Jonah shook his head slowly. “I didnae…I started to doubt, but I had to keep believing ye were guilty. I had to. Or I wouldnae have been able to go through with it.”
“Go through with betraying the lassie who loves ye and her sister, ye mean,” Ivor asked harshly.
Jonah said nothing for so long that Ivor almost turned away again. Then, in a voice so quiet that Ivor barely heard it, he said, “Have ye ever had a sister, Ivor?”
It was the one thing he could have said, the only thing that would have got Ivor to stop in his anger and listen. “I did. Once,” Ivor said. “What of it?”
“Well,” Jonah said, his voice shaking. “I have a sister too. And Rory MacDuff made me choose.” He shook his head. “And I did. God help me, I did.”
Ivor listened as Jonah explained everything – what had happened to his sister and the baby, how Rory had manipulated him. Then, to Ivor’s surprise, the boy – it was hard to think of him as a man grown when he was so young and vulnerable – got on his knees.
“Take me head if ye think it will help,” Jonah said. His voice didn’t shake now. “Kill me if ye think it will give any justice to what I’ve done.”
Ivor paused, staring at him. The young man had made several terrible choices, of course, but there was no denying his bravery. And the look in his eyes…he really did love Myrna, no matter how misguided his actions had been.
“Get up,” Ivor commanded. “Ye’re my man now.”
“Aye, Me Laird,” Jonah said. It sounded strange, yet Ivor didn’t flinch. If that helped the boy follow orders, who was Ivor to protest? “What should we do?”
“The only thing left to do,” Ivor replied grimly. He cast one more look at the weeping Laird and then said, “We’re gonnae go get the lassies back. And ye’re gonnae beg their forgiveness.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The Deal
The whole journey had been for absolutely nothing. Eithne realized that now. Now that Myrna had fallen asleep, she no longer needed to be strong – and in response, darkness had covered her soul. It was all pointless. All of it. Everything that Ivor had tried to do for her. Everything that her parents and Killian and Neal had sacrificed. Everything she’d fought for.
Pointless.
Because here she was once again, captured in the hold of Rory MacDuff’s soldier. Here she was, being taken to be his bride.
Perhaps it had always been her fate. Maybe she should have just accepted it, so long ago when he asked her. She could have avoided so much bloodshed and so much death if she’d only let go of her pride and accepted his proposal in the first place.
“In a way, it’s all my fault,” she told Myrna with a laugh that was almost a sob. “In more than one way, actually. You should still be with our family. I’m selfish.”
I thought I didnae owe myself to him, but now look at everything. And worse, he’ll have me anyway.
She was glad that Myrna had managed to sleep. Eithne was reasonably sure that they were still in the castle town of MacDonnell, in the dark recesses of someone’s house. The girls had been shoved inside with no ceremony. Eithne had, of course, tried to escape, but the door was barricaded – and besides, she couldn’t see anything.
Myrna had been inconsolable. The poor girl had lost everything and then dared to love, only to have her heart broken and betrayed. Eithne had done her best to stay strong for her little sister. She’d reassured her and thought of excuses and even tried to make jokes. But now that Myrna was asleep, she was finally able to let herself feel.
And she felt worse than she ever had in her life.
If there was a way to see, maybe I could find a knife. I couldnae fight them, but perhaps if I were to die, Myrna would be nae use to them, and they’d let her go.
But no. This was Rory MacDuff, the slaughterer who had stabbed Neal for the sake of it. Walter worked for him – her own cousin, who had borne witness to the slaying of his own brother. These people were monsters. They would never let Myrna go, no matter what happened to Eithne.
“So, well, then we just need to escape,” Eithne mumbled. But escape where? How? There were no hidden passages this time. There was no secret, handsome mercenary on his way here to save her life.
Eithne was lost. And the worst part was, she couldn’t even die.
“Walter. Walter!” she called out. “I ken ye can hear me, Walter. If ye’ve got any humanity left in ye, show yerself.”
No answer.
She had to keep pushing. For Myrna, if nothing else. She couldn’t bear the thought that her baby sister was going to be murdered as well. Another life lost because of Eithne’s pride, Eithne’s foolishness.
“Walter!” she called again, louder. “Open the thrice accursed door, ye coward!”
