“Aye?”
Kuresh nodded. “When I was a boy of seven or eight my mother gifted me with a lamb. Unmarred and beautiful in every way, I loved her with all my heart. I named her Jasmine. She followed me everywhere, even to my bedchamber at night, as long as my father was not about. But once he found out I had a pet and allowed it to sleep inside, he forbade me from bringing a filthy beast indoors.”
Jamie’s eyebrows shot up. “And what happened to Jasmine?”
Kuresh cleared his throat as a frown darkened his face. “Once she reached maturity, she spent more time in a shed in the gardens. Twas a feast night, and my father had indulged in too much drink.”
“Yer father drank spirits?”
“Yes—ale and wine.”
Jamie scowled.
“Drunk and staggering about, he burst into my mother’s reception hall and demanded she prepare a meal for him. Unable to refuse, she sent her maids to find whatever ingredients were available in the kitchens. But my father stopped them. He required fresh meat. Unfortunately, he remembered Jasmine and told me to bring her to him.”
“Jesu…”
“I ignored him. Until he physically attacked me and dragged me to the garden. There, under the light of the moon, he forced his dagger into my hand. I threw it down several times. I pleaded for my pet’s life, crying like a woman. Which only enraged him.”
Jamie ran his hands over his face, obviously captivated by the tale.
“He once again forced me to hold the knife, only this time, his big hand covered mine. Then, he commanded a servant to tie the lamb to the nearest tree. We slit her throat.”
Jamie shot up from his seat. “Of everything unholy!”
Kuresh gritted his teeth. Why this story had come to mind now, he did not know. Maybe it was what he needed to remember in order to solidify his final decision to be reborn a MacKay. “The wrong done to me does not stop there, Laird Jamie.”
“Nay? What else could a cruel father do to hurt his young son?”
“Force him to eat the meat.”
Jamie began pacing, the way he always did whenever he grew angry or anxious. “I would kill this man for making ye suffer.”
“Something I threatened to do the day he sold me to your cousin, Laird Alex. But then I realized the blessing in disguise, how God works in mysterious ways. And now I am here.”
“Away from yer family and people, away from where ye can worship God openly.”
“God is everywhere.”
“Is he?” Jamie looked doubtful.
“My story has made you question your own faith?”
“I’d be a liar if I said no. Sometimes I wonder why God allows such things to happen to innocent children.”
“I think your holy book provides a logical answer to that question.”
Jamie sighed. “Aye, it does.”
“Only God can judge a man’s heart.”
“And so, he will judge yer sire, I hope.”
The grim reality of his father’s mortal soul being cast into the depths of eternal suffering made Kuresh grimace. He’d wished that very fate on his father a thousand times already. Having someone else do the same would only help make it more possible. “The people who dwell in the far east call itkarma.”
“Karma?” Jamie repeated the word as if he feared it. “What is karma?”
“Destiny,” he explained. “What any man puts into the world, he will get back.”
