Chapter 15 #3
In the farthest reaches of the crumbling building, a place so hidden and disreputable Caitlin had not even known it existed, lay a shaggy brown cow.
Caitlin's heart wrenched when she saw a flower crown dangling from its crumpled horn.
She could envision Fiona, trying to banish her fear of being caught by dancing about in triumph, draping the wreath of blossoms over Boann's horn.
Fiona, who had known a brutal existence for so many years, must know that if she were caught stealing a cow, the life's blood of Ireland, she would face disaster.
Gormley stumped over to the beast, ripping the flowers from Boann's head. The cow lowed, backed away, fear darting into her eyes at the sight of her master—a man with a capacity for cruelty Caitlin was certain the forlorn beast knew all too well.
"By the feast of Saint Columcille, how did she get in here?" Fiona feigned shock, struggling to find some way, any way, out of this tangle. "Perhaps a fairy hoax."
"The fairies be damned! It was your trickery from the beginning, trying to make me believe the beast was cursed because you wanted to cheat me out of what is rightfully mine!" The rage of a man who loathed being made to look the fool ignited in Gormley's sunken eyes.
One meaty fist grasped a handful of Fiona's hair, twisting the bright curls in a brutal grasp. Caitlin winced as she saw Fiona sink her teeth into her lower lip to keep from crying out.
"You are coming with me," Gormley snarled. "I have waited a long time to find some excuse to see you dead. Rid the land o' vermin, I will. Hoped the warriors would save me the trouble, but now, I vow, I will see to your end myself."
Caitlin saw the flicker of fear in Fiona's defiant face.
For years, Fiona must have done as countless other small creatures—darted away when enemies drew close, outwitted them, outmaneuvered her foes by relying on speed and intelligence to escape.
But as with those other creatures, once a predator sank its claws into her flesh, the game was over.
Caitlin swallowed hard, knowing it might mean disaster if she stepped into Gormley's sight, but what else could she do?
Saints alone knew when Niall would return.
Even if he went to fetch his sister the instant he rode into Castle Daire, the girl might be dead or missing a hand by the time he reached her.
Caitlin searched desperately around her for something, anything, to use as a weapon, but she found nothing.
Like Fiona, she would have to rely on her wits.
Sucking in a deep breath, she stepped out to block their path.
Gormley nearly slammed Fiona into her, nose first. The girl gaped at her in disbelief and alarm.
"What the—who—" Gormley's jaw went slack.
Caitlin shivered, down deep in her soul, at the filthy expression in those glowing pig-eyes.
"Aye, and who is this, Fiona? Is it the fairy queen herself you have stolen away like my cow?
You need not fear, my ripe little beauty, Turloch Gormley will take care o' you now. "
Drawing herself up as though she were mistress of Daire, Caitlin leveled a glare at him. "You will release Fiona at once," she commanded.
"Nay, not even for you, my pretty dove." Gormley gave a coarse chuckle. "She is a thief and a liar, a wee rat scrabbling about decent folks. Been trying to catch her in her wickedness for years, find proof of her ill deeds, and now, at last it is time for Ronan's daughter to face the devil."
"She says she does not know how the cow got in here!" Caitlin argued with little hope. "Perhaps it wandered in when I—we were gathering the rushes."
Gormley's mouth puckered. "Do you take me for a fool? She stole that cow, and now she has to pay for it."
Pay—the word rang through Caitlin's mind.
The bracelet of gold seemed to grow warm upon her wrist, her one link with her mother and father, the token of love they had tucked amongst her wrappings when she had been taken from their arms forever.
It had been dangerous enough to let Gormley see her face, but once she revealed something so rich, so exquisite, it was certain the pig-eyed lout would never forget her.
Aye, a voice grieved deep inside her, and if she surrendered the bracelet, she would never again be able to cradle it against her heart as she lay in her bed, knowing her mother's and her father's hands had touched it. Those parents who had loved her but she had never seen.
Caitlin swallowed hard, raising her chin with defiance she did not feel. "If Fiona could pay for the cow, you would let her go, Gormley?"
