Page 193 of Moon Craving

She refused to look at him. "I fell down the stairs."

He tugged her chin, oh so gently, so she had to meet his gaze. "Do not worry. I am

not angry for you walking down the steps alone."

She did not need his assurances. "It was not my fault. There was something on the

steps. It rolled under my shoes and I lost my footing."

"Do not feel you have to make excuses." Talorc shook his head. "Lachlan was

right, though it pains me to admit it. The stairs are not safe for a family. I will have a rail

installed."

She ignored his reassurance for the important issue at hand. "There was

something on the stairs. I felt it under my shoe."

"There wasn't. I found you moments after you fell and nothing was there."

"You found me?"

"Osgard did at first, perhaps a second or two before me, and for all his bluster, he

was most concerned."

Talorc frowned and turned his head to glare at someone behind him.

Guaire returned his laird's frown with equanimity. "Osgard has proven time and

again that he does not accept our new lady. He knows of her habit to come down the

stairs before anyone else in the morning. He is usually the first in the great hall. He could

easily have put pebbles on the steps and cleaned them up before you arrived to discover

your wife's fallen body."

Abigail did not like the possibility that someone in their clan had tried to hurt her,

but she knew something had been on the stairs. Before she could say anything, Niall

made his presence known.

His glower was twice as ferocious as Talorc's as he stared at Guaire. "You dare

accuse our laird's advisor of an act that amounts to treason? He is a loyal Chrechte."

"And because he is Chrechte, he is above reproach, but because I am merely

human, my opinion counts for nothing? Even though I am seneschal to the holding and

care deeply for the safety of my lady?"

The dangerous stillness that came over Talorc and Niall indicated something

Guaire had said made them more than angry. It made them dangerous.