“Because I couldn’t,” he said, and his entire body seemed to tremble with frustrated rage. “They became my responsibility when my father and brother died. This is my home, my clan. Or what’s left of them all now. You were a necessary evil to try to get back some of what we lost. Doesna mean I have to like you.”
“Fair enough.” Lachlan reached into his pouch and withdrew the dagger. He thrust it flat against Murdoch’s chest, causing the older man to take a step back.
Murdoch reached up and took hold of the sheath before the heavy piece could tumble to the road. “What’s this?”
“Recognize it?” Lachlan asked.
Murdoch’s brow furrowed. “Where did you get it?”
“Do you recognize it or nae?”
The older man held his gaze for a moment and then thrust it back toward Lachlan. “Nay.”
“You’re lying.”
“The design on it is Carson, aye. But I’ve nae seen it before in my life. Now leave me be.” He turned to walk back up the path once more.
“You’re angry about me staying up at the old house because you’re afraid I’ll ask about the smuggling, aren’t you?”
Murdoch froze in his step again, but didn’t turn as he called out, “I doona ken what you’re yammering about, boy.”
“The smuggling the Carsons were part of before the war,” Lachlan called out, even louder this time. “Or perhaps it was simple trade? Did you try to strike it back up again and fail? Is that the real reason Carson Town was starving? Why everyone left—”
This time Murdoch didn’t stop at being nose to nose with Lachlan, but barreled into him, taking him by surprise and causing him to stumble on his feet. From the corner of his eye, Lachlan could see the group of villagers coming up from the beach carrying heavy, dripping nets and baskets of bounty between them.
“You doona knowanything,” Murdoch warned in a low voice, pointing his finger in Lachlan’s face.
The murmur of conversation from the group stopped, and everyone stared at the two men in the street.
One of the townsmen called out, “Aught amiss, Murdoch?”
The Carson chief’s glare never left Lachlan’s face. “Not a mite, Dove. The Blair and I are just having a wee discussion. Innit, Blair?”
“Aye,” Lachlan agreed. “Fine as fallow.”
The crowd moved on through the town, but they were casting wary glances behind them.
“I want to understand what happened,” Lachlan said evenly.
“Understand? Understand this: You are a Blair. You’ll always be a Blair. An outsider here.”
“I know that,” Lachlan said, ignoring the twisting in his gut at the words. “I need to prove to Marcas and the fine that Town Blair is where I belong. Someone is lying about what happened those terrible days when Carson Town was attacked. And those lies have cost me my own people—all but my life, Murdoch. I want them back.”
Murdoch’s frown lessened for a moment in surprise, but then it lowered nearly to the bridge of his nose. “What about Finley? You’d just abandon her, making it so that she can never marry again?”
“Finley doesn’t want me any more than I want her. She wishes me gone so that she can do what she likes, when she likes, without any husband to rein her in. You know that as well as I do, else she would have been wed long before I came around. Instead you used her to punish me.”
“Doona be so full o’ yerself. ’Twas a bit o’ punishment for her as well, I admit.” The Carson chief’s mouth quirked despite himself. “But she’s a bonny lass. You seem to be coming out no worse for the wear.”
“It’s because I’m sleeping somewhere else!” Lachlan defended himself.
At this, Murdoch almost chuckled. “Well, aye. Wise, that.” He looked at Lachlan from the corner of his eye. “Sure, you heard about the hornets.”
Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “I pretend I havena.”
Murdoch’s faint grin faded and he sighed. “What is it you want from me, Blair?”
“I want to know exactly what happened the night Carson Town was attacked,” Lachlan said. “I want to know who was here; in town, on the beach, in the old house. I want to know how the old treaty was struck after the fighting stopped.”
