Three
Several hours later, Brodee sat on the dais in the great hall of his new home. He surveyed the room. Tables and chairs had been overturned during the fight to claim the castle, and now the line of Kincaide men prepared to bend the knee to him and pledge their loyalty to both him and King David was trailing out of the room. He knew not to put much stock in words of loyalty, though. Only when those words were backed up by action, repeatedly, would he give more trust to the men; he would exile those who proved their oaths meant nothing.
A commotion at the door caught his attention. When he saw the guard he’d sent to look for Father Murdock enter the great hall, Brodee thought the man must have found the priest whom Brodee had instructed to hide in the kitchens during the attack on the castle. He had brought the MacLeod clan priest with him at the offer of the MacLeod. If time had permitted, Brodee would have traveled home to Hightower Castle to collect Father Donnely for the wedding, but they did not have much time and the MacLeod had offered his priest. And since Brodee had not wished to rely on his enemies priest to faithfully wed him to Patience, he’d taken MacLeod’s offer.
Yet instead of Father Murdock’s voice, he heard a woman’s voice suddenly at the entrance to the great hall. His heart beat increased with the expectation that Patience Kincaide was about to appear. He had summoned her and William from the chapel, but a different woman—lovely but no comparison to Patience,he thought, surprising himself—picked her way through the great hall. She held her head high and had a haughty tilt to her chin. As she approached him, his guards stepped forward and pointed their swords at her.
He waved a hand for them to stand down. “The day I need guarding from a lass is the day ye all should look for a new laird.” God’s teeth, but it felt odd to think of himself as a laird now.
Laughter rolled through his men and even some of the Kincaide men, who were lined up before him.
He first turned his attention to the guard he’d sent to fetch Father Murdock. “Where is the priest?”
The guard pressed his lips together. “In the kitchens. He refuses to leave. He claims ye instructed him to stay there until William came to fetch him. Brodee let out an annoyed sigh. He had said that, but he’d not expected Father Murdock, a man who loved his drink more than God, to follow Brodee’s instructions so faithfully. A suspicion rose. “Is there wine in the kitchens?”
“Aye,” the guard said grimly.
Brodee gave a nod. He’d send William to deal with Father Murdock soon enough. Decision made, he focused on the woman before him. “How may I help ye?” he asked.
She cut in front of the man who was next in line to bend the knee and strolled right up to Brodee, stopping within touching distance. She offered a slow, welcoming smile. “I’m here to aid ye.”
Another wave of laughter, one of assumption, went through his men, but this time, Brodee waved them to immediate silence. Even if Patience was addled, he had no intention of taking another woman to his bed. Vows made before God were sacred, whether he wanted to make them or not. When he gave them, he’d honor them.
“How are ye here to aid me?” he asked.
“Ye’ll need a wife to run this castle properly,” the woman said, leaning forward and giving him a clear view of her ample breasts.
Even if he wasn’t to wed Patience, he had no time or tolerance for a woman who was trying to wind him around her finger. He’d been coiled tightly around a woman’s finger once before, put there by his own desires, and the pain that had resulted from the loop would never be forgotten. “I’m afraid, Lady—”
“Kincaide,” she said, smiling slowly, rather like a cat. An evil one waiting to claw him.
“Sister to Silas and Lamond?” he asked, surprised their sister would be offering herself to him like that.
She nodded. “I am LadyKinseyKincaide, aye. Ye killed my brother Silas.”
It was a flat statement with no emotion. He answered in kind. “I did, but only because he tried to kill me first.”
She inclined her head at that. “I heard ye sent Lamond to his death, too.”
He stiffened at that. “I sent yer brother to the king for justice after he refused to bend the knee once I took the castle in the king’s name. This was commanded by the king himself.”
“Seems the rumors of ye being fair are true.”
“I’m pleased ye think so,” he said.
She nodded, as if she’d expected him to say just that, as if she’d assessed him and thought she knew him. God, if the woman truly knew him, she’d not be standing here. “Ye’ll make a fine ruler of my home,” she said.
“Crag Donnon Castle belongs to us Blackswells now,” one of Brodee’s younger guards piped up.
“Crag Donnon Castle,” Brodee said, “belongs to the Blackswellsandthe Kincaides from this day forward.”
“Ye mean the men,” Kinsey muttered.
Now he saw why she had come. She feared for her place with her brothers gone. The thought of Patience, his possibly mad betrothed who had yet to appear, made him frown. Where the devil were she and William?
“All Kincaides are welcome to join my clan, as long as they are loyal. That includes the women, who are an important part of every clan.”
He wanted to unite the Blackswells and the Kincaides if he could, not divide them. Division bred hatred, disobedience, and bloodshed. He wanted no part of any of those things. He wanted peace, and he hoped to God to find it here. It had proven damned elusive thus far in his life. The disquiet that had hounded him as a child and at the home he’d grown up in had followed him on every mission he’d embarked on for the king over the past year.
