Chapter 7
“T
hat didn’t seem tae go especially well, did it, my lady?” Aidan observed gruffly as they rode away from the McDaugh keep.
“Indeed nae,” she agreed. “What a thoroughly frustrating man! I cannot believe I came here expectin’ honest answers from him. I must be a fool.”
“Even lies can be honest in their own way, my lady, if one knows the correct angle tae examine them from,” Jamie suggested timidly. “The way a person chooses tae espouse their falsehoods may be revealin’ indeed, in many cases.”
“What sort of meaningless double-talk is that?” Aidan asked impatiently. “A fellow is either lyin’ or he isn’t!”
“Nay, I believe I ken what Jamie is tryin’ tae say,” Pelna spoke up, “and he makes a good point. What did ye observe, then, Jamie? Do ye believe he was speakin’ the truth? Or, if he was lyin’, do ye feel he likewise betrayed his true motives and intentions tae us in some other way?”
“I would not presume tae state anything as a certainty in that regard,” Jamie began cautiously. “That would be far above my station, my lady.”
“Never mind that,” she cut in. “I respect and trust yer input.”
He smiled shyly, blushing. “Thank ye. That means a great deal tae me. Fer what it’s worth, I’m not sure he was being insincere at all. He seemed as genuinely surprised by this entire matter as we were, and it didn’t feel like a mere performance on his part.”
“As if ye are capable of determinin’ that, lad!” Aidan scoffed. “First, the boy says lies aren’t lies, and now he apparently claims he can read minds like some devil or witch!”
“He has said no such thing, and I will thank ye nae tae interrupt him again when I have solicited his opinion,” Pelna told him firmly.
Aidan looked chagrined but said nothing further.
“Go on, Jamie,” Pelna encouraged. As she did, she glanced up at the sky, noticing that dark clouds had gathered overhead and the first flickers of lightning were visible within them. It was certain that they were about to be caught in a storm, which made her bitterly lament this trip all the more.
“As I was sayin’,” he went on slowly, appearing to give the matter serious thought, “Gareth did seem tae make a valid point when he said he had no reason tae dissemble in this regard. If he meant tae scare us by killing old Bran, why claim ignorance now?”
“Tae confuse us, perhaps?” Pelna guessed. “Tae make us less certain so that we hesitate and second-guess ourselves while they move in for the kill?”
“Those things are entirely possible, my lady, I admit,” Jamie replied.
“However, it is equally possible that some McDaugh clansman did so without Gareth’s knowledge or permission.
Likewise, the idea of a plot by the Sinclairs has the ring of truth tae it.
These are things that might be worth lookin’ into. ”
“Aye, but how?” Pelna sighed, feeling the first few drops of rain patter on her head and shoulders lightly.
Thunder rumbled ominously. “The entire thing feels completely out of our hands. We have attempted tae gather intelligence through the use of spies in the past, but that has never been successful, and every attempt has managed tae make things more hostile.”
“Perhaps we might take Gareth’s offer of peace a bit more seriously, then?
” Jamie ventured. “We might make further overtures in that regard and, in doing so, encourage him tae investigate his own people for answers. He did make a point, ye ken, when he said that the only hope tae end these wars will be for the new generation tae make peace where the previous lairds have failed.”
“Do not listen tae the child, my lady!” Aidan growled.
“He is young and idealistic. When ye’ve fought and bled as much as I have, ye learn nae tae give yer enemy the benefit of the doubt!
Rather, ye look fer yer advantage, and when ye’ve found it, ye cut them down as swiftly and soundly as possible! ”
“That seems a rather cynical view of things, Aidan,” Pelna scolded him, “and nae one that will lead tae a happy end fer any of us. Have we not fought these wars tooth and nail fer countless years now? Are we any closer tae an end tae it? How many more of our people must be lost before we find a way out of all this violence and horror?”
As if to illustrate her point, they approached a series of abandoned homes and farms at the border of the McDaugh lands.
In the initial raids and battles between the clans, these were the people who had paid for the conflict with their lives before any others since they were positioned closest to their enemies.
Those who hadn’t died had been forced to move farther from the borderlands to preserve the lives of their families.
It was a dreary and terrible sight to behold, especially in the gray rain.
