“Oh, nay, Donald,” she replied. “Ye willna try and set that guilt upon my shoulders. Ye have wanted Alexander dead for years. Ye began to plan it as soon as ye netted him in your trap.”
“Aye, I did and I planned to enjoy it. Now I shall enjoy it even more, for ye will be helping me.”
“Oh, nay. Nay. I willna dirty my hands.” She tried to avoid him, but he grabbed her by the wrist. “I said nay!”
Malcolm and Jaime made a cautious attempt to stop Donald, but it was not enough. Ailis could see that they did not dare to do too much. Donald was not going to physically harm her, just ask her to do something that she would find unspeakably hurtful. She wondered how she could resist without tempting a brutal reprimand from Donald.
“Ye will, my wee whore. Ye will wield the lash as I say, or it will be tested upon your skin.”
“Do it, Ailis,” Alexander ordered.
She stared at Alexander in horror and amazement. “Ye would have me become a part of his disgusting game?”
“Ye have always been a part of the game. Now ye must remember that ye carry my child. ‘Tis time to be meek and obedient, to do all ye cannotto invite retaliation or punishment.”
A muffled cry of revulsion escaped her when Donald pressed the whip into her hand. “I canna.”
“Ye will, Ailis,” Donald said as he stood behind her, forcefully positioning her behind Alexander’s broad smooth back. “Think of Jaime.”
“What of Jaime?” She stared at the whip in her hand, then at Alexander.
“He lives as a favor to ye. No more. ‘Tis a favor that could be easily lost.”
“So, if I dinna take a part in your sins, then ye shall harm an innocent man.” She gasped with pain when he grabbed her by the upper arm in a cruelly tight hold.
“Ye always were a clever lass. Now, strike.” He stepped back. “Why do ye wait?”
“I dinna ken how to use this,” she said.
Donald told one of the burly guards flanking Alexander’s bound body to show her what to do. She had to bite back a scream when the man struck Alexander. Twice more he did it until she claimed she knew what to do despite not having seen a thing. Her hands shook as she took the whip.
Her first strike was weak, and the lash barely touched Alexander. Donald cursed her, drew his sword, and walked over to Jaime. He held the sword against Jaime’s throat and just stared at her. No words were needed. The threat was wrenchingly easy to read. Her second attempt with the whip was not so weak, and she gagged as a red welt appeared across Alexander’s skin.
Five more times she struck. Alexander’s body flinched, but he made no sound. She shook until she hurt, and her emotions churned so much that she became nauseated. As she prepared to strike him a sixth time, the whip was yanked from her hand, tossed aside, and she was cradled against a hard, male body. It took her a moment to realize that it was Malcolm. She chanced a quick peek at Alexander and caught him watching her and Malcolm with a cold expression on his face. Then she looked at Donald, whose square face was nearly purple with fury.
“Ye grow too bold, cousin,” Donald hissed.
“I but watch over our interests when ye are too twisted with hate and anger to do so,” Malcolm replied, his voice soft and calm, and he made no attempt to draw his sword or dagger.
“This was to be part of her punishment. What right do ye have to interfere in my discipline of my woman?”
“Whatever right I can incur in order to keep her alive.”
“This willna kill her.”
“Nay? This was causing her to shake like a lump of pork jelly. She has also grown quite gray. I feared she could be driven to miscarry the child.”
“Good.” Donald glared at Ailis’s middle with cold-eyed hatred.
“Good, is it? Aye, I hadna realized that ye wished her to be unable to bear ye any children or even to die. ‘Tis risky to play that game ere ye actually wed the girl, and ye canna wed her until her husband is dead.”
“That girlish-faced cur isna her husband!” Donald screamed.
“As ye wish.”
“And what is this nonsense of her becoming barren or dying?”
“Malcolm is right,” said Duncan as he stepped forward and put a restraining hand on his son’s arm. “A miscarriage can even be more dangerous than a birth. Ye could easily drive her to it if ye continue to torment her so. I am not too sure she should even stay here to watch this. The man has clearly swayed her heart, and she finds his punishment painful to watch.”
