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Dundee, Scotland, June, 1607
Lady Verona Murray, along with her younger brother, Balfour, stood at the bedside of her sick husband, Laird Larson Murray. Her stepdaughter, Kila, sat on the bed, next to her father, holding his hand. Verona needed to find a way to get her out of the bedchamber. "Kila, have a servant fetch a bit of broth for your father. 'Twould certainly aid him in fighting this sickness he's acquired."
Larson suddenly moaned, and tossed his head back and forth on the bolster.
Verona raised a brow. Had her husband discovered what she was about?
Kila lifted his hand to her lips. "I'll only be a moment, Father."
He somehow had the strength to grab his daughter's arm. "Nay," he said hoarsely.
She gently placed his hand beside him on the bed. "I'll be quick about it. I promise."
As soon as Kila was gone, Verona slipped the poison, made from the berries of the deadly nightshade plant, from her bodice, and poured every last drop into his goblet, along with a sip of wine. Unfortunately, Larson was a man of large build, and had required more poison than the others to make him ill, and she had long ago grown weary of his lingering. She carefully lifted the goblet to his parched lips.
Though near death, he tried to shove it away.
"Balfour, hold him," she whispered.
Her brother came away from the bedchamber door, where he'd been watching for Kila's return, and held Larson's head still, while she poured it down his throat.
He coughed and sputtered, then lay back on the bolster.
Verona smiled. "'Twill be over soon, husband of mine," she said, wiping the evidence of her deed from his beard.
Kila hurried into the room with a cup, and sat down on the edge of the bed, "Father, I've a bit of broth for you, and I've word the healer will be here soon." She lifted it to his lips, but he was unable to drink. She put it aside, and smoothed his gray hair away from his forehead. "Please dinnae die, Father," she said, tears streaming down her face.
"Kila," he whispered hoarsely, then lay still, and breathed no more.
She shook him. "Father! Father!" She screamed, then dropped her face into her hands and wept.