Eidilh knew that Ciaran was ill at ease, facing the two—as well as Graham, who was looking on impassively—but even she would never have been able to tell from the straight-backed way he absorbed their hostile stares.
“So,” Vaila drawled, her hands teasing at the hilt of her dirk. “Tell us why we shouldn’t kill you here and now.”
“Vaila!” Eilidh protested.
She inched closer to Ciaran, both out of a show of support and because she figured that her sister was less likely to be free with her blades if Eilidh could get caught in the fray.
Vaila just gave her a mulish stare. Eilidh glared back. Vaila didn’t scareher.
Ciaran showed no sign that he’d seen this display of sisterly conflict. Even with his bruised face still bearing the marks of the beating he’d taken at the mercenaries’ hands, he was as steady as a statue as he faced the judgmental gazes of Vaila, Graham, and James.
“I will tell ye everything,” he said levelly. “And if, after hearing it, ye decide that I still deserve death, I willnae quarrel with ye. Though I will plead my case, at Eilidh’s request.”
“Iwill quarrel,” she warned the others. “I will doanythingto stop ye from hurting him.”
At this, Ciaran turned briefly from the others to offer Eilidh a small smile. She reached out and squeezed his hand. When they both turned back to face the other three, Eilidh noticed that both her siblings were watching this interaction closely.
“I was confronted by one of Gordon’s emissaries, a man named Ruairidh Black, earlier this year,” he began with the air of a military man giving a report to a superior. “Gordon knew that Clan Gunn had defied the King’s order to give up distilling. He said that if we—ifI—didnae do as he said, he would write of our misdeeds and have the might of the English brought down on my people.”
Ciaran’s tone was even; he spoke without pleas for pity in his voice. But Eilidh could see that it was not lost on James, Vaila, and Graham that this threat was dire, indeed.
“Though I loathed Gordon and all he stood for,” Ciaran continued. “I couldnae see a clear way forward. So I agreed, hoping that a way out would reveal itself to me. I was instructed to use my position as a former Donaghey ally to spy—but I resisted the orders, and Black and his men beat me. I escaped with my life and made it to Buchanan Keep.”
“That’s when we first encountered ye,” James supplied quietly.
Ciaran nodded. “I hoped to leave before Gordon could learn that I survived, but Black found me. He issued a new command: I was to abduct Eilidh and surrender her to Gordon, or else my clan would suffer.”
Vaila sucked in a breath and turned to Eilidh, as if expecting this to be the moment that the youngest Donaghey shrank away from Ciaran. But Eilidh kept her expression impassive. She might not know every detail of the story but she knew enough. She knewCiaran. She would not shrink from him.
“I confess that I didnae ken precisely what to do,” Ciaran said, his gaze briefly dropping to his hands in shame. “I didnaebetray her, but that first night when we were attacked… I confess that I did not act as swiftly as I might have done. It was but a moment’s hesitation. As soon as I saw with my own eyes the threat to her, I knew I could never allow it to come to pass. But I will never forgive myself for that hesitation, nor the danger it posed to Eilidh.”
Graham’s eyes narrowed as thoughhewas not inclined to ever forgive this, either. Eilidh, however, knew what she had seen that night. She knew how fiercely Ciaran had fought in her defense.
“Ye saved me,” she reminded him. She would remind him as often as it took. “I bear ye no grudge.”
Ciaran shot her a grim, sideways smile that said that she would have to repeat this many more times before he accepted it. But that was fine. She would do so for the rest of their lives, if necessary.
“When Arran saw me leave, I did so because Gordon had commanded that I attack the Buchanan heir,” he confessed. “This was… I could never have done it. It is reprehensible. I knew it would risk my clan, but there is no honor in harming a defenseless child—” He broke off, emotion clogging his throat. The room felt as though it was poised on the edge of a blade as everyone waited for the conclusion of the story.
After a moment, Ciaran resumed, his words clear and calm once more. “I planned to return to Gunn lands to begin fortifying against Gordon’s retribution. I didnae expect for Eilidh to follow me. I would have done anything to protect her.” He turned to look her in the eye as he said his next words, and she felt the truth of them down to her marrow. “Iwilldo anything to protect her, including anything that ye ask of me.”
He folded his hands in front of him, as though punctuating the end of this confession. It had been dreadful, in many ways, for Eilidh to listen to him admit to all that he’d done. Now thathe was finished, though, it was clear that he feltunburdened, even before his jury had laid out its verdict.
Vaila, being Vaila, had questions.
“Did ye attempt to poison my sister?” she demanded.
Ciaran’s jolt of surprise couldn’t be faked. “Nay,” he said, shaking his head once, decisively. “Nor do I ken who did it. I do ken that there is at least one Gordon spy remaining in the Buchanan household; they left the note ordering me to harm your nephew along with—” He had to clear his throat. “Along Eilidh’s necklace covered in blood.”
Despite herself, Eilidh felt her hand fly to her chest. She hadn’t noticed any of her things missing, but shehadbeen rather distracted, and it felt like a violation to know that someone had been snooping through her room.
Vaila’s eyes darted to Eilidh.
“And would ye lay down your life for my sister?” she asked.
“Vaila!” Eilidh objected again.
But Ciaran didn’t hesitate. “Without question,” he said. “Though, I confess, I would prefer to live to fight at her side. To love her as she deserves.”
