Saoirse watched Louisa rather than any of the men. Something sparked in the woman’s eyes when Magnus threatened to kill her husband. She moved around Magnus and faced Louisa. “Why does the prospect of yer husband’s demise excite ye so?”
Louisa’s head whipped toward Saoirse. Her upper lip curled in disgust, but just like Harold, she refused to speak. That didn’t dissuade Saoirse from continuing to question her.
“Ye’re as angry that ye had to marry him as he is aboot marrying ye. Except ye want yer revenge against him. Ye want yer freedom.” Saoirse's chin rose as she suspected she’d deduced what happened with the clans’ battle. “Ye caused the confrontation, didna ye? Harold may have spotted me and brought me here, but ye’re the reason there was a battle to start with.”
“If only the men were as smart as us women.” Louisa cackled. “However, imagine ma surprise when ma cousin rode into ma home when he had one vera clear task, and it wasna to kidnap a woman.”
“Ye dinna pay as well as yer husband.” Harold broke his silence.
“What?” Artair bellowed. He darted his gaze between the cousins.
“Louisa, ye forged the missives that went to the lairds. Ye summoned them.” Saoirse cocked an eyebrow as she continued.
“How’d ye guess?”
“Because ye would have kenned yer uncle’s script and his alliances. Because if I were ye, that’s what I would do if I wanted ma husband dead.”
“Dead?” Magnus questioned from behind her.
“Och, aye. She hoped Laird Macrae would die in battle, but she didna ken it would be against the Mackenzies instead of alongside. That was the Macrae’s doing, wasna it, ma laird?”
“It wasna that hard to convince Murdoch that we owed the Mackenzies retribution for breaking an alliance that would have been profitable for us. Ye were already rebuilding and growing stronger. He was angry he had to forfeit the dowry, and I was just as angry since I was stuck with her and naught to show for it. I dinna need an heir. I have one. And I certainly dinna need a daughter as useless as her mother.”
“I am nae with child anymore. I didna want aught tying me to ye after ye were supposed to be dead. After all, Coll wouldnae marry his stepmother if she gave birth to his brother or sister. Harold didna do the job I paid for.”
“Marry ye? I’d rather have the French pox. I’d probably get it from ye, too.” Coll turned toward Harold. “Take yer cousin with ye when ye leave.”
“She’s still ma wife,” Artair snapped.
“She’ll be yer widow when this storytelling ends,” Seamus decreed. “If ma brother doesnae kill ye in single combat, then I will for yer crimes against ma clan.”
“Ye dinna have the authority,” Artair smirked.
“But I do,” Hamish stepped forth. “Yer land is within ma earldom. Sutherland is far more than just Dunrobin. What isnae the Sinclair earldom is mine this far north in the Highlands. With nay king to take this matter before, I am the law of this land. Ye kenned I’m already allied with the Mackenzies, and ye ken our familial ties. Ye are a daft bugger to think I wouldnae wind up involved. I will allow Magnus his single combat because that’s what he wishes. But it isnae necessary. I have the power to declare yer death sentence.”
Saoirse wrapped her arms around Magnus’s waist and tilted her head back to whisper. “Dinna fight him. I dinna doubt ye’ll win, but I’ve already lived through kenning ye were in one battle. Ma premonition is back. It tells me something will happen to ye if ye fight him. Please.”
Magnus tucked hair behind her ear and kissed her temple. “Vera well. We’ve been through enough. I want us away from here.”
“Laird Artair Macrae, I charge and convict ye of plotting to murder Magnus Mackenzie, Clan Mackenzie’s tánaiste. Lady Louisa Macrae and Harold Matheson, I charge and convict ye of plotting to murder Laird Artair Macrae. Ye will hang from the gallows until dead. Coll, see them erected.”
“What?” Louisa stormed forward, but Harold wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet. She flailed as she spewed curses at everyone in sight.
“What of Richmond?” Saoirse pointed to the man who staggered to his feet. “He insinuated that he ordered ma kidnapping.”
“I didna. Ye assumed that. But I wouldnae have stopped anyone willing to do it. At least nae before I tupped ye.”
Everyone gaped at the man. He was clearly concussed because no man in his right mind would say such a vile thing before the woman’s husband and nearly every male member of her family.
“Vera well,” Hamish nodded. “I sentence ye to death by hanging for abetting Lady Saoirse Mackenzie’s kidnapping and admitting yer intention to rape her.”
Seamus gritted his teeth and sighed before he walked over to Coll. “Ye will be laird tomorrow morning. It’s clear ye werenae a party to this, so I dinna hold ye to blame. But this is yer clan’s only chance for forgiveness. Wrong ma family, ma clan, or me, and I will tie ye to a stake, make ye watch me tear this heap apart stone by stone, then set ye ablaze. I may have fostered with the Sinclairs, but I am still ma father’s son. I dinna forgive twice, nor do I ever forget.” He was nothing like his father because the man had never held a sense of family. But none of the Macraes needed to know that.
“Thank ye.” Coll ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “I canna believe any of this. I’d…” He squeezed the bridge of his nose.
“Ye’d what?”
“Since we were already allies, I’d hoped to solidify it by asking for yer cousin once removed’s hand. Lacey and I met at the last Highland Gathering, and I’ve developed an attachment to her.”
