“I will leave Sutherland, if I must, to prevent it. But I willna return to MacKay.”
“Daughter—”
Mariota shook her head. “Dinna threaten my hosts, who have been naught but kind to me, better than the treatment I receive at home. I will go where ye will never find me, and yer precious notion of using me for an alliance— with any clan —will die. Is that what ye want, da?”
MacKay glared at her, and at Sutherland before turning around to shout, “Alber, join the men across the glen.”
Alber shot a hate-filled glare at Mariota, jerked his mount around and rode out of the gate.
The MacKay watched him go before turning back to Sutherland.
“Satisfied?”
Sutherland looked to Mariota.
She lifted her chin, then nodded.
Stellan suspected this was the first time she had been able to force her father to do anything for her.
Too bad it took the combined might of Clan Sutherland to make him capitulate. And what would come of it? A proud man, a clan laird, forced to back down in favor of a lass, and in front of one of the most powerful clans in the Highlands? Stellan didn’t see anything but trouble to come.
CHAPTER 7
“Let’s take this to my solar,” Sutherland told the MacKay, who nodded. “Stellan, Anders, ye, too, and two of yer men, Laird MacKay. Mariota?”
“I beg leave to join ye in a few minutes, Laird Sutherland,” she asked politely.
“Of course, lass.”
Stellan had no doubt she intended to survey the MacKay camp from her window before coming back downstairs. It might be visible between merlons in the outer wall.
“These men will escort ye,” Stellan told her, indicating two of his men who remained nearby.
Mariota thanked him and headed inside with her escort.
Sutherland gave Stellan a look he understood. He lagged behind long enough to alert the guards on the wall walk to keep Alber under close watch. They must make sure he continued across the glen to join the MacKay camp— and didn’t try to return.
That done, Stellan followed his da and the others inside the keep. The remaining three of MacKay’s companions settled in the great hall and began drinking Sutherland ale. So much forprotecting their laird in a potentially hostile situation. Stellan shook his head and left them under his men’s watchful eyes.
In the solar, things were already going badly. The two lairds were on their feet, only the desk between them keeping them apart, all but snarling at each other while they waited for Mariota, reminding Stellan that MacKay had led an army that included Sutherland men against Domnhall at Dingwall only a year earlier and lost. The two guards who’d accompanied MacKay into the solar stood behind the chair he’d obviously vacated to get closer to Sutherland as they argued.
Stellan joined his twin near the door, glanced at Anders, then frowned at the two lairds.
Anders leaned close enough to speak into Stellan’s ear. “Da wants to know why MacKay doesna protect his heir and why he let things get so bad that Mariota felt like she needed to escape his care.”
Stellan winced. The MacKay would be furious enough with his daughter without their da twisting the knife.
“Ye ask about things that are none of yer business,” MacKay insisted. “My heir is a foolish lass who invites attention from unsuitable men. ’Tis all ye need to ken. And why I must take her home before she causes the same sort of trouble here.”
That did not ring true to Stellan. He glanced aside. Anders was wearing a frown that made him look more like Stellan than himself. Anders didn’t believe the MacKay, either.
Mariota had never struck Stellan as foolish, though the way she left MacKay came close. She’d taken a calculated risk in escaping MacKay the way she did. She was fortunate to have a hawk that could feed her and watch over her, and to protect her by surprising anyone rash enough to attack her. Valkyrie had already done so at least once— they’d just seen the proof on her attacker’s face and neck. Mariota claimed to be good with a bow. He suspected she was also capable with a blade, as well.He wondered who had trained her and put that thought away to ask her later. Impulsive, aye. Determined to protect herself, aye, from at least one unsuitable man. Her situation at MacKay and her father’s inaction had left her with no choices to save herself except to kill her attacker and face the consequences, or to leave MacKay and build her own future. Both were dangerous. He admired her bravery in choosing to leave. So why was her father intent on painting her as a fragile, empty-headed lass? In Stellan’s experience, she was anything but that.
"Yer daughter has nay been a source of discord here,” Sutherland told the MacKay in answer to his outrageous statement. “So my question still stands. Why no’ listen to her, investigate her claims, and take action? Ye say ’tis none of my business, and ye are right, but now that I’ve met the lass, ’tis what I would have done.”
“Ye think to instruct me in how to train my daughter?”
“Nay. Ye seem to have trained her well enough to be able to take care of herself across the Highlands. Is that it? Do ye want her to be the one to punish her attacker for ye? Do ye think that will make her stronger? A better leader? ’Tis my opinion that is the laird’s job.”
