“Alex may well be dead by the end of this night if ye dunnae. My brother is cunning and fierce, and if he believes Alex has betrayed him, betrayed the MacLeods and the king, he will nae hesitate to cut him down.” She held Donald’s gaze. “But Alex would nae ever raise his sword to end my brother’s life, even if his own is at stake. Ye ken this!”
“Aye,” Donald replied, his face grim. “I do. Alex will be furious at ye for breaking yer oath and at me for allowing it.”
Impulsively, she hugged the Scot. “I ken it,” she said, “but ye and I are strong souls. We can handle Alex’s anger with us.”
When she drew away, both Donald and Broch were gaping at her. “What is it?” she asked.
“Ye have become a formidable lass,” Broch said. The admiration in his voice made Lena blush.
“Aye,” Donald agreed. “From skittish creature to a warrior lass. But dunnae overestimate yer strength. There are some men here ye would nae want to be alone with.”
“I ken it,” she replied, sweeping her gaze across the great hall and finding Lady Euphemia watching them. An idea came to her that, if it worked, could possibly be a way to secure the remaining lowland traitor’s name that Alex needed. “I intend to try to get information from Lady Euphemia.” When Donald’s mouth went slack, she patted his arm. “Dunnae fash yerself, Donald. I can see she is a viper in a sheep’s disguise. But if I can get her talking, I may learn what Alex needs. Now, dunnae attempt to leave the great hall until ye see me talking to her, and her attention is upon me. She has been watching us.”
Both men nodded, and Lena rose, turning back briefly to say, “Godspeed,” before crossing the great hall with purposeful strides, holding Euphemia’s gaze even as the woman stared at her with narrowed eyes. Euphemia was in conversation with another woman, but Euphemia broke it off and walked away, leaving the woman standing there with a baffled look upon her face.
Lena met Euphemia by an empty table. They stopped face-to-face, and Lena realized they were almost exactly the same height. But that, she was sure, was all they had in common. Lena cocked her head, as though contemplating if she should reveal something, or at least, she hoped that’s how she looked.
“Do ye have something ye wish to say to me?” Euphemia asked, her words almost scornful.
“Aye,” Lena said slowly, her mind only then coming upon exactly what to say. “Stay away from my husband! He is mine!”
Euphemia smirked. “Why would ye believe I’d want yer husband?”
Lena narrowed her eyes. “I heard the servants talking. They spoke of how ye have chased after Alex for years and how he has always ignored ye.”
Euphemia’s mouth went from gaping to twisting viciously.
“Get it in yer head,” Lena snapped, hoping what she was doing was working. “He dunnae wish for ye. He could nae ever. Ye’re, ye’re—”
“Exactly what yer husband craves, ye little fool. The gossip ye heard was incorrect. Alex has a hunger in him that only I can satisfy. Only I can ken what drives him, what he needs.”
Lena gritted her teeth against the worry that mayhap Euphemia could understand Alex better than Lena did, as the woman might possibly know some of his secrets, which was much more that Lena could say. “He dunnae need ye. He needs a woman to give him gentleness,” she said, momentarily speaking the truth of her heart.
Euphemia chuckled, a low, grating sound. “Ye poor fool. If ye believe that, ye will nae ever have his passion. I did hear,” she said with a wicked smile, “that he thinks ye cold.”
Lena felt her cheeks heat. Had he said that? She knew it wasn’t true, that if he had spoken such a thing, he’d had to, but it still felt shaming.
“Yer marriage was forced on him,” Euphemia hissed. “My husband told me so. Even now, Alex has ridden out to capture yer brother to prove his fealty to my husband.”
Lena gasped to feign surprise. “He would nae ever betray the king!”
Euphemia gave Lena an incredulous look. “Ye’re a bigger clot-heid than ye look. Yer husband is betraying yer precious king, and Alex will come for me. He always has when he is near me. ’Tis why he stayed away from me this long. His respect for my husband makes Alex wish to control his need for me, but I saw the way he looked at me with hunger.”
God’s teeth! When had Alex seen Euphemia?
“When?” Lena demanded.
Euphemia smirked. “Before he left to capture yer brother, Alex came to me to tell me he wanted me still.Neededme.”
“Ye lie!” Lena said, even as doubt crept in and she felt as if her world was tilting.
“Nay,” Euphemia replied. “Being with me helps him tame the demons inside him.”
Lena’s heart thumped hard. “What do ye ken of what torments my husband?”
“Clearly, quite a bit more than ye ken,” the woman replied, her tone cruel. “But I’ll nae share his secrets with the likes of ye. He told me in confidence.”
Lena sucked in a sharp breath at the idea that Alex had bared his soul to this wicked woman when he would not do so to her.
