Highland Thirst (15 page)

Feeling
horribly thirsty, she attempted to slowly get up only to discover that she was
tied very securely to her bed. She could think about escape all she wanted to
but she was not going anywhere. With her wrists secured to the posts at the
head of her bed and her ankles secured to the posts at the bottom, she could
not even move enough to reach the knots securing her. Brona supposed she should
not be surprised. She had escaped them once and they were not complete fools.
She also doubted anyone would feel merciful enough to slip into her room and
cut her loose. Most of the people at Rosscurrach were terrified of making
Hervey or Angus angry.

Closing
her eyes and fighting the urge to just lie there and weep until she lost
consciousness, Brona tried to make a plan. Any plan would do. The chances of
any plan she came up with working were undoubtedly very small but she needed
something to cling to in order to maintain her sanity. Then again, perhaps
Angus would no longer want her if he thought she had lost her mind. She
inwardly shook her head over the idiocy of that thought. Angus wanted something
and felt he could get it by marrying her. She could become a drooling, babbling
idiot and he would still drag her before a priest. He would just lock her
securely away after the wedding.

There
was nothing she could do, she thought, and felt a huge wave of utter despair
wash over her and try to drag her down. She did not have any way to free
herself. Her only friends were either dead or wounded and unable to come after
her. No one else would know where she was, not even her aunt, who might care
enough to try and help her. It was no use thinking of how to escape or hoping
for someone to help her escape. Brona took a deep breath to try and steady
herself. What she had to do was try to think of some way to protect herself
from Angus and Hervey. She had done it before, although not perfectly. Surely
she could think of ways to do it again, at least until she found some way to
flee them all over again.

“I
am nay sure all of this preparation for war is necessary, Angus,” said Hervey
as he sat down at the head table and poured himself some wine.

“It
may prove to be a waste of time, but I would rather have the men taking useless
watches than have the MacNachtons sneak up on us in the night,” said Angus as
he sat down on Hervey’s right and helped himself to some wine. He finished off
one tankard in several deep gulps and then poured himself another. “We tortured
and humiliated one of their own and are a threat to their clan. I think that is
enough to make them attack us unless they are all craven cowards, and I didnae
get that feeling from Sir Heming when he was our guest.”

Hervey
cursed and thumped his fist on the table. “Damn my cousin for this. What
possessed her to set the mon free? He certainly wasnae verra handsome when we
were done with him, so it cannae be that she was lured into helping him because
of his bonnie face.”

“She
probably just felt sorry for the mon. Look at that ugly dog she took in and
treats like a child. Aye and that useless cat of hers. She probably saw him as
just another poor animal that needed to be rescued.” He shook his head. “She
has too soft a heart and he used that to make her help him.”

“The
mon was nearly dead. I cannae believe he could e’en have talked to her. I also
dinnae understand why she let Peter free or those two idiot brothers.”

“Probably
to help her with a mon who was nearly dead.”

“Probably.
There is one thing we must certainly get her to tell us and that is how she got
everyone out of here.”

Angus
looked at Hervey and inwardly shook his head. The man pouted like a bairn when
he did not get his way. Although Hervey had an admirable cruel streak and
excelled at terrifying and torturing a man once that man was securely tied,
chained, or imprisoned, he was almost useless at planning for a war that Angus
was sure was coming their way. And this would be a war with people who were
said to have some very strange and deadly powers. Angus could not understand
how Hervey could doubt for one minute that the MacNachtons would be coming to
get revenge for what they had done to Sir Heming MacNachton. After seeing the
way the man fought, Angus wished he had ways to make the keep even more secure.
Any man who could toss grown men around as if they weighed no more than a bairn
made a formidable foe and was not someone who could be shrugged aside. The very
last thing he wished to be was a meal for a MacNachton. His soul might be black
as a moonless night but it was his and he wanted to keep it.

“Heming
looked sorely wounded when we rode away,” said Hervey. “I think he may be dead.”

“Which
gives the MacNachtons e’en more reason to attack us,” said Angus, used to and
bored with this type of conversation where Hervey went through every possible
reason for not doing what needed to be done and expected Angus to agree with
him, which Angus rarely did.

“Weel,
if we dinnae see them by the end of a sennight, I would guess that they are nay
coming. For all we ken, Sir Heming may have been utterly despised by all his
kin and they are glad to be rid of him.”

“Hervey,
we tortured that mon nigh onto death and he ne’er told us a thing about his
kinsmen. That isnae the sort of mon any kinsmon wants to see dead. Ye need that
sort in a clan to keep the thieves and traitors in hand. Give it up, my friend.
The MacNachtons will be coming here to make us pay as dearly as possible. Then
they will go and gut your friend Carbonnel.” He stared at Hervey and said, “Now
let us talk about my wedding wee Brona.”

“Now?
When we may soon be in a war with men that can suck out a mon’s soul?”

“‘Twould
seem a verra good time to me. Who kens what may happen to one or both of us.
Best to get the business of Brona, her dowry, and her inheritance all settled.”

Narrowing
his eyes at Angus, Hervey growled, “Oh, aye, her inheritance. If I dinnae beget
a son, all she has to do is marry and she gets all of Rosscurrach. Ye seem
verra eager to make ye the mon who would be standing at her side if I died
without an heir.”

It
did not surprise Angus that Hervey had finally thought a little bit about that
particular aspect of Brona’s inheritance. The man was not as stupid as he acted
at times. Angus knew he was going to have to tread very carefully to make
Hervey let go of all those suspicions he could read on the man’s face. Angus
had no intention of marrying Brona and then killing Hervey. That would rouse
far too many suspicions for his liking. He would just make sure that Hervey
never had a chance to marry and beget that all-important heir.

