***
Gwendolen whirled around when the door to the weaving room swung open and slammed shut. Angus walked in and looked around at the three MacEwen clanswomen. Two were seated at spinning wheels. The third was sitting by the loom.
“Leave us,” he commanded. They took one look at the fire in his eyes, rose from their stools, and scurried out of the room while the wheels were still turning.
“What’s going on?” Gwendolen asked.
He crossed toward her, scrutinizing her face and every inch of her body from head to foot. “Are you going to betray me?”
“I beg your pardon?” Her temper flared. “Of course not!”
“Swear it on your life,” he said.
“Of course I swear it!”
The wheels finally stopped turning, and he glowered at her in the quiet stillness of the room.
“I don’t understand,” she said, as he began to pace. “Why are you asking me this? I made a promise to you before our wedding day. I pledged my allegiance. What makes you doubt it?”
He picked up a ball of wool thread and tossed it into the air. “I have reason to believe that you want me dead, lass, and that you’ll be responsible for my head in a noose, right here at Kinloch. Are you conspiring with Gordon MacEwen? Were you the one who told him where the key was?”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but her shock was short-lived as fury took its place. “You are insane. Who told you this?”
“Never mind who told me. Answer the question.”
She moved around a spinning wheel and approached him. “I am not conspiring with Gordon MacEwen. How could I be, when he is locked up in prison? I am loyal toyou. I don’t want you to die. I want you to live. Especially now that…”
She stopped. She couldn’t say it. Not now. This was not how she’d imagined it.
“Especially now that what?” he asked.
She shook her head and deflected the question. “I don’t understand you. Is it because of what happened a fortnight ago, when that man tried to kill you? Has there been some development?”
“Nay.”
“Then what is it? You know you have my loyalty, Angus. Don’t you? Can you not feel it?”
He watched her with dark, threatening mistrust as she moved closer to him. “Are you like your mother?” he asked. “Are you some puppet master who uses sex to turn a man into a blathering idiot?”
Panic rose up inside her. “No! And I don’t understand where this is coming from. Why do you suspect me of these things? If someone has said something to smear my name, then they are trying to sabotage this marriage and the union of our clans. Do you not see that?” She took his face in her hands. “I have come to care for you, Angus, and we have shared many pleasures together. All I want is to live a long and happy life with you, here at Kinloch. You must believe me. I will never betray you.”
He stared into her eyes with ice-cold bitterness.
“You don’t believe me.” She backed away. “Someone has turned you against me. Who has made these accusations? You owe me the truth, at least, if you intend to brand me as a traitor.”
A muscle clenched at his jaw, then he walked to the window. “Raonaid is here.”
Her belly began to churn. “The oracle? The woman who shared your bed in the Hebrides?”
What in the world had she said to him? Andwhydid she come here? What did she hope to achieve?
“Aye,” he replied, “but she shared more than my bed, lass. She shared her visions, as well, and I saw that they were real. She foretold my father’s passing, and Lachlan’s arrival, and my triumph here at Kinloch. When I left her, I made her promise that if she ever saw my death, she would come to me and warn me of it.” He faced her squarely. “She has seen it, lass, and she has held true to her word. That is why she is here.”
Not yet ready to believe this, Gwendolen moved to stand before him. “What exactly did she see?”
“My head in a noose. She also told me that a woman would betray me.” He scrutinized her expression closely. “That woman will be you.”
Gwendolen digested this information.A noose. A woman would betray him…
