built in the stables served her well. Cora made a huge circle with her arm, dropping her hand on the other side of Gilmor’s arm. She clamped onto his hand and turned it back. His grip slackened, allowing her to pull the dagger from his grip.
Cora never really thought about it. She acted on the impulses fueled with the fury over the scent of blood in the air. She pulled her arm back and thrust forward, driving the blade into the center of his throat. His eyes bulged, his lips working as blood began to pour over her hand.
“Ye are a traitor,” she growled through her teeth at him. “Ye will not draw another breath while good McKay men lay dead.”
While Faolan might be dead in the very chamber she had so recently laid with him.
Gilmor dropped to his knees as Rolfe reached her first and pulled her back. Cora stood firm, the blood coating her hand, something she didn’t bother to wipe off. The McKay took her in. Even the hardest among them softened, approval lighting their eyes.
“Cora.” Buchanan had reached her.
Cora lifted her face and stared at her brother. In his eyes, she saw something new. She was no longer his little sister. Now he sent her a solid gaze, which marked a new chapter in their lives.
There was a sniffle from Mae.
Cora stiffened. She turned to look at the nursemaid. “Secrets…undermine the safety of every McKay. Had ye spoken up, yer kin would not be dead.”
Cora looked beyond the nursemaid to where Lonn stood. The assembled Retainers watched Cora, waiting for her to finish what had to be done.
“Be quick,” she ordered Lonn.
The Retainer’s lips thinned. Mae gasped, but the captain grasped her head before she turned to look at him. He gave a twist, and the sound of her neck snapping filled the hall. Lonn let her body slump to the floor next to Gilmor’s.
The Retainers pounded the tabletops. Kalan had run down from the high ground. Seeking out the only person the child had ever known. Cora scooped the little girl up before she reached the body of the nursemaid.
“I will be yer mother now,” Cora declared in a soft voice.
Aye, she would.
Because ye are the mistress…
Precisely.
*
“The laird will likely die before daybreak.”
The McKay healer had a heavy tone. His face was etched with deep sorrow. He reached out and patted Cora on the shoulder before he carried his medical box down the stairs. Standing in the receiving chamber of Faolan’s rooms, Cora could just make out the bed on the other side, where Faolan lay. The bed curtains were drawn to keep as much heat in as possible.
“Cora.” Buchanan stood near her.
“I can handle it.”
Her brother nodded. “I see that’s the truth. Yet, I wish ye did no’ have to.”
He hugged her. The embrace was her undoing. The tears she’d fought back were now trickling down her cheeks.
“Let’s give me sister some privacy,” Buchanan muttered.
He sat her down with her face turned away from Rolfe and Cormac. She listened as they made their way to the door and closed it after departing.
She didn’t want to see Faolan on his death bed.
Ye are his wife and no’ a coward…
And she wasn’t going to waste her last moments with him on indecision. Someone had built up the fire to chase away the chill of the early morning hours. Faolan rested on his back, a wide length of bandaging binding his midsection. It was creamy white, but she could smell the blood as she sat down on a bench near him.
“Don’t think to cheat me out of being me husband,” Cora muttered to him. She clasped his hand but dropped it a moment later because his fingers were icy cold.
She bit her lip.
No!
Cora crawled into the bed, curling along the uninjured side of his body. “Ye warmed me the first night to keep me from slipping away into death.” Cora used her hand to rub his arm and shoulder. “I will nae let ye go, Faolan McKay. Do ye hear me? We shall not be cheated of our years together.”
No. She wouldn’t be cheated.
Ye do nae always get what ye want…
*
Orla reached up and wiped away a tear.
She had to be firm.
It was quiet now. The passageways were very cold because the window shutters were open to blow the scent of blood away. Orla drew in a deep breath.
Such a loss and perhaps one more to come before too long.
It was so very hard to bear. Without