Highland Rake (41 page)

Thinking that Duff had been so involved in all of this, Alana became alarmed about Turi's daughter and Pelly. "You had Duff take Brighid and Pelly to Brighid's sister's manor. If he was involved in my brother and da's death, did he take the women where you had ordered him to, or no'?" she asked Turi.

"I will ride at once to see," one of the Cameron said.

Turi looked ill. "Aye, and take three more men with you."

"Nay, wait," Dougald said. "We should return to the keep and question Duff there. We need to take him into custody now before he does any further damage."

"Aye," Turi said, sounding rattled. His face had lost all its color.

"Did you know about my aunt, Turi?" Alana asked, as Angus helped her into her saddle.

Turi said, "Nay—"

"I
know
she was having an affair with MacIverson. Dinna try to hide it from me," Alana said.

Turi frowned as he mounted his own horse. "I am sorry, Lady Alana. I never wished you to know."

"Dinna be sorry. The matter wasna your fault."

"You canna leave us out here like this," Ward said.

Connell helped Seana onto his horse and hurried to climb on behind her. "You made your bed," Connell said to Ward.

Gwyn folded her arms and scowled at Connell. "So this is the way 'tis. I am gone and ye find someone else?"

"You helped your husband to murder me. What did you expect? That I would return for you? Seana is the only one for me. I have finally found the lass I want…" He paused and gave Alana a heart-warming smile. "…above all others."

Tears filled Alana's eyes. In death, had her brother finally settled down and found real love?

Seana was still scowling at Gwyn. Alana wasn't certain if Seana believed Connell yet or not.

Dougald urged them back to the castle in all haste. "If Duff is behind all this, what if he frees MacDonald's men?" He glanced at Gair. "Did you know of this?"

"Nay."

Alana didn't know whether to believe the man or not, though he had told them more than she thought they would learn.

Before they reached the outer bailey, they heard fighting taking place inside the inner bailey—the striking of swords, the clanking of metal ringing out, the yells of men, some angry, some in pain. Her heart was already pounding hard, but now she was terrified her uncle might be in the midst of it should he have returned from the hunt already.

Dougald immediately began issuing orders. "Take Alana to the stables and watch over her there," he told Angus, since she couldn't reach the keep with all the fighting going on.

Not only had the MacDonald men been freed, they had been armed as well.

Her uncle
was
in the middle of the fighting as she had feared.

"Alana, go with my brother."

"Aye, Dougald." She would not fight him on this. Her wee dagger would not keep her safe from a man armed with a sword. As soon as several lads hurried to take the horses to safety and Alana was with them in the stables, she urged Angus, "Go, help your brother. Tavis and Callum will stay with me."

Angus looked fraught with indecision, stay as his brother had commanded him and protect the lass, or leave her with the two lads and the stable hands while he helped his brother in the fight.

Two of the young men grabbed pitchforks. "Ye can go if ye wish," one of the lads said. "Ye fought in the Crusades. Ye can fight them out there better than we can, and we will protect the lass in here."

Alana was watching through the open stable doors as the men fought when Angus noticed and hurried to move her away from it. "My duty is to the lady," Angus said to the lads.

Then Connell stormed through the doorway. "Tell Seana she must join you in here!"

"She canna be hurt. What is she doing?" Alana asked.

"She is throwing things. That is what she is doing! She is giving me a near heart attack!"

Alana shook her head. "Angus willna let me leave. Tell her I told her I am afraid, and I need her to stay with me."

"All right." Connell stalked back outside.

Everyone in the stable cast small glances at each other, and Alana folded her arms. "Lady Seana, Dougald's sister, is throwing things at the MacDonalds. She is a ghost, for those of you who didna know it," she said for the benefit of the stable hands.

Everyone crowded around the door to watch.

"Look, there, a spear jabbed that mon in the arse," one of the stable hands said.

Angus cleared his throat and the lad looked a little red-faced and bowed his head to Alana. "Sorry, my lady." But then he went back to watching the fight. "No one is wielding it!"

"Lady Seana is," Alana guessed. She couldn't get near enough the doors to watch.

"Oh!" Tavis said.

"What?" Alana asked, trying to get closer, but Angus turned and gave her a warning look to stay away from the doors.

"Well, what then?" she asked, annoyed.

"The MacDonald mon took the spear from the lady—I guess—and swung it…at naught but air. Then a rock lifted off the ground and was thrown at his head—only no one was doing the throwing—and after it smacked him in the forehead, making a nice bloody imprint, he ran away," Tavis said.

"I didna believe ghosts could throw things," Callum said.

"I am no' surprised," Angus said. "When my sister was angry at me once, she slapped me upside the head with a flopping fish."

Everyone looked at him, mouths agape.

Angus shrugged. "I said something to make her angry and probably deserved it."

***

Dougald fought against a much heftier Laird MacDonald, who was trying his damnedest to kill Dougald—most likely because he'd ruined his plans to have his son, Hoel, take over the Cameron clan someday. Mayhap sooner than later if some
accident
had befallen Laird Cameron.

"What do you hope to gain by trying to kill me now?" Dougald asked MacDonald, feeling the same as MacDonald's own man did that it was too late for MacDonald to win this game.

"The satisfaction in seeing you dead," the man said, his eyes black with hatred, his sword swinging with such power, Dougald tried not to falter under the impact, which might have given the impression he could not manage the onslaught. "I dinna believe that 'twas providence that you met Alana on your lands the way you did without you having been the instigator."

Dougald wasn't about to defend himself. He wanted the truth of what had happened. "You killed Alana's da."

