“Itismy fault. My sister died because of me.”
“What? Nay! Ye didna kill her. Alasdair’s monster of a father and the others did.”
“’Twas my fault she stayed in the woods long enough for them to find her. We’d been warned to be in the keep by dark.” The despair in Jamie’s voice nearly drove Caitrin to her knees. How long had he been holding on to that pain? Since before the Lathan sent her home, surely. From the day they found his sister’s body.
The Jamie she knew was easy going and even-tempered. He always said just the right thing to defuse a tense situation with a joke or a perfectly timed comment. She’d never dreamed he could harbor such grief, such anger. Was that why he’d become such a skilled negotiator? Years of bargaining with himself to keep the anger and pain at bay? Hidden beneath charm and reason?
Did Toran suspect? Nay, likely not, or he would not have sent his friend away from the Aerie.
“I’m sorry, Caitrin…for so many things.” He straightened up, finally, his back to her. “I have to walk away now. I dinna wish to hurt ye.”
The hoarse agony in his voice sent chills coursing down her limbs. “Ye canna hurt me, Jamie Lathan. ’Tisna in ye to do such a thing.”
“Ye canna ken what is in me. No’ now. I’m so…filled with fury…I can barely speak.”
His choked panting, rather than her talent, gave her the truth of that. “Jamie…”
“Find something to bind yer wounds then go get Will. Tell him to bring a horse to carry the MacGregor’s body back to the keep. ’Tis past time for the healer to tend to ye, as well.”
She hesitated. “Yer arm.”
But still Jamie didn’t move, even to turn to face her.
“Do as I say.”
Before Caitrin could argue further, he walked out into the sunshine, leaving her with MacGregor’s body cooling on the floor.
She spun away and began rifling cabinets for bandaging, but found none, so she ripped the sheet from the cot in the back room, tore it into long strips and bound them into a makeshift bandage around her thigh. Another folded strip made a pad over the wounds on her breast that she held in place by tying her dress closed with another strip looped under her arm and over the opposite shoulder. All the while, she ignored her attacker on the floor. She found a cloak and shouldered it on over her torn dress. That would have to do.
She quit the croft house and hobbled away from it as quickly as the pain in her thigh would let her. She didn’t see Jamie. Where had he gone?
Uilleam, the other Lathans and their prisoners were at the treeline, not far from the croft, yet she struggled for breath and limped by the time she reached them. Kyle saw her first and came to her.
“What can I do to help ye?”
“Jamie wants Uilleam to bring a horse for the MacGregor.” Better not to mention in front of his men he was dead. They’d find out the truth soon enough. “Make sure these men are under Lathan control. He expects trouble.” Of course, Kyle would know that. He’d seen what happened and knew how their prisoners would take the news.
“Where is Jamie?”
“I dinna ken,” she answered, her voice breaking on a sob that rose from behind her wounded breast. Suddenly, her knees gave out.
Kyle scooped her up before she crumpled to the ground. He carried her to a waiting horse, and lifted her up, seating her side-saddle. “Will ye be all right there long enough for me to talk to Uilleam?”
“Aye.”
“Ye willna faint and fall, will ye?”
“Go.” Suddenly, she barely had the strength to speak. She suspected shock had set in, from the events or from blood loss, she didn’t know. She just wanted to lie down and not get up again for days. She leaned over the horse’s neck and willed the world to go away.
It wasn’t long before a low rumble alerted her Jamie and Will had returned with Alasdair’s body. She opened her eyes to find Kyle standing beside her mount.
“I’m to stay with ye. Jamie is…distracted.”
She took a breath, redolent with horse and…blood, sat up and glanced around, but didn’t see him. “That’s a word for it, I suppose.”
“Do ye think ye can ride, or would ye feel safer riding with me?”
“I’ll try it. Ye need to be ready for anything, and I’ll be in yer way.”
