Morwenna gave him a small smile. “I am also waiting. You see, ’tis not my story to tell.”
A knock sounded on the door and it was slowly pushed open.
“It is Jonah’s story,” Morwenna added as her youngest son walked hesitantly into the solar.
“Father.” He bowed. His blue eyes rested upon Isabella and then flickered to their mother in an unspoken question.
“Isabella should hear this,” said Morwenna, in a tone that brooked no argument.
“Very well.” Jonah shuffled his feet on the rug. His embroidered tunic was crumpled, almost as if he had slept in it. His thick hair was uncombed and there was a smear of dirt on his cheek. “I am here to beg for your forgiveness, Father. I was the one to kill Lord Gaunt.”
In the silence that followed, Isabella could hear her heart pounding against her ribs.
Jonah was the one to kill Lord Gaunt!
It made no sense at all.
Her father must have been wrestling with the same problem, for it was some time before he answered. “Tell me how it happened.”
“I challenged him to a duel.”
A log cracked in the fire whilst they all digested this. “A duel?” Isabella repeated, wondering if she had misunderstood.
“Aye, a duel.” Jonah frowned across the room and she realized it was not dirt on his cheek, it was dried blood.
Nausea rose inside her and she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.
“You killed him in a duel?” Her father’s voice was strained.
“I fail to see why that would be so hard to believe.” Jonah’s eyes flashed and he walked to the window to compose himself, as he had often done as a child. He spoke with his back to them. “But nay, that is not how it happened.”
“Why would you challenge Lord Gaunt to a duel?” Isabella felt as if she were stumbling about in some new land.
“For the freedom of Elena, as well as for you, Isabella. Do not pretend you were happy at the prospect of marrying him.”
“I was miserable about it,” she cried. “But I would ne’er have asked you to put yourself in danger.”
Jonah lifted his golden head, apparently staring with great interest at something outside. “I know you would not. There are times when you petition for Tristan’s help, but ne’er mine. I long since realized this is because you do not believe mecapableof helping you.” He turned slowly. His eyes were calm, even if his voice shook with restraint. “But you see, there are some things that I can do, that Tristan cannot.”
Isabella cast about for an answer to this, but her mind remained stubbornly blank.
“Our father, as Judiciary, cannot act outside the law. Our brother, as the future earl, cannot act outside the law. But I can.”
Angus spoke up quickly. “’Tis not outside the law to duel. Not if it was done with honor.”
Jonah let out a bark of laughter. “It was not.”
Morwenna stood and poured them all a goblet of wine. She passed one to Isabella and one to Jonah, insisting they take them when they both declined.
“For the shock,” she said.
“We arranged to meet at sunrise. I gave the guard a bag of coin to be elsewhere.” Jonah gave his father a small nod of apology. “I waited for Gaunt by the fountain. But when he came, he was not alone.”
At this point, Jonah walked over to the fireplace and took a long drink of wine. Isabella watched impatiently, tapping her long fingers on the silver goblet. Was Jonah about to speak Hamish’s name?
“Elena was with Lord Gaunt,” Morwenna revealed softly, perchance reading the anguish in her daughter’s face.
“Aye. The coward brought Elena from the western tower. He told me that I could only kill him if I went past her.” Jonah slammed his empty goblet onto the mantle. “Of course, I yielded straight away. I could not put Elena’s life at risk.”
