Onyx (6 page)

“I tol’ ye I have nothin’ te
say to ye.”

“Dagger, what’re ye doin’, ye bloody bastard?
” came Aidan’s voice from behind him. He turned to see his friends approaching, with the three randy sisters clinging to them like barnacles on a ship.

“Aye, ye never showed up fer yer . . . pre
sent,” said Ian, tucking his leine back into his tartan as he walked, and fastening his weapon belt around him. They all looked like they’d had a satisfying tumble in the hay, and Onyx cursed under his breath for missing it.

“The
t’s right, Onyx MacKeefe, ye left me waitin’ in the cold, and I’ll ne’er lay wi’ ye now, so dinna bother te ask – e’er again,” said the sister he knew was supposed to have been his. He didn’t even know any of their names, but then again, what did it matter? The girl reached out and slapped him across the face. Well, now the best part of his birthday was ruined.

“Let’s go,” she said to her sisters
, and they took off across the room.

“
Dagger, who’s the lassie?” asked Aidan, brushing down his tangled hair with his hand and throwing a stray piece of straw to the ground.

“I’m Lady
Lovelle de Lacy, Baroness of Worcestershire,” she said and held out her hand to the boys. They both grabbed for her hand to kiss it at once, and Onyx just blocked them with his arm to stop them.

“She’s English,” he said in a low voice.

“She certainly is,” said Ian, his eyes fastened to her, as he was always interested in any good-looking lassie, and always able to get them all with just a smile. “Me name is Ian and this here is Aidan, me lady.”

She just smiled and nodded her head.

“No wonder ye didna show up in the stables. Ye had yerself a better present inside.” Aidan crossed his arms over his wide chest, a silly smile painting his face.

“I’
m here looking for someone,” Lovelle said. “Perhaps you gentlemen can help me.”

“Nay, they canna
,” Onyx interrupted. “Callum, I think I need another drink.”

“Fenella willn
a like thet, Dagger,” said Aidan, and Onyx just cringed inside.

“Oh, so you do know the woman I’m looking for. Her name is Fenella
, and I can’t imagine that is a very common name,” she told them.

“Aye,
we ken Fenella,” agreed Ian, “she is Dagger’s mathair, dinna he tell ye?”

“No,” she said, half-smiling and shaking her head as she looked toward Onyx. “I can’t say he did. So where is Fenella, boys?”

Onyx noticed the way she was using her smile and that damned good-looking body of hers to lure the boys into telling her exactly what she wanted to know. He and his friends weren’t used to being around such a refined lady. He shook his head in disgust by the way Aidan and Ian’s tongues were hanging out of their mouths no better than slobbering hounds following after a bitch in heat. If only they could see how they were acting. Onyx felt immune to such things as beautiful women – but probably only because he knew he never had a chance with them, with his friends around.

“There’s no one here by thet name and they dinna ken
anythin’. Isna thet right?” Onyx glared at his friends. They finally figured out what was going on, and he could see the look of apology on their faces.

“So you’re not goi
ng to tell me where she is?” The woman tried to use the smile on him and leaned forward to expose her cleavage. For one small moment, Onyx felt like clay in her hands and was willing to give her whatever she wanted just for a chance to taste her lips and run his hands over her soft curves. His body was aching for a woman, and he was still angry at having missed out on the triplet sisters. But this woman was a lady, and that excited him even more, because he always liked a challenge. So mayhap he wasn’t as immune as he thought.

“Nay, I’m no’
goin’ te tell ye,” he told her, looking away from her rather than to focus on that alluring cleavage any longer and be pulled under her spell.

“It’s all right, Onyx
. Ye dinna need te protect me anymore.” He heard the voice of his mother, and looked up to see her standing at the foot of the stairs just beyond the drink board.

“It’s her!” The old dock
man appeared in the crowd and pointed close to her face. “She’s the one, I tell you. I’d know her anywhere.”

“I should o’ kent
ye’d ne’er stop givin’ me trouble,” said Fenella. “Twenty years later and ye’re still sellin’ yer secrets fer money, ye bloody bastard.”

Instantly, the guards surrounded his mother
, and Onyx and his friends moved forward to protect her.

“I see you have my mother’s
ring on your finger,” said Lady Lovelle, pointing to Fenella’s hand. Onyx had always thought his father had given that ring to her. Or at least that’s what she’d told him through the years, and he’d believed her. Now he was starting to have his doubts about anything she’d ever told him.

The baroness
nodded to her guard, and the guard reached out and pulled the ring from his mother’s hand. He took a step forward to intervene, but stopped when his mother looked at him and shook her head.

“Mathair, is the
t true?” asked Onyx. “Did ye really steal the ring?”

“I consider it a payment fe
r the life of me husband,” she spat.

“
You also stole something very valuable from my mother, and I want it back. I think you know what it is.” Lady Lovelle walked up to Fenella and crossed her arms over her chest when she spoke.

“I’ll ne’er te
ll ye where I hid it. I’ll go te me deith with me secret.” She spat at the guard’s feet, and he grabbed her and held out his sword when she started to struggle.

“Take her away,” ordered the baroness
.

Onyx’s dagger
was in his hand instantly, and his friends followed his action with their daggers as well. But before anything happened, Storm MacKeefe appeared at the top of the stairs and shouted.

“There’ll be no blood shed here tonight.” He came down the stairs slowly,
and joined them. “Now tell me, what is it this woman stole and why do ye think ye can just take her away?”

“We’re taking her back to England where she’ll
die by hanging,” said the guard.

“For stealin’?” asked
Storm with a chuckle. “A harsh punishment fer such a crime. I’d think ye’d put her in the stocks or the dungeon or perhaps dye her hand red, or even take off a finger, but no’ kill her.”

