Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
"They're cooking." Theon sounded surprised as they approached the camp, hand-in-hand, and indeed the smell of roasting meat was the first thing to greet them. "I thought they would have cleared out by now. I suppose they judged that we're safe for at least another night."
"The Cameron soldiers are unlikely tae find us here. They passed us hours ago, and the sun has set—they willnae bother us if we let ourselves rest for a while," Briana replied.
He smiled at her, and her heart leapt with joy.
Would she ever get used to that smile? Part of her hoped she wouldn't so that she could feel the same ecstasy for the rest of her life.
They moved together into the camp and found the three other men sitting around the campfire, turning a spit above the flame with a crackling grouse cooking atop it.
Keir was the first to notice them. He jumped to his feet as they stepped into the firelight. "Thank God ye're safe. I was gonnae try tae find ye, but Noah—" He stopped, his eyes dropping to their joined hands.
Briana held her breath, and her joy dimmed as she saw the expression of hurt, confusion and pain that flashed across Keir's face.
"Theon?" Keir asked. His voice sounded nothing like what Briana was used to.
He sounded young. Vulnerable. Wounded.
Noah and Graeme exchanged glances, and as one they stood, approaching with a feigned casualness, one on either side of Keir.
Briana caught Noah's eyes and nodded minutely at the warning she saw there, and ever so gently, she let go of Theon's hand and moved a little further away.
Theon glanced at her and then back at his brother, his expression suddenly grim.
"Keir," he said. Then he cleared his throat.
"All of ye. There's somethin' I need tae confess.
I suspect… I suspect that perhaps Graeme has already guessed the truth, but ye all need tae ken it.
It's about the letters. The hostage letters.
" Theon paused again, then drew them out. "I never sent them."
"What?" Keir asked, his voice strangled.
Theon flicked his wrist, tossing the letters into the flames. Briana watched them burn, tears prickling at the corner of her eyes as she understood what he had just done. What she had just done. She had chosen to stay with them—chosen to be a traitor, just as they all were.
There was silence. And then Keir exploded.
"Ye bastard!" he screamed.
Noah and Graeme moved, both grabbing one of his arms. Keir tried to shrug them off, but when they held tight, Keir stopped struggling and instead glared at Theon with pain and disgust written all over his face.
Briana's heart crumbled as she recognized the agony in that expression.
Keir had never been kind to her, but she knew that pain.
She'd felt that pain in her own heart for almost her whole life.
"Ye traitorous bastard! How could ye do this?"
"Keir…" Theon started.
"Dinnae! Is she really worth all of this?
And even if she is, is she worth more than yer brothers?
More than me?" Keir shouted, agony in his every word.
"All yer talk of us takin' our home back.
All yer promises of restorin' what we'd lost. Of clearin' our names of the lies. Ye've stolen that away, and for what?"
Briana blinked. "Clearin' yer names?" she asked, confused. "What lies?"
Keir swung his wild gaze toward her. "We'll die as outlaws, branded traitors. Me father's memory will be tarnished forever. And why? Because of yer father. Because he and MacFarlane and their ilk murdered me people in their beds."
She shivered. Theon tried to speak, but she held up a hand. "Let go of him," she said softly.
Noah and Graeme obeyed after only a moment of hesitation, and Keir scowled, shaking them off. He didn't move toward either her or Theon, but he did keep glaring at her.
"Please tell me what ye mean."
Something in his gaze shifted, something like confusion replacing the hatred there.
"Ye're tryin' tae tell me that ye dinnae ken?
" he asked in disbelief. "Ye wish me tae believe that ye were ignorant tae how Cameron and MacFarlane men raided the MacKenzie Clan and killed our men in their beds, violated our women, and stole away our bairns?
Am I tae believe yer father never gloated about how he destroyed us while we slept?
We four barely escaped with our lives, but ye—ye were safe and warm, the princess in her tower. "
Briana swayed, dizzy from his words. She could not push them away.
The earnestness within them hurt more than any insult he could have thrown at her.
She glanced at Theon, but he just bowed his head, looking grim.
Graeme, too, wore a serious expression. She sought Noah, who had once served her clan, knowing that he was the only one who could give her the whole truth.
"Tell me," she whispered.
