Chapter 16
Willow wanted to run from the room and warn her husband, tell him to get as far away from here as possible, but she feared that wouldn’t be far enough from what Eleanor had said.
“We need to solve this problem before this demon descends on Slatter,” Snow said.
“The man was right. The Slayer is a demon. How else could he enter past a locked door?” Eleanor said, a tremble running through her.
“You need to get Slatter’s friends here, and maybe his grandmother knows something that might help,” Snow suggested.
It didn’t surprise Willow that she had thought the same. The three of them, Sorrell, Snow, and herself often shared identical thoughts on a matter, though her approach had always been the most sensible. She didn’t think being sensible now would help her, especially if she was to face a demon to save her husband. Though she questioned the validity of demons, the horror that some men perpetrated on others made one wonder if perhaps the devil actually did capture souls to serve him.
“Did Sara say anything last night?” Willow asked Eleanor.
“No, she was restless but silent. I wondered if she was fighting to wake, but she settled to my touch.”
“It worries me that she hasn’t fully woken,” Willow admitted.
“Don’t you remember that I barely woke after the accident that took my sight? I could hear Mum and you talking, and Sorrell when she came and sat and talked with me. But I didn’t want to wake and talk with anyone. I was in pain and sleep was the only thing that made it tolerable,” Snow said.
The door opened and Slatter filled the doorway. “A word with my wife.”
After a quick hug from her sister, Snow left the room with Eleanor, Thaw yapping at her heels as he followed her out.
Slatter shut the door and stood there looking at his wife.
“I know what you’re going to say and don’t even think of it,” Willow warned. “You’re not leaving. We will fight this together and clear your name.”
“You’re confident I am innocent?” he asked.
“Without a doubt and if we don’t clear your name Lord Tarass will forever hunt you. No, you must stay and see this done,” she insisted and walked over to him. “You also need to send for Devin and the others. You made mention that you didn’t have much of a home. Well you have a home now and so do your friends… here with the Clan Macardle.”
His first thought was to deny her, but that wouldn’t be fair to the others. He had promised them a home and they deserved a good one. They would find that here with the Macardle clan.
Willow began to pace back and forth in front of him. “Lord Ruddock left some of his warriors here to help with repairs and to protect us. They won’t do for this task. The Clan Macardle does have a few warriors of their own. We’ll send two or three of them to escort your friends here.”
His wife spoke as if they had decided this together, that they worked as one. That he was not alone. That they were family. The thought that she fought for him stabbed at his heart. He didn’t deserve her trust, and yet, he ached for it.
Willow stopped pacing. “What was discussed in the solar?”
“That they trust me less than before Rhodes was killed and that I’m not to go anywhere. That I’m not to venture off the grounds of the keep. That Lord Tarass’s men will keep close watch on me. And that if I harm you in any way I’ll hang for it. Lord Tarass made quite the point that hanging would be the easiest way to absolve our marriage.”
“So it didn’t matter what Snow said, Lord Tarass and James believe you guilty and the meeting consisted of nothing more than warning you.”
“Every minute of it,” Slatter confirmed, “though I was more concerned with what other horror this dastardly fellow has planned. I believe he wants me to suffer the blame. If I suffer no consequences for this killing, who then would he choose next to kill?”
Willow shook her head when she saw how his dark eyes focused so intently on her. “No. No. He would not come after me.”
“You don’t think if you were found dead that I wouldn’t be blamed and hanged almost immediately?”
“We’ll find him,” Willow said.
He stepped closer to her. “How?”
“As I first suggested, a trap,” she said. “We’ll think of something and when Devin and Walcott get here, they can help us execute it.”
“I’ll not see you put in harm’s way,” he said, reaching out to take hold of her arm and gently tug her toward him.
“Nor I you,” she said softly, her hand going to rest on his chest. “Have you ever heard of a man called the Slayer?”