Edan slowly made his way up the castle to his uncle’s rooms, unsure why he was being summoned. Despite his position as Laird, Edan felt he still owed his uncle a great debt and remained loyal to that because of all he had done after the death of his father.
“Come in, lad!” called Callum upon hearing Edan’s knock.
“Uncle, how are ye? I’ve not seen ye in the hall the last few days. Ye were on a journey north, aye?” Edan asked.
“Aye, only for a brief visit to Lochlomand. And how are ye? No trouble has come to ye has it?” he inquired.
Edan sighed. “I am merely trying to take care with this business about the death of James and the wounding of the Duke of Gordon. I’m told it is best to deny it for the sake of the clan, but when I ken who is responsible, how can I deny? James was me friend. I want Cormag dealt with,” he said.
“Aye, it’s rough business being Laird. Ye have to put the needs of yer clan first, even before yer own feelings,” Callum replied with the answer Edan expected, the one he received from all he had consulted.
“Uncle, ye were there that day. What the devil happened?” Edan finally pressed.
“Honestly lad, there was much confusion. Before I ken what happened, a battle had begun.
“First, we were simply planning to raid their trunks. But suddenly Cormag was locked in a vicious brawl. James was on the ground, in a pool of blood. The Duke tried to attack Cormag, but he got him right in the eye with a knife. Their other party, the third man with them, stayed back from the fray, shouting for it to stop, but being wise — or cowardly — enough to not get involved.
“By the time I ken what happened, it was all over. The Duke and the other man were pulling the body into the carriage, and they left off without us taking the loot that initiated oor attack,” Callum explained.
Something didn’t sit right in Edan’s gut. He wondered if perhaps there had been something else to it. For a flicker of a second, he even wondered if his uncle had ordered the attack. It seemed impossible that it had all been a matter of chance and Cormag’s uninhibited bloodlust.
He’d have nae reason to do so. There’s naught between him and the Duke. Why’d he ever order such an attack? he thought.
“I called ye up here for another reason, me lad,” Callum said.
“Aye, and what might that be?”
“It be about this girl ye are holding. What is yer plan for her? Yer sister tells me she was unable to learn the identity of the girl’s faither, so how are ye going to get the ransom? And if ye cannae get any ransom then what is the point in keeping her here in our land?” Callum questioned.
“I’ve had me thoughts on the matter, and I can assure ye, uncle, that I’m thinking it through clearly. I wouldnae be surprised if she caves any day now and tells me who her faither is. So far, she’s told me he is a wealthy merchant with high status. So, it makes clear sense to me that we need only to get her to confess a little more and I’ll manage to find his identity. It’s nae trouble, really,” Edan reasoned.
“Are ye certain? Because ye seem to be a bit nervous, me lad, and it makes an uncle wonder if perhaps the girl has bewitched ye,” Callum guessed rightly.
“I’ll nae deny that I’ve noticed she is a bonnie lass. But she is English, and she’ll nae have me for all the world. And why should she? Little does she ken, oor men just killed an innocent man from her land. A man who trusted us. We dinnae deserve their trust. We failed them,” Edan said, mostly to himself.
“I never did think I’d see ye sympathizing with the English, Edan. Ye had a soft spot for James — and that was alright since he saved ye once — but now ye are speaking like a madman with yer compassion for them,” Callum accused.
“Dinnae misunderstand me, uncle. It’s nae compassion that makes me feel like this, just guilt. It’s nae about the English, it’s about me friend. It’s about a man who was innocent dying at the hands of me clansmen. Believe me, I’ve nae compassion for the land that has tried to steal oors. I’ll never trust them on the whole,” he promised.
“Right and good, me lad. But ye cannae forget that. They’d murder ye in an instant. Dinnae give them the chance,” Callum warned.
Edan left his uncle feeling the same familiar weight tugging him down. It wasn’t doing him any good to pine for the girl or to ache for his lost friend. Perhaps he was beginning to crumble in his stance against the English. And that was something a laird simply could not be allowed to do.
He met Robert near the great hall as he was preparing for his lunch.
“How was yer chat with yer uncle?” Robert asked.
“I dinnae ken, he wants me to solve oor problems, to deal with Cormag while keeping us all safe, to decide what to do with the prisoner. He keeps warning me about my affections for the English when in truth it’s a mere two bloody people. Me friend and the bonnie lass. I’m a man, how can I ignore that she’s bonnie? I didnae say I’m falling in love now, did I?” he asked. Without his uncle present, he felt angry and ready to defend himself.
“If ye want to see bonnie, check out those tits,” Robert said, nodding to Lorna through the door to where she was seated with her mother. Indeed, her full breasts nearly sat on the table before her plate of food.
“I still think ye be a madman for getting yerself involved with that family. Honestly, her mum be the type that’d have yer bawsack if she found ye were snooping near her daughter,” Edan warned.
