“Nay, he has to learn,” Thomas insisted, pointing a stiff finger at Struan. “Don’t ye speak to her again, ye hear me? Don’t ye dare tell her that shedoesn’t understand. She understands better than ye can know.”
“Ye didn’t even hear what we were talking about,” Struan shot back with a short, contemptuous laugh. “Kyla told me that now was my chance to prove myself. As if I haven’t already proved myself a thousand times over.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Kyla spoke up, looking faintly anguished. “Struan, I understand what ye have been through. I know?—”
“Don’t speak to me like ye know me,” Struan snarled. “How could ye understand anything? How could ye know a thing about me?”
At once, Una pushed her way between them and turned to face Thomas.
“Ye and Kyla should ride at the head of the group,” she said firmly. “We’ll ride closer to the back. I’ll take care of him. I’ll watch him.”
Thomas wavered, clearly not convinced. He glanced down at his wife, who nodded almost imperceptibly.
At last, he sighed, shaking his head. “Very well. But don’t turn yer back on him, Una. I mean it.”
Taking Kyla’s hand in his, he drew her away. Una saw that Struan’s gaze followed her as they walked away. A muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Well,” Una said coolly. “That was unnecessary. Yer sister is the only person around here that cares for ye, Struan. She is yer only advocate. Don’t alienate her.”
Struan gave a tight smile. “Nobody is my advocate, lass. Don’t forget that.”
Narrowing her eyes, Una took a step forward. “Ye listen to me. Don’t ye dare blame Kyla for yer misery.”
“I am not?—”
“Don’t ye dare try to tell me that ye aren’t miserable. Ye chose to stay with yer father, a murderer, while she chose to escape. I have no sympathy for ye. None.”
Was that true? The words welled up in her almost as if somebody else was saying them, but they rang hollow in Una’s head.Didshe have any sympathy for him? Any, at all?
The answer, to her surprise, seemed to be ayes.
“In fact,” she continued, voice shaking, “I would love to see ye suffer. Ye deserve it, considering what ye have put others through.”
“If ye are so keen to see me suffer,” he responded sharply, “why did ye not simply kill me?”
“Ye know why.”
“No, actually, I don’t.”
“I’m not a monster,” she spat. “I’m not a monster like ye.”
He chuckled, low and vengefully. “Ye think monsters are born, don’t ye? Ye think we slide out of our mothers with a thirst for blood. But let me tell ye something, Una Alcorn. Monsters aremade. I was made, whereas Kyla got to escape. And it’s not too late for me to make a monster out ofye, lass.”
She flinched at this but angrily put aside the image of Struan as a child, a small boy wandering around the cavernous Dickson Keep, living in fear. She wassurehe was never that child.
Kyla talked of what a cruel father Laird Dickson was to her. How did he treat Struan, his son and heir?
“Save yer excuses,” Una insisted. “Nobody wants to hear them, least of all me.”
“Ye don’t know what ye are talking about,” Struan shot back, his voice low and angry. “Ye could never?—”
“I was kept a slave by yer family for years,” Una hissed back. “I lost my mother, then my father, then I was taken from my brother. I was kept a prisoner. I was starved, beaten, left to freeze outside in the winter, and forced to tend burning hot fires all night. Isuffered, Struan. I had nothing. Iwasnothing, and I was reminded of it day in, day out. Don’t ye dare tell me that I don’t understand what it feels like to believe that ye are nothing.”
Struan sucked in a breath, pulling back. His eyes widened, and Una saw her own surprise reflected in his eyes. She didn’t know where the words had come from, but they were said now, and there was no taking them back.
For a long moment, there was silence. Around them, the group had gone back to preparing to leave. They were nearly ready to go. One of the last tasks would be to help Struan up onto the saddle. Ropes would be added around his waist, tying him to the saddle, and his ankles would be tied together under the horse’s belly. It would make the long journey to Keep Kenneth much more uncomfortable, but the plain fact was that they couldn’t trust him.
They could never trust him. Ever. Una reminded herself fiercely of that.
