Marsaili sighed. “I ken why ye dunnae trust me, and I dunnae blame ye, but I vow, I did nae ever intend to let ye be used. I will help ye escape if ye dunnae wish to go to the king, but hear me, Sister. Ye are a great prize, and ye may find yerself married to a man like Jamie MacLeod as Father wishes, who certainly must be worse than any man the king would choose for ye.”
“Says ye,” Isobel said stubbornly, though she feared the same.
Marsaili opened her mouth as if to argue when a shout came from the group of men. Isobel looked toward them, and one of them stood. She thought she had heard the man called Rory Mac bellow, “An eye for an eye!” and a chorus ofayeswent up around him.
“’Tis nae an eye for an eye,” Cameron growled. “They took our sister from us for twelve long years. We have only just taken the Campbell’s daughter.”
Isobel cringed. They were speaking of her! Marsaili’s hand came to her shoulder and squeezed.
Cameron stood next and glanced down at the group. “It is nae a true repayment for what the Campbells and Jamie did to Lena and Bridgette, but it is a start.”
Rage exploded inside Isobel even as she heard Graham say, “Sit down and shut yer mouth, Cameron.”
Cameron was slow to obey, and she could sense his vexation at Graham. Her insides coiled as she remembered what Graham had said was done to his sister and his brother’s woman, and Cameron sounded as if he wished the same fate for Isobel.
Her heart beat hard as she curled her hands by her side. She would not go as a lamb to the slaughter. She had to escape until she had more facts or maybe even some position to bargain for her own future. Currently her grandmother held the castle in Isobel’s name with the help of her estranged husband, the MacKinnon’s, warriors. She had no notion if her grandmother would aid her in bargaining with the king, but she was a possible ally to remember.
“Why do ye order me to silence, Brother?” Cameron growled. “Has the comely Isobel made ye forget that her father conspires against King David to put his nephew, the High Steward of Scotland, on the throne? Will ye forego allegiance to yer king and family to join with the traitor’s daughter? Has the dark-haired ban-druidh bewitched ye, then?”
Isobel shook in anger at Cameron’s words. He’d besmirched her name and called herban-druidh. She was not a witch! She kicked the plaid away from her and lay on her back on the ground. She glared up at the sky, cursing Cameron, the MacLeods, and even Graham, who had not said a word to defend her, with the few foul words she knew. She really had to learn more words to properly damn her enemies in her mind.
Graham spoke then, and she glanced his way. He had stood and was looming over his brother. “Careful, Cameron. I ken yer anger. I have it in me, too, but Isobel Campbell is naeban-druidh, nor is she to blame for the sins of her family.”
“Ye did nae believe that before ye met her,” Cameron spat.
Isobel tensed in expectation of Graham’s response.
“I did nae, ye are correct,” he said. “But I was wrong. I see now that she is innocent.”
For a moment, she warmed at his words and the small comfort they offered, and then Cameron spoke again. “Are ye saying ye will nae fulfill yer vow to the king?”
“Nay. I will fulfill it,” Graham replied. “She will be in less peril with the king than with her father or another.”
“Ye almost sound as if ye are championing her,” Cameron snarled.
She drew a quick breath of utter astonishment.WasGraham championing her? Was he truly trying to protect her?
Chapter Six
“I’ve said what I wish,” Graham snapped, not liking that Cameron was trying to force him to say more, to say that which could rip their family apart if no one understood Graham’s point about Isobel.
The tension between them pulsed in the air, and Graham knew his men could feel it. They shifted in their spots, and they all wore uncomfortable expressions. Graham locked gazes with Rory Mac, who winked at him and stood. “If I was nae married,” he said, “I’d be happy to champion the lass as long as she paid me in favors.”
This drew rounds of laughter from the men, and though it irritated Graham for Rory Mac to refer to Isobel in a lewd manner, he knew his friend had been striving to break the tension, and he was grateful.
Cameron eventually joined in the laughter. “She is bonny,” he admitted. “Of course, she’d have to be tamed. She’s got a sharp tongue, but a sound smack on the bottom would curtail her biting words.”
Graham could not help but laugh at his brother’s boastful and woefully ignorant words, but once his laughter died, he gripped Cameron by the shoulder. “’Tis always good to discover, Brother, that there is a bigger fool when it comes to women than me.”
Cameron scowled at him. “How do ye consider me a bigger clot-heid than ye?”
“Well,” Graham said, striving for patience, “women are like kittens, aye?”
“Ye need rest,” Cameron grumbled. “Ye are speaking nonsense.”
Several of the men chuckled, but Rory Mac nodded his agreement. “I’ve been married now five years, Cameron, and yer brother speaks the God’s truth. A womanislike a kitten. Ye pet it, give it attention, and show it kindness, and then the kitten wants to do what ye wish. Ye say, ‘Here, kitty, kitty,’ and the kitten comes running. But if ye are cruel to the kitten, then it will try to scratch and bite ye.”
“Or run away,” Graham added, looking swiftly toward where Isobel and Marsaili slept.
