‘What ends, you fool? Open your eyes. This was not thievery,’ shouted Bryce. ‘This was no ordinary villain. This butchery has the mark of the Baron all over it. You know it, and I know it, Fergal.’
Jasper Cullan stepped forward. ‘If the Baron is back, then we will deal with him.’
‘Aye, but we thought we had last time and look at us now,’ said Hew Dunbar, puffing himself up like a peacock, the picture of outrage. ‘The beast got away. You should have ended him when you had the chance Ross,’ he said, glowering at Callum.
Bryce’s temper, which had been simmering nicely, boiled over. He stood chest to chest and shouted into Hew’s face. ‘Callum worked tirelessly to stop that bastard at great risk to his life and that of his wife while you hid behind your high walls and let him do your dirty work. Cowards, all of you,’ he said, gazing about the room.
‘So you declare all the assembled good men as cowards, do you, Cullan?’ growled Hew. ‘It seems your pride has finally got the better of you.’
‘Aye, you are all cowards to quail at the sight of a corpse, like sheep before the wolf.’
Bryce felt Jasper’s hand on his shoulder but he was unstoppable. ‘And as for you, Hew Dunbar. You may be my cousin, but I remember that your hallowed ground was barely invaded, whereas ours was plundered again and again. And I ask myself, why?’
Fenella pushed through and butted in. ‘What are you implying, Bryce Cullan?’
‘I am implying nothing. I am saying it outright. Your husband knows something we don’t. He is protected in some way from the Baron’s thievery.’
‘How dare you,’ sputtered Hew, his face purple with outrage. ‘We have had cattle and sheep stolen, a farm put to flame.’
‘Aye a few cattle lost and a farm with a troublesome tenant you long sought to rid yourself of. It is strange how your enemies fared worst against the Baron, is it not?’
‘But your lands were terrorised too, nephew,’ said Dunbar in a soothing voice. ‘Surely, Bryce, you are not saying that you are our enemy and that we set this villain upon you?’
They were on the brink of a bitter and irreparable family rift, but Jasper saved the day.
‘Stop. Whilst we squabble about amongst ourselves, this man, this Baron, will do his evil work unhindered. We must band together. Send out patrols. Whatever our family differences, we can work them out, but in the meantime, unity is essential. We will make sure that the poor soul we found is decently buried, and tomorrow, we will meet at my home and plan how to defeat this scourge once and for all.’
‘I’ll not set foot in Penhallion again after such an insult,’ declared Hew.
‘Nor I,’ said Fenella.
‘I don’t recall you being invited,’ said Maren quietly, and somehow, her words cut through the tumult, and everyone turned to stare at her, especially Orla, who raised her eyebrows and then smirked in Bryce’s direction.
‘And who are you to talk like that to the Lady of Machrie?’ shrieked Fenella. ‘A nothing, a nobody who Bryce has dragged up from some gutter somewhere, the latest in a long line of slatterns.’
Maren lunged, and Bryce only just stopped her from slapping Fenella’s face. Jasper intervened before they came to blows, stepping between them.
‘Enough. Everyone’s blood is up from the hunt. We must calm down, and we must meet soon and go together to the magistrate with our concerns. Then, cool heads will devise a plan, and reason and law will prevail.’ He turned to his nephew and his wife. ‘And you may come or not, Hew, but a failure to appear might be taken as an admission of sorts, don’t you think?’
‘Now look here…’ began Dunbar, in defence of his son, but Jasper cut him off.
‘We are leaving. Bryce, take hold of your wife, and Callum, you may accompany us, Orla too.’
Callum nodded his agreement, but Orla, of course, was not content with an armed escort.
‘I am perfectly safe by myself, and if anyone comes at me, they will get a lead shot in the head for their trouble,’ she declared, brandishing her musket.
‘We will all ride together a part of the way,’ said Bryce.
‘Aye, let us make haste,’ said Callum in Bryce’s ear, ‘afore your wife claws Fenella’s eyes out. Maren has spirit. I’ll give her that.’
Bryce took a bristling Maren by the arm and steered her out of Machrie castle.
***
They rode hard, and there was little conversation to be had at first, but eventually, their pace slowed as they picked their way along a path between whispering pines. Jasper took the lead and seemed in a fearful hurry to get home. Callum rode a little behind with Bryce. His cousin, Orla, drew alongside Maren.
‘We had little chance to converse during the hunt or after, given that you were too busy giving Fenella a piece of your mind,’ she said breezily.
