Page 61 of The Wild Rose of Kilgannon (Kilgannon #2)
Downstairs we found what was left of the judge’s men, some of whom I discovered were no more than workers on his nearby farm, neatly bound and sitting against the walls of the kitchen with MacGannons standing over them.
They gave us hostile looks as we entered.
The woman who had served us was sobbing at the table, but stopped when Alex gave her money and thanked her for delivering the sketch.
She refused both and pled for the lives of her husband and sons and friends.
“What?” asked Alex scornfully as he gestured to the men.
“Mistress, do ye really think I’d kill them now?
Get ye gone from here and return with help in an hour.
It may be raining again by then and they’ll be sitting on the drive getting wet.
” He pressed the money in her hand again.
“Give the judge, when he returns from wherever he’s hiding, a message from me,” he said.
“Tell him Alexander MacGannon will return to thank him for the hospitality he showed my wife and son. Tell him to be expecting a visit from me. And tell him I’m no’ pleased. ”
She nodded, gulping, as she crossed the room to the door and flew through it. Alex looked at Dougall, Thomas, and the others who waited for his orders, and then turned to the prisoners.
“Get yerselves outside now. I’m burning the house.”
A short time later we stood on the drive with the clansmen and my brother and watched the flames reach toward the sky. Dougall said that the rain might start again and put out the fire .
Alex shrugged. “It doesna matter. It’s only a symbol,” he said quietly.
“The judge will no’ mistake it. I dinna care if it burns to the ground or if the rain stops it.
No one will ever live in this house again.
” He turned to me. “We have to go, lass,” he said and I nodded, but he lingered, watching the flames.
I glanced at the bound men at our feet. I had not asked where Matthew and Gilbey were, afraid to know the answer, but Alex kept looking at the entrance of the drive as though expecting someone.
At last Alex shrugged and turned his back on the house.
“Here they come, Alex!” a man shouted from the foot of the drive. “All four of them!”
“Aye,” Alex said softly and muttered something to himself.
Will moved to one side of Alex and I to the other.
I could feel how rigid his body was and wondered as I looked from his tense face to the dark entrance who he was preparing to meet.
MacGannons were moving forward with torches, their greetings loud in the night air.
Matthew was the first into the light and I breathed a prayer of thanks.
Matthew’s expression lightened as he nodded at me, and he turned to the man behind him.
My uncle Randolph. I was astonished that Randolph would be part of this, but I smiled at him as he drew closer. Randolph grinned at me and waved.
The third man was Malcolm, his hands tied together and his face bruised.
I watched him approach, remembering his brother coming home to me in Kilgannon in much the same condition.
I glanced at Alex, but he looked at his brother without expression.
And then Gilbey came into the light and I took a deep breath.
All accounted for , I thought. But what now?
Everyone watched Alex. He stood silently, the flames lighting his hair into a glow around his head, his arms at his sides.
Matthew and Gilbey helped Malcolm to dismount and then the three of them faced Alex.
“Malcolm,” said Alex tonelessly.
“Alex,” Malcolm said. No one else spoke as the brothers looked at each other. Around me the men moved nervously.
Randolph broke the silence when he dismounted in front of me. “You’re all safe and sound, Mary? And the babe?” I embraced him and he kissed my cheek and shook Will’s hand. “Thank God. We’ve been terribly worried. Your aunt hasn’t slept in days.”
“I’m sorry…” I began, but Randolph waved my words away.
“Not your fault,” he said. “And never fear, we’ll take care of Webster. Duke John has already started. And so, I see, has Alex.”
“We have to go, Alex,” Dougall said. Alex nodded, at last shifting his gaze from his brother to his cousin.
“Aye,” he said, his voice flat. “Put him with the others.”
We were ready to leave in just a few minutes.
Alex sat atop his horse next to me, watching the first of the clansmen file out the drive.
He looked back at the men still tied up on the gravel, then climbed down from his horse.
I watched in horror as he walked toward them, drawing his sword.
Behind me Matthew and Gilbey were suddenly still and Dougall exclaimed but did not move.
Malcolm watched Alex approach without expression.
Will and Randolph exchanged a look. Alex stopped in front of Malcolm, the sword glinting in the light from the flames.
Malcolm looked up at his brother and Alex raised his arm.
I closed my eyes, but there was no sound and I opened them to see Alex stick the sword into the gravel between Malcolm’s legs.
“I should kill ye, Malcolm,” Alex said. “If our positions were reversed, ye would kill me. But I willna. No’ because ye dinna deserve it, or because I’m afraid of retribution from the English.
I willna kill ye, Malcolm, because ye would dirty my hand and my name.
And my soul, but that’s something ye’ll never understand.
” He kicked gravel onto Malcolm’s lap with a toe.
“I am taking Clonmor back. Dinna try to go there. And never…” He leaned over his brother.
“Never come to Kilgannon. Never come near my family. Or I will kill ye with my own hand. Do you understand?”
Malcolm nodded and Alex turned, grabbing his sword as he strode away. He climbed into the saddle and nodded at us. “Let’s go,” he said.
The crackle of the flames was the only sound behind us.