“Hale.” She wanted to believe him, needed to in order to find any sort of peace for herself. She felt guilty that she and Adam had parted on an argument. Unkind words she had flung at him because her life was spiraling out of control. Resentment toward him because he caused chaos in her heart, and she had wanted freedom, not love. Love that bound her forever to a man. But not just any man…Adam.
If she knew Adam had a chance at being happy and her sisters would be safely away from her sire, Kali could do anything she set her mind to.
“Aye. Once ye are married and leave me lands, I will bring me son back.”
“And me sister? Surely ye dinna intend to…”
“Marry her?”
Ever so slowly, Kali’s gaze met his watery eyes—something men who drank too much whiskey and ale tended to get. “Aye. She is but a young lass, why would a man of yer maturity want to…” She dinna need to finish the question, for the answer popped into her mind. “’Tis wrong.”
“Ye have no say in the matter, girl.”
She shot up from the chair and began to pace. “Ariana is a sweet lass, deserving of more than ye can give her.”
“Sit down.”
She shook her head in refusal.
He chuckled at her defiance and said, “Do ye not know I have the power to give ye comfort or make yer final days here miserable?”
The man must be drunk or had simply lost his mind as Adam had told her many times before. “Ye have no authority over me.”
“Whose land are ye standing on?”
“Officially?”
The MacKay sputtered at her question. “Nelson’s men are in me great hall waiting for me to summon them. The lord would like nothing better than to take custody of his lovely bride. But if I give the command that ye are to spend the next couple of days with yer sister…”
His words were like a painful blow to the chest. “Ariana is here?”
“Aye. With me daughter.”
“And ye would let me see her?”
“Again, I ask ye, whose land are ye on, girl?”
“MacKay.”
“Aye. And, since ye fall under me jurisdiction while residing under me roof, I will decide where ye go and where you’ll stay until ye leave.”
Drunk on power. That’s what Laird MacKay was. He wanted to flaunt his influence in front of her father and Lord Nelson. She was simply a pawn, and her sister would suffer as his bride. “What do ye want?”
“A public confession,” he said.
Heather cleared her throat before she approached the table and refilled their glasses with wine. She caught Kali’s gaze and gave her a sad smile.
“Of what?”
“That depends on what ye are guilty of.”
Oh, the ego of this man—a master of manipulation—bringing people to heel through humiliation. “What do ye think I am guilty of?”
The laird leaned forward in his chair, his elbows resting on the tabletop. “Surely not witchcraft.”
She swallowed hard at that. “Nay.”
“Good.”
