Chapter Twenty #2
“I donna have time for your foolish behavior. Ye were always a willful child. Howbeit ye are a clever MacKenzie. Even if the MacDonell discovered what ye were about, ye would’ve still taken the stone and preserved what is ours. Now where is it?”
“I donna have it.”
He grabbed her forcefully by the arms. “The last Ennis predicted was Lewis. I need to give him that stone, Sybella.”
“Ennis? Anabel’s father is your seer?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I will nae ask ye again.”
“Then I will only need to respond once. ’Tis sleeping in the cold depths of the loch where it waits for your cold, black heart.”
His eyes darkened. “Enter!” Two of her father’s guards opened her bedchamber door. “Take her.” Each man grabbed Sybella by the arm and started to lead her out the door. Her father’s voice was soulless. “I know ye have the stone. Until ye come to your senses and give it to me, ye can sit—”
She whipped her head around. Shock and anger lit up her eyes as she faced him. “In the dungeon? Ye would place me in the dungeon for a rock?”
“That stone is our clan’s future. Ye, my dear, are nae. What kind of father would I be to place ye in the dungeon? Throw her in the pit.”
She paled.
In the middle of the night, she walked through the darkened halls in her bare feet dressed in nothing more than a nightrail and a blanket.
She shivered, but it wasn’t from the cold.
The pit was where her father threw the most unsavory of men…
until they died. Their faint screams could sometimes be heard from the kitchens.
Perhaps her father only had the men escort her to frighten her.
Of course, that was it because her sire would never treat her this way.
He couldn’t. She was his daughter. The daughter of the MacKenzie laird. A lady.
Sybella quickly pushed back the thought when they descended the cold, damp stairs. The smell overwhelmed her senses, reeking of bodily excrement and making her gag. The guard reached down and lifted the gate from the floor while the other lowered a ladder. They forced her to climb down.
She took one step and tears welled in her eyes. “Please donna do this. I beg ye.”
“We donna question our laird’s command. Please climb down, m’lady.”
With no choice but to descend into the devil’s dungeon, she reached the bottom and the men lifted the ladder. The gate locked over her head and she was embraced by darkness. Muck of unknown origin squeezed between her toes and when she tried to step, she slid and fell into something thick and wet.
She screamed.
The hole was dark and foreboding, and she felt a wretchedness she’d never known before. A raw and primitive grief overwhelmed her. She pulled herself to her feet, and when she slid again on the slimy floor, she sat down.
Sybella felt something move on her lap. She reached down and grabbed a ball of wiry fur, whipping it away from her body. Dear God, her father left her alone with the rats. She gulped hard, hot tears slipping down her cheeks. Perhaps Mary or Colin would hear her.
“Please help me! Please help me! I’m here! I’m here!” she screamed. “Mary! Colin! Help me! Let me out!” When she heard no response, she bellowed, “Mo mhallachd ort!” My curse on you!
When cursing her father didn’t work, Sybella’s tears choked her. Her throat was raw from her screams of terror, her teeth chattered, and her body trembled. A sensation of intense sickness and desolation swept over her.
She jumped.
“Where is the stone, Sybella?” Her father’s voice echoed from above. “Tell me where ’tis and I’ll lower the ladder.”
“Cha leig thu leas.” Don’t bother.
“Ella, stop this madness and tell me.”
“I told ye. The stone is at the bottom of the loch.”
“Why must ye be difficult? Ye are so much like your mother.”
“Thank ye.”
“I give ye fair warning. Ye arenae coming out of there until ye give me the stone.”
“Ye will ne’er destroy Alexander! Ye are naught but a mhic an dhiadhail!” Son of the devil.
His voice hardened. “Then ye can sit in the bowels of hell.”
Sybella shouted in a mix of anger and fear. She was furious at her vulnerability to him. Alex and John were right. Her father was a horrible man. As she sat in her darkened prison, she knew her only hope was if Mary or Colin would hear her. She would scream until she had no more voice left to give.
***
Colin was sitting down to break his fast when Mary walked into the great hall. She took her seat and was quiet, withdrawn. She seemed worried. Angus leaned over and whispered something in her ear.
“Madainn mhath,” Colin said to her. Good morning. “Have ye checked on Ella this morn?”
Mary’s eyes clung to his, analyzing his reaction. “Is it true then? Did ye do all of that to your own sister?”
“Wife,” Angus warned.
For the first time in his life, Colin saw Mary blatantly ignore her husband. “I asked ye a question.”
“Ye donna understand,” said Colin.
“And what part do I nae understand?”
“Mary,” said Angus in a firm tone.
“Donna ‘Mary’ me, Angus.” She turned and her eyes narrowed at Colin. “Ye placed Sybella in a situation she couldnae possibly win. Ye asked her to choose her clan over the man she loves. Nay woman could be expected to make such a choice, a sacrifice.”
His eyes widened. “She loves him?”
“Is that so hard for ye to believe?”
There was a heavy moment of silence.
“Have ye checked on Ella this morn?” he repeated.
“Have ye?”
“That is enough, Wife.”
She pushed away her trencher and stood. “It seems I’ve lost my appetite. Pray excuse me.”
Colin watched Mary storm out of the great hall with Angus nipping at her heels.
In truth, Colin shared Mary’s opinion. He was disappointed in the man he’d become.
Beyond trying to protect Sybella from the MacLeod, he realized he should’ve been protecting her against her own clan.
He wondered when he’d lost sight of the difference between right and wrong.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat at the table alone, but when his father didn’t come to break his fast, Colin was somewhat surprised. No matter, now that his sister was home, he would try to make amends.
Colin ambled through the halls and found himself in front of Sybella’s door. He knocked, and when she didn’t answer, he opened the door.
“Ye will nae find her in there.”
He turned around to find his father standing in the hall. “Where is she?”
“Recovering my stone.”