Page 7 of The Highlander’s Enchanted Healer (Spellbound Hearts #2)

Gloom Castle

A fortnight later

Grabbing my wine goblet off my desk, I leaned back in my chair as the weight of Thor’s words settled in my gut like a stone.

More Gordon men at the border was bad tidings, indeed.

I swallowed the curse that rose to my lips and forced myself to remain still on the carved wooden chair that had been my da’s before Ramsey Gordon’s attack stole him from this world.

My fingers tightened around the armrests, the grain smooth beneath my palms from years of my da sitting in this very spot, receiving news both good and ill.

I glanced at Allan standing beside me. I could see a twitch at his eye, and I imagined his jaw was clenched as well.

We’d lost too much already: our parents, our lands, and, in many ways, Alba.

Though she still drew breath within these walls, her mind was unreachable, and life went on around her without her participating in it.

“Ye’re sure of the numbers?” I asked, returning my gaze to Thor, whose weathered face betrayed nothing but grim certainty.

“Aye, Laird.” Thor planted his feet wider, his massive frame casting a long shadow across the rushes of the solar floor. “We saw at least three dozen new men, well-armed and stationed in pairs every hundred paces along the eastern ridge.”

I opened my mouth to say I’d go out with Thor and the men he’d gathered to assess Gordon’s defenses of the most recent land he’d stolen, but I pressed my lips together.

I trusted Thor. He was an excellent, thorough warrior, which was why he was my right hand.

Instead, I brought my wine goblet to my lips, tipped it up, and considered what to do.

Gordon had been busy this last sennight since I’d returned from Dunvegan Castle and my futile trip to secure the healer Mara.

He’d fortified the defenses of the land he’d stolen from me, which was going to make it that much harder to gain it back, but I was determined. “Watchtowers?”

“Aye.” Thor nodded. “They’ve built them at the high points. There were four that we could count.”

I nodded, forcing my breathing to remain steady. “And the western approach?”

“Less guarded, but they’ve felled trees across the old shepherds’ paths. It would take us half a day to clear them, and we’d be exposed the entire time.”

Allan shifted beside me. “We could send men at night to—”

“And lose how many in the process?” I cut him off, sounding harsher than I’d intended. My brother’s eager face fell, and I immediately regretted my tone. “Forgive me, Allan. Yer thought has merit, but Gordon is expecting exactly that. He’s nae a fool, whatever else he may be.”

Thor cleared his throat. “There’s more, Laird.” Thor paused, waiting, I knew, for me to give him leave to continue with the bad news.

“Go on with it,” I assured him. “I’d rather get the whole of it now.”

He took a deep breath then said, “They’ve sent riders to Clan Leslie. And whispers on the wind hint that there’s a marriage alliance being arranged between Laird Leslie and Ramsey’s stepsister, Elena.”

The muscles in my jaw tensed. The Leslie clan had remained neutral in our conflict with the Gordons, but their warriors were fierce and their lands vast. If Ramsey secured their allegiance through marriage…

“So the murderous bastard seeks to further strengthen his position.” I rose from my seat, unable to contain my restlessness any longer. “As if stealing our eastern lands was nae enough.”

Those lands had been Campbell territory for as long as I could remember before Gordon had stolen them.

I pounded my fist against my desk, making my wine goblet rattle.

“I vow to ye, that man poisoned his da, uncle, and stepbrother, blamed it on us, and then killed Da under the pretense of retaliation so that he would nae draw the king’s ire. ”

“Aye,” Thor and Allan both said in unison.

The three of us had agreed during many late night talks after the treachery with my da, mama, and sister, that we all believed Ramsey was behind the poisoning of his own family, as well as the murder of ours, but there was no way to prove it, and the King refused to align with either clan unless there was proof of the guilty party.

Thor cleared his throat. “Yer da and the old Laird Gordon both wanted peace. They’d both wisely decided to split the land in half between our castle and Gordon’s to avoid more deaths.

” I knew this. Everyone did. It was the whole reason my da, mama, and Alba had gone to the church on neutral land that day.

Thor often liked to retell things I already knew.

I didn’t remind him the details were burned in my brain.

I understood he simply sought vengeance like I did for my family, so he didn’t want me to forget anything.

“The old Laird Gordon had given his word to stop raiding our land, and yer da gave his word as well,” Thor continued.

From the corner of my eye, I saw an impatient look settle on Allan’s face, and he opened his mouth, undoubtedly to tell Thor he was repeating things we already knew.

