“Guard.” She tried diplomacy first to the split-lipped guard. “I must speak with our lord king.”
“You seekin’ King Alexander or treasonous Håkonsson there, lassie?” he judged and shoved her forward slightly.
Don’t land on that rat eating another!Aonghus grabbed her elbow to stay her tripping and threatened, “Sir Sean, you touch Keirah again, your balls will be matching your fukin’ lip.”
“MacCade?” Sir Brayden approached, looking wide-eyed as Sturan, who was now in his cell.
“Sir Brayden” – she heard the trust in her mercenary’s voice at the friend – “seek the Lord Constable, even the Lord King; the Scotswoman needs to be heard on a matter of immense importance.”
Their two guards gave a joint dismissive chuckle. Sir Brayden replied with a riddle: “’Tis red sky upon the horizon, MacCade.”
What did this mean? Aonghus appeared to catch a purpose between the lines. The pair of guards opened a cell next to Sturan then shoved her into a piss-scented oasis, across from her mercenary, who was stowed away behind the barred door with a creak and hollow slam.
Chapter 13
“Sir James was present when the assembly for King Alexander was sent to Bjørgvin to present the terms before King Håkonsson regarding the Isles?” Aonghus repeated after her explanation.
They could see one another through the open bars; Sturan popped his head halfway between his bars while listening. Around the stone wall built between each cell, she spied the traitor’s eyes only through the front door’s bars.
“Aye.” Her reply echoed over someone’s cough three cells down.
“From standing at the hip of King Håkonsson” – Sturan joined the conversation he was not part of – “unto the dungeons of King Alexander. Ha! Quite a navigator in political prowess, lassie. You should have stayed a traitor.”
Her shoulders straightened. “I wasnevera traitor, Sturan.”
“Let me summon Sir James to judge that sentiment,” Sturan picked at her the same as the damn scab she could see on his hand sticking out of the bars from her angle.
“I will have my audience before Lord King Alexander!” she vowed, sternly.
An unseen voice called out before laughing bitterly: “I will have my audience before King Alexander!”
A chorus of jovial ‘Ayes!’ echoed the domain before chuckles and coughs.
“I will as well!” hooted a cellmate to the left of hers across from Sturan, its occupant an old man whose flesh hung on his bones and whose liver-spotted face broke into a rotted gummy grin.
BUURRRPPP! Another ripped off a belch doors down, then bellowed, “So will I, lassie! To deliver that before his Kingship!”
“ENOUGH!!” Aonghus’s shout boomed the surroundings with such force the rats racing the tunnel passage scattered in fear and the larger two-legged rats in the cells silenced.
“Sturan,” her mercenary took aim at the original instigator, “you were present with Rudri before King Alexander when Rudri voiced the grievance being denied a wee bit of turf?”
Slam!Sturan’s hand hit against the bars. “’Twas Rudri’s birthright to hold the Isle of Bute! Along with my own.’Twasnota wee bit of turf, you arsehole.”
“You were denied your birthright?” Aonghus snorted. “As was I, by my elder brother who cast me out. Shall I be siding with the enemy and whiny as a newborn bairn after? Nae, you move forward, Sturan, you do not attempt to implode the entire kingdom. Youarethe traitor present.”
Aonghus looked over at her; the emotions her heart bore must have played across her face in the flicker by torchlight, as his chin gave a slight nudge her direction which caused her heart to thump faster. Every turn he championed her like no other, the effect was…unmeasurably addictive.
“Do not fear, Keirah, you will have your audience before our lord king.” Did she believe his oath even as they sat in squalor? Aye. “You will finish what was set forth, I swear it to you with all that I am.” By all the saints, had she ever heard somethingso completelydashing? Never-ever!
“Red?” she whispered the strange word Sir Brayden had given.
“The Lord Constable’s chambers are red,” he explained and winked at her; the thump quickened, followed by a flush on her flesh hot as the torch outside her cell.
Here they were in filth, condemned as traitors, and was there a time she had seen anything as handsome as the Scotsman across from her? Nae – never. She hadfailedhim; if not for her sour past with Sir James he would still be breathing the air belonging to freedom. First chance she got, this would be set to right.
No. Matter. What. It. Took.
Aonghus wasn’t the only one with a will in determination. She gave a stern inward nod.
