* * *
Sorcha stared at the note in her hand once more. Reading it for the first or for the twenty-fifth time made no difference to her understanding of it. It was not that she could not read its meaning, but rather that she could not believe the information there and what it meant.
He goes to our uncle.
The message came from Arabella, though the man did not say her name as he handed the small piece of folded parchment to her. Though Brodie had assured Sorcha that no one else but he kenned her location, she did not doubt for a moment that his wife could wheedle any secret she wanted out of him. Or discover it on her own.
The piece of parchment proved that. Sorcha thanked the man and asked him to wait for a reply. When he’d left, she collapsed into a chair and began to tremble.
Picking up the bad habit that Rob was known for, she whispered out the harshest words she could think of in the moment. Nothing close to what she’d heard uttered by that man or even Alan or Brodie, but it made her feel better for a short time. Glancing at the message again, she closed her eyes and tried to come up with a reply.
She had brought this about. She had caused Alan to go and confront his uncle about the plans the chieftain and her father had made. With no proof, he would be, at best, laughed out of his clan or, at worst, executed as a outlaw. Cold chills pierced her body and soul at the thought of his death.
Sorcha had been convinced that her leaving solved everything. She would disappear and no more thought would be given to the still-dead Lady Sorcha MacMillan. No one would link her to Alan or Brodie or think anything about the distant relation to the late Erca MacNeill who bought her way into the prayer community in the north-west of Skye.
Life would be as her mother had planned—she would be free of her father and his machinations and live out a quiet life. Of course, Erca MacNeill never dreamt that her daughter would meet a man along that path and fall in love with him. Erca never considered the many flaws in her plan, but then, her mother was sick and dying when she’d concocted this. Her only hope was to save her daughter from a life like the one she’d suffered through.
So, running away and walking away had not worked. People she loved and cared about were still in danger. The man she loved would face his own demise because of his desire to prevent his uncle from ruining another life and trading the security of his clan for his own aims.
Loyalty. Honour. Courage.
Sometimes she wanted to curse her mother for teaching her those values. For instilling in her the belief that those traits were just as important in a woman as in a man. For giving her the desire to live those qualities in memory of all her mother had sacrificed to see her free.
More so, she wanted to be a woman of loyalty and honour and courage.
Putting the note into the flame of the candle on the table, Sorcha watched it burn. Then she sought the leather satchel in the trunk and packed her clothing into it. Pulling open the chamber’s door, she waited for the man to approach.
‘I will take my answer back to the lady myself.’
He sputtered a bit, clearly unprepared for such a thing, but he did not argue it. The man must be used to serving Arabella Cameron for he did not try to dissuade her from her decision. Instead, he stepped back and directed her out of the cottage and to the yard where the horses were kept.
Within an hour of receiving the note, she was on the road south and back to Glenlui.
* * *
Two days later, she walked into the lady’s solar and curtsied to Arabella. Though the lady seemed to expect her arrival, the laird did not. Sorcha forced herself not to take a step back when he rose, growling his displeasure. It was not Sorcha’s name he spoke, but his wife’s.
‘Bella!’ he yelled out, as he faced her. ‘Why must you meddle in everything?’ Sorcha swore the costly glass panels in the windows of the chamber rattled at the intensity and fury of his voice.
Sorcha watched as a silent battle raged between these two strong people. Both of them loved the other without bounds and it made them even stronger together than separately. If he thought to convince her not to go to Alan by his behaviour with his wife, he would fail. For, in spite of the ear-shattering loudness of his words, she needed only to look at the love that was visible there between them to know her choice was the correct one.
‘She has the right to know what he’s doing, Brodie,’ Arabella said in a calm, soft voice that was the perfect counterpoint to his angry, boisterous one. ‘This is her battle, too.’ The bluster drained from him in an instant and he nodded, first to his wife and then to her.
‘I do not like you being involved. The worrying is not good for you or the bairn,’ he said as he reached out and took hold of her hand. As he kissed her there, Sorcha tried to ignore the whispered words of love and concern she could not help but hear.
‘The bairn will take hold or not, my love. ’Tis the Almighty’s plan, not yours nor mine,’ Arabella said in a resolute tone. ‘But He will find me lacking if I stood by and allowed our cousin to face his enemy without friends at his side and our love at his back.’
‘Must you make so much sense, Bella?’ he asked, clearly hating the answer he already kenned. ‘There is one thing, Wife.’ The chieftain who was used to commanding hundreds of men and loyal kith and kin faced a far stronger foe here than any of them presented. ‘You will remain here.’
Sorcha watched as Arabella struggled with this order from her husband. When she capitulated quickly, Sorcha understood the seriousness of her condition and the danger she faced. The lady feared for the bairn she was trying to carry.
‘Promise me you will stand by him, Brodie.’ It was not a question, but an order of her own that brooked no refusal. ‘No matter what.’
Brodie did not answer her demand directly, but did by dismissing Sorcha from the chamber.
‘We leave at first light,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘The servant will take you to a chamber and see to your needs.’
‘I will be ready, my lord,’ she said. Then she turned and left the two alone in their chamber as they wished to be.
