Stellan met her at the bottom of the steps and escorted her up them to the wall walk. She gasped when she looked over the nearest gap in the rampart. Below, her father rode with fifty men. One, positioned just behind him, made her stomach turn and her skin break out in a cold sweat. “Ach, nay, he didna,” she muttered, shocked that he had brought her attacker. Shocked, too, that Alber still lived after what he tried to do to her the last time. And that witnesses, even after the fact, within the clan could confirm her story. Was her father telling her he didn’t believe her? Given Alber’s position in the horde, had her father promoted the man bent on ruining her? Destroying her father’s plans for an alliance with another clan? Could he possibly be so blind? She wanted to appeal to the twins for help, but not until she was sure what her father intended.
“Ye didna expect him to come for ye?” Stellan took her arm and moved her toward his father.
“Nay, ’tisna that. ’Tis who he brought with him. Alber. The man who has attacked me three times.” She finished the sentence as they reached his father.
The Sutherland frowned at her words. “He brought that man with him?”
“Aye, Laird Sutherland. He’s there, in the front row behind my da.”
Stellan nodded. “I see him. I recognize him by the scars ye say Valkyrie gave him.”
It had only been a sennight since she fled MacKay, so Alber’s wounds had not had time to heal completely and were still cruelred lines on his face and neck. She hoped his cods looked no better. She’d done her best— twice —to crush them.
“Well,” Sutherland said, studying her face as if it held the answers he might need before talking with her father, “what do ye think yer da hopes to accomplish by this show of strength?”
Mariota bit back a laugh. “If need be, to compel my release. To force me home, of course. And perhaps of most import, to bring a Sutherland husband back to MacKay with me.”
“I dinna see the point of bringing yer attacker here,” Stellan remarked. “As a threat? Or is he going to exact punishment where ye and all of Sutherland can see?”
“I canna say.” Mariota shrugged and added, “But I worry what it means.” She had hoped if her father came for her, it would be to show her that he valued her, even applauded her initiative to protect herself and its outcome, and would deal respectfully with her— and with Sutherland —on the matter of the betrothal.
Sutherland nodded. “We’ll take care of ye, lass.” He stepped to the wall. “MacKay, what brings ye here?”
“Ye ken fine why I’m here. And I came with enough men to prize her from ye, if I must.”
“Including the man who attacked her, forcing her to run from MacKay for her own safety?”
“Ye believe a lass about a man’s intentions?”
Mariota’s heart sank. For a moment, she’d been fool enough to allow herself to hope that some vestige of care for her had brought her father to Sutherland’s gates. So much for that. Or for seeing Alber punished.
“I believe yer daughter. She is heir to an important clan, a lass who has shown herself to be sensible, accomplished, and quite determined to protect herself. I believe her over a man only brave enough to assault lasses, and who canna fight off a hawk.”
Laughter rumbled across the lines of MacKay warriors, all save for Alber. Even from atop the wall, Mariota could see his face go red and his eyes narrow with fury. She feared the Sutherland laird had just made himself a target.
“Bring out my daughter,” MacKay demanded.
“I have a better idea. Clearly ye received my response to yer letter. Come in and discuss this. I grant ye safe passage inside my walls. Ye alone and none of yer men. And most certainly not that one,” Sutherland added pointing at Alber.
Alber stood up in his stirrups with a shout.
MacKay’s head whipped around. “Sit down andwheeshtor I’ll send ye back with more damage than the hawk did to ye.”
Mariota’s mouth fell open. Finally! Her father had disciplined Alber where others could see it happen. She grasped the stone wall in front of her, anxious over how Alber would react.
Alber’s jaw flexed, but he resumed his seat and calmed his mount, disturbed by his outburst.
“Yer men can camp in the glen,” Sutherland continued as if Alber had not had the temerity to interrupt a negotiation between two lairds.
“I will bring ten inside with me.”
“Six and nay that one,” Sutherland repeated.
MacKay tried to stare him down.
“Choose yer six, and send the rest to set up camp across the glen. I willna tolerate them below my walls.”
Only then did Mariota realize the army her father rode with would be enough to lay siege to Dunrobin. She hoped he was not foolish enough to try it. Clearly, Sutherland knew it, too, and was prepared to withstand it.
