long enough for her to release me.”

With shaking fingers, Mariam struggled to light the candle with her flint and steel. After three tries, she created a spark. The wick caught, and as the flame grew, a yellow light spread across the chamber. She startled to see her father not two feet from her.

“You and I have unfinished business.

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