Devil of the Highlands Page 0,108

off the cliff that day, and maybe I should have let her, but instead I stopped her and calmed her down. In the end, she decided she wasna ready to die. She begged me not to tell Biddy and to help her leave early, and I did. I got the lass out of here before Biddy could realize something was wrong with the girl and force it out of her. I wouldna see Biddy hurt by it all."

"But Jenny came back," Evelinde pointed out.

"Aye," Fergus said heavily. "I wasna here when she arrived two months later or what followed might no have happened." He sighed and shook his head. "She was with Darach's child." Fergus paused and eyed her briefly, then said, "If ye've read the letter, ye ken what happened next."

Evelinde nodded solemnly. "Aye. Darach rejected her, and she killed herself."

Fergus frowned. "We tried to stop her. She had slipped the letter under Darach and Biddy's chamber door before she hanged herself. I was coming above to light the torches—we kept them lit then—and I saw their bedchamber door open. Darach started to step out, then paused and bent to pick up the letter from the floor. He opened it, read it, cursed, and went to Jenny's room, but she wasna there, so he hurried past me and rushed below.

"I followed. He was heading for the curtain wall. He must have thought she'd planned to throw herself off. Halfway there, Darach crumpled up the letter and shoved it in his sporran, but it wasna all the way in and fell out without his noticing after just a couple of steps.

"I picked it up and read it, then tucked it in me own sporran and turned back to the keep. I, too, thought the girl had probably thrown herself off the cliff. I had no desire to see her broken body, so headed back to await the news in the great hall. But when I walked back into the keep, Biddy was screaming. She'd found her sister hanging in the solar."

"If you had the letter, how did Biddy get it?" Evelinde asked.

"Two weeks after Jenny died, I put it in the solar where she'd find it. I hoped she would think the lass had left it."

"Why?" she asked with dismay. The man had just spent several minutes telling her he couldn't do this and couldn't do that because it might hurt Biddy. But in the end he had done the one thing most likely to crush the woman.

"I was sick of watching that bastard Darach act like the loving, caring husband. He'd caused the death, he'd caused the sorrow, and Biddy was grateful for the arm he gave her to cry on about it!"

Fergus closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. "I didna think it through. I wanted her to see him for what he was, but didna consider how she would react. I left the letter and went out on the hunt with the others, happily anticipating her confronting him when we returned and revealing him to all and sundry. Instead, she shot the bastard."

"Are you sure she did?" Evelinde asked hopefully. "Mayhap it truly was an accident."

"Nay. It was Biddy's arrow. The fletching gave it away," he explained. "She'd had a pet swan when she first married Darach. It had died some years earlier, but she'd kept the feathers and always did her own fletching, alternating white swan feathers with those of a goose or whatever was available. I recognized it at once and knew Liam would, too. There wasn't time to remove and replace it with another, so I covered the fletching with blood and dirt, hoping it wouldna be noticed. And it wasna at the time."

"But her arrow didn't kill him," Evelinde pointed out. "You said you did."

"Aye. I smothered him in his sleep, but all just thought it a result of the wound," he explained, then added with regret," Biddy was devastated… But I knew it was just guilt, and she'd mend in time."

Fergus fell silent, his gaze on the stones covering Jenny, but she suspected that wasn't what he was seeing. Evelinde was sure his thoughts were in the past and took the opportunity to glance around, her eyes seeking a path of escape or at least a weapon she might use to save herself. She never really completely took her attention off Fergus, however, and when he apparently finished his ruminations, raised his head, and took a step toward her, she quickly