Page 21 of The Dark Highlander’s Heart (Thorns Of The Highlands #2)

20

R omilly stood at the highest window of the McGregor Stronghold, observing mournfully as the messenger rode off into the distance with the missive from Aitken. The sky was stained a deep and tragic shade of scarlet, and it made Romilly think of the blood that would likewise stain the valleys from there to the Oliphant lands if her father’s war came to pass.

How could he genuinely wish for such senseless carnage? How could he deliberately drag their people into a conflict they had no chance of winning, and all in the name of his terrible pride and arrogance?

Most of all, how could she have misjudged her father’s character so completely all these years?

As she looked away from the window and began to pace the chamber fretfully, she had the bitter realization that the last question was far too easily answered. She was a grown woman and had been for quite some time, but she had spent her entire life seeing her father through the loving and awestruck eyes of a child. Even after she had grown to almost his height, he had continued to tower over her in her mind and heart. He was the mighty laird, his will was law, and he was utterly infallible. Every action he took, every word he spoke, every order he gave, all were only ever in service to the McGregors and their way of life.

She had seen him, never as a man with flaws and petty hatreds, but as a colossus standing astride his clan.

Now, at last, she saw him for whom he really was. And the reality of it threatened to break her.

Angus might demand that Romilly join the battles to come, for he had spent so many years teaching her the ways of the sword, the bow, and the target and dirk. Or, afraid for the survival of his precious legacy, he might insist that she remain within the relatively safe confines of the stronghold to watch the fighting helplessly from above.

Either way, Romilly knew that it amounted to much the same thing in the end: She would be forced to bear witness to the utter destruction of her clan. Her entire way of life would be eradicated in front of her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Was there?

As she bleakly pondered these outcomes, the messenger rode through the day and for much of the night so that he could deliver Aitken’s letter to Castle Oliphant. Aitken had informed him of how urgent the missive was, but that was not the reason the rider hastened, for his loyalties were to the McGregors and not some wayward Oliphant.

Rather, the messenger had been charged to travel with all possible speed by none other than Laird Angus, who wished to ensure that the Oliphants were informed of his actions as soon as possible. He was eager to provoke Laird Alex, and to witness the results of that provocation.

Sure enough, when the rider was ushered through the gates of Castle Oliphant barely a day after Katherine’s homecoming, it raised Bryan’s eyebrows. What news could be so crucial that it precipitated such a hurried message from Aitken?

Bryan’s mind swirled with the worst conceivable scenarios: That some terrible fate had befallen Katherine on the journey back to the McGregor lands; that she had been harmed or even executed by her own father upon their return to the stronghold.

He muttered an excuse to his second in command upon the ramparts and ran into the castle. He reached Alex’s study just in time to see the McGregor messenger step inside and close the door behind him.

Despite his deepening sense of dread, Bryan did not dare knock or interrupt. He knew that despite their friendship, Alex would be angered by such a show of disrespect. So he waited outside the door as the minutes ticked by, doing his best to keep his breathing steady and his heart calm.

Surely, he was fretting for no reason, he assured himself. Surely, the messenger was merely dispatched to confirm that Katherine had returned home safely, and to reaffirm the newly negotiated peace between the clans.

After what seemed like an hour, the door opened again and the rider emerged. He marched down the corridor stiffly, avoiding eye contact with Bryan. His expression was grave.

The captain wanted to grab the man by his shoulders and shake him to demand answers, to insist upon news of Katherine’s safety and spirits.

Then he heard Alex’s voice call out to him dryly, somehow knowing he was hovering outside. “Ye may enter now, Bryan.”

Bryan hurried into the study, shutting the door behind him as the messenger had done. “News of Katherine, I take it?”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “Ye really must return tae the habit of referring tae her as Lady Katherine, old friend. Ye know I dinnae care, but if others were tae hear…”

“What has become of her?” Bryan pressed, his voice strained.

Alex sighed and squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I ought not tell ye, for I fear I ken full well what it will drive ye tae do. But neither can I hide the truth from ye, for I have always held ye in too high esteem for that.” He opened his eyes again, leveling them at Bryan. “Angus imprisoned Lady Katherine the moment they set foot within the stronghold.”

“What?” Bryan exploded, his face turning red. “That bloody serpent!”

“Aye, he is most certainly that,” the laird agreed wearily. “But, like most serpents, a cunning creature indeed. He knew that in doing so, he might provoke us tae break the treaty. Perhaps it might even be a test of a sort tae see if we take any interest in her captivity, since that could prove tae him that she collaborated with us during her time here.”

But most of these words did not penetrate the red fog that had settled over Bryan’s brain at the news of Katherine’s imprisonment. “We must do something!” he exclaimed. “We cannae allow her tae sit in their dungeons. Not after she agreed tae help us, when she knew it would buy her nothing but grief and pain with her own family!”

“Ye would do that, then?” Alex challenged, folding his arms over his wide chest. “Ye would jeopardize the accord we’ve struck, force our people into war all over one lass?”

“She could have resisted us every step of the way since we brought her here,” Bryan insisted. “She could have tried tae flee, she could have sabotaged us, she could have clung tae her loyalty for her clan and made us throw her in a cell next tae her sister. Instead, she risked her entire way of life for us. She did so because we assured her that we were her friends, that she could trust us and depend upon us when she needed it most. Now ye would have her rot in their dungeons for it? That is her reward for doing the right thing?”

“We are not all rewarded for doing the right thing,” Alex retorted. “That is nae the way of the world, and ye are too wise tae think otherwise. I am, of course, dismayed by this turn of events. However, I refuse tae play into Angus’s hands when our treaty was so hard-won.”

