Caillen turned his back to Emer and pulled his cloak over his head. If he could have made himself any more unavailable, he would have.
Undeterred, Emer crouched down beside him and spoke, “I ken ye can still hear me, so here goes. I found hidden letters from the Sutherlands in Gawain’s chambers. He came to me later and said he had found them in the castle renovation rubble and showed me a letter addressed to ye. It said ye were the one who planned to assassinate Gawain.”
Goaded into a retort, Caillen spun around to face her, “And ye never thought to just ask me if I was some scaly scallywag out to kill and cheat? Did it nae occur to ye why onearthwould I want to forfeit me clan’s livelihood and scupper me own Lairdship - never mind, killing me own brither?” When Emer opened her mouth to reply, he held up his hand imperiously, “And please dinnae say ye fell for me brither’s persuasive arguments – when any logical person would have seen through the stupidity of his suspicions.”
It was Emer’s turn to get angry, “I’m ahousemaid, as ye so kindly reminded me just now! Hardly in the position to turn around to one Laird’s son and tell him he’s obsessed and unreasonable and then run to the other one and tell tales. And I’m also nae in any position to tell me masters how to behave or think. I’m aservant, yer Lairdship, I serveeveryone– and as much as ye liked to pretend I didnae have to take orders from anyone else, believe me when I say that is something never likely to happen!”
Caillen stood up and spun around to face her, his cloak swirling around him like a whirlwind, “In all the time we have spent together, inall that time– ye have never felt the inclination to say -,” and here Caillen put on an affected, high pitched female voice, “ ‘Ooh, Cai, by the way, yer brither asked me to tell him about yer business and as I understand ye’ve been kept awake day an’ night trying to catch a spy, I thought ye might like to ken about this,’ well? Did it ever cross yer mind?”
Emer shook her head. It was as if he was not even trying to see things from her point of view.
“Well then,” Caillen said in scathing accents, “even if I believed yer story, and I’m nae saying I do, ye would still be guilty of the uttermost stupidity and - andlaziness!It wouldnae have taken ye ten minutes to write me a letter anonymously and tip me off. Instead, I’ve had to spend hours poring over logbooks, trying to find a pattern of behavior. Fortunately, I did find a link between leaked information and Gawain or Campbell leaving the keep, but then I left to go and find ye in Nethy, and we all ken how well that turned out.”
All Emer heard was - “Laziness! Laziness?” She was outraged and stood up so she could refute his allegations, shouting into his face, “How dare ye accuse me of laziness! I spend every hour of the day tidying up the blasted mess yer carpenters and builders leave when they’ve finished remodeling all the keep’s rooms. I hate ye - ye pompous, stuck up, thick-skulled prig!”
She was shaking with fury. Emer turned away from him, trembling, but it was not from the cold. It seemed like a long walk back to her side of the cellar, but she managed to get there before her knees gave out and she crumpled to the floor. The thought of escape and the need to tell Caillen what the pastor had said to her faded and died.
The cellar door opened. Emer was too weak to look up and see who it was. She felt listless and hopeless. It was probably Flora, come back to gloat some more. And why should she not? Flora Sutherland and her father had managed to achieve everything they had set out to do.
“Go away, Gawain,” Caillen’s voice could be heard from his end of the cellar, “crawl back to yer beastly lover. I hope she sinks her fangs into yer neck and ye bleed out and die.”
Silence.
Emer revived slightly when there was no comeback from Gawain forthcoming. It was most unusual. She sat up and poked her head over the stack of casks blocking her view of the door.
Gawain stood in the middle of the room. He looked different. His fine clothes had been removed, and his hair, always so neat and well brushed, looked disheveled. He was turning in circles as though disorientated, with a blank look on his face.
“What do ye want, Gawain,” Emer asked, “are ye lost? Seeing as yer lady friend is nae here, I think ye must be lost ‘cause ye nae have her skirt tails to hang onto.”
Gawain looked over to where Emer was peeking out at him, and then he shocked her by bursting into tears. It was so unexpected that Caillen, who had been watching Emer making her remarks from his side of the cellar unobserved, also stuck his head up.
“What’s to do? Has she left ye for a dragon? Or did she shed her skin and become a reptile?” Caillen was trying to sound insouciant, but Emer could tell a genuine curiosity underneath his insults.
Gawain bit his lip, and the crying stopped. After a valiant effort to control himself, he spoke, “I gave up me clan, me honor, and me honesty to be with her. And now that she has all of us here, she’s preparing to attack faither at the keep. She never wanted me, never even loved me, but I didnae care. All I wanted was to be with her, and I would be happy.”
Caillen interrupted Gawain’s explanations, “What! She’s preparing to attack faither? Why didnae ye stop her – wrap yer hands around her scrawny neck until it snapped?”
Gawain fell to weeping all over again, “I cannae! I love her. She means everything to me.”
Caillen, leaping over a tall pile of ale casks to get to Gawain, grabbed his brother by the shoulders and shook him like a rag doll, “Ye fool, ye love the woman who is planning to wipe out the clan! After she’s killed faither and taken over the keep, d’ye think she’ll stop there? Then we’re next to die, and Laird Sutherland can wheel his invalid chair over to Maclachlan keep and rule everything.”
Gawain spun angrily away from Caillen’s grasp.
“That’s been their plan all along. I thought she wanted me to be a Laird, but Donal and Flora have run mad – they want annihilation...”
“And ye handed it to them,” Caillen said quietly.
A chill ran down Emer’s spine. Gawain had sold their lives away in the hope Flora Sutherland would love him. It was insane.
“It’s nae me fault!” Gawain implored Emer and his brother to understand, “I felt sorry for Donal and thought he wanted what was best for me.”
This was too much for Caillen to bear. He launched himself at Gawain and slapped him so hard the crack echoed off the cellar walls.
Gawain’s eyes widened in shock, and he held his hand up to his cheek. Emer knew all about brawling from the Nethy schoolyard. She stepped back behind her barrel stack and watched events play out.
Gawain rushed at Caillen like a mad bull. The force of the impact knocked Caillen back a few steps before he could regain his balance. Both men squared up to each other; weeks of scorn, pride, and suspicion finally ready to unleash.
They circled one another for a moment or two before Caillen lashed out with the first blow. This time, it was no slap of disgrace connecting with Gawain’s face. It was bare-knuckles clenched to make a fist the size of a large club. Gawain tried to duck, but he simply bent down and followed the swinging arc Caillen’s hand made in the air. The blow landed late, but it still landed.