“She’ll be tried by the court and j
ust punishment will be served for the crime she’s committed,” said Lady Lovelle.

“And what crime may that be?” asked Storm.

“Twenty years ago,” said the baroness with her arm outstretched, “this woman murdered my father.”

Chapter 3

Onyx had never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. And he didn’t like anyone accusing his mother of doing something he knew could not be true.

“Haud yer wheesht,” he said, telling the girl to hold her tongue. “Me mathair did no such thing as murderin’ anyone.”

“These are strong accusations,” sa
id Storm, stepping forward. As clan chieftain, he had the final say of what would happen to Fenella. “Ye have no right te accuse her o’ such unless ye hold proof o’ this crime.”

“We have eyewit
nesses who saw her leaving Worcester Castle,” said the guard, “as well as the dockman here who saw her escaping afterwards on a ship to Scotland.”

“Dinna tell me ye took twenty years te find the lassie,” said Storm. “That I wil
lna believe since ye say ye ken it was her.”

“I was the one to pursue this after
such a long period,” Lady Lovelle spoke up. “My mother decided not to continue the search once the guards told her that my father’s assailant had disappeared.”

“Why
would ye want to?” asked Onyx. “Why would ye do such a thing? Ye’re too young te e’en have ken yer faither, so I doubt it’s becooz o’ yer fond memories o’ him.”

Everyone in the pub gathered around, and the Scots slowly pulled their dirks, daggers
, and swords from their sides. The English guards did the same. The Scots outnumbered the English guards and it would be no trouble to take them down and silence them. Onyx knew the men didn’t have a chance for escape now.

Mothers grabbed their children and held them close, and the young girls stayed far away from the Englishmen.

“True, I didn’t know my father,” said the baroness, taking the ring from the guard and placing it on her finger. She blew her breath on the stone and then shined it on her gown. “But this woman also stole from my mother, and I will see to it my mother’s things are returned.”

“Ye have yer ring back, now le
t it lie,” spat Onyx. “Go now afore it’s too late. Trust me, ye dinna want te start a fight here and wit’ so many Scots present. Ye dinna stand a chance.” Onyx took a step toward his mother, but a guard moved forward and blocked him.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” said the guard. He nodded to one of his men who opened the door to the pub. A cold gust of wind blew in, and with it snow. Onyx looked up to see another
half dozen soldiers standing in the doorway, and this time he recognized the king’s coat of arms upon their chests. “You see, we have the king’s men on our side as well.” He motioned with his hand and the men marched into the room. Then the guard took hold of Fenella and pushed her toward them. “Take her back to King Edward, and he’ll see she gets what she deserves for killing one of his barons.”

“Nay!” shouted Onyx
, raising his dagger and rushing forward, but Storm was faster and blocked his way, gripping him by the wrist.

“Put away the dagger,” Storm told him. “Ye dinna make a move like that against the king’s men unless
ye want te answer te King Edward yerself.”

“We canna let them get away wit’
this,” he ground out. “Storm, ye need te do somethin’.”

He not
iced the Englishwoman taking her gloves from the guard, and slapping them against her hand. “There’s naught he can do,” she said, walking right up to him. “That is, unless you find what she stole and bring it back to England before she’s sentenced.”

“But me
mathair is being wrongly accused,” he told her. “Isna thet right?” he asked, looking up to his mother whose arms were being held by the guard. Instead of the anger on her face he’d expected to see for this absurd accusation, he just saw his mother with her head down and shaking it sadly.

“Fenella?” asked Storm, walking up to her. “Did
ye kill this man or no’? Tell us now, becooz if ye are innocent, ye ken we will all fight te the deith te protect ye.”

“The
t’s right,” said Onyx, gripping his dagger tightly. “I’ll kill e’ery one o’ ye damned English curs.”

“Onyx,” his mother said in a stern voice. “Ye will do no such thing. I am guilty fer the crime they say I comm
itted, so put down the dagger afore ye get yerself killed, ye fool.”

“Nay!” He started
forward, but Storm held out his arm to stop him. “Ye’re our laird, do somethin’ fer crissakes,” he told Storm.

Storm’s eyes scanned the room filled with English soldiers, and then he looked at every Scot there who was well in their cups, but willing to fight if need be.

“We are in the Lowlands and this isna a place or time fer battle,” he reminded Onyx. And yer mathair admitted te the crime,” he said in a low voice. “And I willna risk the lives o’ me clan or any o’ the Lowlanders here tonight either, protecting a lass who is guilty. Nay, Onyx, she must pay fer her crimes.”

“T
ake her away, said Lady Lovelle’s guard, and the king’s men hauled his mother to the door.

“Mathair,” cried Onyx, rushing a
fter them in fury. Aidan and Ian grabbed him from behind and held him back.

“Dinna be a fool,” warned Aidan
. “There are wee ones, bairns, and lassies here.”

“Aye,” agreed Ian. “Ye raise the
t dagger again and they may all lose their lives.”

“Just bring me what was stolen
, and I’ll personally ask the king that your mother gets a lighter sentence,” the woman told him.

“So if I find and return the stolen item ye’ll spare her life?”

“If you want to see her alive instead of hanging from the gallows, find and return the stolen good. But I warn you, I won’t wait long, so do be fast about it.” Lady Lovelle picked up her headpiece from the table and went about replacing it, and tucking her hair back into the attached net.

“
I dinna ken what was stolen,” he said. “Let me talk to me mathair, now.”

She
raised a brow, then looked toward her guard and nodded slightly as she removed the ring and put on her gloves, then once again put the ring back on her finger.

“Let him talk to her,” she said
in a cool tone. “But first he and his friends need to put away their weapons. And don’t leave her side. I don’t trust that he won’t try to take her from us.”