by Willa Blair
“Is an innocent captive worth more to Ross than Brodie’s regard?” Iain suddenly sounded tired.
“If that innocent captive is worth exchanging for Donas Ross’s killer or killers, then aye. Brodie owes Ross a life. We can take Eduard Brodie’s, or Donas Ross’s killer’s. The choice is yers.”
“Ye leave me in an impossible situation,” Iain objected. “Ye offer nay proof that ye hold any man, much less a Brodie called Eduard, nor any proof a Brodie killed yer chief—if he is indeed dead. Or took a lass…or two…and a skiff. Ye dinna seem to be sure what did or didna happen. So tell me something ye might be sure of. Did ye see one of yer vessels when ye sailed into the bay?”
Euan wanted to applaud as Iain let the silence stretch out. They had not, of course. That skiff was several miles down the coast and well hidden. Too valuable to sail into the firth and sink, the skiff would become a Brodie vessel once a few changes were made to disguise its lines and origin.
Teague Ross’s “nay”, when it came, was barely audible.
“And have ye seen a lass ye recognize, as ye passed through the village on the way here?”
This nay sounded louder.
“Nor will ye, for the lass ye seek is no’ here.”
Euan cringed at Iain’s fib. True, neither Muireall nor Ella was in the great hall with him, which is what Iain would mean by that statement. True in fact, if not in spirit, which Euan was certain Iain would hold against him later.
“Nor is anyone who might have…might have…harmed yer laird.” Iain’s voice suddenly dripped disdain. “For all I ken, Donas himself sent ye on this fool’s errand to stir up trouble among the southern clans. Ye bring daft accusations without any proof. Wild claims of murder and theft, yet here ye dinna find what ye claim was stolen. Did ye think I would simply hand someone over? Out of fear? Of what Silas Ross might do? Or the Earl?”
Iain paused and Euan heard him moving about, his tread heavy and deliberate, moving, he supposed, toward their visitor.
“Ye are lucky,” Iain continued, and Euan could picture him standing toe-to-toe with the Ross, “I dinna kill ye where ye stand and send yer body back to Ross in answer to this insulting nonsense. Now get out of my hall while ye still can.”
Euan thought Iain was laying it on a bit thick, but given the clatter following his words, his theatrics must have worked. Teague Ross and any men who’d come with him had to be leaving. No one stood up to Iain Brodie in his own hall.
A few minutes later, Iain’s voice drifted up to them, calm and steady. “They’re gone. Ye lot get down here now.”
Euan led the charge. After the scene they’d just overheard, if Iain planned to punish anyone, Euan swore it would be him. Calum was not at fault. Nor, certainly, was Muireall. Or Ella. And if the Rosses did, as Teague Ross claimed, have Eduard—and they must, for how else would they know his name?—Euan was responsible. He’d made the decision to break off the search and sail for home. After finding James’s body, he’d had no expectation that any more of his men lived. And had no idea he was leaving Eduard behind to be captured and probably tortured by Silas Ross and her men. The fact that the searchers Iain sent had found nothing, either, was no consolation. He clenched his fists and entered the great hall to face his laird.
By the time Muireall reached the hall behind Euan and Calum, the two were facing off with their laird. She started to join them, but Euan waved her behind him. Ella paused at the entry, then came to stand beside Muireall.
“The lasses had nay part in this,” Euan asserted. “Let them be.”
“The lasses,” Iain replied, pinning her in place with his steady gaze, “have been in the Ross village, met the people, and seen the fighting force. They have details ye two do no’.”
“Ye are correct,” Muireall told him, then stepped up beside Euan, who had stiffened at Iain’s words. She appreciated his instinct to protect her and Ella, but his concern was misplaced. Iain was right, and she wanted to help, not hide behind Euan’s broad back. “Teague Ross is the man who took Tira Munro…who wed her.” She told Iain what she and Ella had told Euan and Calum in the laird’s lug. “He must now be aligned with Silas to have come here.”
“Erik would not leave Ross and risk his power base to Silas,” Euan observed.