“Then she shouldnae have gifted her daughter with such twins!” Robert reasoned back.
“Aye perhaps. Anyhoo, I’ve no appetite for dinner at the moment. How would ye feel about a ride through the woods? I can call the stable boy and have horses readied right quickly. What do ye think?” he asked.
Robert looked longingly at Lorna, then turned to his friend, caught in the decision.
“Alright, I’ll go with ye. But I’ll be famished once we return so I dinnae expect any more excuses from ye after. We ride, we come back, we eat, ye ken?” he bartered.
“I ken,” Edan agreed. He went to the stables and had the boy ready the horses. While he waited, his eyes drifted to the castle.
His wide blue eyes locked on the window of his uncle’s room. From a distance, he could barely make it out, but he saw the animated form of Cormag, seeming agitated or angry. Callum came in and out of view as if pacing back and forth.
The breeze whipped around Edan, and he heard only the wind and the birds, and the occasional stomp of a horse being groomed, but what he saw was enough to make him wonder about the suspicions stirring in his gut.
What reason would me uncle have to meet with Cormag after oor conversation earlier?
“Me Laird!” Robert called, bounding toward Edan, using the title for the sake of others present. “Are we ready?”
Edan was shaken from his thoughts, though his eyes still remained fixed on the window. He tore them away and turned to his friend.
“Aye, we are ready,” he said. They climbed on the beasts and readied their posture before beginning the canter toward the woods.
The wind was refreshing against Edan’s skin. The temperatures remained unpredictable and the light cold of the day awakened him. He looked down at the dappled grey horse he rode, one that had been stolen from another group of English nearly six months ago. She had become his favorite.
“Where are we heading?” called Robert, keeping pace with him on his mahogany steed.
“Anywhere!” came the reply.
They rode through the woods and out the other side to the steep cliffs along the sea. From here, the whole world was at their feet. Edan longed to bring the prisoner out here but knew that would never be an option.
Edan dismounted and tied his horse to one of only three trees, mangled and growing sideways from years of winds warping the bark. His feet took him near the edge of the cliff.
“Oor land,” Robert said, coming up beside him. “Well, oor sea, I guess. But it’s oors. No one can take that from us.”
The calm, blue waters s
pread as far as their eyes could travel. Little white crests of waves were the only sign of disruption in the stillness.
“Do ye think we made the right choice? About Cormag?” Edan asked suddenly.
“I think we made the only choice,” Robert replied.
“Aye, I suppose ye be right,” he said.
They remained in silence, feeling the air of the sea in their faces before Robert’s stomach began to growl and they knew it was time to return. Edan felt fresher after the journey, but his discomfort regarding Cormag and his uncle only seemed to grow.
Chapter 10
The Duke of Gordon sat at the table which now had two chairs empty. His guests remained in awkward silence, unsure how to respond.
“Eat!” he commanded suddenly, slamming a fist on the table. The hangover from yet another night of drinking himself into oblivion had left a pulsing ache in his head. He could not remember where Isabel had gone save for the recounting from his brother.
With the clatter of dishes, the guests resumed a silent meal. None dared to look at his angry face, the grimace on his mouth. Despite being a large man, who often ate his feelings, the Duke could not handle the wave of nausea that came over him each time he tried to entertain a bite of food.
He had a vision of the night nearly a week before — Isabel’s face asking him a question he could not hear. He mumbled an agreement and stumbled to his rooms with her help. And then she was gone.
His brother, Ezra, had briefed him that he gave permission to Isabel to take some time away from their home to recover her thoughts after the plague of grief.
The Duke could handle the silence no longer.
“I ask that you would all excuse me. I am unwell. I must return to my chambers,” he said. His feet, however, led him out of the dining hall and out the door into the garden that Isabel had so loved. Finding a bench, he rested his weary body.
“Brother, why are you so distraught?” Ezra asked, coming from around a high rosebush.
“Where is my daughter?” The Duke asked, tears pooling in his eye. He looked out at the sky as it grew grey and purple with dusk, like a bruise on the flesh of daylight. Soon it would be dark, and he would close another day without his son, and a trying day of unknowns regarding his daughter.
“Fear not, I am sure she will be with us soon, brother. I told you, I heard her request. She wished only to be gone a few days. At least, that is what she told me. In truth, I do have my doubts…” Ezra said with hints of anger.
“What doubts might those be?” The Duke asked.
“Well, brother, she said she was going south, but the boy in the stable informed me she rode north,” he replied. He could not lie for Isabel when her father had endured such grief, but the truth would not be a pleasant one for the Duke to hear.
“I see. And you think perhaps she went to confront our new enemy?” he inquired.
“It is possible, brother. It is possible,” Ezra said.
