Chapter 18 #2
“That couldha gone very badly for ye had the Sinclairs no’ spoken up,” Stellan said.
“Aye, but they gave the laird nay chance to draw the wrong conclusion. I’m grateful for that.”
“I, too.”
Anders glanced up to see Ailsa coming down the stairs. Surprised, he must’ve stared at her a beat too long without speaking.
She tilted her head and gave him a hesitant smile. “Good day, Anders. Stellan. Am I disturbing ye?”
Anders backed up a step and swallowed a laugh.
Disturb him? Her presence was the high point of his day, and filled his dreams at night.
The guards had placed the extra torches they provided during daytime hours, and the firelight lit her hair adding more red to the gold in it.
He could stare at it for hours. “Nay, ye never could. What can I do for ye, Ailsa?” He gestured her to a seat one of the guards had left in the open space between the rows of cells.
“Ye made a good impression on my da today,” she told them. “I hope that will make him reconsider some of the things he’s been most stubborn about.”
Anders could think of several. But beside the betrothal he wanted, little else mattered as much.
“I only did what was needful,” he answered.
“Maighread made certain Da understood the danger of the injury and how yer actions saved the lad’s life, especially when the Sinclairs nearby did little or naught to help.”
“Maighread arrived almost immediately. There was naught for anyone to do save obey her. I did that. If my actions make yer da rethink anything that led to the siege or that is prolonging it, so much the better.”
Ailsa nodded. “I want to talk to ye about the siege. How do ye and the other Sutherlands think it can be ended?”
Anders glanced aside at Stellan, who nodded for him to go ahead. “Why do ye ask?” It seemed a strange question for a lass.
“Something my mother and I discussed.”
“Aye?”
“There are many options and just as many opinions. I thought it might help if ye had a say.”
“So, ye will take my words to yer father? Ours?” He indicated Stellan.
“If I think they will help sway him, aye, I will.”
Anders settled on the bench behind him so that she did not have to keep craning her neck to look up at him from her seated position.
Looking at her, he could see the stairs out of the dungeon off to the side.
The view gave him too many ideas, too many longings, for freedom and for her.
He needed to pay her the respect of focusing on her questions and giving her a well-thought-out answer.
“The first thing that comes to mind is trading Sutherlands for yer hunters I’ve heard were caught in the woods by one of our allies. ”
“How did ye hear about that?”
“We overheard the guards discussing it. ’Tis true Sutherland wants to trade all of us for a handful of Sinclairs?”
“’Tis what he wrote in a missive I saw. Da wasna pleased.”
“Would that no’ say to yer da that his men are worth more than two or three Sutherlands, each?”
“’Twould certainly appeal to my brother’s vanity,” Ailsa said after an unladylike snort. “But I dinna think Da would fall for it.”
“He would still have our birlinn. ’Tis worth a great deal,” Stellan said.
He’d been so quiet, Anders was surprised to hear him speak.
“I ken that is true, but Da asked for cattle and gold,” Ailsa reminded him. “Ye dinna think the Sutherland would buy it back in the coin Da demanded?”
“I dinna ken,” Anders said. His father would be more likely to find a way to steal it back, but Anders didn’t want to plant that idea in her mind.
“Sinclair is well-supplied, but it canna withstand a siege forever,” Stellan said quietly.
“Da thinks we must only wait until winter sets in, aye? Men in tents willna fare well against the weather once ’tis cold and dark.”
“If the siege lasts that long, they will have built a village out of yer forest and have supplies put in to last till spring or longer,” Stellan insisted.
“I told him so,” Ailsa said and crossed her arms.
“And they can be resupplied by land and by sea. How long will Sinclair’s supplies last when ye canna hunt nor fish?”
“’Tis a concern.” Her gaze dropped to her hands. “But it should be a concern for ye, as well.”
“It should be,” Anders told her. “’Tis.” He wanted to reach out and take her hand, but her gaze was on the floor and if he wasn’t mistaken, her thoughts were on how hungry her clan would be by spring.
“Yer da must be made to see that holding us is a fool’s errand.
Sutherland and its allies can outlast ye. ”
Suddenly, she looked up, tears in her eyes. “No’ if he starts killing yer men to force Sutherland to relent. If our people are starving, he willna feed yers.”
“Lass,” Anders said and reached for her, a futile gesture given the space—and the bars—between them.
He didn’t know what to say to that. It had always been a possibility.
Even a probability. No warrior wanted to die a prisoner, but rather honorably, on the field of battle, protecting his home and his loved ones.