“I dinna understand why Erik has not taken control,” Muireall added. Surely Silas did not command loyalty among the men as Erik did.
Euan crossed his arms. “It makes nay sense, but perhaps their elders are bowing to Silas until the matter of Donas’s killer is settled.”
“’Tis bad for the clan,” Iain added. “If Silas has a strong faction on her side, Erik Ross may not have enough of a following to declare himself chief and make it stick.”
“I dinna care who leads Ross,” Euan announced. “My only interest right now is getting Eduard back.”
“I’m calling a War Council this evening. Ye will attend. What ye will no’ do is sail for Ross. Not now, not until this is settled. We’ll meet with the Brodie elders and arms master to decide how best to retrieve—or negotiate for—Eduard…and avoid a war.”
“What about returning us to Munro?” Muireall asked. “We dinna wish to be in the way.”
“I’m sorry lass, but I willna. If ye are seen by a Ross, or worse, recaptured, in Brodie company, I’ll no’ be able to deny our involvement in anything Teague Ross just accused us of.” He cut off Euan’s objection with a look before Euan could voice it. “We ken ye killed Donas Ross in self-defense. Likely his people ken that, too, even if his widow is too crazed to admit it.” He turned back to Muireall. “As long as they hold Eduard, and until we ken who will take power in that clan, nay, ye must stay here.”
Muireall pressed her lips together, fighting back a protest.
Seeing that, Iain’s expression softened. “I have promised ye, lass, I will get ye home as soon as we’re able. Ye have no’ traded one captor for another, though I hope our care of ye has been better than any ye received across the firth. I canna risk what yer discovery would cost Brodie. No’ yet.”
Muireall’s shoulders slumped. She could understand the Brodie chief’s position, but it frustrated her, just the same.
“What if we went around the firth, overland?” Calum asked.
Hope surged in Muireall’s chest, but Iain quickly squashed it.
“Nay,” Iain replied with a frown. “All of ye are confined to the keep until this is resolved.” He held up a hand as Euan opened his mouth to argue. “I have spoken. Ross has come here, and they will be sailing this side of the firth as much as they are able, have nay doubt. Just as I have sent boats to sail their side. I’ll hear nay more about any of ye leaving Brodie.”
Euan’s jaw clenched, his lips flattening into a thin line, but he stayed silent, merely giving a curt nod.
His tension told Muireall she wasn’t the only one frustrated with the restrictions placed on them. She hoped, after the war council that evening, decisions would be made that would allow her to go home and allow Euan to help retrieve his missing sailor. She knew being denied the chance to correct what he saw as his failure ate at him. Euan had searched as long as he dared, but because of Calum’s condition, and with James’s body on board, they could not have lingered any longer. She nodded to Euan in sympathy. He glanced at her, then cut his gaze back to Iain.
Calum, too, looked ready to argue, but held his silence.
She gusted out a sigh and turned her face away from Iain. She did not want the chief to see how upset his pronouncement made her. Even though she could see the logic behind it, she still grieved for her family and friends. Did any of them still live? Had Donas, as Euan suspected, lied to her? She could only hope Euan was right.
Chapter 13
Euan escorted Muireall into Iain’s private solar after the evening meal. He felt boxed in by the men already present—gazes had swung to him and Muireall when they entered. And if he felt the press of their scrutiny, Muireall, as the only woman present, must feel it even more. But he
r expression remained calm. Their only respite came when Calum entered the room with Ella and was treated to the same stares.
Calum settled Ella on Muireall’s other side after greeting her and Euan with a nod.
Euan wondered what Muireall thought of the Brodie elders’ council. At the moment, he wasn’t sure what he thought of them, though he understood Iain’s reasons for involving them. He hadn’t been laird long enough to have the elders’ complete confidence. Many had voted against him, despite his father’s wishes that Iain replace him as laird once he was gone. Iain’s power base was strong, but not solid, so he was obliged to demonstrate leadership by consulting with so-called older and wiser heads.
The tension in the room was palpable as they waited for Iain to make his entrance. Without a word being spoken, the looks Euan was getting made him feel accused and condemned for bringing so much trouble to Brodie.
