Chapter 17
Later, Stellan and Anders held a quiet conversation while the others, including the Sinclair guards meant to watch them, shared hunting and fishing mishaps they had suffered, to roars of disbelief and hoots of laughter.
The noise they made was the perfect cover for the twins to discuss their next move.
“Ye were right that I have strong feelings for Ailsa. Ye heard her say her father willna accept the idea of our wedding, but ’tis the best way to end this siege and let everyone go home. I believe Ailsa still hopes to convince her mother to change his mind. Somehow.”
“’Tis worth a try.”
“If Ailsa is right and Sutherland has more than one thousand men camped around Sinclair, her father must ken he canna win at this game he’s playing.”
“Nay, he canna. Sutherland would be in a stronger position, except for us being in here.”
“And except for one very bad piece of news she gave me.”
“How bad?”
Anders let his gaze rove over the Sutherlands occupying the other cells, all focused on making as much covering noise as they could.
“The Sinclair has tired of the siege and has begun to listen to his son’s counsel.
If aught doesna change soon, he will begin to kill a Sutherland, one at a time, until the army outside his walls breaks camp and leaves.
Ending with me, saving ye for a final inducement. ”
“Well, that’s some comfort to me,” Stellan quipped and Anders forced a laugh.
“If Sinclair is fool enough to start down that path, ’twill do him nay good,” Stellan continued. “Da willna accept the deaths of our men. He will tear down this keep and kill every man in it.”
“Aye, and he has enough men to do it.” Anders shook his head.
“I canna ken what Sinclair hopes to accomplish, save that their supplies are limited and so long as he has ye, he considers the rest of us expendable. The force outside his walls can hunt and fish, cut down his forests, do whatever they wish while he is locked up in here. Once food runs low and his people begin to starve, he’ll start tossing the rest of us off his walls if by then he hasna already.
All save ye. For the rest of us, dead or alive willna matter. ”
“Where are his allies? Has he sent word to the Norse king?”
“Ailsa hasna mentioned that. I dinna ken. But ’tis likely that Rose and Brodie ships guard the entrance to Sinclair Bay, so if he reached out before Sutherland arrived, they willna be able to reinforce Sinclair by sea, and ye can be sure Da has patrols out looking for trouble from the landward side.
Ailsa hasna said yet whether Raghnall will allow any of us to help harvest the fruit trees in the orchard.
It lies behind the kitchen garden, much closer to the forest outside its wall than anywhere else around the keep.
But we can only get out that way if they are foolish enough to let all of us into the orchard together.
A few at a time leaves the rest here to suffer for any who escape. ”
“Even if we canna get out that way, ’tis a good idea.
These lads need some time out of this place,” Stellan said and looked around with a frown.
“I dinna ken what the season is outside but ’tis colder here, and at night, so dark I canna see my hand in front of my face.
The only light is around the corner and down the hall for the guard.
Little to none of it reaches these cells.
During the day, they give us more light. What if they stop doing even that?”
“Ailsa would put a stop to all of this if she could.”
“Aye, but she canna. We are Sutherlands. We will tolerate what we must and do what we can until this is over.”
Ailsa heard her mother’s voice as she entered the kitchen after her visit to the dungeon.
Maesie would be waiting for her to help with the plant harvesting.
They still had to keep a record of what was left and how soon it might be ready to use.
Ailsa didn’t see what was gained by doing this every day, but her mother insisted.
“I told him to leave the cats alone,” her mother complained as she stalked out of the kitchen. Cook followed close on her heels.
Ailsa hurried to catch up. Her mother’s angry tone was not something she often heard. That was bad enough, but Cook’s worried expression chilled her. “What has happened?”
Lady Sinclair stopped, whirled to her daughter and pressed her lips together, her fury palpable in the sudden silence of the great hall.
“Cook found rats in the granary,” she snarled.
“Rats that the cats wouldha killed, but the few that are left are hiding and no’ doing their job.
Yer brother decided they were more of a challenge to hunt than the rodents, and yer father said naught against him. What sort of son have we raised?”
She whirled, continued her stomp across the great hall to the solar, and flung open the door.
The solar was empty.
“Where are they? I’m going to flay them both!”
She hurried past both Cook and Ailsa and into the bailey, barely letting the keep’s heavy door open wide enough for her to squeeze through.