“Besides yer other men, he holds ye and yer brother,” she continued, fighting to speak as she stood and began to pace. “I canna bear to see any of ye killed for old men’s pride.”
Anders stayed seated, letting her walk off her frustrations, for he was certain that’s what he was seeing.
She had always cared for him, and now she had others of his clan she felt responsible for, too, and a situation that looked dire for all of them.
He wished he had words of comfort to offer—and a solution to offer everyone.
“’Tis more than that, and well ye ken it.
On both sides. ’Tis blood. And history. And the future. ”
“There is another way,” she said after a few calming breaths. She turned to face him and stepped up to the bars of the cell he shared with his twin.
“Marriage,” Anders supplied quietly as he joined her at the bars. “Is that what ye want, Ailsa?” Hope was a bird, fluttering its wings in his chest, trying to beat its way out into the world.
“’Tis better than the alternatives. We like each other.” She glanced aside at Stellan, who politely turned his gaze away. “We want each other,” she added even more softly. “’Twould harm nay one, and would link our clans for that future ye mention.”
“I will ask yer da for yer hand. ’Tis an alternative I like well.”
“’Tis a fool’s errand.” She dropped her gaze. “He willna give his aye. He returned from Orkney with a betrothal offer from the Norse king for one of his sons.”
“Is he fashed about an alliance with the Norse?”
“Nay, I dinna think so. But a betrothal …”
“Aye, well, he would find Sutherland important, as well, if he stopped to consider it. Or look out over his walls at some of the number of allies we can call upon.” He took her hand again. “We could handfast. Even through these bars, we could do that.”
“We could, but how long do ye think he’d let ye live once he found out?” She pulled her hand away.
“Ye, my love, are worth the risk. Even the sacrifice.” He could die a happy man after even one night with Ailsa. Nay, he couldn’t. He would want more. All of their nights and all of their days, as long as they lived.
“Nay, I am no’,” she insisted, brow furrowed. “It willna end the siege. And if ye are dead, what good was a hand fasting with a ghost? I willna allow ye to do something so foolish, even if ’tis brave, even if ’tis for both our clans. Da must agree to our marriage. So must yer da.”
“Mine will, never fear. If he has any doubts, Stellan and I will convince him.”
She eyed him. “’Twill be hard to do from in here.”
“No’ if I can get a missive out to him,” Anders said and glanced around at Stellan, who nodded. “Who takes missives from yer da outside the walls?”
“I dinna ken.”
“Could Tasgall?” Anders would ask him the next time he saw him.
“I’ll ask him about it, but ’twould be dangerous if Da found out and thought ye were sharing Sinclair secrets with Sutherland.”
“Let Tasgall read it. Give it to yer mother to read it first, if ye think she will support our betrothal.” If Ailsa was right and she truly was an ally, she could make the difference. “I dinna want anyone ye care about harmed if yer da finds out.”
“When he finds out. Surely he will. In fact, Mother might be the one to tell him, hoping ’twill be enough to convince him to accept our union to end all this, though she kens Da favors the Norse betrothal offer.
She has tried without success, but if she keeps at him—perhaps he’ll see reason.
If he learns of this, I fear he will make certain we canna see each other.
He’ll forbid me visiting ye or any of yer men here.
” She cupped his cheek. “I dinna ken what to do, save that I will dream of ye tonight, Anders.”
He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, holding his lips to her skin as if he could draw strength from her soul.
“As I dream of ye every night, Love. I want ye more than anything. And if our marriage is the answer to ending the siege, even better. But we must find a way to make yer da accept it. Only then can it happen.”
“Get down there and get him out. Now!”
The moment Anders heard Boden Sinclair’s voice, he knew trouble was coming. But for which Sutherland?
He and Stellan traded a look, then he stood and moved to the bars of the cell he shared with his twin. Stellan joined him. Their movement alerted the rest of their men. They stood, too.
It took only moments for four guards Anders had never seen to troop down the steps and shove Raghnall’s man aside from his post at the bottom of the stairs. Boden followed them down, the smirk on his lips promising something more than an opportunity to taunt the Sutherlands.
“Anders Sutherland,” he said, “I’ve come for ye.”
“Really?” Anders slouched against the bars between him and Boden’s men. They had to be Boden’s and none of Raghnall’s. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Raghnall’s guard was gone. To fetch his guard chief and the laird, Anders hoped. “Is there aught ye wish to ask me?”