He looked past her and proceeded to ride his horse in a circle around the courtyard while the entire household watched.
“This is what any man, no matter how powerful, can expect if he crosses the Humes!” David shouted.
Everyone except Alison raised their fists and cheered.
“I go now to place my enemy’s head on the market cross at Duns as a warning to others,” he said in a voice that filled the courtyard. “Who will ride with me?”
Again, shouts filled the courtyard.
Then, as suddenly as the courtyard had filled, it emptied, except for a few serving women and guards.
Alison was so stunned that she was unaware that Will and Robbie had remained in the courtyard until Will ran to her and threw his arms around her waist.
“I won’t let him turn ye into an animal like him,” she said. Tears ran down her face as she held Will and ran her hand over his hair.
Over the top of his head, she met Robbie’s gaze, and the hardness in his it reminded her too much of David’s.
“You’ve no right to judge him,” Robbie said. Before he could say more, her daughters’ arrival stopped him.
“You’re back!” Margaret called out as she ran up, then her face fell. “What’s wrong? Why is Will crying?”
“He’s not,” Robbie snapped, then he put his arm around his brother and stomped off with him.
***
David wished he could have avoided returning to the castle before riding to the market cross in the town of Duns. He had no choice. After Will’s ordeal, he needed to see his brother safe inside the castle walls. Besides that, it was important that the entire household bear witness and spread the word of his ruthlessness toward his enemies.
But he had paid a high price for it. Alison had looked at him as if he were one of the damned from hell. Until that moment, he had, despite her betrayal and all good sense, retained the foolish hope that he might in time earn her forgiveness for capturing her and her lands and gain her true affection.
When he saw the sheer horror on Alison’s face, that hope froze and died inside him.
But he’d be damned if he’d make excuses for what he’d done. Alison could not love him for what he was, but only a ruthless man could keep her safe.
***
Alison listened to the male voices drifting up from the hall as she paced the bedchamber, waiting for her husband. Apparently, David was in no hurry to see her. She had seen him ride in an hour ago, after she sent the children to bed. Will was not himself, so she told him he could sleep on a pallet in the girls’ chamber tonight and left Flora to put them to bed. No doubt seeing the severed head had upset the poor lad.
That was nothing to how upset he’d be when the Crown forces came to take David away. She was frightened out of her mind for him. And how could he do it? She had persuaded herself to dismiss half of what people said about him, but she wondered now if every sordid tale was true. Had she been blinded by love?
She had meant to choose her words carefully, but by the time David deigned to come upstairs, she had worn out the floorboards with her pacing and worked herself into a state.
He closed the door and stood in front of it with his hands on hips, but he said nothing.
“How could ye commit such a vile act?” she asked.
“It was necessary.”
“Cutting off his head and tying it to your saddle by his hair wasnecessary?” she said, her voice rising. “Do ye not fear God will punish you for murdering and desecrating the body of a man like D’Orsey? Ach, there was no man in all of Scotland so esteemed for his chivalrous conduct.”
“Men who live by the sword die by it,” he said in a belligerent tone.
“What good could your act of barbarism possibly bring?” she asked, raising her hands in the air. “Except to bring the Crown’s wrath down on you?”
“I told the crowd that gathered around the market cross that so long as my father’s widow remains a prisoner, any man who ventures from Dunbar Castle can expect the same.”
“Ye believe such threats will achieve anything?”
“I don’t make idle threats,” he said, with ice in his eyes. “They’ll free her soon. This sort of news travels faster than horses.”
