sure that’s wise, m’lady?”
“Someone has to keep them settled,” I replied, turning to follow Eleanor into the woods. “We may have need of them,” I called back over my shoulder.
“Aye. I only hope it’s no’ for you,” I heard her retort as I passed beyond hearing.
I was less worried about my own safety than the fact we might be too late to stop Lord John. Perhaps that was foolish given the fact he’d almost certainly been the one to push me down the stairs, but with Eleanor at my side, I didn’t think he would try to hurt me. Not when it would gain him nothing. Even so, I wished I’d had time to grab my Hewson percussion pistol from my bedchamber.
The trail was overgrown in spots, and riddled with tree roots and fallen twigs crunching beneath our feet, so we had to watch our steps as we hurried forward. Our passing stirred the soil and decaying leaves, adding an earthy undernote to the sharp air. Up ahead, I could see the silvery trunks began to thin and beyond, the gray sky. When she reached the edge of the forest, Eleanor stumbled to a stop, and I soon understood why.
Below us, in a small basin, shimmered the waters of the lochan. Its dark surface rippled and undulated, as if strange currents ebbed and flowed within its icy depths. It was at least three times the size of Sunlaws Castle, and surrounded by a reedy marsh through which a small warped dock jutted out into its far western end.
It was on this dilapidated piece of wood that three men congregated. Helmswick tottered at the edge, his hand raised in either surrender or supplication, while Lord John stood a short distance away. Based on the arm thrust out in the earl’s direction, and that of Helmswick’s stance, I surmised he must be pointing a gun at him, but his body was turned outward, his head twisted to yell at the man behind him. It was Marsdale, easily recognizable, even from behind, by his height and his head of dark hair.
Eleanor and I set off around the lochan, picking our way through the dead, overgrown grass. Who spied us first, I didn’t know, but by the time we’d come close enough to hear their voices, they were all aware of our presence.
“Now see what you’ve done?” Lord John demanded of Marsdale, his face a contorted mask of rage and anguish. “I don’t want them to witness this. Why couldn’t you simply have let me do what needed to be done?”
Marsdale glanced back at us as we approached, holding out his arms wide, as if to shield or prevent us from moving any closer. “Stay back. He’s lost his mind.”
“No, I have not,” he snapped back, gesturing so sharply with the hand holding the pistol, I feared it might go off.
Helmswick flinched, his arms waving, evidently fearing the same thing. “Stop, stop!”
“It’s perfectly clear what I must do,” Lord John bit out. “Just get them out of here, so I can do it.”
“No!” Eleanor cried, grabbing on to Marsdale’s torso to peer over his shoulder. “John, please. Don’t do this,” she begged.
“Don’t you see, Nell? You’ll be free, truly free. No more lying, philandering, hypocritical husband.” He punctuated each word with a jab.
“Yes, but I don’t want that.” Her voice wobbled. “Not at the expense of losing you.”
He shook his head. “I’m already lost. Damned for murdering Renton. What’s one more?”
“But you didn’t intend to kill Renton, did you?” I stepped forward to ask, only to have Marsdale reach out to latch his hand around my wrist, preventing me from going any further. “You never meant for that to happen. Colum Brunton told you Renton intended to sneak into the castle through the tunnel and accost your sister, but you couldn’t let him do that. So you donned a monk’s robe and went down there to intercept him, to scare him.”
He stared at me with tormented eyes, his face pale with remembrance and perhaps shock that I knew so much. “He wasn’t frightened, even for a second. I tried to reason with him, to plead with him not to harm Nell and her children. That they were as innocent as his sister in all of this. But he wouldn’t listen.” He shook his head. “He shouldered past me, slamming me into the tunnel wall. I couldn’t let him get to them. So I h-hit him with the mace.” His voice quavered and his arm