“This kinnae be!” Isobel moaned. “Father would nae do such a thing!” she insisted, but Graham noticed the doubt flickering in her eyes and he suddenly felt sorry for her. Isobel looked to Marsaili, who shook her head.
“Yet he did,” Marsaili said with no emotion. “He did ravish Graham’s mother, and she had me as a result. I am half-MacLeod and half-Campbell, truly wanted nowhere.”
Graham winced at the woman’s painful words. He wanted to reassure her that she would be welcome, but he knew it would not likely be so. He himself was having a hard time with the revelation, but he would do all in his power to ensure she was welcomed.
“Father wanted ye. He loved ye and gave ye a home,” Isobel said in a strangled voice.
Marsaili’s eyes narrowed. “To use me and ye. We are but pieces in his game for the throne.”
“Nay!” Isobel cried out, her voice ragged with pain. “It kinnae be.” She glanced at Graham, and he saw the wild desperation in her eyes to cling to her belief that her father was good. “Mayhap my father and yer mother came together in passion, and yer mother did nae wish yer father or anyone to ken it.”
“Nay,” he clipped, the word harsher than he had intended, but he could not allow her to spout such an irrational notion.
Isobel opened and closed her mouth as if she could not find words. He saw tears fill her eyes, but she seemed to will them away. “How am I supposed to believe any of ye?” she asked in a suffocated whisper. “Ye—” she pointed to Marsaili “—lied to me. And ye—” she motioned to Graham “—seized me for some foolish revenge!”
“Foolish revenge!” he thundered, seeing her and Marsaili flinch as one. “Yer family plotted with my uncle years ago to seize my sister, Lena, and make my family believe she had drowned in the loch, all because my uncle wanted revenge against my father and believed he should be laird of our clan.”
“I kinnae—” Her voice broke midsentence. “I kinnae believe this is true,” she finished in a shaky tone.
“Kinnae or will nae?” he asked gently, for she looked as if she were glass cracking before his eyes.
She hugged herself, and he had the sudden, strange desire to pull her into his arms and offer her comfort. He curled his hands into fists by his sides as her gaze met his. “I will nae believe it,” she finally said, but her trembling voice betrayed her uncertainty.
Still, he did not feel triumphant. Understanding and pain rushed through him. He remembered well when he could no longer deny his mother did not love him as she loved Lachlan. It had been a great wound that had festered until he faced it and learned to accept it. Isobel needed to hear everything so she could begin to accept the truth.
“Yer father,” he said in a low tone, “helped my uncle seize my sister, Lena. He kept it a secret that she was even alive for years, in hopes that it would buy my uncle’s fealty, which it did.”
She shook her head as a look of bone-weary sadness passed over her features. “I dunnae ken what to believe.” He felt something squeeze in his chest at her words and her tear-filled eyes that clung to his.
“Isobel,” Marsaili said softly and stepped toward her.
Isobel flinched, and Marsaili halted her steps. “I would hear my father’s side,” Isobel said stiffly, looking from Graham to Marsaili and back again.
Admiration for her loyalty, for the woman herself, settled within him. He started to turn to retrieve his rations bag when she spoke. “How did my brother Findlay come to be married to yer sister?”
“By force,” he growled, unable to keep his voice from sharpening with rage. “My uncle coerced her into the marriage to complete the alliance between himself and yer father. And then yer brother beat her into submission and branded her.”
All the color drained from Isobel’s face, and her hand fluttered to her neck. “Findlay is vile,” she whispered.
“Nae just Findlay,” he corrected. “Yer brother Colin was just as bad.”
Her lips pressed together in an angry line. “Colin was good to me.Always.He treated me with love and kindness.”
“Yer brother Colin ravished my brother Lachlan’s woman, Bridgette. He seized her, branded her with an iron, forced her to marry him, and then he brutally took that which she did nae wish to give him.”
“That kinnae be so!” she cried out.
“It is so,” he countered in a hard voice.
Isobel looked to Marsaili. “Do ye ken of this?”
Marsaili shook her head. “I dunnae ken what Findlay did to Lena or Colin to Bridgette. I have nae met either woman, as I was nae ever treated as truly part of the family. But I believe what Graham says given how cruel Findlay and Colin have been to me.”
“How am I to believe ye?” she demanded angrily. “Ye lied to me, used me, and betrayed me. I dunnae ken ye. And what I ken of ye is that I kinnae trust ye, and that ye hate our father and brothers for nae treating ye with love.” She slashed a hand in the air. “And ye!” She pointed a finger at Graham. “Ye are asking me to denounce my father who has shown me love all my life.”
“He dunnae love ye!” Marsaili cried out. “He only kept ye safe ’til now to gain control of Brigid Castle!”
When Isobel jerked as if Marsaili’s words had hit her like fists, Graham waved a hand. “Enough,” he ordered as pity stirred in him.
