Abraham sat down abruptly and squeezed his brow. “I shall kill my son.” The beleaguered laird scowled but nodded his head as he looked at Caitlyn. “I did not hire or fund anyone to attack any Armstrong, certainly not the clan’s heir. I cannot say Sully is that judicious, especially as my tánaiste who leads in my absence.”
“Your absence? I told you this began well before we left Stirling. Guards overheard your delegates discussing needing more coin to pay these men.”
“Christopher, Collin.” Abraham’s booming voice rang through the Great Hall. “Now.”
Two men Caitlyn recognized from court approached. Neither appeared fearful or repentant. Caitlyn saw red as they came to stand next to her. Shifting to put a wall at her back, she stood so she could watch either man’s face while not losing sight of Robert or Abraham.
“Which of you started the fight?” Caitlyn’s voice hissed as she demanded an answer.
“There was no fight.” Christopher smirked.
“Are you the one who can’t move his arm after my husband’s blade landed in your shoulder?” Caitlyn studied the two men before pointing to the one on the left. “You. I can see it. You will live now like my husband does. Mayhap you regret your choice to attack a mon you consider useless. Where is the third mon? Did he really bleed to death from my husband’s blade?”
“Attack?” Abraham demanded. He glowered at his men. “You said highwaymen set upon you.”
Caitlyn snorted with mockery. “My husband has no need to turn highwayman. But he needed to defend himself when they cornered him in a passageway and beat him. They underestimated Alex’s will and his strength. He maimed one and sliced through another. It shocks me to find even two alive.”
“It surprised us that your husband survived. Though back then he was only your lover.”
“You think to insult me. You think to outwit my husband. You think to defeat us. All you have done is cause a feud that will probably last generations. You will find your land surrounded by our allies who will eagerly chop up your territory. Is that what your laird sent you to do?”
“I sent them to make peace and pay recompense to the crown, the Armstrongs, and the Elliots. I did not sanction an attack in the keep or hiring mercenaries.” Abraham continued to glare at his men, who finally appeared ill at ease. “Lady Caitlyn speaks the truth. You and my son have likely created a feud that will last generations. What had been a gory squabble shall likely end up costing us our land and our lives. I hereby banish you. Ride out and never return to Scott territory. You have one hour before I send men after you. You’d best get lost among the hills and the trees if you wish to live.”
The deadly calm in Abraham’s voice contrasted with the loud bluster Caitlyn had heard since she arrived. She was confident the laird finally took seriously the imminent threat to his clan’s existence. She watched as the two disgraced and disowned Scotts practically ran from the Great Hall. She shifted her eyes to David and Stephen before nodding and darting her gaze to the doors. If Robert refused to send men to rally the Elliots, she would. She trusted not that Laird Scott intended to hurry to protect Alex. She pointed out as much.
“You send your men away, but you send no men to stop your son.”
“He is a fool, but he is not so stupid as to kill Alex while I am away. Ambitious eejit will wait until I am home but will not tell me he has Alex. He will spin a tale to blame Alex and claim he killed your husband to protect his laird.”
“How do you know? It sounds like you’ve discussed this before.”
“We have, and I refused. After the losses we suffered the last time we faced the Armstrongs and Elliots, we are not in a position to have half the Lowlands ride on us.”
“And yet, that is what shall happen.” Caitlyn considered whether she should press the threat that the Moffats and Croziers were likely to join as allies to the Armstrongs. Instead, she stared at Robert. The Bruces were one of the Kennedys’ closest allies. Between their alliance with the clan at large and Robert’s relationship to the king who’d already told the Scotts to desist, there was little chance Robert could abstain from the fight. Her eyes bored into Robert.
“Laird Scott, you are being called home, I see. I wish you safe travels.” Robert kept his eyes locked with Caitlyn as he bid his guest leave with haste. Caitlyn dipped her chin an inch. Abraham frowned, but nodded.
“It is only midday. My men and I can put several hours' distance from here.” Abraham lumbered to his feet, seeming to have aged since Caitlyn arrived. She didn’t envy the man his position, but neither did she feel sympathy for him being unable to keep a tighter rein on his son. When she glanced back at her guards, she noticed Stephen had slipped away. She prayed he’d already retrieved his horse and could ride the couple hours to Redheugh. If Angus’s father accepted the call, the Elliots could arrive by nightfall, and her father could arrive as soon as the next day. Once Abraham left the dais, Caitlyn accepted Robert’s invitation to join him.
“It is only because I’m certain you fear my father that I trust aught you put before me. I’m aware you resent my arrival, and you disapprove of me antagonizing the Scott.”
“It wasn’t wise. I will say that.” Robert poured wine into his own chalice and drank from it before filling Caitlyn’s. She nodded her thanks for the beverage and his reassurance that no one poisoned it. “You’ve surely got a pair of ox’s bollocks beneath those skirts.”
Caitlyn remained quiet. Robert released an aggrieved sigh before once more serving himself first, then placing food on a trencher before Caitlyn, proving the food was untampered. She accepted the offering graciously and ate, famished from her journey. Her guards found places at the table below the dais.
“I notice you’ve lost one of your men,” Robert mused.
“I doubt he’s lost.”
“Already on the way to Redheugh?”
“I didn’t see you send anyone.”
“I don’t know who I’d rather not see: Angus or Graeme. They can be as foul-tempered as one another.”
“I can think of a mon who will be in a fouler temper than even Tavin.”
“Aye. My father will have an apoplexy. I will dispatch a mon to court in the morning.”
