“Aye,” he sneered, “but why would I believe anything ye say tae be true? The very fact that ye were allowed tae move about the castle freely tells me that ye must have agreed tae collaborate with the Oliphants in some way. Ye ought tae be grateful I’ve accepted ye back at all, under the circumstances. I should have let ye stay with them, since ye seem tae have favored their company over ours.”
“That is terribly unfair,” she balked. “I was taken against my will!”
“So it would appear,” her father shot back, “but I still wonder whether ye might have secretly arranged such a thing with the Oliphants, tae betray me. Either way, ye’ll remain silent for the remainder of the journey if ye know what’s bloody good for ye.”
He stormed away, leaving her in shock and disbelief. She wished he had left her behind, if this was how he intended to treat her. But it was too late for that. She knew he would not allow her to go back to the Oliphants now. If she asked, it would only confirm his suspicions.
And what might happen then?
They made camp, and Katherine slept restlessly. Whenever she stirred from her slumber and opened her eyes, she saw Romilly lying a short distance away, not sleeping either, but peering at her in the gloom, her expression unreadable.
Katherine wanted to ask her sister what was on her mind, but something told her that the time was not right to do so. Not with their father and so many of his men around them.
She rolled over onto her other side, shut her eyes, and tried to sleep again. When Katherine finally drifted off, Romilly stared at her even more closely.
Back when they were children together, Romilly had often made a habit of creeping into Katherine’s room and watching her slumber. This began shortly after Katherine was born, and continued until she was almost ten.
Their parents had sometimes quietly observed this behavior, and they smiled at it back then, especially Angus. He believed it was a sign that Romilly was already showing signs of being protective of her younger sister, as befit an older sibling.
But the truth was, Romilly had always simply been curious about Katherine’s sleep. She noted the movements of the lass’s eyes beneath their lids, the way she shifted positions throughout the night, the patterns of her breathing. She’d wondered what dreams were playing out in her sister’s mind; whether they were pleasant or stormy, whether they were populated by fairies and elves from the stories their mother read to them, or if they were darkened by the long shadows of ogres who towered over her and scowled.
Ogres like our father.
The thought came to Romilly as suddenly and shockingly as a bolt of lightning, and likewise left a small, smoldering crater in her heart; one that continued to glow, no matter how hard she tried to stamp it out.
But there was truth enough in the notion, wasn’t there? At least if one were to look at things from Katherine’s perspective. Their father had always loomed large over his youngest child, yelling and snapping at her, making demands of her. Dictatingwho she needed to be in order to please him, and still refusing to be satisfied with her, regardless of what she did at his request.
When they were young, Romilly had not given his treatment of Katherine much thought. Why would she? Romilly was clearly his favorite, and she privately delighted in that, even if it was at Katherine’s expense. She told herself that all fathers made demands of their daughters; that all fathers tried to mold them into young women who would do their clans proud.
What of happiness, though? Of tenderness and affection, of support and encouragement? Were these not important factors in a father’s love for his child as well? Why, then, had Romilly received such things while her less-fortunate sister had not?
These thoughts weighed heavy upon her brow, and when she found her own path to sleep, it was restless and filled with uneasy dreams; ones in which the same ogre who tormented Katherine now set his beady and disapproving eyes upon Romilly.
The morning’s travel unfolded much as the previous day’s had, with Angus doting on Romilly and largely ignoring Katherine. As the journey reached its conclusion, Romilly’s glances in Katherine’s direction during these interactions grew more frequent, until it was clear to Katherine that her older sister was becoming visibly uncomfortable with the imbalance in how they were being treated. There were even a few times when Romilly attempted to include Katherine in the conversation, but each time she did, Angus made a point of pretending he had not heard.
Katherine simply stared out the window of the carriage, and waited to return to the place that no longer felt like home to her.
As the gray and dreary edifice of the McGregor Stronghold came into view, Katherine suppressed a sigh of disappointment. She had been clinging to the hope that the sight of it would inspire happiness or gratitude in her; some sense of belongingshe had lost sight of over the past week. She had hoped that she would feel differently about her homecoming when it actually happened.
Instead, all she felt was cold and hollow.
For her part, Romilly appeared delighted to be within sight of the stronghold. She put her head out the window of the carriage, beaming as they drew closer to it. “I didnae think I would live tae see it ever again,” she exclaimed gleefully. “I thought I would be sitting in that cell for the rest of my days until they got bored of me and executed me, at least!”
“I wouldnae have ever allowed such a fate tae befall ye,” Angus assured her gently.
It took all of Katherine’s effort not to scoff at that; to point out that the Oliphants could easily have hanged or beheaded Romilly a hundred times over in the past few months, and their father would not have been able to do a thing to stop it. That, indeed, he had not even seemedinclinedto do anything to stop it during all that time. That based on everything Katherine had seen and heard from him in the weeks before her own abduction, Angus had been perfectly willing to stand his ground in his hatred and contempt for the Oliphants even at the cost of Romilly’s life.
But she was too weary to say any of these things. At that moment, all she wanted to do was go up to her old room and be alone for the rest of the day. If she could not be with Bryan, then at least she could have privacy enough to think of him, and remember the good times they had together.
Unfortunately, she had no idea how wrong she was.
As soon as the procession was in the courtyard of the stronghold and the spiked black gates had slammed shut behind it, Angus helped Romilly down from the carriage and a cheer went up from the McGregor guardsmen on the walls.
Katherine climbed down on her own, and before she could take another step, Angus pointed a finger at her and called out, “Guards! Seize her at once, and take her to the dungeons!”
“What?” Katherine could not believe her ears. “I told ye, I didnae betray ye!”
“She speaks the truth, Father,” Romilly spoke up urgently, looking every bit as startled by his order as Katherine did. “She may not have caused trouble for the Oliphants while she was in their custody, but she is still yer youngest daughter. Ye mustn’t?—”
