Page 8 of McKenna’s Honor (The Clan MacDougall #4)

7

W ord of Angus and Duncan’s incarceration had spread across the Highlands like wildfire. By the time Caelen and Nial and Bree and their son had arrived at Findley and Maggy McKenna’s palatial estate, Findley had his men at the ready.

Nial’s original plan had been to send Bree and Jamie ahead with a handful of men while he and Caelen rode on to Edinburgh. Caelen disagreed, raising concern over the fact that they still had no idea where Isobel and Aishlinn were. There was nothing to say that whoever had taken the two women and the children weren’t also preparing to take the rest of Angus’ family.

Nial considered that prospect and agreed. Admittedly, he was relieved as well as happy to spend another few days with his wife and babe.

Before leaving the McKee keep, Nial sent word to Bridgett, Angus and Isobel’s adopted daughter. She lived in Ireland with her husband, Timothy, and their four children. Nial wasn’t taking any chances with losing more of Angus’ family. Though it would take weeks for his men to reach the tiny village where Bridgett and her family lived, he felt it made sense to warn them of the situation.

Nial could only hope there would be a happy outcome to this mess. He dreaded the thought of sending word to Bridgett that her father and brother were dead.

While Findley and Maggy had been expecting Caelen and Nial and their men, they were not prepared for Bree and her babe. They had been standing at the top of the steps that led into their home when they caught sight of Bree and little Jamie. After exchanging confused glances with one another, Findley and Maggy welcomed their friends with open arms, careful not to show the concern each of them felt. Both had similar lines of thought: If Bree and Jamie are here, then things are far worse than we thought.

Bree had been perched atop her husband’s lap, with Jamie wrapped in her arms for most of the ride. The damp air and biting wind made it feel more like late winter than summertime. Nial draped a heavy fur around his wife and babe, shielding them from the harsh weather. He was quite proud of his son, even though he was just a bairn. Jamie had been very little trouble on the journey. Kept fed and dry, he was perfectly content in his mother’s arms.

Nial guided his horse toward the steps of the keep. Stable boys appeared immediately to tend to their horses. Findley bounded down the steps and handed Jamie off to Maggy before helping Bree down. In no time, the family was ushered into the warm and dry keep.

“We were no’ expecting ye, Bree!” Maggy exclaimed as she led them into the large gathering room.

Bree was exhausted, but not so much that she couldn’t take notice of the opulent surroundings. Maggy’s home was filled with fine, ornately carved furniture. Beautiful paintings and tapestries hung on nearly every wall. Three heavy iron chandeliers filled with too many candles to count hung from the beamed ceiling. Instead of rushes covering the wood floor, dozens of finely crafted rugs were scattered about. Bree imagined they could have fit four, mayhap five of her homes inside this beautiful castle.

“Och!” Maggy said as Bree pulled down the hood of her heavy cloak. “Lass, yer soaked to the bone!” She was still holding Jamie, bouncing from one leg to the other as she kissed his soft cheeks.

Bree laughed. “Aye, we did no’ stop much and neither did the rain.”

“We’ll get ye settled into a warm room above stairs. We’ll get ye all baths and food, and ye can tell me what the devil is happenin’ with yer da and family.”

Before Bree could explain that she knew very little, Nial was at her side. He rested a hand on her waist and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

Bree smiled but remained quiet as they were all led above stairs. She wanted to get out of her wet clothes and into a hot bath. As bone tired and cold as she felt, she thought it might be a day or two before she felt warm again. She wished she could climb into a soft, warm bed with Nial’s arms wrapped around her and forget about the rest of the world.

Then she thought of her father and Duncan.

The image of them sitting in a dungeon in Edinburgh was the one thing that kept her moving one foot determinedly in front of the other. In the beginning of this journey, anger over the accusations had boiled her blood enough to help keep the chill away. But now, the anger had turned to worry and it was difficult to keep a positive outlook or to remain hopeful.

I am the daughter of Angus and Isobel, Bree thought as she slipped behind a dressing screen and stripped out of her wet clothes. When she tossed her dress across the top of the screen, it nearly toppled over. Maggy, still holding Jamie, offered her a heavy blanket before turning her attention back to the cooing babe.

“He’s a beautiful lad,” Maggy offered as she gently bounced the babe in her arms. “If he is as calm as his da is, I think he’d suit me Deirdre. She already has me temper. She’ll need a good, calm man to keep her in check.”

Bree smiled slightly as she sat in a chair next to the fire. “Sometimes I wish his da was no’ so calm,” Bree admitted.

Maggy looked up from the babe and smiled warmly at Bree. “Aye, I suppose so. I’d wager that ye be wantin’ him to race to Edinburgh and lay siege to the whole town so that he can get yer da and Duncan out of this mess.”

Bree nodded her head and fought back the tears. “I ken it sounds foolish, but aye, that is what I wish we could do.”

