Laird Mackenzie was pacing in front of the large fireplace. He was the only one in attendance, and the look on his face as we approached him suggested he was tired of waiting, and had other pressing matters to attend to.
He took in, again, my disheveled men’s garb and stared at me coldly. “Sit,” he commanded, signaling to one of several chairs placed near the fire. I obeyed him, and took my place.
Kade sat in another chair, but the laird continued to stand, and his eyes did not waver in their scrutiny. I felt wildly out of place under the laird’s direct gaze. I triedto smooth my long hair, aware that I hadn’t brushed it in quite some time.
“I expect you to answer all of my questions truthfully,” the laird said. “Are you willing to speak to me?”
I was hungry, and sore. I felt chilled and at the same overheated. I wanted to eat and bathe, to sleep and, most of all, to visit Wilkie. But all those things would have to wait. I knew I owed the laird his explanation. “Aye, Laird Mackenzie. I am at your service.” I sat up straight and waited for the inquiry to begin.
“Firstly,” the laird said. “I will thank you for summoning us. For not leaving Wilkie to die.”
This surprised me. I wasn’t used to receiving thanks from anyone, especially a man of Laird Mackenzie’s station. But my small satisfaction at the redress was short-lived. I knew that as soon as he learned that I had been the one to injure Wilkie, the laird’s gratitude would most certainly give way to anger and hostility.
“I could not have left him to die. Not when it was my fault—”
“We’ll get to that in a moment,” the laird said. “Tell me first, where do you hail from?”
“Clan Ogilvie.”
“Ogilvie? You’ve traveled far, alone. We can arrange for you to be returned to your clan.” He paused. “Once our brother has healed.”
“I cannot return to Ogilvie,” I said.
The two men exchanged glances.
“What reason do you have for running from your clan?” asked the laird. “’Tis a dangerous course of action, leaving yourself alone and unprotected.”
They awaited my response.
“I’m the adopted daughter of an Ogilvie clanlandholder, Oliver Ogilvie. I was skilled in horticulture, and was training as an apprentice healer. I was valued as a gatherer, gardener and provider of medicinal herbs. For a time. Upon my parents’ deaths, I was relegated to kitchen duties. I carried them out dutifully for the most part. But, more recently—”
“Why were you reassigned?” interrupted Laird Mackenzie. He knew, as I did, that it was unusual for a clanmember to change positions in the household; usually a demotion was the result of misbehavior of one sort or another.
“I—” This was somewhat difficult to answer. “I believe he reassigned me because I refused certain...proposals. See, the laird intended...other duties. Which I wasn’t willing to perform. I didn’t set out to, but—” I faltered.
It was true that I might have possibly been putting myself at risk admitting the details of my story to these powerful brothers. But I was no longer acting purely in the interest of self-preservation. I wanted to see Wilkie again, soon. And from the little I did know about the Mackenzies, I suspected they valued integrity and honor. And so did I. I had committed crimes, aye, but not out of spite or malice. Only because I had been provoked by a bully who had carried out unspeakable wrongs against my family. I could lie to these brothers or tell them half-truths. But I knew them, so far, to be curious, forceful and very thorough. They also had every power over the decision of my fate and whether or not I would be allowed to return to Wilkie. And that, above all else—to be hereafter denied his presence—terrified me.
“But what?” Kade prodded.
“I—I retaliated.”
“Retaliated?” asked Kade, highly interested. “In what way?”
“With a small kitchen knife.” I touched my stomach to approximate the area where I’d wounded Laird Ogilvie. “There.”
They considered this briefly.
“Laird Ogilvie forced himself upon you while you were under his care and protection,” the laird repeated, as though to make sure he understood.
“He attempted to, aye. I wasn’t amenable to his suggestions.”
The two men continued to stare at me with a mixture of confusion, amusement and disbelief. Kade, especially, seemed entertained by my tale. “So you fled, making your way alone across great distances, to find shelter for yourself in a cave on top of a mountain.”
“Aye.”
“A courageous undertaking,” Kade commented.
“A desperate undertaking,” I clarified.