I gave Allan a discreet shake of my head to indicate he should let Thor continue.

Allan rolled his eyes but nodded. I understood his desire to put a stop to what we’d heard repeatedly, but what if there was a detail I’d missed or Thor had only just thought of?

It was but another reason I always allowed him to retell the same thing.

“’Tis why they entered the alliance that was supposed to be sealed by the marriage of Alba to Laird Gordon’s son and heir, Fergus,” Thor went on.

“They had agreed that each of our clans would nae attempt to gain more land from the other to eventually drive the other clan out of this region. Ye ken what I think?”

I knew exactly what he thought. We said it aloud many times before, and I thought the same. “Ramsey did nae agree with his stepfather to give up the fight to gain our land.”

“Aye,” Thor spit out. “He’s power hungry.”

“Aye,” inserted Allan. “Because he was born the son of a whore who worked her way into Laird Gordon’s bed after his wife died.”

“Aye,” I agreed. That was a long-standing, well-known truth. “I’ve nae a doubt that Ramsey wanted to continue battling us and old Laird Gordon likely told his stepson nay.”

“And just as likely, that little weasel did nae care to be told nay, and he kenned he’d have to do as told for life,” Allan said. Verra inconvenient for Ramsey that his mama wed a man who already had an heir,”

“Most inconvenient,” I agreed. We’d all decided collectively that Ramsey undoubtedly poisoned his stepda, stepbrother and uncle, so that he’d be the only one left to be laird.

He’d seen the opportunity, I believed, and had taken it.

He had the motive. Somehow, he’d found a way to get the poison in the wine beforehand.

The Gordon priest who’d been at the church the day of the poisoning swore my da was the one to pour the wine, and Da confirmed he had, but he’d vowed he’d not poisoned it.

So, either Ramsey had put the poison in the wine before it ever left their castle, or he’d somehow convinced the priest to do it. I wagered it was the former.

“Laird,” Thor said, “there may be another way. What if we snatch Elena Gordon, and ye wed her first, then there will nae be an alliance between the Gordons and Leslies.”

“Nay,” I replied, the word harsh, but I meant it to be. “I’m nae in the business of snatching lasses. And a Gordon would be the last person I’d chose to—”

A pounding at my solar door interrupted me.

“Laird!” a woman screeched. “Laird!” I recognized Isla, Alba’s chambermaid’s voice.

Worry sliced into me, and I strode to the solar door and opened it.

Then I felt my lips part in shock at Isla’s appearance.

Her hair—once flowing in dark waves to her waist—had been hacked away in jagged chunks and blood streamed from four parallel scratches down her right cheek, dripping onto her torn bodice.

“What the devil happened?” I asked her as she stumbled forward.

“Yer sister!” she cried, her voice trembling. “I will nae see to her anymore. Please do nae make me!”

Uneasiness crept up my spine. “What did she do?”

Isla gave a brittle laugh that bordered on hysteria. “She’s mad! She tried to claw my eyes out when I suggested—just suggested, mind ye—that perhaps a bath might lift her spirits!”

Her words fell on me like a heavy stone.

Alba was getting worse instead of better.

I’d been certain after we found her beaten, used, and left for dead by Gordon men after they’d murdered my parents, that she would eventually heal.

And she had physically. But mentally…she was broken.

I couldn’t even recall how many chambermaids and healers we’d been through at this point.

Isla was in a long line of women my sister had driven away, but she’d nae ever been violent toward them—until today.

“I am sorry she’s done this to ye,” I said to Isla, wondering as I stared at her crudely shorn hair where the devil Alba had gotten a dagger. “She’s nae mad, though,” I added, willing it to be so. “She’s hurting and scairt.”

Isla’s eyes widened, and fresh tears coursed down her cheeks to mingle with the blood. “I fear for my safety.” She gestured helplessly at her shorn hair and bloodied cheek. “I d-do nae want to s-serve her anymore.” Her words tripped over themselves.

“Aye, I understand. Ye can go back to the kitchens.”

“Thank ye,” she croaked. “I’m sorry I failed ye.”

“Ye did nae fail me,” I assured her. “Do ye ken where she got the dagger?”

Isla’s hand fluttered to the rough edges of her tresses that my sister had shorn. “I had a dagger in my hand because I was going to cut some twine for a belt for Alba because she’s grown so thin nae any of her gowns fit.”