He nodded. ‘Aye, that’s right. You were always a clever lass, always right about everything.’
‘Donnan, why? I don’t understand. Do you know what I had to do to gain your freedom?’
‘Aye, you opened your legs for Cullen Macaulay, you whore.’
Lowri took a step back. This cruel man was not Donnan. ‘How can you say that? We were friends.’
‘Friends? You think I wanted to be friends? I gave you my heart. I worshipped you since I was but a lad, Lowri, and you cast me aside. First, there was Eaden. I watched you go into the woods with him. You lay with him, didn’t you? I wanted to strangle you with my bare hands after that. It sickened me that you should give him your innocence when it was mine to take.’
‘I did not, and my innocence was not yours to take, nor his.’ Lowri took a step back from Donnan’s wrath, and a wave filled her boots, icy cold, soaking her skirts. It brought her to her senses.
‘When I kissed you, it was all you could do not to spit it out,’ said Donnan. ‘You used me, let me rescue you from that convent,go raiding and thieving for you, suffer your brother’s wrath. But I was never good enough, was I? Not grand enough or rich enough for a whore of a Strachan who thumbed her nose at me while she lay down with a devil.’
‘I was your true friend. I was loyal.’
‘To you, I was invisible,’ he spat.
A cold hand stroked down her spine. ‘How did you betray me, Donnan? What did you do?’
‘I sold you, Lowri Strachan, sold you to Griffin Macaulay like a cow at market. I met him in a tavern where I was in my cups, airing my grievances and nursing my crushed spirit. I knew by then you would never return my love, so I agreed to spread rumours of where his cattle were and to tell him when we would try to take them. You fell for the bait like an eager fish after a worm.’ He smirked, pleased with his villainy. ‘Lowri, Griffin was lying in wait that night.’
‘And Rory?’
‘Safe, happy and living in Wales. It’s a stinking place of bogs and rain, full of ignorant, inbred wretches, but a good enough bolt hole for now. There’s money to be had going to sea. Rory is ignorant of it all, and he’ll never know the truth. He thought we got caught because we were unlucky. The lad is a little slow, so it was easy to convince him that Griffin had found it in his heart to forgive your reiving and free you. He doesn’t understand folk like I do.’
‘So you bargained my life away out of spite.’
‘Out of heartache. I sold you to Griffin for a great deal of his coin. In return, I promised to make myself scarce. I thought I’d never have to see your bonnie face again.’
‘So that beating….’
‘Was all an act. I must admit, I was surprised that you agreed to wed Macaulay to free us. I didn’t think you had that much loyalty in you. And that was never the plan. I wanted you hanged for the witch that you are, casting your spell on me, ruining me for other women. If I cannot have you, no one should.’
Lowri looked down the beach, for she could not stand his face any longer. The wind had picked up, and it blew her skirt, pressing the pistol in her pocket against her leg. It gave her strength. ‘Did you know I was here? Did you come to gloat?’
‘Griffin didn’t tell us much, but others gossiped, so, aye, I heard Macaulay had taken you off to Ireland.’
‘So you came to throw your betrayal in my face.’
‘Christ, lass, I never meant to see you again. I could not bear to, since you tainted yourself with that mongrel. A storm blew us off course, further north than intended, and we had to dock here for a few days. Our paths crossing is God’s way of laughing at me.’
‘All those years of friendship, growing up together, they meant nothing to you.’
‘All those years of devotion and love on my part meant nothing to you. I was a fool to care for you, Lowri. And look at you now, fallen so low, nought but a whore who has opened her legs for a Macaulay dog.’
Lowri pulled the pistol out of her pocket, and Donnan took a step back. He held his palms up. ‘Think on it, lass. If you shoot me in cold blood, folk will come running, and you will be hanged as a murderess.’
‘It would be worth it to put a shot between your eyes, you snake.’ She took a step forward, and his hands began to tremble. ‘Why would I ever have wanted you, Donnan? You are a craven, useless, worm of a lad, who always does as he is told. A sheep has more spine than you.’
‘Go on then. Do it. End us both, whore.’
‘Not yet. I have a question before I watch the light die in your eyes. Did Cullen know about this plot?’
Donnan smirked and leaned in to her. The pistol nudged his breastbone as he spat the words at her. ‘Aye, Cullen knew every bit of it.’
Lowri’s chest tightened, and bile rose in her throat. Anger was like a swarm of bees in her breast, swirling and sickening. She had never felt such white-hot rage before.
‘Lass. Stop. Lass, no!’
