“It wasn’t enough to control my daughters’ property until they were of an age to marry,” she continued as if he had not spoken. “All ye care about is giving their lands to your own blood and making them Hume lands forever.”
“That is not all I care—”
“Ye had me fooled. I hoped my feelings mattered to ye, yet in my heart I didn’t truly believe it.” Her voice wobbled and she looked dangerously close to tears. “But I did believe ye cared for my daughters.”
Before he could say another word, she turned and ran out the door.
“I do care for them,” he shouted after her. “I’d protect them with my last breath!”
***
As if the heavens reflected David’s dismal mood, ominous clouds rolled in before supper, bringing driving rain and a wind that howled outside the windows.
The discord between him and Alison left David unsettled.
“’Tis quiet without them,” Will said.
Alison and the girls had taken their supper in the Tower Room, and the meal was indeed a morose affair without their light voices and sweet smiles. Ach, he was behaving like a sentimental old woman.
Tonight, he would set matters aright with Alison. He had no notion how to soothe her with words, but once he got her clothes off, he knew how to soften her defenses.
Would she be so angry that she would avoid sharing their bed tonight? God, he hoped not.
He had just left the table and started for the stairs when Brian charged into the hall with rain dripping off his cloak and mud splattered on his boats. He made a straight line for David.
Brian had news. And it looked like bad news.
“I was on my way to Hume Castle to see how our clansmen fare, as ye told me to,” Brian said, still breathing hard. “Before I reached it, I met one of our men riding hard this way.”
“And?”
“He said one of our villages was attacked two nights ago.”
“Their cattle was taken?” David did not like losing cattle to raiders, but they had plenty and could replace what the villagers lost.
“Aye,” Brian said. “He couldn’t tell me who was responsible.”
Brian was not a man easily rattled. The loss of cattle did not explain the distraught look on his face.
“What else?” David asked.
“He said that several of the village men were murdered.” Brian struggled to get the words out. “And some of the lasses may have been raped.”
“God, no!” David clenched his hands in rage.
Stealing cattle was a respected skill, and stealing a lass to wed her, as David had done, was part of their way of life. But raping and killing innocent villagers violated the code.
Which of his enemies had committed this heinous act?
“What village was attacked?” David was anxious to be on his way.
“Eccles.”
That was the village where the lass Brian was courting lived with her grandfather. Brian had been working up the courage to ask for the lass’s hand for months.
“We’ll gather the men and ride to the village at once to lend what help we can,” David said, gripping Brian’s arm. “Then we’ll make whoever did this pay in blood.”
“We both know this was done to provoke ye,” Brian said. “They’ll expect ye to ride to the village in a rage. I’ll wager they’ve laid an ambush along the way.”