Muireall tensed when Iain entered, but Euan noticed Calum nod. Aye, he had the right of it. The elders might want Euan’s head, but Iain would keep them focused on solving their larger problems.
Euan waited impatiently while Iain reported the Ross envoy’s accusations. Then he called on Muireall and Ella to tell the council what they knew about the shifting power structure at Ross. Finally, it was Euan’s turn, to explain what had happened from the shipwreck until he, Muireall, and Calum sailed away from Ross and returned to Brodie.
Finally, Euan finished and Iain took up the discussion. “Our task,” he told the elders, “is to rescue Eduard without sacrificing Euan, without Ross ships interdicting Brodie sailings, and without being forced into a war with Ross and the Earl’s allies. I’m open to suggestions, gentlemen…and ladies. Speak now.”
A clamor erupted.
Muireall flinched at the same time as Calum crossed his arms.
Euan steeled himself to hear condemnation of everything he’d done on that ill-fated voyage.
Finally, one man stood and motioned for silence, then announced, “Despite the envoy’s bluster, the Earl of Ross is a weak woman, under attack by the Lord of the Isles, and by Albany. She’s unlikely to aid an offshoot of the clan trying to start a war with Brodie.”
“Aye,” another added, “We have allies as well. Does Silas Ross think she can take on the combined clans south of the firth? She’s a fool.”
Iain let them talk. His gaze strayed to Euan’s and he nodded.
Euan felt a load lift from his shoulders. His hide would not be flapping from the tower walls this night, figuratively or otherwise.
Iain let them dither for as long as it took a candle to burn down an inch, then called a halt.
“I’ve heard yer arguments, for and against. The most rational course of action I’ve heard is one I’ve already put into motion.” His gaze shifted to Muireall, then Ella. “Three Brodies are on the way to Munro to advise them who stole their lasses—and that ye two bide with us for the time being,” he added more forcefully.
Muireall surged to her feet. “We could have gone with them!”
“Nay, ye could no’. I will no’ risk yer life, lass. I am responsible for ye until we can return ye—safely—home. We dinna ken what my men will find at Munro, nor what greater trouble the Rosses are stirring up on that side of the firth. Until we do, ’tis no’ wise for ye to travel.” He shifted his gaze to the council’s leader, his dismissal of Muireall’s sputtered objections plain for all to see. “I hope, as ye do, that we find the Munros untroubled by their neighbors, for I have asked that the Munros provide a distraction the Rosses canna ignore, by patrolling their border. Perhaps enough of one to allow Erik Ross to displace Silas once and for all.” He paused and turned his gaze to Euan. “We will move carefully, taking small measures, so as not to incite Silas Ross into killing Eduard, or sending a force against us. If we are successful in recruiting Munro assistance, we will have an easier time retrieving Eduard. But even if Munro declines to get involved, retrieving our man is my first concern. Once he is again among us, we will be in a stronger position to resolve the other matters.”
“Then why are the three ye sent to Munro no’ going after Eduard, instead?” the council leader asked.
Iain glanced aside. “As I said, I hope for Munro to provide sufficient distraction. Now, gentlemen, I’ve heard enough, and I’m certain ye have, as well.”
Euan took Muireall’s arm and escorted her from the solar.
Calum and Ella followed on their heels.
“Why did we leave?” Muireall asked as Euan hurried her along.
“To avoid getting sucked into a useless, endless discussion,” Euan told her. “Iain is up to something. That session was…”
“For appearances, only,” Calum supplied.
“Aye. Exactly. Iain has already acted.”
“So, will he tell us what else he’s planning?” Muireall tugged her arm from Euan’s grasp and stopped.
Euan nodded. “I think that last comment was meant for me. Small measures…”
Calum grinned. “Careful, small measures. Aye. I wonder what Iain is planning.”
“Whatever it is, it canna come soon enough.”
Euan was asleep in his chamber when someone knocked on his door. For one glorious second, he entertained the idea that Muireall waited on the other side, unable to stay away from him. He threw on a shirt and opened the door. Damn, not Muireall. Iain. Euan couldn’t contain the sigh of disappointment.
