Riona by Linda Windsor

Author:Linda Windsor [Windsor, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-75669-5
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

A voice in the darkness echoed quietly. “Nothing, milord.”

“Nothing?” Lord Maille paced in the moonlit glen, frustration and anger battling for his control. “Nothing?” He sneered at the man in the shadows. “You, sir, are a poor coward and a worse thief.”

“I cannot steal what is not there, milord. Nor is it my fault that the Dalraida was a better judge of Dromin and Gleannmara’s swords than our patron’s henchmen.”

Maille glared at the insolence. Men got a bellyful of dagger for less insolence. “So you dare muster courage from kinship?” He raised a gloved fist. “Then muster this in your yellow blood. If I am caught, I will not go to the gallows without company.”

“If you continue to toy with Kieran, he will squash you beneath his boot like the rodent you are.” The shadowy figure crossed his arms over his chest. “Has it not occurred to you that the reason you have not been charged with any crime is because Gleannmara doesn’t have this evidence of your involvement?”

“Or doesn’t know he has it,” Maille countered sharply.

“As for me, I’ll have no more of this whimsy. It’s over. We all took a risk. We failed.”

“It is not over.” Maille growled the words, his lips pulled back from his teeth like those of a cornered dog. Except he was not in a corner. Not yet. “The fair provides ample opportunity for the elimination of one’s enemy.”

“Not by my hand. I’m done. I met my part of the bargain.”

“And were well rewarded, just like that sniveling priest,” Maille reminded the man. “ ’Tis my reward that’s missing.” He ground his foot into the ground as if Senan were beneath it. “I can’t believe that sniveling priest let it out of his sight to begin with. All he had to do was deliver it. No blood stained his hands.”

“Nay, he merely sold children into slavery. I suppose there’s not enough reward in God’s work.”

“Tadgh took care of disposing of the abbot for him, and he’s dead … drowned, according to that crone of his, at the tip of Gleannmara’s sword. The child-slaver will be the new abbot, whilst I scramble to cover his bumbling.” Everyone involved was clear except him. The idea gnawed at Maille, spreading its vile, green infection.

“Blood money disguised as holy water. Hah, the irony!”

The wry humor in his companion’s voice grated Maille’s already black humor. He’d kill the man on the spot without regret, but his accomplice had not outlived his usefulness. He would have access to Gleannmara’s company that Maille could not hope for.

Meanwhile the lord’s payment and connection to the plot rested in that missing vial—diamonds worth a fortune and an incriminating message with his name on it. This mess would never be over for the lord as long as that vial was unaccounted for. Nor was he about to let his coconspirators enjoy their fruits while he lived haunted by a condemnation that might surface today or years hence. He pointed a warning finger at his indifferent colleague.

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