She gives a sharp sniff, seemingly placated. “Rose,” she mutters. “Insipid name.”
She studies me, nodding slightly as if weighing something in her mind. Then her gaze sharpens. “Do you know from birds?”
“Birds?” The randomness of it throws me.
“She means hens,” Callum says quietly.
“We have chickens on our farm,” I say carefully. “Cows, too. I practically grew up in a barn.”
Something about this tickles Donag, and she bursts into giddy laughter. I catch a glimpse of her smile, gap-toothed and a little wild.
“No. No barns for you.” Her laughter fades into something more sinister. “You’ll serve another kind of animal. The Campbells. I can think of no finer revenge.”
A cold weight sinks in my gut. “What are you saying?”
She chuckles again, lower this time, almost to herself. “You won’t work here at the barn, girl. You’ll work there. In the big house.” She points in the direction of the castle. “And try not to speak. Tell people you’re from an isle where they havena the Gaelic.”
My throat tightens. I want to look to Callum for help, but I dare not. “But I don’t want to go back there.”
“There is no ‘back there,’” she snaps. “This.” She waves her hand down the barn aisle, then points toward the distant estate. “That. The lands outside…all belong to the Campbell.Webelong to the Campbell.”
“So youarerelated?” It doesn’t seem like such a stupid idea. Everyone here seems to be a Campbell, and if the landall belongs to them?—
Donag goes ballistic. “Hold your tongue! Thank the angels above and the demons below we’re nae related to that nest of vipers.” She spits the words like venom. “Vipers,” she grumbles. “Cowards. Brutes.” Her gaze cuts back to me, sharp as flint. “No, fool. Campbell is not my clan.”
I hit a nerve. But if I’m going to survive here, I need to understand the full lay of the land.
“Okay.”
I glance at Callum. He’s closer than I’d realized, standing rigid and alert beside me. “If you’re not Callum Campbell, then what is your name? What’s your clan?”
Donag answers for him. “His name is Callum Black.”
She grabs my arm and shoves me toward the door. “Enough questions. He has naught more to say.” Then, over her shoulder, she throws one final command. “Callum, from now on, you’ll bed here. In the barn.”
Donag leads me back to her cottage in silence. Well, not complete silence. Every so often, she erupts into angry muttering. Something about sluttish ways and apples not falling far from trees.
When we reach the cottage, she shoves the door open, and I hesitate. It had been bad enough in the dark. In daylight, it’s worse. Just a small, rectangular room, its walls smudged black from smoke. A dull, scarred butcher block table stands in the middle, looking anything but hygienic. A gray, goosebumpy thing hangs upside down over the hearth, probably once a bird.
I shudder.
Donag gives me a rough push over the threshold. “No complaints from you. You live here now.”
She gestures to the cot in the far corner. “You’ll bed there.”
Knowing it had been Callum’s spot makes it slightly less menacing.
I stagger inside and collapse numbly onto the thin mattress. I should be starving. I haven’t eaten since…yesterday? The day before? But fatigue drags me under faster than hunger ever could.
Tomorrow, I’ll remember what hope feels like. I’ll make my plans, find a way home.
But for now, dread has me too exhausted to care.
Chapter
Thirteen
“Up! Up!” Donag’s voice startles me awake with a heart-slamming jolt.
