Page 13 of Laird of Sighs (His Highland Heart #5)

CHAPTER 13

A s they talked, Ailsa’s hopes broke into smaller and smaller pieces. Like pottery flung against a stone wall to burst into shards able to slice open any flesh that came near them. Like her heart.

She heard enough to know Anders lied. To her and to her parents. He had regained his memory, and he was plotting now to escape without her.

She had been wrong about him. About his feelings for her. His laughter when she heard his brother tell him he wasn’t betrothed or married told her he took none of it seriously. He didn’t have any feelings for her. He’d used her. His kindness, his calm, all an act to make certain Sinclair cared for him as he needed until he healed in mind and body and he could escape.

Now that his fellow clansmen were also here, they complicated his plans. But she didn’t doubt Anders’ lies would continue until he got what he wanted.

Freedom.

Not her.

Standing halfway up the stairs, Ailsa heard the commotion of her father coming across the bailey with some men. The time for Anders’ reunion was up. So was her loyalty to him. She didn’t know what her father would do when he saw the brothers together, and she no longer cared. She had to protect her friends. She beckoned Tasgall toward the stairs as she mounted the rest of them. “Get below. Ye are on guard,” she hissed, knowing if her da thought he’d had anything to do with Anders being here, it would go badly for her friend.

Tasgall hesitated. “He’ll take it out on ye.”

“Better me than ye,” she hissed again to keep her voice from carrying. “Go.”

She headed up the last few steps as Tasgall vaulted down the stairs and took up the guard station at the bottom. His arrival wasn’t missed by the Sutherlands.

“What’s going on?” Anders asked him.

“The laird is on his way.”

Anders turned to face the stairs. “Ailsa is still up there?” What would her father do to her when he found out what she’d done?

Tasgall didn’t have to nod.

“Why are ye here, Daughter? This is nay place for a lass.” The laird’s voice boomed down the stairs.

“Dinna be angry, Da. I brought Anders to see if he would recognize the men being held here. Or if they kenned him.”

Anders couldn’t see the laird, but he could imagine the expression on his face.

“We’ll discuss this later,” Sinclair snarled. “Get yerself back to yer chamber and dinna leave it until yer mother comes for ye.” As he came down the steps, he muttered, “Damn meddling lasses,” over and over again.

But he went silent when he saw Anders standing next to Stellan.

Then he broke into a feral grin. “Well, that explains everything. The famous Sutherland twins.” He studied them for a long moment, then asked, “Which of ye is the heir?”

“I am,” they both said together.

“Come, now, ye canna both be heir. ’Tis said the elder is serious and solemn—and married. The younger is lighter of spirit and fond of the lasses. ’Twould be hard in yer current state to discern which of ye is more solemn, but I ken one of ye is fond of my lass. So, ye are truly Anders, and the man in the cage is the heir, Stellan.” He leaned his back against the cold stone wall near the guard station where Tasgall stood silent and studied them. “’Tis quite remarkable. Ye look exactly the same, save for ye, Stellan, living rough the past several days. And ye,” he snarled, turning to Anders, “living well under my roof, cared for by my healer and my daughter. Claiming to have lost yer memory. A convenience to avoid answering questions, aye?”

“Nay, ’twas gone, and to some extent, ’tis still uncertain.”

“Just like that? Since ye left my solar? I’d best call the priest. ’Tis a miracle.”

Anders didn’t appreciate the sarcasm in his tone, but he understood it. “It happened when I saw my brother and our men. ’Tis that new, and that unexpected. I dinna yet ken how much I’m still missing.”

“Perhaps more time spent with them will provide the answers ye seek.”

“Da, nay!” Ailsa’s shout communicated her understanding of what her father proposed to do, and her objection to it.

Sinclair spun around to face the stairs. “I told ye to leave, Daughter. Go. Now.” He turned back to Anders. “Consider yerself lucky. If I hadna given my word to Lady Sinclair and Maighread, I’d throw ye in that cage with yer twin, but I promised no’ to lock ye in down here. That doesna mean I canna lock ye up somewhere else.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Tasgall, take this Sutherland up to his chamber and lock the door. Post a guard.”

Tasgall moved forward. “Ye heard the laird. Come with me, Anders.”

“I will, because I, too, made a promise no’ to cause trouble for Sinclair. But I heard what ye said to Ailsa. She isna to blame for my being here. Dinna punish her for something I convinced her to do.”

Anders noted Tasgall’s frown at the lie over the laird’s shoulder and was glad Sinclair hadn’t seen it. He moved forward past Sinclair and let Tasgall give him a light shove toward the stairs, more for show than impetus.