“So, it is perhaps that she may befall the same fate as James? It is possible that she, too, is gone?” he asked. Questions swirled in the mind of the Duke, but he expected none to be answered. It merely gave him ease to wallow in his fear.
“There is no telling. Come now, let us return to the dining hall. You did not eat,” Ezra suggested, his arms not strong enough to pull the bulk of his brother. His dark hair seemed to be fading into the sky moment by moment as it darkened above them.
“I’ll not dine tonight. But you need not tarry with me. I shall be along to my rooms shortly,” he promised.
A great commotion was heard near the stable beyond the garden. A girl’s voice rose above the dozen men crowded around her, barely visible in the waning light.
“What is that all about?” the Duke asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea, brother. Shall I go?” Ezra offered.
“I will join you,” he replied. Together they walked the short distance to where they saw Charlotte, still donned in her maid’s uniform. The moment her eyes found the Duke, she pushed through the men and fell to his feet.
“Duke, please, please forgive me! There was nothing I could do! They have her. I know not what they are planning, but the Scots have Isabel. Please, Duke, I did not mean to do anything!” she sobbed, both trying to inform but also prevent herself from being punished in any way.
“What do you mean, girl? Be slow about it. Tell us what happened,” Ezra ordered, trying to mask his irritation with gentleness.
Charlotte looked up at them, and Ezra offered her a hand to lift her back up. She was led by Ezra to one of the many benches surrounding the grand manor where the Duke liked to sit outside.
“Tell us,” insisted the Duke, pleading with his remaining eye.
“Forgive me for not coming sooner, Duke. But I was terribly afraid that they were following me. The Scotsmen. They ambushed us. They took your daughter and sent me back with the sister of their Laird,” she said.
“And my daughter?” the Duke asked.
“She wouldn’t tell them her name, Duke. I do not know what they have planned for her. Please, do not punish me. I didn’t mean any harm!” she wailed again.
Ignoring the pleas of Charlotte, the Duke and Ezra leaned together, eager to plan a solution.
“If they have killed my son and now taken my daughter, I think it is time to act. Are you by my side, Ezra?” he inquired.
“Always, brother.”
“Then we must proceed, we must call a council!” the Duke of Gordon declared, a fire being lit within him. His remaining eye glinted with the first sign of hope they had shown since before James was murdered.
“We must be wise about it,” began Ezra. “You know the Scots. They are full of trickery. Lies. They will say or do anything to get out of blame. But we know they killed James, we know they are responsible for your son’s murder, and we must make them pay.”
“Yes, revenge will be swift, but it is Isabel that concerns me. We will have to strategize to ensure that she is rescued safely,” the Duke replied.
“Of course, of course! We cannot allow any harm to come to her,” Ezra replied. A lock of his pitch-dark hair fell in his eyes, and he brushed it back, looking at his brother with uncertainty.
“Maid,” the Duke began. “You must come and recount all that you saw and heard. Go and eat, change if you must, then come to the meeting hall where I shall gather my counselors.”
Charlotte looked petrified at the thought of standing before so many grand men, telling what happened. A deep fear sat in her stomach that she might somehow be blamed for it all. For not protecting Isabel.
“As you wish, sir,” she replied quietly, rushing to the kitchen in hopes that food would give her courage.
“Ezra, gather the counsel,” he ordered.
“Yes, brother,” Ezra replied dutifully. He followed the order and called the men the Duke of Gordon trusted and relied on most. Each one came to the meeting hall ready for action.
“Men!” the Duke began. “The Scots have taken the life of my son. Now they have abducted my daughter. We must not allow them to get away with this!”
His voice was strong, and his fists were clenched tightly. The call to action had settled his emotions and given him the strength to pursue revenge. The men replied with grunts of agreement and stern faces of determination.
“What shall we do, Your Grace? How can we be with you in this?” asked William, one of his advisors.
“I need an army,” he replied.
“We are with you. An army is certainly something we can provide,” William agreed. The others echoed.
“Excellent, now for the plan,” the Duke began.
The men worked tirelessly for half an hour to determine their strategy before a weak knock at the door announced Charlotte’s presence. The door was opened, and she entered the room, standing before the dozen men.
“Maid, what can you tell us?” Ezra beckoned. While he and the Duke had heard part of the story, they wished to know more and for the whole
counsel to understand what happened.
“My lady asked to go on a trip to clear her head after the passing of her brother,” she began in a timid voice. “Begging your pardon, sir, for mentioning such an unhappy event.”
“Go on,” the Duke said, unnerving her with his one-eyed stare.
Charlotte gave an overview of what happened, and the men gasped in shock that Isabel had been taken so cruelly. All for a ransom.
“But I made sure no one followed me. I promise. I was very clever about it,” she added with a plea.
“I am certain you were, maid. Thank you for telling us what happened. Now, leave us,” ordered Ezra.
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