Outside, Ailsa spotted her mother’s quarry. Her da stood talking to Boden and Raghnall near a set of stairs to the wall walk.
“Ye!” Lady Sinclair charged forward, nearly knocking down poor Raghnall in her haste.
“Wife, an offer has come to trade one of our hunters for Stellan Sutherland. Can ye believe the bollocks on Sutherland?”
“I’ll take care of Sutherland’s bollocks,” Boden boasted, indignation reddening his skin.
Her father laughed off his son’s bravado.
Ailsa’s mother’s temper only heated while he ignored her. “Husband!”
“Now Wife, what fashes ye?”
“Yer son, ’tis what. I warned ye about him harming the cats.
Now we have rats in the grains. Ye,” she huffed, “laughed when I told ye what he was doing. And ye,” she snarled, turning on her son and stabbing a finger into his chest, “are going to find and remove every one of those rodents. Ye want to kill something? Have at them!”
Cook, when Ailsa’s father turned to her for confirmation about the grain stores, could only nod. Ailsa remained mute.
Boden put a hand over his mouth, choking back laughter. “I have a better idea. Kill the Sutherlands one at a time to convince the invaders to leave. The grain stores willna matter.”
His mother slapped him, shocking everyone around them into immobility. “Winter is coming, ye daft eejit. Even without an army at our feet, we must have that food for the clan. The next harvest is months away.”
She turned back to her husband, ignoring the glowering rage on her son’s face. “Keep him in line, and set him to catching rodents—now—or the first person tossed over the wall will be yer heir. He hasna the sense to be yer successor.”
“’Tisna a fit occupation for the Sinclair heir,” Boden objected, finally realizing his mother was serious.
“Any occupation I deem fit is what ye will do. For now, ye will do as yer mother directs,” Sinclair ordered with a glance at his wife. She stood fuming and tapping her foot, while her glare burned at her son.
“I should be on the wall,” Boden objected again.
Ailsa had to believe her father was smart enough not to fall for Boden’s whining. Her brother didn’t have the sense to know when to stop. She had never seen her mother so angry, nay, enraged.
“If I see ye on that wall before every rodent is expunged from this keep,” Lady Sinclair snarled, “I’ll make sure ye go over the side. Sutherland can deal with ye as he sees fit. He seems to ken how to raise responsible sons.”
Ailsa swallowed a gasp. Surely her father would not let that cut pass. But he did, for the moment. The look he gave her mother promised they were not done with this incident.
“Boden, get to work,” Sinclair growled. “And if ye touch another cat, I’ll toss ye over the wall myself.”
Now Ailsa wanted to cheer. It was rare for Boden to suffer consequences of any sort, and these were particularly humiliating, especially delivered at full volume in the middle of the bailey.
But she feared what he would do when her parents were not looking.
“He has a point,” Sinclair said to his wife as Boden stalked away.
“Fewer captives, fewer mouths to feed if food supplies run low. He counseled tossing one over the wall with a threat pinned to him to continue with one each day. I would bet before we got to the Sutherland’s twins, any army out there would withdraw. ”
“Nay, Da, ye canna.” The words slipped out before Ailsa remembered she was doing her best not to draw his attention while tempers flared.
Her mother gave her a warning glance.
“But I can stop coddling them,” her father said, his tone milder than she expected. “If food is in short supply, their rations get cut first. Cook, dinna think to disobey me in this.”
Cook nodded, but her expression said plainly that she didn’t like his order.
This was one of the fears plaguing Ailsa.
She couldn’t believe the damage Boden had done.
Good men might lose their lives because of his cruelty.
Her mother was right. He was not fit to succeed her father.
But when the time came, unless something drastic happened, he would. The thought saddened her.
In the meantime, the Sutherlands would suffer.
Anders would suffer. And if her da came around to Boden’s point of view, men she’d come to know and like would die.
Men who should have been sent on their way immediately when they were found instead of brought inside the keep.
And for what? Ransom? Gold and cattle that Sinclair did not deserve? None of it made sense to her.
After Ailsa finished the latest count of viable plants in the kitchen garden with Maesie, she went to the orchard gate. In the orchard, six of the Sutherlands were helping several Sinclairs harvest ripe fruit from the trees.