The Faithful Heart (28 page)

 

 

Only when all of the patients had been seen to did Morgana try to
discover the source of the poisoning.

 

 

“It can’t be the water, wine, or beer, for surely everyone in the
village would be sick. It has to be something they ate. Since all
the houses are next to one another, it has to be something that
they’ve shared,” Morgana reasoned as she looked from house to house
for any common factor which she could perceive.

 

 

“I don’t know, meat, the supplies from Sligo, perhaps?” Mary
suggested.

 

 

“Whatever this was, it caused the same exact illness in my father,
and that certainly didn’t come on any boat from Sligo,” Morgana said
impatiently.

 

 

She looked around her for a time, and then rubbed her brow. “Now I
can see an assassin poisoning one person, but to attack eight
families makes no sense. Why not the whole village? No, a mistake
was made somewhere, and I have to find it quickly. In the meantime,
we must warn the villagers not to eat whatever was in the castle
before the ships arrived from Sligo.”

 

 

“It will be hard. People don’t like to waste food.”

 

 

Morgana rubbed her eyes, gritty with lack of sleep, as she tried to
recollect what had been in the larders on the first day when she had
distributed food.

 

 

“Mary, the vegetables! Father’s vegetables!” Morgana suddenly
exclaimed.

 

 

“But Morgana,” Mary argued, “how is that possible?”

 

 

“He said he had started feeding himself from his own private stores,
and got well for a time, but then had another relapse. Then he ate
the things from Aunt Agatha, and was almost well again, before a
massive dose of poison killed him,” Morgana outlined as she looked
in each house for any baskets she recognised.

 

 

“If you say so, but I think your search is a waste of time when so
many sick people need attending,” Mary sniffed disapprovingly. She
seemed completely unwilling to be convinced.

 

 

Morgana’s suspicions were immediately alerted again, for both Mary
and Aofa had been in the larder that first night when she had
charitably tried to feed the starving multitude outside her castle
walls.

 

 

Admittedly it had been Aofa who had tried to stop Morgana from
giving away the vegetables, whereas Mary had helped with the many
sick patients. But she was certain one of the women was responsible.

 

 

Unfortunately, Morgana couldn’t be sure which one was to blame, but
she was positive now that that was how her father had been poisoned.
He had been fed by the cooks at first. Then he had dug up vegetables
from the garden. Someone must have got at his secret store and
smeared poison on the outsides of the vegetables, Morgana decided.

 

 

As she searched desperately for more evidence, Morgana was conscious
of Mary frowning at her every move.

 

 

At last she found one of the baskets. Morgana decided to come
straight out with the truth to determine Mary’s reaction to
it.“Someone has rubbed poison all over the outside of the
vegetables. See the white powder? There are flakes in this basket,
and I’ll betif we find the other one, we will find the same white
flakes. Find that second basket, and whoever has received vegetables
from it. I don’t care if you have to turn the whole village upside,
I don’t want a parsnip left in a single house at the end of all
this.”

 

 

“I’ll see to it as soon as it’s light,” Mary promised, staring at
the basket in horror.

 

 

Morgana returned to dosing her patients one at a time, praying that
she could save them as she laboured throughout the night.

 

 

But as dawn came up over Lisleavan, Morgana neared despair. A half
dozen of the children had died, and of the remaining two dozen
cases, at least ten had lapsed into unconsciousness. Morgana got a
funnel and continued to try to dose them,but she began to lose hope
as another three children died in her arms.

 

 

“Perhaps I should try mustard, to get most of the poison out of the
stomach,” Morgana wondered aloud, as she checked each patient again
for any sign of improvement.

 

 

“I’ll go get it,” Mary offered.

 

 

They purged their last remaining victims until their stomachs were
empty, and began a renewed assault with the milk and herbs.

 

 

“We need more milk. Get one of the men up to tend to the cows, and
tell them to hurry,” Morgana insisted.

 

 

“No one else seems to be ill at the moment, so I shall get them all
up to look for the vegetables, and to take some turns with the farm
chores and nursing the sick. You have other things on the estate to
do, and if I may say so, you look exhausted, as well as filthy.”

 

 

“A little dirt never hurt anyone, Mary,” Morgana replied. “I shall
stay until I see some hope of improvement. Get the farming chores
done and the bread made.”

 

 

“I’m going now.”

 

 

“And send a messenger to Aunt Agatha, to get more cordial and herbs.
We’re nearly out of everything at the moment,” Morgana added.

 

 

When another three children died in one house, Morgana went outside
and began to weep.

 

 

“Who could be so wicked as to allow this to happen to their own
people?” Morgana agonised aloud.

 

 

Just then Ruairc appeared by her side and took her into his arms.

 

 

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you, my love!” Ruairc breathed
against her auburn tresses. “I was so worried when you didn’t answer
my knock at your door, and I opened it to find the room empty. I
wanted to talk to you, Morgana, about last night.”

 

 

He held her at arm’s length as he felt her go limp in his embrace.

 

 

“What on earth has happened to you!” Ruairc gaped as he took in
Morgana’s dishevelled hair, thin gown covered with unspeakable
stains, and white pinched face.

 

 

“The poison. It’s got into the village. Twelve children have died
already, and I’m out of milk and herbs. Please, can you go to Agatha
and get more medicines? I'm at the end of my strength and hope. I
just don’t know what to do any more,” Morgana admitted, though she
hated to feel so weak and helpless in front of Ruairc of all people.
Especially when she was meant to be getting him away to Dublin for
his own safety.

 

 

Ruairc pulled her to his broad chest and soothed, “Sush, let it all
out if you want to cry. You should have wakened me when this first
happened.

