“Where is my son?” Duff roared, spinning around on the spot. “Derek!”
“He took Beth out to look at the battlements,” Andrew said. “Just before the service began.”
Of course, he thought. Derek didn’t want her to see what he’d done. He knew if she went inside she’d spot the missing falsework at once. “Where is he?”
“Here,” a voice said from the portcullis. Andrew looked over to see Gillis holding Derek by the scruff of the neck. “Caught him trying to run off. I wondered why he was sprinting like the hounds of hell were after him. What’s happened here?”
“Why dinnae you speak up and tell us all?” Duff asked. “What have you done, laddie?”
“I did it for you, father.”
“What?” Duff roared. “Are you saying it’s true. You brought down that ceiling? You almost killed me? Why would you do such a thing?”
“I didnae know you were going to be here. If you’d told me you were coming, I could have warned you.”
“I am Duff MacLeish, laird of my clan. I do not need to tell you anything. Why did you do it? Your answer better be good.”
“I thought if Andrew was dead there’d be no reason for me to stay here. I could come home and we could rule the highlands together as father and son.”
“You set the mercenaries on him at the loch, didn’t you?”
A slow nod.
“Did you burn Pluscarden too?”
Another nod. “My man Rufus but I was paying him.”
Duff turned away in disgust, looking at Andrew with his hand outstretched. “I owe you an apology. I sent a snake into your midst without even knowing it. Will you shake my hand?”
Andrew took it, feeling the eyes of everyone on him.
“You can execute him yourself or I’ll take him back and deal with him for this atrocity. Name whatever you wish and it shall be done.”
Andrew looked at Beth, seeing the sparkle in her eyes. He knew at once what to do. “What your son did, he did for the right reasons. He wanted the clans united as do I. If you would grant me one wish it is that we put aside our feuds and come together to fend off the English.”
“Done.”
“Please forgive me, father,” Derek wailed, tears running down his cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
“Save your blather for the executioner. You have burned, you have killed, you have destroyed. Tears will not save you.”
There was a groan from the ground and the bishop sat up slowly, shaking his head. “I have a suggestion,” he said, getting to his feet. “If you would hear it, MacLeish. You have founded an abbey at Melrose, have you not?”
“Aye,” Duff replied.
“Derek, do you wish to repent of your sins?”
“I do,” Derek shouted from the portcullis, throwing himself onto his knees, his hands clasped together in the air. “Forgive me, I beg you. I don’t want to go to hell.”
The bishop nodded before turning back to Duff. “Let him be the first novice to enter the monastery grounds. There your son will learn the true meaning of repentance and humility.”
“Will you accept that?” Duff asked Andrew. “I leave the decision up to you for it is you who has been most aggrieved by his actions.”
Andrew turned to Beth, seeing the slightest nod of her head. “I agree,” he said.
“Oh, thank you,” Derek called out, crawling through the mud on his knees. “You are kind and just, my laird.”
“Get up out of the mud,” Duff said. “And stand over there until I am ready to leave. Say not another word or the monastery may have a novice entering with no tongue to sing their blessed psalms.”
