“And what about whatIwanted?” Niall snapped. “Did that not matter at all? Was I just to be sold off like a beast to die in someone else’s war?”
“Is that why ye dragged our family name through the mud? Pride?”
Niall’s fists clenched. It wasn’t MacAllister’s face he ached to punch anymore, but his brother’s. Aargh! Why would he never listen? He dared speak to Niall of pride when it was his own pride that had torn the family apart?
“Pride? All I wanted was a means to live! To support my people!”
“And ye betrayed me to get it!”
“I betrayed nobody!” he roared. “It was ye who forced me to fight ye in court, ye who forced our family squabbles to become the gossip of society, and what did I get for my troubles? The smallest, meanest, least fertile corner of Campbell lands, that I have had to work with every bit of strength I have to keep my people from starving!”
Bryce’s lip curled in a sneer. “From what I hear, it’s yer steward, Donald, who does all the work whilst ye spend all yer time in Edinburgh, whoring and drinking.”
It took every ounce of self-control that Niall had not to throw himself at his brother.
“Ye’ve no right to judge me,” Niall growled, fists clenched at his sides. He could feel the eyes of the guards and MacAllister boring into him, but he didn’t care. All he saw was his brother, the one person who should’ve been on his side, standing against him. Siding with MacAllister, his enemy.
“I do what I must to keep my lands running, to put food on the table for my people. And what do ye do, Bryce? Ye sit in yer great castle and judge everyone else from yer high perch! Ye turf yer tenants off land they’ve held for generations because sheep bring in more money. And ye dare speak tomeof honor?”
Bryce’s icy blue eyes narrowed at that. “What I do on my lands is none of yer concern.”
“And yet, how I manage mine is yers?” Niall shot back. “How does that sit justly, brother?”
There was a long pause as Bryce glared at him, his lips pressed into a thin grimace. What had happened to the elder brother he’d once loved so much? Admired? Was there any trace of him in the man before him now?
He couldn’t see it. A chasm lay between the two of them and Niall didn’t know how to bridge it. The fact that Bryce was here to discuss an ‘alliance’ with MacAllister, spoke to how divergent their lives had become. Bryce flirted with rebellion, with the very people Niall had been tasked with stopping. Would he denounce his brother if it came to that? He didn’t know and hoped he never had to answer that question.
Schooling his temper and taking a deep breath, he tried one final time. “Bryce, listen to me. Whatever MacAllister is trying to get ye involved in, it willnae end well.”
Bryce raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea to what ye are referring. I’m here to discuss the expansion of the wool trade in the area and that will be to all our benefit.” He curled his lip in disdain. “Well to those who are astute enough to see the benefits.”
“Ye really think that’s why MacAllister invited ye here?” Niall said incredulously. “For a talk about sheep?”
“Why else would I be here?”
Niall opened his mouth to reply but then shut it again. He had no tangible evidence, nothing but his gut instinct and the unfocused griping of a bunch of Edinburgh nobles. If he accused MacAllister of plotting rebellion without any proof, he’d come off looking like a paranoid fool and Bryce would likely take MacAllister’s side out of spite.
“I thought so,” Bryce said. “Well, I’d like to say it’s been nice catching up, brother, but lying is a sin.” With that, he walked over to MacAllister’s table and took a seat.
“Ye are making a mistake, Bryce.”
His brother didn’t even deign to look back at him. Instead, he took a couple of boiled eggs from a dish on the table and began peeling them, ignoring Niall entirely. MacAllister smirked triumphantly.
There was no more to say. The silence in the room was deafening, Niall’s words hanging heavy in the air like the scent of smoke after a fire. He swallowed hard, feeling his throat tighten and his heart constrict painfully.
He clenched his fists and turned on his heel, striding out of the room. The guards parted for him. He wouldn’t let this slide. MacAllister had crossed a line and hewouldtake the man down. And if his brother got caught in the blast?
Well, so be it.
