Page 141 of My Brave Highlander

Dirk ran up the steps and into the keep. In the great hall, pandemonium reigned.

He plowed through the people crowding the large, noisy room. He spotted Isobel first, on the floor near the high table. She thrashed about, her face red. Jessie and a few other women knelt over her, attempting to help her.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, dropping to his knees and lifting Isobel into his arms. Her whole body radiated heat to an alarming degree.

"Nannag says poison," Jessie said in a strained voice, tears in her eyes as she was near hysterical.

Poison?

Fear lanced through Dirk. Maighread's visage popped into his mind. Could she have poisoned them from inside the prison of her bedchamber? He glanced across the room toward the people surrounding Aiden. Would she have poisoned her own son, the person she was willing to kill for? It didn't make sense.

"Where is Nannag?" he asked.

"There." Jessie pointed.

The healer approached with two more female servants carrying stoneware jugs.

"Make her drink this," Nannag said, handing one of the jugs to Jessie while a maid set a wooden bucket on the floor.

"What is it?" Dirk asked.

"Vinegar and warm water. 'Twill make her vomit and expel the poison."

"Are you certain?" He didn't want to do anything to make her worse.

"Aye, somehow they got ahold of deadly nightshade," Nannag said.

Who else would use deadly nightshade but Maighread? Damn her. How had she poisoned Isobel and Aiden, of all people? Why would she poison her own son and her best friend's daughter? His cupbearer had not only tasted Dirk's food, but also Aiden's and Isobel's. Maybe he hadn't tasted the poison, or consumed enough to make him sick.

"Give Aiden some vinegar too," Dirk ordered, glancing his way and, when the crowd parted, seeing he was in the same shape as Isobel.

Nannag and a servant moved away as Dirk held Isobel's head up. She was talking nonsense and waving her hands about.

"Isobel, drink this." He held the jug near her mouth, but she turned her head this way and that, clutching onto her throat. "Jessie, make her drink it while I hold her still."

Jessie nodded, tears streaming down her face. Swiping them away, she poured some vinegar water into a mug.

"Isobel, drink. It will help," he said, holding her arms down and her head immobile against his shoulder. Saints, he could not lose her. He had told her true—she was the most important person to him. He had never felt as close to anyone, and he wanted her by his side the whole of his life.

She trembled all over. And though her eyes were normally dark brown, they were near completely black now, and her face scarlet. But her constricted breathing and gasping terrified him most.

"Don't let her get choked."

Jessie shook her head as she carefully allowed Isobel to drink the warm vinegar water from the mug.

Isobel got one sip down, grimacing and shaking her head. "Dirk," she rasped along with other words. "Too loud." She tried to move her hands up to her ears.

"Give her more," he told Jessie, his heart racing. Each moment the poison remained inside her, the more dangerous. "Her stomach has to be purged."

"Aye." Jessie held the cup to Isobel's lips, but she tried to turn her head away again.

"Damnation, Isobel, drink," he commanded in a harsh but low tone near her ear. "I can't lose you."

She shook her head, then accepted the vinegar, showing true effort this time to get the vile liquid down.

"Aye, drink a lot of it, lass. You have to vomit and get rid of the poison."

He could already hear Aiden vomiting behind him. Thank God. This gave him hope.