A Laird and a Gentleman (All the King's Men #4) - Gerri Russell Page 0,1

she’d been lost in her thoughts something must have happened because a strange device was brought forward and placed between two of the men who were Lachlan’s judges.

“The Greeks used a technique called coscinomancy to determine a guilty party in a criminal offense,” King James announced to the chamber. “And since we cannot decide among ourselves whether Lachlan Douglas is guilty or not, we will let the coscinomancy decide.”

A knot of fear tightened Mariam’s stomach. The sieve with a pair of shears attached was somehow supposed to determine whether Donald Ruthven or Lachlan Douglas was guilty?

She had to do something if it was within her power to do so, no matter the risk to herself. Closing her eyes, she summoned all her will, her strength, her rage. She gathered it up and released it as she snapped her eyes open. To everyone else it felt as though a frenzied wind blew through the chamber. Mariam knew it was something more. It only lasted for a heartbeat, then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The sieve moved.

Over the collective intake of startled breaths that followed the movement of the sieve in the direction of the guilty man, Mariam forced herself to remain still. She had to appear calm, unaffected by what had just transpired. She had helped in her own way. Letting her gaze rove about the chamber, she startled as Cameron’s gaze connected with her own. A questioning look brought a wrinkle to his brow.

Did he know what she had done?

Nay, there were too many other ways to explain the result, and King James seemed pleased with the verdict. Lachlan was freed of all charges.

As the room erupted in a momentary chaos, Mariam took advantage and slipped out the side door. The best course of action for her would be to return to Ravenscraig Castle with all due haste to wait for her guardian’s return and his decision about her future. For her part in all of this, would Cameron allow her to remain under his protection or would he return her to her father?

The first stirrings of fear caused her steps to falter. Would Cameron force her back to a place she’d hoped never to return? Her heartbeat thudded in her ears at the thought. She couldn’t go back to that man. She would rather die than put herself in such a situation again.

Mariam balled her hands into white-knuckled fists as she watched Cameron and his brothers-in-arms leave the tribunal chamber, heading for carriages that waited out front that would whisk the key players in the trial away to their respective homes. Perhaps if she talked to Cameron now before he had time to sit and think, if she explained herself, he would understand. Or would he assume, like everyone else, that she was not capable of anything except deception and evil?

Merciful heavens. Mariam’s heartbeat hammered at her temples. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized she’d been on trial as well. Ultimately, she had helped Lachlan, but she couldn’t tell anyone what she’d done. If she did, she would end up in the same gaol cell the accused witch had just vacated.

At the realization, Mariam’s composure crumpled, her shoulders trembled and slumped. She had to talk to Cameron immediately, before he sent her away for good.

*

When the trial had ended, the remaining warriors who comprised King James VI’s Magnificent Seven gathered outside the ruins of the Old Parish Church to give Lachlan and Elizabeth privacy as they let the verdict and the consequences of the trial sink in. Cameron Sinclair, Alexander Ross, Malcolm Hamilton, Rhys Elliot, Quinn Douglas, and Reid Douglas waited beside two carriages: one that would take their brother-in-arms and his wife back home, while the other would see the king safely back to Falkland Palace where he and the queen currently resided.

“Lachlan and Elizabeth have been through the trial of a lifetime in the past few days,” Cameron Sinclair commented as he took the reins of his horse from a waiting stable boy, offering the lad payment for his work tending not only the carriages but also the other six horses while the trial had concluded. “It will be an honor to escort the newlyweds safely home.”

“Their trial is over,” Alexander said, mounting his horse and nudging it toward Cameron’s. “But I fear yours has just begun.”

“What do you mean?” Cameron asked with a frown.

“Your ward.” Rhys’s gaze shifted to something in the distance. “Seems she means to further try your temper this day. She