“Ye would honor a treaty with such a blackguard?” Bryan protested hotly. “A man with no honor of his own, a man who, based upon his actions, will surely violate the peace at his earliest opportunity?”

“And when he does, we shall respond in kind,” Alex answered patiently. “We cannae do so preemptively, though, else we give him precisely what he wants from us: A war.”

“One we would surely win!”

“But at what cost?” Alex shot back. “Tae our forces? Tae theirs, when they are being led into battle by a madman and a fool who does nae values their lives at all? I say again, we cannae do such a thing in the name of one lass, no matter how I wish we could.”

“A lass who was prepared tae sacrifice everything for a clan who’d sacrifice nothing for her in return,” the captain said bitterly. “Ye know how we felt about each other, Alex, she and I.”

“Aye, I do, at that.” Alex’s voice was full of regret. “Mayhap I ought tae have discouraged it. Ordered some other guardsman tae look after her while she was in our custody.” He sighed again. “Tae be honest, I had hoped that it all might work out for the pair of ye somehow. As Isla and I did eventually, against all odds. But it doesn’t seem that will be possible in this case, and now I fear it has led tae all the more heartache. Even so, this is how things must be.”

“I cannae accept that,” Bryan told him. “I willnae!”

The laird peered at him closely, and when he spoke, it seemed as though he was choosing his words most carefully. “Ye have long defined yerself by yer loyalty tae this clan, Bryan Black. And it has been most appreciated. I wonder, sometimes, whether I have told ye that enough these past years. But ye are yer own man. Ye must do as ye feel is right in all matters, for ye are the one who shall have tae live with yerself and the consequences.”

Alex gazed out the window again, looking down at the farms and villages which dotted the countryside. The people who relied upon his good judgment to live their daily lives in peace and harmony.

Bryan knew that the laird had more to say, and waited as patiently as he could. His blood was frothing in his veins, though, and every muscle in his body twitched and longed for action.

“If ye cannae stomach such an injustice against one ye care for so deeply,” Alex continued, “and ye intend tae intervene, ye must know that it must be without my support, or that of the clan. We must all be able tae honestly claim that we didnae know about or approve of yer actions, in order tae keep from being dragged into a bloody conflict.” He gave Bryan a significant look. “Ye understand what I am saying, do ye not?”

Bryan swallowed hard. He did know what Alex was saying. But admitting to it out loud was another matter entirely.

And to act upon it…

“I do understand, aye,” he answered quietly.

“Then I suggest ye take some time today and make yer choice,” Alex said, sitting at his desk and shuffling papers around. The message was clear; Bryan was dismissed.

He walked out of the study slowly and wandered the corridors of the castle for the next several hours, considering his options.

Who was he without his fealty to the Oliphant Clan?

That question was foremost on his mind, for he had defined himself entirely by that distinction his entire adult life. That loyalty, that sense of duty, had been meat and drink and man and wife to him. It had kept him warm during cold nights when he was patrolling the outskirts of the Oliphant lands, and when his lack of family made the silence of his quarters all the more penetrating at the end of each day, it had kept his loneliness at bay.

Now, however, he did not need to be alone any longer. He had found someone who knew how to reach inside him and stoke a warm fire in the hearth of his heart.

Could he simply be that, then? Could he spend the rest of his days as nothing more than the man beloved by Katherine McGregor, and forsake all other sense of identity?

And most of all, could he manage such a thing acting on his own, without being able to depend upon the support of his guardsmen and the full backing of his own adopted clan? Or would any effort to liberate her be doomed to failure?

Bryan had no way of answering the second question.

The answer to the first, however, was inescapable. Yes. He could live as nothing but Katherine’s husband and be happier for it. He had given years of faithful service to the Oliphants, and could now have a life of his own outside of them without feeling like a man guilty of abandoning his post.

All it would take to achieve such a blessed existence would be to find a way to break into the McGregor Stronghold, sneak into the dungeons, foil whatever locks and iron bars Katherine was trapped behind, and spirit her off into the night without being stopped by any sentries or other McGregors—and all without the aid of any other sworn Oliphant soldiers.

Most importantly, he would have to steal off on his own to do all of this, without breathing a word of it even to his most trusted men.

He realized that in his meanderings he had found his way into the courtyard, and now he looked up at the faces of those men whom he’d trained over the years, the dozens whom he’d helped transform from uncertain young farm boys into sharpened spears in the service of their clan. They all had their different strengths and vulnerabilities, and he knew that he would count himself fortunate to have any one of them at his side for the endeavor to come.

What would they think of him tomorrow, when they discovered that he had slipped away to pursue his own destiny without them? Not only had he left them without the benefit of his leadership, but he’d done so in the name of his love for one of their most hated enemies. In doing so, he might, in fact, be opening them up to a not-unprovoked attack from those same foes.

For would Angus believe that Bryan was acting on his own, if the former Oliphant captain was caught in the act?

Perhaps not.

In which case, Bryan would not merely be following the dictates of his own heart. Rather, he would be risking the welfare of the entire Oliphant Clan in the process. Could he live with that, if such a dreadful thing came to pass?

Aye , he thought grimly. Knowing that of all the men of this clan, I am the one whose skills make him most likely to succeed at such an enterprise. Knowing that if I dinnae make the attempt, the only woman I have ever truly loved will rot in a cell just like the ones that turn my stomach beneath this very castle.

Given how quick and quiet I can be when I wish to be; given my chances of success, I can take that risk.

I must .

So he peered up at the faces of those comrades in arms, knowing that he might never look upon them again. He summoned all his courage, and told himself that there was honor in riding to Katherine’s rescue; honor enough to sponge away the disgrace of leaving his sworn post.

Then he proceeded to the stables with a determined stride.