“Is this how ye treat yer guests?” Stellan asked.

“Sutherlands? Dinna name yourselves guests. This is a dungeon, one that can be much worse for yer men and ye than it has been up to now.”

With that, he started up the stairs after Anders and Tasgall.

“What are ye going to do with us?” Anders asked where he’d paused near the top of the stairs.

“Naught. Ye are going to make Sinclair very rich when yer da pays the ransom for ye and yer men. He’ll be eager to do so when he sees the missive I plan to send. He canna refuse me anything I want, nay when I have his heir and his spare. If he fails to respond as I require, I can also send him a matching set of heads.”

Tasgall, above Anders, stumbled on the last step. Anders shifted to cover for him as Sinclair began to chuckle, then to laugh outright, the sound echoing in the stairway as they emerged into sunlight coming from the bailey into the short hallway that led outside. Anders had never been so glad to see the sky. But also never so angry that his twin and his men were locked away below ground. Under threat. They were going to get out of here. He would find a way, and they would do it before Sutherland gave up whatever price Sinclair demanded—or Sinclair grew tired of waiting and they lost their heads.

“Why did ye do such a foolish thing?” Lady Sinclair demanded when Ailsa opened her chamber door to her mother an hour later. “Have ye lost yer mind? Yer father is furious. Anders is confined to his chamber. Ye may leave yers only to help me with the preparations for a siege,” she said as she advanced into the room, forcing Ailsa to keep backing up. “People say yer da threatened to send the Sutherland laird the heads of his heir and Anders. Do ye see what ye caused?”

The backs of Ailsa’s knees hit her bed in time for her to collapse onto the mattress instead of in a heap on the floor. “He did what?” As angry as she was with Anders, she couldn’t bear the thought of him being dead. She should have turned him away. Mayhap his men would have found him and left the area before Sinclair guards picked them up. But he’d been in such terrible shape, with no memory of who he was or where he belonged. Without Sinclair help, she knew he might have died that day.

“Ye heard me.”

“He canna do that.”

“Dinna be naive Daughter. Of course he can.”

“Mama, he canna. I … Anders …” Hearing Anders plot with his men—men he knew well—came back to her like a kick to the gut. She didn’t want him dead, but he didn’t deserve her loyalty, either.

“Ye have a betrothal offer from the Norse King. Which do ye think entices yer da more? The lesser son of an enemy clan or the Norse King ?”

Ailsa dropped her face into her hands. “What have I done?”

“Better question. What are ye going to do about it?”

Ailsa lifted her head and met her mother’s gaze. “What do ye mean?”

“Ye’d best be thinking about what Anders is worth to ye and what ye are willing to use to bargain with yer father to save his life. And if that is what ye want, to make him yers. There are plenty of Sutherlands in the dungeon. The laird can sacrifice a few and still get the payment he’s demanded.” Her mother knew nothing about what she’d overheard Anders and his men saying in the dungeon. She still believed in the good Anders.

“Ye would stand by?—”

“I’m his wife, no’ his warlord. He will do as he sees fit for the clan.”

“And start a war.”

“Sinclair has a powerful ally.”

“Sutherland does, too, many of them.” A chill skittered down her spine. Even her mother might be willing to sacrifice Anders. Did he deserve that?

“I should agree to wed the Norse prince. Then Da would have all the gold and cattle from the Norse king that he will demand of Sutherland. He could let them go. And still keep their birlinn . Without bloodshed. Without harm to the men in our custody?—”

“Without harm to ye as well?” Her mother sank down beside her on the bed. “Daughter, we are discussing things that are no’ in our purview. I ken ye have feelings for Anders, and he for ye. I havena spent much time with him, but I have seen the way he watches ye. He’s a man who’s never been in love before, but even as his memory and his old life come back to him, I think ye may remain the most important thing in his world.” She slapped her hands on her knees and stood. “Or ye did until his twin arrived. ’Twill be interesting to see how he solves that dilemma.”

Her mother’s words shocked her into reconsidering.

Whom had he betrayed? Really, no one yet. Save her. She’d thought his interest in her was real—and she’d been wrong. But the rest—his kindness, his concern for others, were real. She could think of many times she’d seen him demonstrate his care for other people. Unless that was as false as the way he treated her.

Nay, she hadn’t been so blinded by her own fantasies to mistake that. She had overlooked that even here, a prisoner of Sinclair, he had a duty to his clan. To his twin. She’d seen and heard that fealty in what he’d said in the dungeon. Their discussion had nothing to do with his feelings for her.

Her heart lifted as her mother’s observation came back to her. Had she judged Anders too harshly?