"I had no need to. Duff and his sons, Ward, and Gilleasbuig, a couple of MacIverson's men—"

"And some of yours?"

MacDonald lowered his sword for a moment. Dougald did likewise and waited for him to answer.

"I might have suggested that the lass would be in the wrong hands should she wed MacIverson, which was true. One of my maids had a cousin who worked as a guard for MacIverson and had overheard him talking to his men about the lass being a witch. 'Twas why my eldest son didna want her. But we still wanted the affiliation with the Cameron clan, so he would wed the lass by my order. Then Laird Cameron refused to make any agreement for the lass's marriage, and we had to bide our time. When Connell died, my son Hoel made it clear he wanted to marry the lass."

Dougald didn't want to acknowledge why Hoel would wish Alana for his wife—the connection that Hoel and Alana had might still have pleased her.

MacDonald swung his sword again, barely connecting. He was tiring. He had the weight behind him, aye, but also he was older.

"So if some of my men had taken it upon themselves to change Laird Cameron's mind about having the lass wed to MacIverson, it wasna my doing," Laird MacDonald said.

As if MacDonald wouldn't have known. "And Connell's death?"

MacDonald shook his head. "An aggrieved husband."

As MacDonald lifted his sword to strike Dougald, a rock suddenly hit MacDonald in the side of the head. Dougald forced himself not to look to see where the missile had come from. MacDonald looked. Given the advantage, Dougald slashed at the man's sword arm, forcing him to release his weapon. As soon as MacDonald dropped his sword and yelled out in pain, grabbing his arm to stem the bleeding, Hoel dashed in to fight Dougald.

He was Dougald's age, and more his size, not big and bulky like his da. He also was not as practiced a fighter—his swings not as decisive, his thrusts shallow as if he was afraid to get too close. He was driven by rage, so he made mistake after mistake. When he fell back to avoid being cut, he dropped behind farther than necessary. Dougald felt he had to chase after the man to get a good fight out of him. He wanted to end this now, to let the MacDonald clan know neither he nor the Cameron clan would allow anything further to happen to their people.

Dougald must have moved halfway across the inner bailey, fighting Hoel as he kept parrying short, and falling back long.

"You had Connell murdered so that you could take Alana as your wife and someday lead the clan," Dougald accused Hoel.

"Ward had every right to kill the man for sleeping with his wife."

"But you put him up to it!"

"I dinna know what you mean."

"If Connell had lived, your da wanted his eldest son to wed Alana. She was to be a laird's wife and married to you, she wouldna have been one. No' unless you had your brother murdered."

"Conjecture and untrue."

Dougald knew it was true, knew the man had been behind Connell's killing, but he couldn't prove it. He wanted to tell Hoel to hold still and fight like a man, but when Hoel tripped and fell onto his back on the grassy bailey, trying to catch his breath, Dougald stepped on Hoel's sword, planting it in place, his sword tip at the man's throat. "You were there, were you no', when Alana's da was murdered?"

Hoel shook his head, his eyes bulging.

"You are no' a strong fighter, so back then, you might no' have killed anyone, but you were there."

"Landon was supposed to watch over Alana," Hoel growled. "She could have died when she ran away and hid."

"You killed Landon."

"I didna say that."

"You didna have to."

"We leave in peace," MacDonald shouted. "Let my son live and we leave in peace."

Cameron said, "Let him go. This is done. Take your wounded and leave, MacDonald. This is over between us."

Mayhap it was over between them today, but they would fight again, Dougald was certain.

Angus stiffened as he watched the fighting from the stable. Alana didn't hear as many swords striking each other now. And horses were riding off.

"Are they leaving?" Alana asked, hating that they would not let her see what was happening.

"Aye," Angus said. "Dougald is headed this way."

"Let me see," Alana said, but none of the lads or Angus would move out of her way.

"Angus," Dougald said in greeting, and only then did the lads step back to let him in to see her. "Alana, lass, some of the injured men need your help."

"They are gone, the MacDonald men?" she asked, as Dougald escorted her out of the stable, the lads racing to help move men inside who had not been injured too severely.

"Aye, they have admitted defeat."

"And the man who went with us, Gair?"

"He wouldna fight us. He tried to convince his kin to leave well enough alone."

"Laird MacDonald?" she asked.

"If he could have killed me, he would have. And Hoel. He wanted you, you know," Dougald said.

"Hmph, 'tis trouble enough keeping after one husband."

Dougald smiled down at her. "Did I tell you how much I love you, lass?"

"Aye, and I, you." Then she saw her uncle, his arm dripping with blood, and she rushed toward him. "Uncle, you are hurt."

"Naught but a scratch, Alana. See to the other men." Her uncle motioned to Turi. "A word with you, now. You sent Lady Alana away…" His words trailed off as he stalked with Turi toward the keep.

"My daughter…"

"She is here."

"You may see to the other men," Alana said to Dougald as a maid dashed to bring Alana her bag of herbs and strips of clothing and sewing materials.

Dougald crouched down in front of the man, one of the Cameron men—the one who looked like he had Norse blood, Kvist—and helped tear his tunic sleeve so Alana could take care of the cut on his arm.

"If you are to see to these men, I will stay with you and remind them that you do this only to keep them alive, naught more," Dougald said.

She knew her husband was referring to Gilleasbuig.

The injured man grinned at Dougald. "I dare say no one will fight you for the lass. Several of us had stopped—no' only our men and yours, but the MacDonald men as well—to watch you fight Laird MacDonald and then when he could fight no more, Hoel MacDonald. Everyone realized at once what a worthy adversary you are."

"I keep telling Lady Alana 'tis tough to kill me."