“No’ who ye were hoping for?”
Euan grunted and gestured Iain in.
“So were ye dreaming of far-off lands?” he asked and went to stand by the small hearth.
Euan studied his laird. What did he mean by that? “No farther than the other side of the firth,” Euan replied, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. “What have ye decided, then?”
Iain frowned and dropped onto Euan’s one small chair. “This is where I bow to the inevitable and agree to send ye after Eduard.”
Exultation made any last vestiges of sleep flee Euan’s body. He leaned forward.
Iain rested his elbows on his knees, then clasped his hands. “Damn it, I dinna want to, but ye have been there, ye ken the village, the layout, the ground.”
Euan nodded. All true.
Iain waved a hand. “No one else has a prayer of getting in and out again with Eduard. But,” he added and skewered Euan with a glare, “if ye get caught, Ross willna have to kill ye. I’ll cut out yer heart myself.”
Euan grinned. “That willna happen. Besides, Muireall already has it.”
“Tomorrow…later today, that is,” Iain said, settling back into the chair and stretching long legs out in front of the hearth, “I’m going to take Annie to visit her da. I’ll tell the Rose what we’re up against. That means tomorrow night, while we’re away, ye must leave.” He held up a hand. “I hate having to make it look like ye snuck out to attempt a harebrained rescue. But the Council is not solidly behind any plan we discussed—for hours—after ye left. They trust my leadership abilities on the battlefield. But they’re uncertain I ken how best to deal with politics. And I’m trying to avoid all of us ending up on that battlefield. I must be circumspect in going around them. So I depend on ye to succeed.”
Euan nodded, understanding. The council seemed determined to make Iain pay for every year of his previously poor reputation, even though most of them had agreed when he assumed leadership of the clan.
Euan was loyal even if they were not. “I have only one condition,” Euan told him. “If I dinna return, no matter the reason or what follows, ye must fulfill my promise—and yers—to return Muireall to Munro. Ella, too, if that is what she wishes to do.”
“I’ve never seen ye so taken by a lass, and I should know the signs better than most. I canna forget being involved with dozens before Annie.” He chuckled. “She willna let me.”
Euan laughed, ruefully, and admitted, “I dinna ken how I feel about a future with Muireall, but I’m drawn to her as no other. I want to be with her every waking moment.” He waved a hand
at the bed. “Sleeping, too.”
“Good. If you want to get back to her so badly, instead of being your usual reckless self, you’ll use yer head and be damned careful. Take two men with ye. A small group will have a better chance of getting Eduard out unseen. If ye’re very lucky, he’ll be unhurt and able to assist with his rescue.”
“Aye,” Euan said, nodding. “That might do the trick.”
Just after sunrise, Muireall and Ella joined the throng in the bailey as Iain, Annie and an escort prepared to leave for Clan Rose. Iain was talking quietly to Kenneth and Euan. Annie had already mounted and from the way her horse Belle was dancing in place, she was eager to be away.
“I hope the Rose will support Brodie,” Ella whispered to Muireall.
Muireall shrugged. “He’s Annie’s father. She says they get along, so I would expect he and Iain will support each other in whatever this trouble becomes.”
Kenneth and Euan stepped back and Iain mounted up. “Ready, lass?” he asked Annie with a grin.
Muireall had no doubt he knew his wife well.
“I’ll race ye,” Annie replied and tapped Belle’s sides. Annie’s laughter echoed around the bailey as they bolted through the open Brodie gate.
Iain shook his head and took off after her, leaving their escort to catch up as best they could.
Ella watched them go. “I want a man like that.”
She said it so softly, Muireall wasn’t sure she meant for anyone to hear, so she simply clasped Ella’s shoulder, then turned away. Euan was coming toward them, and so was Calum, who’d joined Euan as Iain tore out of the gate after his wife. Calum was laughing and even Euan had a grin on his face—the first she’d seen all morning.
“There’s one ye might consider,” Muireall whispered to Ella. “And he’s already smitten with ye.”
“Calum?” Ella frowned at her.