“I’m not surprised, ye know,” Irvine replied, dropping his arms and settling on her bed. “I like the bastard too. I thought that ye might hold it against him for wot he did, but Malcolm is a noble Scot. He wouldn’t have done it if James hadn’t asked.”
Edna’s blood froze in her veins at the mention of her former betrothed. “Wot are ye talking aboot, Irvine?”
Irvine paused, his mouth dropping open. “Bloody hell, he didnae tell ye, did he?”
“Tell me wot?” she nearly growled, her stomach churning as to where this conversation could be leading. “I know they were friends.”
Irvine’s mouth shut, and he pushed off the bed. “’Tis not mah place tae say.”
Edna stopped him from reaching the door, pressing her body against it as he went to open it.
“Nay, ye cannae say something like that and think that I am going tae forget! Tell me wot ye know, Irvine McGregor, or I will scream until the entire keep knows I am here.”
“Alright!” he shouted back. “He’s going tae kill me for saying anything.”
“I’m going tae run a sword through ye if ye dinnae talk!” she fired back, her chest heaving.
The laird’s shoulders slumped. “I dinnae know everything,” he started, his voice low, “but I do know that Malcolm had a hand in James’s death.”
The floor fell out from under Edna’s feet, and she struggled to catch her breath. Malcolm killed her beloved? No, he couldn’t have!
“He died after an attack on the scouting trip,” she forced out, the words halting on her tongue. “Malcolm wasnae there.”
Irvine’s eyes grew mournful. “I dinnae know wot happened, Edna, but Malcolm told me himself. He caused James’s death.”
Those were the worst possible words that her cousin could have said at that moment. Edna felt numb as she thought of her grief once more and how she had possibly fallen in love with her beloved’s murderer without even knowing.
No wonder he hadn’t hesitated to kill Declan. He had also killed James!
Irvine placed her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently. “Please, I beg ye, listen tae his tale,” he said. “Dinnae think the worst of him. Malcolm is no killer of innocent Scots, nor would he kill James unless he had a good reason tae do so, Edna. Donna rush tae judgment.”
Edna moved aside from the door, putting some distance between them, and Irvine opened the door.
“I will check on ye in a little while,” he said softly before shutting it behind him.
Edna barely heard his words, unable to process what he had told her. Malcolm had killed James. Malcolm had killed his friend, based on what everyone had told her anyway, the one person that her beloved should have been able to trust.
It didn’t matter what his reasoning was to her. She could never do such a thing to those that she loved, those that she cared for!
Tears crowded her eyes, but Edna forced them back, striding to the door to find it locked just as it had been since the day that Irvine had put her in this chamber. It mattered not. When Malcolm graced this doorway again, she would be ready for the attack, and then she would escape. She couldn’t stay here.
So when Malcolm came into the chamber that night with her dinner, Edna swung the empty ale pitcher at his head as hard as she could, hearing him yelp before he went down face-first on the stone floor, the tray crashing behind him. She didn’t waste any time gathering the small pack she had put together and her cloak, throwing it over her form so that she could hide her appearance and get out of the keep unscathed.
Edna stepped over Malcolm’s prone body and paused at the doorway, staring down at him. Her heart was twisted at what she had done, but it was the right thing. He had killed her beloved and ruined her future.
She wanted nothing to do with him.
Swallowing the sudden onslaught of tears, Edna fled down the hallway, hoping that she could get far enough away before Malcolm came to.
The great hall was full of people, but the crowd made it easier for Edna to slip past them, and once she stepped outside into the courtyard, she wanted to throw her hood back and savor the fresh air.
She couldn’t, of course. Edna knew that she was still in a precarious situation, especially with some of her own family members so close to her.
So she moved into the village, walking at a clipped pace for the road that would take her to the McGregor border.
She was going to end this once and for all and save not only her family but her clan. She couldn’t allow Kaiden to give up his lairdship, nor could she let anyone else take her place with Neacal. If that were her fate, then she would gladly go and become his wife.
Perhaps that was what the fates had been leading her to.