All of those empty domiciles that had once held cheerful mothers, fathers, and playing children, now standing vacant and steadily falling into ruin.
Pelna and her guards continued to ride through the desolate area, and she peered into the empty maws of the doors and windows while they did.
In her mind, she envisioned the people who had previously inhabited these dwellings and what their day-to-day lives might have been like if they hadn’t been killed or displaced.
So much tragedy, and for so damned long. How much longer could the Wallace clan be expected to endure before it crumbled under the unrelenting pressure from not one enemy but two? Would they prevail somehow or be swept aside and forgotten forever?
She wished she could have some way of knowing the future.
As it was, though, there was only one part of what was to come that she could surely predict: If this rain continued, she would be soaked and chilled to the bone.
“Come, we had best make haste,” she advised her companions, urging her horse on all the faster.
The two men followed suit and rode hard toward the Wallace keep, hoping to outrun the storm.
Alas, their hopes were soon dashed as the sky opened up and the rain poured down upon them in sheets and torrents.
Lightning forked across the angry sky, and thunder cracked so loudly that Pelna could feel it deep in her bones.
She tried to simply keep going forward on the road, even though the downpour was so heavy that she could barely see ahead.
With each new roar of thunder, the horses grew more panicked and temperamental.
“We ought tae seek shelter and wait out the storm, my lady!” Jamie insisted. “Fer yer safety!”
“Very well!” she called back.
They turned and began to make their way back to the abandoned structures, but just as Pelna started to ride ahead of her escorts, a bolt of lightning hit a tree beside the road, and it groaned like a dying giant.
Its burning trunk folded in half and came down across the road behind her, cutting her off from the two men who’d been with her.
“Aidan?” she cried out apprehensively. “Jamie?”
But there was no answer. She wasn’t even certain they could hear her voice over the shriek of the winds and the pounding of the rain.
She briefly considered trying to ride around the tree to look for them on the other side, but when she saw how the water had reduced the ground on either side of the road to muddy slush, she thought better of it.
There was every chance that her horse might lose its footing and injure itself in the attempt—and then she would be cut off from her guardsmen, without a steed, and stuck on the wrong side of their border with the McDaughs.
That seemed to her to be a rather dangerous combination and one she was not willing to risk.
She decided that the wisest and safest course of action would be to ride back to one of the abandoned homes and wait within until the bad weather had ceased.
In doing so, she could keep a lookout for her companions if they came looking for her—and, if it came to it, duck and hide from McDaughs who might seek to do her harm.
Pelna had no particular reason to believe that, as a result of their parlay, Gareth would send people specifically to overtake her and her escorts for nefarious purposes.
Even so, the meeting with him had left her so uncertain of his intentions overall that she felt it would be wise not to take any chances if she could help it.
Right now, all she wanted in the world was to return to her own home safe and dry so that she could give the matter its due consideration and consult with her father about it.
This entire venture had left her with far more questions than answers, and that, along with the constant howling of the wind and clapping of thunder, was giving her a dreadful headache indeed.
Her horse was growing more unhappy by the moment, and after a brief search, she was able to find a farmhouse standing vacant with a dilapidated barn next to it. She led the horse into the barn and stood next to it, dripping, watching the fat raindrops slam against the ground.
Pelna wrung out the hem of her dress, then did the same to her long red hair, shivering.
How long will the storm go on? she wondered.
Will my people find me before then? She had a hard time believing that they would simply continue on to the keep without her since they had been charged with ensuring her safety while in McDaugh territory.
And besides, she thought wryly, young Jamie will seize upon any opportunity tae make himself seem a noble hero in my eyes, the poor pup.
Just then, she heard the sound of hoofbeats drawing closer. For a moment, she thought it might be Aidan and Jamie coming to join her until she realized they were coming from the wrong direction.
There was a member of the McDaugh clan approaching.
She hunkered down next to the door of the barn, trying to get a good look at the rider without being spotted. Because of the heavy rain, though, all she could make out was a dark shape on horseback. He passed by the barn, and it seemed as though he would continue on his way.
But after a short distance, he stopped and turned, slowly making his way back in her direction.
Her heartbeat slammed against the back of her throat, and now she was not merely trembling from the cold but from fright as well. Who was this rider?
What might happen to her if she was discovered by him?