“I had tae do it, ye see, Lorna. I snapped. Something inside me snapped all those years ago, and I killed me own sister. I strangled her with me bare hands so that I could keep me secret.” The distant look in his eyes returned, and he lifted his hands in the same motion it would take to strangle someone.
The fear inside Lorna’s heart increased. This was the end. She knew it. She would succumb to the same fate, and all because Athol couldn’t risk losing the power and prestige of the Lairdship.
He didn’t notice her fear and kept pacing. “I told Mother and Father that Siusan died in childbirth, and that the baby was so small, and that was why they didnae notice her growing belly. Mrs. Creech and Conan helped me tae cover it up. They lied for me just as they had for so many others, and all was fine. Mother took ye on as her own, and we lived as brother and sister, ye and I. But then,” his face darkened. “Mrs. Creech wanted tae give up her secrets. She wanted tae tell, and I couldnae have that. After all these years, she said that the secret was just too much tae bear. She thought she was doing the right thing for ye, but she kenned what happened tae Siusan, and she wouldnae let it go. So I killed her, and Conan, too. Tae keep them quiet.”
Lorna put a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. “And what of Kyla?” she asked, still unable to truly believe the man she’d grown up with all these years was so cruel. So endlessly cruel.
“Och, Kyla was a different story. She kenned nothing of yer birth.”
“Then why hurt her?” Lorna wished that she had a blade at the ready or that she was feeling stronger and less dizzy than she was. At that moment, she had the greatest urge to run her father through and rid the world of his evil.
He paused and looked at Lorna. He sat down on the end of her bed, and she recoiled. “I have wanted Kyla in me bed for years, but I kenned that I needed tae bide me time. She was a friend of yers, and I kenned that ye would be unhappy if she left in haste. But me lust for her grew tae such a degree that I had tae have her. But this time, I wanted her willing. A Kyla crying out me name, asking me tae pleasure her.”
He grinned and Lorna put a hand to her stomach to try to calm the sick feeling. His grin faded. “But she wouldnae have me. She rejected me when I caught up with her one afternoon outside. So, I hurt her, too. I wanted her tae feel the pain she caused me.”
“Athol, what a terrible thing,” she said. “Kyla is me friend. Were ye trying tae kill her?”
“Nae! Tae be honest, I only wanted her tae ken pain, nae tae die. I still wanted her, ye see, and I thought that after this, she would see sense.” He cocked his head to the side, speaking very matter-of-factly as if this was the way things worked in his world. He seemed almost confused that Kyla had rejected him and that Lorna just wasn’t understanding either.
Lorna didn’t know what else to say. It was all so much. She pulled back when he reached for her hand again, and he glowered. “Why should ye recoil from yer own blood, lass? Ye never recoiled before.”
Even though fear was rushing through her veins, Lorna still felt a sort of boldness. “Because then ye were nae me father who lied tae me all these years. And who hurt people that were kind. Ye are a different person tae me now.”
“Nae, I am the same, but it is true that I have been hiding me true identity from ye.” He stood, his expression still sharp and dark. “Lorna, there will have to be consequences.”
She pulled in a shaky breath, willing herself to be strong, when the door burst open and footsteps rushed through the croft, until they spied Lorna on the bed.
“Bryce!” she cried happily. Tobias was on his heels. Her grandfather slowly walked up behind the two men as well.
“Nae!” Athol cried. “I willnae end like this.” He grabbed Lorna and held her against his chest. She felt the cool steel of a small blade against her throat.