“Hervey,
ye ken verra weel that I have wanted the lass since I first set eyes on her. I
didnae e’en ken what the old mon had said must be done after he died.”

“Oh,
I am nay questioning that ye lust after my cousin. I just wonder what else ye
are lusting after. Could be the verra chair I am sitting in.”

This
was not good, mused Angus. “I just want Brona. Ye can keep the cursed laird’s
chair. The priest is cowering in the chapel because he is terrified that the
MacNachton demons might sniff him out and suck up his soul. We can get Brona,
take her to the chapel, and I can marry her. Then ‘tis all done and settled ere
we face the enemy. I may e’en have enough time to grab a wee taste of the
wench. I have been wanting one for long enough.”

“Nay.”

Angus
stiffened and subtly put his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Nay? Did ye just
say nay?”

“I
did. ‘Tis my place as her laird to decide who she marries and I have decided
that I dinnae want her married to a mon who stands so conveniently at my back.”

“Ye
bastard! Ye have promised me that wench for years.”

“Weel,
it seems I may have a much better deal than ye offered.” Hervey pulled a
wrinkled piece of parchment from his pocket. “It seems our neighbor wishes an
alliance and it is to be sealed with the marriage of his son to my cousin.”

“His
son is barely fifteen years old. He has nae e’en grown a wee bit of down on his
scrawny face.”

“He
will grow and he will breed her, which will keep her at that mon’s keep and out
of mine.”

Angus
slowly stood up. “Ye have gone back on your word.”

“I
do that all the time. No one should ken that any better than ye. If ye still
want the wench after she is wed to this boy then go to her and take her. Since
the lad has so little experience with women or in battle ye ought to be able to
woo her into your bed simply because her husband is so bad there she is in need
of a real mon. And if the lad catches ye cuckolding him, ye have enough
experience to cut him down without e’en raising a sweat.”

“And
thus destroying the alliance? What do ye get out of this, Hervey?” he asked in
a hard cold voice as he began to decide which wound would kill the fool the
fastest. He would prefer to have the man killed very slowly, but with the
threat of the MacNachtons hanging over his head, he could not afford the time
needed to really enjoy it.

“A
lot of money and a strip of verra good land on our western border.”

“And
for that ye would break your word to me?”

“Give
the marriage a few months, e’en a year, and then make her a widow if ye still
want her so badly.”

“I
dinnae want her after some beardless boy has been rutting o’er her for months.”

“And
just what do ye think Sir Heming has been doing? Do ye really think she spent
all that time with him and he didnae lift her skirts?”

“Mayhap
he did, but with those three fools traveling with them, I doubt he did so more
than once or twice and he would be careful nay to put a bairn in her. A lad of
fifteen will be riding her every night and doing his meager best to fill her
belly.”

“Aha!
I kenned it! Ye wanted to have her bear ye a son so that ye could try and claim
Rosscurrach. Weel, ye can just forget that fine piece of treachery. Nay only is
Brona going to marry the lad, but I am going to marry his sister. A sweet wee
lass of fourteen. Young and tight and ready to breed.”

Angus
drew his sword and swung it. The look of petulant anger was still on Hervey’s
face as his head hit the floor. Wiping his sword off on the man’s doublet,
Angus slid it back into its sheath. He stared at Hervey’s body for a minute and
then cursed. He was still taut with fury and now he had to be rid of the fool’s
body.

Grabbing
the cloth off the table, he tossed Hervey’s body onto it and then set his head
on his chest. Wrapping the body up, he hefted it over his shoulder and
stealthily made his way down into the dungeons. A slow smile crossed his face
as he made his way to the cage where they had kept Sir Heming. He tossed Hervey
into the cage, pausing to put the man’s head back on his chest and then went to
throw the cloth from the table down into the pit where they emptied the
prisoners’ privy buckets.

Certain
that the MacNachtons would soon be attacking, Angus was confident that he would
be able to think of an explanation for Hervey’s death. He doubted anyone would
question the tale that Hervey tried to flee, was caught outside by vengeful
MacNachtons, and murdered. Later, when it was dark, he would toss the body
outside. Now he had to go and marry Brona before anyone learned the laird was
dead.

The
sound of the door to her bedchamber opening drew Brona out of her misery. She
looked toward the door and felt as if all the blood in her body had just turned
to ice. Angus walked over to the side of the bed and stared down at her. The
man felt as if he was about to burst open from the anger inside of him and she
greatly feared that anger would be visited upon her even if she did not deserve
it.

“Ye
have been a verra busy lass, havenae ye,” he said. “Freeing prisoners, running
about the country with four men. Did ye service them all?”

Even
though a part of her mind told her not to respond to that insult, that it would
only prod at Angus’s anger, Brona said, “Of course I didnae. Just because ye
and Hervey feel a need to rut with anything that breathes doesnae mean I do.”

The
slap he gave her made her ears ring and Brona tasted blood in her mouth. She
felt tears of pain sting her eyes but blinked them away. She would not give the
man the pleasure of seeing her cry. He was a brute who sought to cow her with
harsh words and pain and she refused to allow him to win that game.

“If
ye have bedded down with that demon ye will pay for that,” he said as he began
to untie her.

Brona
felt a twinge of hope and then told herself not to be an idiot. Angus would
never set her free. With that thought the fact that he was untying her began to
frighten her. Mayhap he intended to put her down in the dungeon, she thought,
and felt a cold knot of panic twist in her belly. She decided she did not
really wish to know what he planned to do to her for that would probably stir
her panic past her control.

“Now
we are going to do what I have been planning to do for years but your damn
cousin has continued to find ways to make me wait. Weel, he willnae be playing
that game with me anymore.”

Hervey
is dead,
she thought. Brona suddenly knew without a doubt that Angus had killed her
cousin. Hervey had obviously pushed the man once too often and Angus had struck
back.