Jamie started to fuss and suck on his fist. “I think he’s hungry,” Maggy offered as she placed the babe in Bree’s arms.

Bree opened the blanket just enough to give Jamie room to suckle. He latched on quickly and his expression made her chuckle. “As if ye haven’t eaten in days,” she told him. “Yer da gets that hungry, desperate look in his eyes, too.”

Maggy giggled as she pulled a chair up to sit across from Bree. “So it isn’t just Findley that does that? Gets the look of a man starved half out of his mind?”

Bree giggled her agreement. “From what Aishlinn and me mum tell me,” her voice trailed off at thinking of her parents and family. Her stomach felt heavy, tight, the worry continuing to build.

No matter what her father and Duncan had admitted, she refused to believe them. It simply was not possible.

“Maggy,” she said as soft tears made their way down her cheeks. “I ken in me heart that me da is no traitor.”

Maggy nodded her head but remained quiet.

“And neither is Duncan. They’d no more betray their country or King David than Nial or Findley would!” Frustration began to wrap its way around her heart. “I do no’ care that they’ve admitted guilt. I can only think they did so because of mum and Aishlinn. No one kens where they be. Mayhap someone has taken them, holds them against their will and is forcing Da and Duncan to do this. ’Tis the only thing that makes any sense.”

“Aye, ’tis possible,” Maggy said softly. “I do no’ ken Angus or Duncan well, but they do no’ strike me as traitors. And Findley agrees.”

They sat in silence for some time, their eyes absentmindedly transfixed on the suckling babe in Bree’s arms. A knock on the door shook the women from their quiet reverie. Maggy bid entry and a moment later three lads entered, with buckets full of hot water.

“Thank ye kindly, lads,” Maggy said as they made their way to the tub behind the screen. One by one they emptied the steamy water into the tub before quietly leaving the room.

“Ye’ll feel better after a bath and a hot meal,” Maggy told Bree as she took the now sleeping Jamie from her arms.

Bree sat still for a moment before shaking her head. “Nay, I’ll no’ feel better until me da and Duncan are safely out of Edinburgh. ”

Two hours later, Bree and Maggy kissed their husbands goodbye. Before the men were out of the courtyard, Maggy and Bree began making plans of their own. The men were heading to Edinburgh with the hope they could talk Phillip Lindsay into rescinding the death sentence.

“I’ll no’ let me father hang fer something I know in me heart he did no’ do,” Bree said as she paced anxiously across the floor of the bedchamber. “And I ken as well that Duncan would never betray his country,” she rambled on, paying very little attention to Maggy.

Maggy said nothing as she sat in a chair next to the fire and nursed her new daughter, Elizabeth. The child suckled contentedly as she held onto Maggy’s index finger. The babe looked like her da, as did two-year-old Deirdre. Maggy’s five boys were in charge of keeping little Deirdre out of trouble this morning.

Findley was Angus’ nephew. His father, Collom McKenna, Angus’ younger brother, had been killed in the same massacre that took Duncan McEwan’s family. Though Findley was the eldest of the three lads, he had made it known early on that he had no desire to become chief. He preferred, instead, to be a warrior.

But life does not always turn out the way one wishes. Findley, through his marriage to Maggy, was now the proud chief of their own growing clan. Maggy’s first husband, Gawter de Menteith, had been the ninth Earl of Kerse . Blessedly, the pox had taken the hard, cruel man, years earlier.

“I do no’ like just sitting here, waiting!” Bree was growing angrier as the moments passed by.

Maggy looked up from her daughter and smiled. “Angus and Duncan haven’t even left Edinburgh yet.”

Suddenly, an idea came to Bree. She stopped in her tracks, spun and looked at Maggy with wide eyes and a smile that began to grow as the idea formed into a full-fledged plan. Her anger and dread were rapidly fading away as hope began to build.

“Maggy,” Bree said excitedly. “I have an idea…” her words trailed off and she began to chew on her thumbnail.

Maggy’s brows drew inward as she tilted her head. “What kind of idea? ” she asked.

Bree took a quick breath in before answering. “What if Angus and Duncan didna arrive in Stirling at all?”

Bree could almost see the wheels in Maggy’s mind begin to turn. “Bree, ye be far more devious than I could have imagined.”

Maggy understood, as well as anyone, the lengths to which a mother would go to protect her children. She imagined too, that if Findley were in the same predicament as Angus and Duncan, she would do whatever she could to help him. She further understood why a daughter would fight for her father. Family was everything.

“Of course, we’ll be needin’ help,” Maggy said as she looked down at her daughter, who was now content and fast asleep. “Findley took most of the men to Stirling. But, he didna take all those that could help us.”

Bree’s smile grew along with the twinkle in her eyes. For the first time in days she began to feel hopeful. Aye, her husband would probably be very upset with her. In the end, however, she knew he would understand.