"I did not steal his infernal cow!" Fiona protested, so absurdly Caitlin wanted to shake the girl herself.
"You must be newly come to this place!" Gormley said with a nasty chuckle. "There has been nothing at Daire worth spitting at for years. But if you could pull a bag o' gold from the air, fairy queen, I might be convinced to forgo the pleasure o' making this scrap o' vermin squeal."
Caitlin fought to steady her voice. She dared not let this man know how terrified she was.
Beasts like Gormley thrived on fear. "I have something I might be willing to trade for Boann.
You call me the fairy queen, and everyone who has met you of late has heard you complaining that this cow is cursed.
You have had little but ill luck since you got her. "
"I tell you, this miscreant girl is the cause of all that!" Gormley blustered.
"Aye," Fiona said hoarsely, "blame it on the fairies, on me, on anyone but yourself! You look at her, see the scars on her! Scars from you beating her.”
"Damned if I will let such as you accuse me!" Gormley sputtered.
"It is true!" Fiona raged. "I cannot even guess how many times I have seen you, drunken and mean, lashing at any creature who stumbled into your path. Your cows, your wife, your sons! Aye, and then they beat whatever poor wretch they can lay hands upon!"
God above, Caitlin marveled in terror, was it possible the girl did not know what kind of wrath she was about to bring down on her head?
"Fiona, do not—"
"And as for stealing your accursed cow, what about all you stole from Daire when I was still too much a child to stop you?"
"Girl, close your mouth, or I vow I will close it forever!" Gormley's face washed red. "I will not be accused by the likes of you!"
"Anyone with eyes can see through the window—chairs with my parents' initials intertwined. A bridal bench my father carved with his own hands during the winter they were first wed."
Caitlin saw the guilt flash for a moment in Gormley's face, not out of remorse but because he had been caught. Then he sneered, puffed up with the knowledge Fiona was helpless to do anything about his crimes.
"The cow should be mine! Payment for what you stole, old man!"
"Then why do you not summon your famous brother to do battle over the wrongs done you, little rat? You always claimed he would when you were a stripling girl! Remember how you would howl threats at us? Niall is coming soon! My brother will flay you—"
"Be quiet, old man, or I swear I will see you dead!" Fiona's voice broke, her face ashen, and Caitlin's heart bled for her.
Gormley gave a cruel laugh. "It was most amusing all those years past. But now you know what we knew even then, do you not, Fiona of Daire! Your brother, the bold champion of Glenfluirse does not care if you starve and rot here any more than I do!"
"That is not true! Niall is even now—" Caitlin could not keep from protesting, then almost bit her tongue.
Had she not already made enough of a mess of things?
Gormley must not know Niall was here! But it was too late.
Gormley's eyes glowed. "The great champion has come to take the scrapings of Daire's pot at last, has he?
He will not tarry long here. All Ireland knows he despises every stone in this place—aye, and cares not if you and your mother starve as well, eh, Fiona? "
Caitlin wanted to argue, wanted to fling angry words back at him, but it would only make matters worse if this cur realized just how much Niall now cared.
"No one cares what happens to Daire scum, and you should know that above anyone, Fiona!" He sneered. "All Ireland knows you deserved what befell you, after what Ronan did."
Fiona's eyes burned with murder, and Caitlin made a last, desperate attempt to deflect that rage before any hope of striking a bargain was gone.
"You said that if we paid for the cow, you would let Fiona go," she reminded him levelly.
"Perhaps so, but after what she has been saying, it would take a king's ransom to equal the pleasure I would get from making her pay."
Caitlin reached for the bracelet, felt the gold warm her skin one last time. "Would this be enough?" she asked, slipping the exquisite circlet from her wrist. She held it out to him, the gold mellow in the dim light.
The man's eyes nearly popped from his head. "That is a finer piece than ever I saw in my life, girl. Where did you get such a thing?"
"It does not matter." Caitlin swallowed hard. "Will you accept this as payment for Boann?"
"Caitlin—" Fiona gasped.
Gormley licked his lips, greed extinguishing his rage. "Have you lost your wits? You could buy a herd o' beasts for such a price. Yet you are willing to trade it for just one?"