“So what?” he scoffed, his voice just as loud.
“So ye hate everythin’ I like…for what reason? Just on principle!?” Erskine couldn’t understand it. He was so angry he was tempted to pound on Dearg again, but he held off for now. He needed to hear the rest of the explanation first.
“Ye were so attached to little Billie, werenae ye?” Dearg shook his head.
“So ye hated the idea of Billie for it!?”
“Aye!” Dearg was breathing heavily, his nose evidently clogged slightly from the blood. “I wanted once just to see ye undermined and nay longer the golden child everyone loved.”
Erskine grabbed his brother’s shirt and dragged him to sit up, bringing him closer to his threatening fist. Laird MacCallum moved as though preparing to stop them, but he hesitated when Erskine didn’t deliver the blow.
“So ye spread yer rumors about me preferrin’ men to women?”
“Aye.”
“Then when ye realized it was Laura?”
“Aye, big brother had gotten himself a fine London lady, with a vast fortune to her name and a heavy dowry indeed. Why do ye think I wanted to be rid of her? He will always be the best brother now.”
Erskine lost his hold on his temper completely. He started punching his brother, unable to stop until he felt his father drag him away.
“Erskine, that is enough!” Laird MacCallum bellowed the words as he hauled him away across the great hall.
“He played with her life!” Erskine roared back. “He saw her as expendable and has thrown her into the hands of a demon just because he’s jealous?” With these words, the Laird released him but threw him backward, standing between his two sons. Erskine looked past his father to see Dearg kneeling, clutching his nose and now swelling face. “He deserves punishment for this!” Erskine tried to get past his father again, but the Laird blocked his way, grabbing his arms and stilling him, so they were locked together, hands against elbows.
“Listen to me, Erskine! He does deserve punishment. He does.” These words cut through Erskine’s red mist.
“Ye agree?”
“Aye, I do,” Laird MacCallum nodded. “But this is me punishment to exact. He has betrayed his family and played with the politics of nae only our clan but the entire relationship between Scotland and England by writin’ that letter to Lord Moore. It is me punishment to think of. Leave it to me.”
Erskine stopped tussling against his father and fell slack.
“Aye, ye are right,” Erskine nodded eventually, his mind only on one thing. “Laura is gone.”
“Nae yet, laddie,” Laird MacCallum shook his head. “Ride after her. Stop her from leavin’.”
“Ye mean ye….” Erskine paused, struggling to say the words.
“Aye, I give me blessin’. If ye want to marry the lass, then that is fine with me,” he said quickly. “I married yer maither despite the fact her parents thought me an ill match,” these words brought a small smile from Erskine.
“Ye did?”
“Aye, and they liked me in the end. Ye want yer lass back,” Laird MacCallum turned him toward the door. “Go get her.”
Erskine nodded and ran toward the door, glancing back just long enough to see his father look back down to Dearg, who was bleeding on the floor.
* * *
Erskine was running through the barracks at the side of the castle. So far, his pace had not relented, and he was certain it never would until Laura was within sight again.
“Tam!” he called. “Anyone seen Tam?”
Some of the soldiers who were resting after their weeks of work gestured down the other end of the long hallway full of bunks.
“Tam?” Erskine continued to shout as he followed their gestures, eventually reaching the other end of the room where Tam looked up sharply at the sound of his name. Beside him were Camden and Aiden, with Camden wrapping a bandage around Aiden’s arm after a fresh wound earned the day before when they had captured the bandits.
“Good god, Erskine,” Camden smiled. “The whole castle will come crashin’ down around our ears if ye continue to shout like that.”
