Celtic Shores by Delaney Rhodes Read Free Book Online Page B

Darina was poisoned not long ago and almost did no’ recover. Murchadh has questioned all of the servants and the kitchen staff; no one seems to have heard or seen anything. I think we should treat this as a threat. Yer father will agree with me, I’m sure,” she said.
    “I will agree with what?” asked Ruarc from the door.
    Kyra bent over the chamberpot and emptied what was left in her stomach, before collapsing onto the bed. Her face was pale and a chilling sweat broke across her forehead. A sudden chill overtook her and she began to shake.
    “By the gods, has she been poisoned?” asked Ruarc walking briskly to his daughter’s bedside.
    “Nay,” Kyra replied, waiving him off. “I don’t think I’ve been poisoned. I fear I may have swallowed some river water, and it does no’ agree with me constitution.”
    “I will have that insolent bastard’s head!” shouted Ruarc, throwing his hands up in the air. “I will speak to Patrick about this — I will. I canna believe he has treated a member of our clan like this. Atilde, ye should have seen the sight at the river. Nay — I take that back; I wouldna wish for you to see it; ‘twas dishonorable, to say the least.”
    “What happened?” gasped Atilde.
    Kyra waived her father off and struggled to speak. “Nothing that needs to be rehashed now. I am fine, they did no’ hurt me.”
    “Kyra, you are not fine luv,” exclaimed her mother, bringing the chamberpot to Kyra’s side table. “Ye have been retching now for quite some time. All the color is gone from ye face and ye look gravely ill.”
    “I’m fetching Vynae and don’t think to fight me on this, Kyra,” Ruarc demanded as he strode out of her chamber and down the stairs.
    ***
    Odetta Burke slammed her fist down on the table so hard, the rafters shook. Easal had never seen his new wife so angry in all his days, so much so that he feared for his own life. He had witnessed her fits of rage before, but nothing that equaled this. Even after she stabbed her own brother straight through the heart, he hadn’t feared her, until now.
    “I told you to make sure that no-account priest fulfilled my plan! That’s all I asked of you!” she yelled across the room to Naelyn, her cleric. “How hard is it to simply do what you’re told? You didn’t watch him closely enough to make sure he actually drained all the blood from that boy.”
    “Me lady,” interrupted Naelyn, “I am so very…”
    “Save it!” Odetta shot back. “I’ve had enough of ye. Be gone. Get out of me sight; I’ve no use for ye any longer. Why don’t ye go see to that useless sister of yers again, on the Isle of Women? See if you can bring me back some information, since you are no’ capable of performing simple tasks here in ceremony.”
    Naelyn rose from her perch at the end of the table and turned to leave, head hanging low, aghast at the mood change in Odetta. Naelyn had been with Odetta for a long time. She was at the beginning, when Odetta overthrew the monastery. An ascetic student of the nuns, she managed to garner Odetta’s attention when she willingly, and without question, followed her orders during the skirmish. For that, Odetta spared her life and gained a helper.
    Easal whispered frantically into Odetta’s ear and rose to grab Naelyn by the arm. “Nay, lassie, ye come with me,” he spurted and steered them towards the front door.
    “I just may have use of ye after all,” Odetta screamed towards her as the door closed behind them.
    “Where are ye taking me, Easal?” asked Naelyn nervously.
    “To the dungeons where ye belong, and where ye should have been many years ago,” he replied. “Ye’ve been nothing but trouble since the day I first laid my eyes on ye. Odetta has no need of ye any longer. Ye are only in the way. She has me now, and I am all she needs.”
    “The dungeons?” she cried in response. “What good can come of me imprisonment? I have been a loyal servant to Odetta. What reason is there to