‘Wise boy there,’ Brodie said, coughing and spitting out blood. ‘Caelan would have found a way to kill him, too.’
‘Did you know this?’ Euan asked him. He walked over to Brodie and stared at him. ‘Why did you never dispute your cousin’s word?’
‘I still do not remember the night,’ he answered. ‘Only Alan can tell us the tale.’
‘Does anyone else know that you were there?’
‘Arabella,’ they both said.
‘She knows?’ her father asked.
Brodie shook his head. ‘She knows he was there. She does not know what he witnessed.’
‘Arabella made me swear not to tell anyone that I’d been there. She said it could mean my death if anyone knew.’
Once more silence reigned there as both of them digested the information given by the boy. His own addled brain would not accept it. He’d lived with the guilt for so long, he’d believed it as fact. Now, he knew it was not. His knees buckled and he would have pitched forward but for the hands that yet held him.
‘Sorcha, summon the healer,’ Euan called out. ‘Nora, see him to a chamber.’ Brodie reached out to grab Euan’s arm as he passed.
‘My men wait for me to the west. By the lakeside. Summon them.’
Those were the last words he would speak for some time.
Chapter Twenty-One
When Brodie came to awareness, several people were hovering over him. Rob he knew, the other man and woman he did not. From the poking and prodding of his injuries under Rob’s watchful gaze, one of the strangers was the clan’s healer and the other a servant of some kind.
‘Ah, so you are awake,’ the man said. ‘Not too bad.’
Rob raised his brow at the pronouncement, clearly having a different assessment of his friend’s condition. ‘A few broken ribs. Gashes and bruises. Your left hand is broken, too. And your nose, he thinks.’
‘And you have lost a considerable amount of blood,’ the healer offered. ‘But you should survive.’
He’d suffered those and more in his years of fighting, but possibly not all at the same time. ‘When can I ride?’
The healer and Rob exchanged a glance and then both laughed aloud. The servant woman shook her head in disgust.
Brodie pushed up, intending to find Euan and settle this, but he did not get very far. His body betrayed him, sending him reeling backwards. This would not do. He must get out of this bed. He must get to her and tell her the truth he’d just discovered.
‘Lord Euan will be here to speak to you,’ Rob explained. ‘You might want to rest now so we can leave sooner.’
‘Did you bring the box?’ he asked Rob. A nod was his only response. ‘Bring it here.’
Rob left and Brodie gave himself over to the healer’s ministrations.
* * *
When Euan arrived, his injuries had been cleaned and dressed. By the time Euan had read all the documents collected in the box, Brodie was able to get out of bed and stand. Sipping some noxious brew that was supposed to speed his healing, he waited for The Cameron’s reaction.
‘I had no idea.’
‘You were not supposed to know. He played each one of us against all the rest,’ Brodie said. ‘And you would not know even as he was destroying you bit by bit.’
‘Why?’ Euan asked. ‘Oh, this feud is like many others. It’s become almost sport between us, when it does not get out of hand. But this,’ he said, holding out the parchment he was reading, ‘this is personal.’
‘You killed his parents in front of him. Certainly it is personal for him,’ Brodie said. He hated what his cousin was doing but he could understand the need for revenge.
‘It was a brutal time. One that brought us, both of our clans, to the brink of madness. But, I did not kill his mother.’ Something darkened in the old man’s gaze, his face grey for a moment. ‘She ran into the middle of the fight and was struck down. I have regretted their deaths since that day.’
