“Ye’ve gone behind my back,” he growled. “Writing to my enemy.”
“And ye willnae even tell me why he is yer enemy,” she protested. “He was a friend to this clan, the last I knew of it. A friend tome,Tavish! Why should I take on whatever rage ye have towards him when ye won’t even tell me where it came from?”
“Ye dinnae ken him like I do.”
“Then let me,” she pleaded with him. “Let me see what it is that ye know about him that I’m so ignorant of. It makes no sense to me, Tavish. He was a friend to this family, and then I come back here, and all of a sudden?—”
“Ye think I’m daft?” he replied. “Ye’re in contact with my enemy. Who knows what kind of danger ye have put yerself in—and all of us.”
Her jaw dropped. All at once, the progress that seemed to have been made between them had shattered into pieces, leaving nothing but a mess in its wake. She could hardly believe what she was hearing, the way that he spoke to her, like she was nothing but an annoyance he wanted to get rid of.
“He was Callum’s friend!” she reminded him furiously. “Maybe that’s the problem, maybe ye were jealous of him.”
She stopped dead as soon as those words were out of her mouth, sensing in an instant that she had overstepped the mark. His face hardened, eyes darkening. He leaned across the table towards her, and the man that she had shared a bed with, the man who had been so willing to open himself up to her, had vanished just as soon as she had laid eyes on him.
“Ye dinnae get to speak to me like that, lassie,” he warned her, and she recoiled slightly, her eyes widening.
Something stirred in the pit of her stomach, something she had not felt for a long time in his presence. Nervousness. Maybe even fear.
“Ye can train wi’ my men, and ye can brandish that sword, but dinnae forget who is the one in charge here,” he continued. “Who ye’re answering to. Ye understand me?”
She gritted her teeth, clenching her fists at her sides. She could barely believe that he would dare speak to her like this, as if she was no more than a pawn he could use at his will. She didn’t reply. She would not dignify such a thing with a response.
“Ye obey me,” he told her. “Ye hear me, lass?”
She shook her head slowly. If that was what he had wanted in a wife, someone who would drop to her knees to follow every detail of what he said to her, then he had chosen the wrong woman to marry.
“Then ye should have picked someone willing to bow to ye,” she spat back at him. “That’s no’ me, Tavish. It has never been.”
Compassion seemed to leak from his face in an instant. He straightened up, not breaking her gaze for a moment. There seemed to be a part of him that wanted her to back down so he would not have to go through with whatever it was he had planned for her.
“Ewan,” he called out, and the captain ducked back into the room. He must have heard the whole thing. The expression on his face certainly seemed to indicate as much.
“Aye?”
“Fetch a pair of guards to escort my wife to her chambers,” he told him coldly. “And make sure she doesnae leave until I say the word.”
Ailsa glowered at him. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing how much it hurt her to hear him speak about her like that, as though she was hardly in the room at all. She snatched the letter pointedly.
“I told ye, Tavish, ye dinnae have to shoulder this alone. I won’t stay still. This is my home too now, my people, my clan. I will not cower away from hard decisions if it means the best for them!”
Ewan did not hesitate in attending to his duty, but Ailsa just stood there, her feet rooted to the spot, as she waited for the guards to collect her.
And collect her they did.
They each took an arm, which she made no effort to fight. She could have kicked and screamed and insisted that they get their damn hands off her, but she knew it would have done no good in the long run. He had the power in this place, and if he had decided that she was to be locked away, then that would be the end of it.
She didn’t feel sad, as she had thought she might, nor angry, nor anything, really. A heavy numbness settled over her body, the knowledge that he would never trust her, not really. He couldput on an act that he cared about her and saw her as an equal, but with this, he had proved to her once and for all that he would never truly see her the way that she saw him. Never truly trust her or believe her capable of the same kind of power that he owned.
The door closed behind her, leaving her in the empty silence of her chambers, the guards outside to make sure she didn’t try to make a break for freedom.
But if he thought this would be the end of it, he would find himself with much more to contend with than he was prepared for.
Chapter Eighteen
Positioningherself with her back to the door, she looked over the message that Malric had sent her once again. On one side of the parchment, there was a small map sketched out, with a large X marked over what looked to be an old chapel in the hills.
If you wish to hear the truth, meet me at the old chapel of Saint Iona. I’ll be there tonight!