 

 

"But it’s all right, I’m here now. I will send a messenger with a
note from me to Agatha. No, don’t argue. I am staying here with you,
Morgana. Just tell me what you want me to do to help.”

 

 

Morgana rubbed her tear-streaked face with one hand, and then said
quietly, “At the moment we need to gather the dead together into one
house, and the living into another so they can all be tended to
properly. Can you get some of the men to help me move them?”

 

 

“I’ll send the messenger and be right back,” Ruairc promised, with a
last firm kiss on her lips.

 

 

He was as good as his word. As soon as he returned, they set to work
together. They chose the largest house for their makeshift hospital,
and moved the remaining patients into it on their truckle beds. Then
two of the men came in with the milk, and Morgana showed Ruairc how
to dose each one of the sick people.

 

 

Hours passed before the herbs came from the convent at Kilgarven,
but there was still no sign of improvement in at least half of the
surviving patients.

 

 

“Damn it, don’t you die on me!” Morgana implored as another child
lapsed into a coma.

 

 

“Try to stay calm, Morgana,” Ruairc advised, holding out a hand to
comfort her.

 

 

She rounded on him furiously.

 

 

“These thirty people were poisoned because they simply wanted to
eat, and someone had poisoned the food in the stores. Even if those
vegetables were intended only for my father, they could have killed
the entire village! How do you expect me to stay calm in the face of
this disaster!"

 

 

“I understand how distressing this must be for you,
a thaisce
.
I'm sick at heart about it as well. But arguing with each other
isnot going to help them, and at the risk of sounding callous, you
are
tanaist
now. You can't afford the luxury of letting your
emotions get the better of you."

 

 

She sighed, and dragged her furious gaze away from him at last.
"You're right. I'm sorry—"

 

 

"Never mind that now, my love. I don't blame you in the least and
I'm strong enough to cope with your temper. But there's no sense in
getting angry. You need to concentrate all your energy on those who
remain alive. Your father would have recovered had he not been
administered a fatal dose. The children have nearly all died, it is
true, and I am sorry for the loss, but the men and women may
recover.You mustn’t lose hope,” Ruairc counselled wisely, stroking
her dishevelled hair back from her face, and gazing deeply into her
violet eyes, until Morgana looked away uncomfortably.

 

 

“They must get better, they must,” Morgana breathed.

 

 

"We will do everything humanly possible. As for the rest, well, just
pray. It can't hurt, after all."

 

 

So she prayed aloud continually as she continued nursing the
patients in turn all day and throughout the night without so much as
a moment’s rest. Ruairc was ever at her side, except when she sent
him on errands to the castle and back.

 

 

The herbs and cordials from Aunt Agatha seemed to help, as did the
milk. At last, at dawn the following morning, Morgana sat up
straight and stretched her aching back.

 

 

“You look exhausted. Why don’t you go up to your room for a nap?”
Ruairc suggested quietly.

 

 

Morgana shook her head. “Not until I’m sure that they're better.”

 

 

“I’m here, and Mary is just coming now to take a turn, so go have a
rest,” Ruairc insisted.

 

 

Morgana sighed and stood up. “I’ll go into the kitchen to start the
bread, and have a word with the servants about meals and so on. I
need some men for the milking, but the remaining men in the village
are going to have to carry on with the sowing of seeds in the field
today, and the lambs are on their way as well,” Morgana listed her
chores one by one.

 

 

“You’re not the only one who can work around here, you know,” Ruairc
pointed out angrily.

 

 

“If I lay around doing nothing like Aofa, how can I blame others if
they don’t commit themselves to hard work?”

 

 

“Morgana, you’ve slept about five hours in the past five days! Leave
some of the work to others,” Ruairc argued.

 

 

“I’ll sleep tonight, but I'm leaving for the convent in the morning,
so I have to set things in order for Finn before I go,” she said
wearily.

 

 

She left the hut before Ruairc could argue with her further.

 

 

The poisoning of the village had only confirmed her suspicions that
there was great danger for Ruairc should he decide to stay at
Lisleavan.

 

 

Though she disliked lying to him, she was certain her planned course
of action was the best for all concerned.

 

 

Morgana spent her last day attending to estate business and the
accounts as she moved from room to room in the castle checking that
all was as it should be.

 

 

The O’Donnells were a great help to her, going out hunting and
fishing again, but they planned to leave that evening, and Morgana
knew with them and Ruairc gone the castle would be a lonely place
for her.

 

 

When Morgana went down to the village again at midday to check on
her patients, the news was more encouraging.

 

 

“They are doing much better, really,” Ruairc assured Morgana when
she called in.

 

 

“In that case I have to go out for a while, to see the work in the
fields, but I’ll call in later. Keep giving them the milk, and get
someone to boil up some bones for some thin broth. If they’re
conscious, I think they’ll recover,” Morgana said hopefully.

 

 

"But where are you going?"

 

 

"To the fields," she lied. "I'll be back soon. Be careful, won't
you. If Aofa gets wind of you helping, she could turn it into
something ugly."

 

 

"You mean like saying that my aunt's cordials worked because I was
the one who poisoned everyone in the first place?" he said with a
grim look.

 

 

She nodded. "I wouldn't be at all surprised."

 

 

"I'll be careful. You too."

 

 

She nodded, and headed off on her errand. She had been home a week
now. It was time to see what fate had yielded her, and take her
first steps as new
tanaist
to make her clan great once more.

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY

 

 

Morgana went to the stables to saddle Darkie.First she rode in the
direction of Ma Niadh, before doubling back and heading for the
caves at Clashmore, where she hoped the rest of the clan had been in
hiding since their return.

 

 

When she arrived, about a hundred men had assembled, including Sean
and his brother Angus.