Eithne was deliberately looking downward. They’d agreed that, while Myrna should show some spirit, the best bet for Eithne was to look like she had been finally broken down and defeated. It was the only way that she would be allowed to get Rory MacDuff alone.
I wish I could go with her. I only wish that she didnae have to do this all by herself.
The guards stepped back to whisper to each other. Ivor leaned down and said to Jonah in as quiet an undertone as he could manage, “Ye need to remind them who’s in charge here.”
Jonah blinked at him, then set his mouth in a determined expression. “Listen to me, both of ye. Do ye want to keep debating while yer Laird’s heir waits here with yer Laird’s beloved all strung up? Or will ye take me to Laird MacDuff as ye’re supposed to and hope he doesnae hang ye for disobedience?”
Both guards went pale, then one of them said, “Aye. Of course. Right this way.”
As the guards turned and began to walk, Ivor lay a congratulatory hand on Jonah’s shoulder. The first step was done. Now the real game would begin.
* * *
Myrna was slowly coming to the horrifying realization that her home no longer existed. Oh, this castle through which she was being led had a number of similarities to the keep where she’d been raised. It stood in the same place and had the same walls. But its soul was gone, replaced by something dark and deadly.
We were its soul. When Rory killed me family, he killed Clan Kinnear.
Walking through the corridors toward what had once been her father’s main meeting halls was one of the worst experiences of Myrna’s young life. The tapestries had been ripped and marked, and portraits of her family and her ancestors, which had adorned the walls for as long as she could remember, were either missing or slashed so severely that they were unrecognizable.
Outside the windows, she could see the kennels where they had once kept the castle dogs – or what remained of the kennels, anyway. Only bits of charred wood remained. Who knew what had happened to the animals?
Myrna glanced at Eithne, hoping to find some comfort from her sister as they experienced these horrors together, but Eithne just stared straight ahead. It would be easy to think that the older Kinnear girl didn’t care anymore, or even that she didn’t notice all of the changes and ruination surrounding them, but Myrna knew her better than that.
There was a fire in Eithne Kinnear’s eyes. Not the raging fire of new embers, but the cold flames of anger that would never be extinguished. They had come here to be rid of Rory MacDuff so that they could at last live again in freedom, but Myrna realized that Eithne was here just as much for revenge.
Does that bother me? Nay. He deserves to die, and Eithne deserves to be the last thing he sees.
Myrna shivered. She’d never known it was possible to let herself be so cold. She tried to distract herself by looking ahead at Jonah, who held on to the other end of the rope that was looped around her list. What was she going to do about him? He’d betrayed her, used her, and yet…yet he seemed to be doing his best to make up for it.
I dinnae have time for this. I need to focus on what’s happening now.
A grand door opened before them. Myrna had been here many times since her childhood, but it was strangely easy to walk through now as if it was a brand-new experience. This was not her father’s meeting room. This was just the end of a very, very long journey.
Myrna glanced at her sister once more. At least, in this, they’d be together.
* * *
Rory MacDuff smiled on the chair he’d somehow fashioned into a throne on the dais that once belonged to Eithne’s father. “Well, me love,” he said. “Ye’ve come home.”
Eithne looked up at him. She stared at him, the man who had killed her family, the man who had taken her life from her, and she knew she had to respond. Ivor, still pretending to be her captor, pushed her forward. She stumbled, falling to the ground on her knees at Rory’s feet.
Rory stepped down from the dais, kneeling in front of her. He put his fingers under her chin, lifting her face so that she had to look at him. “Dinnae ye have anything to say, me love?” he said. “Now that yer cousin has been good enough to bring ye back to me?”
Eithne stared at him.
Then she spat directly in his face.
Why did I do that? I’m supposed to be broken!
There was a long pause, and then Rory wiped his face slowly with his sleeve before dissolving into laughter. His guards started forward, but he held up a hand to stop them. “I like her spirited,” he said. “It’ll make her much more fun to break. Walter, take her to me rooms. I’m gonnae give her a wedding night she’ll never forget.”
Ivor moved forward, grabbing Eithne roughly by the wrists and pulling her back.
“Ye did well, Jonah,” Rory told him, turning his eyes away. “And the mercenary?”
“Dead,” Jonah said harshly. Eithne knew it was a lie, but the thought still made her queasy. “I killed him meself.”
“Then yer faither has been avenged,” Rory told him. “As a reward for yer help, ye can take the other lassie. Do with her what ye please. She can even be yer wife if ye like; I ken ye were fond of her.”
