“Nay, I dinna think so.”
“Ye calmed him like ye did those women outside the garden, aye? Ye didna need me. Ye wouldha escaped him easily once ye got away from other people.” Logen’s simple statement thrilled her. Not only his acceptance of her ability but his confidence in her.
“Aye. It worked. He didna even try to defend himself against ye.”
Logen touched her arm and gestured to the side, then remained silent as a woman led the lass MacMakon had threatened to Coira.
“Thank the lady,” the woman told her.
“Thank ye, lady.”
Coira nearly lost the girl’s high, lilting voice in the din, but her confusion was clear. She dropped to her knees and hugged the child. “All is well, lass. What is yer name?”
“Oona, lady.”
“Oona, the bad man will never come near ye again.” She took the child’s face in her hands and touched foreheads with her, doing all she could to project calm water, clear sky, peace. “Now, how do ye fare?”
“I’m sleepy.”
“That is as it should be. Go on to yer rest then. Ye are a brave lass, Oona.”
She stood and watched the woman lead the girl away. Had Aileana done something to soothe the lass Coira had threatened? Coira hoped so.
Finally, Logen called for order and the rumble of conversation quieted down. The mood in the hall seemed much improved. Even friendly. Coira wasn’t sure what to make of that. She found a seat on a nearby bench and listened as Logen assured the clan that those found innocent would be released back to their kin very soon.
Then the hall cleared as everyone scattered to their duties. Coira wondered what their mood would be when they returned for the evening meal, but perhaps by then, Logen would release some of the men. For now, she needed to tell Logen what she’d learned about the other men as well as what she’d discovered while in MacMakon’s clutches.
Instead, she made her way out of the hall into the bailey and around to the garden. When they’d planned for her to study each of the men, Logen had warned her not to approach him in the hall afterward and give others cause to suspect her of condemning the accused men. As it turned out, she didn’t think anyone would notice if she and Logen continued to talk. But she couldn’t take the chance of being overheard, so she kept to their plan.
She tried the gate’s latch and acted as if it still stuck, even though the smith had fixed it two days before. But appearing to wrestle with it gave her the excuse she needed to go back into the keep. Anyone who followed her would suppose she sought the smith, who had stayed in the hall with a few of the men, discussing the situation over a cup of ale. In truth, she would meet Logen, as they’d planned, in Mhairi’s private chamber next to the nursery. His solar would become a gathering place for those who wished to argue for the release of their kin. And she still felt he could not be seen near her chamber, so she would wait for him where her presence in the hallway was accepted and unremarkable. By the time Logen dismissed the petitioners, Mhairi would be watching over the bairns napping in the nursery, and they could talk privately.
An hour later, Logen slipped quietly through the door.
“How were the families?” she asked as he stepped into the chamber.
“As I expected. Their men are all innocent, of course, even MacMakon, who they claim acted out of concern he would be falsely condemned.”
“They are not all innocent.” Coira gave him her impressions of each man. “Be wary, especially of MacMakon,” she told him when she finished. “Even before he grabbed the lass, he stood out. He was arrogant, amused, unworried. I hope yer men keep their guard up around him. I dinna think he expects to be held for very long.”
“I am still going to speak to each of the men individually. All I need to seal his fate is one or two to implicate him in the killings, especially after what he did today in front of the entire clan.” Logen turned back to the door. “Thank ye, Coira.”
“Keep Darach with ye at least. Ye are even more of a target, now that ye have moved against that man.” She placed a hand on Logen’s arm. “It will be best for the clan if ye are still here to be laird. To have this over. To heal.”
“I couldna agree more. If his men will give him up, he’ll hang. I’ll pardon any of the rest who weren’t involved in the killings.” With that, he slipped out again.
Coira moved to the window and stared out at the sea, unsettled to her bones. Despite the sunny afternoon, Logen’s mood had been as black as the storm clouds building up on the far horizon. Would a change in the weather signal a change in the fortunes of the clan? Only time would tell.
Chapter 8
Logen stared through the bare branches of the Dule Tree, the hanging tree that stood at the edge of the woods in full view of the clan’s home. He kept his eyes on the black clouds moving onshore behind the keep rather than on the man with the noose around his neck. How fitting for the sun to be lost in the clouds’ inky depths and for this man never again to see the light of day.
MacMakon stood pale and sweating on the wagon. His bravado having fled, he clearly dreaded the order for it to be shoved out from under his feet. Logen had given that order twice already, carrying out the sentence of death by hanging against two other men for having the blood of lairds on their hands. MacMakon’s henchmen, given up by the others, had fully condemned themselves with their own boasts. One of them was the Alasdair Darach had suspected. The other was one of the men Andrew had named before he cut his own throat on Logen’s blade. Like them, MacMakon would hang from the rope tossed over the stout branch above his head until he was dead.
“Have ye any last words, MacMakon, to atone for the lives ye have taken and the grief ye have caused yer clan? Yer kin?”
The man spat, eliciting angry mutterings from the watching crowd. Then he threw his head back and shouted, “Dinna forget!”
Logen refused to react to the declaration, though it confirmed what he had feared all along. While it might simply seem to be the plea of a condemned man, Campbells took that phrase as their own. Campbells were behind the deaths, using battles between MacDugall’s to clear the way for them to take over the clan and its lands.