Noah closed his eyes. "He told ye I was dead because he feared what ye would do if ye kent the truth, I think.
He feared that we'd grown too close, and if ye kent what had happened, ye'd try tae follow me.
" He opened his eyes and met hers, his expression serious.
"The MacKenzies were never traitors, Briana.
But, technically, I was. And I'd do it again. "
Briana stumbled, and Theon moved to her side, catching her elbow and supporting her. Keir narrowed his eyes, but he didn't react. "I dinnae understand," she whispered. "Why would ye betray us?"
"Yer father was never gentle. Ye ken that better than anyone.
He treated his own daughter as harshly as he did his enemies.
" Noah shook his head. "I was young. Just a lad, really.
If it hadnae been for ye, I'd have left long before.
I stayed as long as I could. I need ye tae believe that. But what I saw that night…"
Theon spoke softly. "I woke up tae smoke and the smell of blood. I tried tae reach me father and I found him already dead, his mistress by his side. They were in their nightwear, bloodless in their bed. They never had a chance."
Keir made a sound that might have been a sob. Briana shivered at the violent image, remembering that the mistress had been Keir's mother. If this was true, then the fury he felt, the agony that pulsed from him at every instant…
"All I could think was that I needed tae find me wee brother," Theon went on. His voice grew hoarse. "He was only fifteen. Just a lad. I didnae care about the fire, only about findin' him. I think it burned me, and I passed so many bodies, but none of that mattered. I just needed tae find him."
"And he did," Keir said bitterly. "I was outside.
I'd snuck out that night tae meet a lass I fancied, can ye believe it?
I returned tae find me home in flames and me people dead around me.
I was screamin' for me mam when that Cameron bastard found me and pressed the knife tae me throat.
" He touched his neck where a faint scar still shone.
Noah placed a hand on Keir's shoulder again, this time not as a restraint, but as comfort.
"He was goin' tae kill the lad. I had nae choice," he said grimly.
"I turned on them that night. They had already branded me a traitor when I ran tae try tae warn the MacKenzies, but I sealed me fate when I killed me fellow commander for the sake of the enemy's bastard son. "
Briana gasped. She could see it now. Noah, who had saved her so many times, giving up everything that he had ever known to save a scared boy and to try to save an innocent clan. Everything made sense, and though she cried, something in her heart lifted as she finally understood the truth.
"Tae kill a man tae defend another—aye, there's honor in that kind of warfare," Noah said. His expression darkened. "But tae ambush people in their beds? Nay. There's nae honor in that. That isnae what I wanted tae be. If that makes me a traitor, then I wear that brand with pride."
Briana clung to Theon, barely able to stay on her feet. The world was upside down. Everything she'd known was a lie. Or, perhaps, the world had finally righted itself. All of this death, all of this destruction, and for what? Land? Money? Power?
"They found me half-dead as they fled. I'd fought hard tae defend the castle village, but I was only one man.
The rest of me brothers-in-arms were cut down before they could even reach their weapons," Graeme added somberly.
"They saved me. And we've been together ever since.
Sworn tae right the wrongs done tae us. The wrongs done tae our people. "
An owl hooted somewhere in the forest. It was hard to believe that the Cameron men had been so nearby only a while before with the serenity of night all around them.
Briana looked up at the stars shining overhead, little dots of light that saw everything and whispered the secrets of the world.
How many betrayals had they witnessed? How much pain? How much hope?
She stepped away from Theon and bowed her head. "I didnae ken any of it. I… I thought…" She shook her head. "It doesnae matter what I thought. What matters is that I believe ye. I ken the truth in me heart and me soul, and I hope ye can forgive me."
"Forgive ye for what?" Noah asked. "The crimes were yer father’s, nae yer own."
But Briana shook her head. "I am a daughter of Cameron.
I hold guilt for what he has done while I bear his name.
" She took a deep breath and gave Theon a nervous glance.
He smiled and nodded at her, warm and encouraging.
"I ken I am useful tae ye as a hostage and a barterin' chip.
But I throw meself at yer feet and ask ye tae consider another path.
Even if MacFarlane and me father agree tae yer terms, I ken now that they cannae be trusted tae keep tae their side of the bargain.
So dinnae give them the chance tae betray ye. Let me stay."