“Noteverymember of your household,” she said.
“Name one who has failed to respect you, and I’ll have him killed, if that’s your wish,” he said. “Ye know I will.”
“Ye make a great fuss—”
“I am laird and chieftain,” he ground out. “I do not make fusses.”
“Ye fuss about how everyone else must give me respect, but you…” Her cool veneer finally cracked.
“But I what?” he said, standing over her with his hands on his hips.
When she looked up, there were unshed tears in her violet eyes. “But you give me none.”
“Laird,” someone shouted through the door. “The men are ready. Nightfall is upon us.”
***
With David away, Alison felt unsettled as she got into bed. Odd, how quickly she had come to feel safe when he was in the castle. She slept in fits and starts, waking with every rustle of wind outside her window and every creak inside the keep, thinking David had returned.
The chamber was still dark when she was awakened by a light rap on the chamber door.David is home. A burst of relief coursed through her before she remembered she was angry with him. The chamber was freezing, so she pulled on a robe as she rushed to unbar the door for him.
When she swung it open, her relief fled, and fear crept up the back of her neck. The torch in the wall sconce outside her door cast an eerie light over the form of a man in a monk’s brown habit. His hood was pulled low, obscuring his face in darkness and making him look like the angel of death. She quickly closed the door most of the way.
“Who are you?” she asked, peeking through the crack. “And how did ye get in?”
“I come from the abbey,” the monk said in a gravelly voice, then paused to glance over his shoulder. “I have a message for ye.”
“A message? From whom?”
“I was told you’d recognize the seal.”
He reached inside his sleeve and handed her a folded parchment of fine quality. As soon as she turned it over, she recognized the seal: a cross superimposed over the flames of the Douglas crest. The message was from her uncle, the bishop, a man of considerable power in the church as well as her clan.
After all this time with no word from her family, why were they finally contacting her now? And why was it the bishop, and not her brothers?
“Does the sender await an answer?” she asked.
“Aye, m’lady,” the monk said, and looked over his shoulder again.
She felt uneasy about letting a man into her bedchamber, but he was a monk and sent by her uncle. Pulling her robe more tightly about her, she motioned for him to come in.
After lighting a candle, she turned her back on the monk to read the letter. She broke the seal and unfolded the stiff parchment.
I await you at the nearby abbey. Come at once with your daughters. Tell no one that I sent for you and avoid disclosing your destination.
Do not fail to follow my instructions. Your life and the lives of your daughters are at stake.
“What say you, m’lady?” the monk asked, interrupting her thoughts.
David had ordered her not to leave the castle in his absence, but what was she to do? She could not refuse the bishop. He issued orders with the authority of both the Church and her clan. And his message warned that her daughters’ lives were at stake. Regardless of David’s wishes, their safety must come first.
Besides, the abbey was so close by—little more than a mile away—that it hardly counted as leaving. She could be there and back before breakfast.
And yet she felt uneasy about going. She did not doubt that the message was from her uncle, but why did he not simply come to the castle to speak with her? Surely he did not fear that David would harm a bishop.
She sighed. Given David’s ruthless reputation, her uncle would be justified in fearing exactly that. She wished he had had told her what he wanted instead of sending a message clearly meant to frighten her. The Douglas inner circle, however, had a long habit of secrecy born of their involvement in rivalries and schemes at the highest levels.
She read the last line of the message again.The lives of your daughters are at stake.If David was here, she would not lie to him. No matter her uncle’s instruction, she would tell David why she must go to the abbey.
