Page 34 of The Highlander’s Enchanted Healer (Spellbound Hearts #2)

“I’m freeing ye,” I said, “because I was wrong. About yer brother. About yer da. About my stepbrother. Yer family was nae ever the enemy. Mine was.” I gestured for him to get up.

“Now follow me. There’s nae time for further explanation if ye want to live.

And if ye need more, yer brother can give it to ye.

” I turned without waiting and moved toward the secret passage.

I pushed on the stone that opened the tunnel and then motioned Allan in.

“It will take ye down a flight of stairs to tunnels that will lead ye out of the castle and into the woods. Run. Do nae stop. And take this dagger,” I said, unsheathing the one strapped to my thigh and pressing it into his palm.

He glared at me but took the dagger. “Please tell yer brother I am trying to put power back in good hands. Please tell him nae to simply attack us. Please tell him if a white flag is risen, I have accomplished my goal.”

“And if it’s nae?” Allan demanded.

I bit my lips, fear twisting inside of me. “Then he should storm the castle and kill Ramsey, but I’d beg him to spare as many men as possible. These are good people who, unbeknownst to them, are led by a lying ruler.”

Allan nodded and stepped into the tunnel. As I started to shut the door and he turned away, I called out to him, needing to say one more thing. “Allan!”

He glanced back at me, a questioning look on his face.

“Tell him I love him. I do. And I’m sorry.”

With a nod, he turned once more and disappeared into the darkness.

I slid the secret door back onto place, thanking the gods that Da had nae ever told anyone but Mama, Fergus, and me about this tunnel. He’d nae ever told Ramsey or Francine. Perhaps even then he’d had a doubt. I turned toward the stairs that led me to the great hall.

I nearly tripped down them in my effort to hurry.

My heart was galloping, and fear twisted my stomach into a dozen knots as I rounded the corner to the inner courtyard.

I came to a shuddering stop at the sight of Ramsey standing beside Leon with Craig unmoving at their feet.

A scream tore from my throat at the dagger that protruded from Craig’s neck.

Ramsey closed the distance between us in a flash and clamped his hand on my mouth.

He did not have to say a word. I read his thoughts.

Leon was Ramsey’s da. Leon was the man Francine had beguiled, and Leon had long been jealous of my da, had coveted what Da had—from his home to Francine—and who had been led to scheme and plot to take the lairdship from my family.

The man was weak and simple. He wanted Francine.

She’d wanted more than he could offer, and she’d convinced him to bring her here, recommend her to my da, and then eventually she promised to be Leon’s fully in return for his aiding her gain the lairdship for their son.

I screamed, but the sound was muffled. I struggled, but it was in vain.

Leon came behind me as Ramsey drew me into a tight hold and whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry, Elena.

I did nae ever mean for ye to find out. I always intended for ye to have a coveted place in my clan.

I love ye as a sister, I do, but I can nae let ye destroy all we have worked for.

Do it, Leon,” Ramsey said, and I could hear the misery in his voice just as my world went black.

Something cold and wet on my feet woke me.

I blinked my eyes and looked down, the motion making me ill and pain exploding in my head.

My feet were in the sea water. Confusion blanketed me, as I looked up and gasped.

I was in the cave where my da had sentenced the worst of criminals to be tied to a post to drown.

The tide would rise eventually, and I would be dead.

I began to struggle when Ramsey’s voice came from behind me.

“Ye’ll nae get free.”

Water sloshed, and then he was standing in front of me, regret and anger battling for dominance of his features. “Where is he?” Ramsey demanded. “Tell me where he is, and I’ll set ye free.”

I glared at him. I knew he meant Allan. I struggled once more, but the ropes around my wrists and ankles only drew tighter, cutting into my skin. When I finally quit struggling, warm blood seeped from the cuts on my wrists. I locked gazes with Ramsey. “Long gone,” I said, refusing to say more.

Ramsey smacked me then, my head whipping sideways and my cheek stinging from the hit. “Why did ye do that? Why are ye making me kill ye?” he shouted.

I brought my gaze back to him, my cheek throbbing. “Ye ken why,” I growled. “If ye did nae, Craig would still be alive.” And because I needed to see his reaction when the truth was spoken, I said, “ye killed Da. Fergus. Uncle. Ye, Francine, and Leon—I ken, Ramsey. I ken Leon is yer da.”

“Elena!” he growled, raising his hand as if to hit me again.

Then he lowered it and balled it into a tight fist. “I have to kill ye now! Ye have nae left me a choice! And I did nae want this.” He pounded his chest as he stalked through the water, making it splash up around him.

“I fought for ye! I would have allowed ye nearly anything as my sister!”

“I am nae yer sister!” I spat, even as I kenned I was damning myself. “Ye murdered my family! Ye plotted to steal the lairdship from Da!”

“Aye! I did,” he roared, stopping in front of me once more, his face mottled red.

“But only when yer da made it clear he’d nae ever give me any power.

I was his stepson!” Ramsey bellowed. “And yet he thought himself better than me, as all men of power always think themselves better than men nae born to it.” Ramsey jerked his hand through his hair, clearly agitated.

“I came to respect yer da, even love him in a fashion. I fought my mama on her plan when I was old enough to understand that she had plotted to convince Leon to bring us here. They were lovers, ye ken. He would come to see her at the brothel where she worked. And eventually he kept her for himself there. He even offered marriage. She bewitched him completely. But Mama did nae want to wed a man who did nae rule his own home. She told Leon this. He knew that if he wanted to have her, he had to gain power himself or help her get it. I was the means to that. She persuaded Leon to bring her here when yer da was desperately looking for a healer for yer mama.”

I flinched at the ugly truth.

“Leon did as she said. He presented her to yer da in his greatest hour of need so she could seduce him, so that she would be made his wife, and then I would eventually be given power as his stepson.”

My head was swimming with all his vile truths. I wanted to retch, but I swallowed down my disgust.

“Mama convinced Leon that if she did as she bade, eventually she would wed him.”

“How could ye do these things?” I demanded. “Da did care for ye! He treated ye as a son!”

Ramsey glared at me. “As a son? He told me before the last battle with the Campbells that if anything were to happen to Fergus and him, that the lairdship would pass to ye. He’d given Leon a missive with instructions for the council.”

I gasped, shock slamming into me.

Ramsey nodded. “That’s when I stopped fighting Mama over her wish for me to find a way to kill yer da and Fergus.

That’s when I kenned I had to relent to her plan.

When I asked yer da why ye and nae me, he said because I was nae blood, nae his son, and I was nae born to be a ruler as a true Gordon. ”

I did nae want to feel any pity for Ramsey, but it was there. Yet, it was not enough to gain him forgiveness for what he’d done. It was not nearly enough. “Ye will nae rule this clan much longer, and Leon will nae, either.” I thought of Ross riding hard toward us now.

“Who’s going to stop us? Ye?” he snarled. “Ye? Ye are going to die here. Drowned soon.”

I wanted to scream at him that Ross Campbell and Roger Fergusson would stop him, but I did nae want to give him any warning. “I trusted ye,” I whispered, suddenly more sad than afraid in this moment. “I thought of ye as a brother.”

“Aye,” he relented, then came forward and pressed his head to mine. “But I’m nae yer brother. I’m a bastard, and the only way I’ll ever have power, an army, a home like this, is to take it by any means.”