Chapter 21
After ordering water and food be brought up to Sloane, Lachlan ran into Isla as he headed out to see what his men had found. Her eyes widened at the sight of him and she immediately lowered her head.
“Are ye going to check in on her?” he asked in a low voice.
“Aye. I heard that she was working with my mother today. She hated Sloane even before Sloane opened her heart and home to me. I cannae imagine that she’s had an easy day of it.”
“Does she hate her enough to try and kill her?” Lachlan demanded.
“Try and kill her?” Isla gasped. “Is Sloane all right?”
Lachlan noticed that she didn’t answer the question. “Aye, but she needs someone to tend to her wound.”
“Ye are her husband,” Isla said menacingly. “Ye should be tending to it.”
He opened his mouth and clamped it shut again. She wasn’t wrong. He’d pledged in his wedding vows to keep her safe and twice now, she’d nearly died on his lands. He didn’t trust her, but that didn’t mean that he was going to let her die.
“I need to find out who is targeting her,” he said stiffly as he turned to walk away.
“Ye are punishing her for something that is not her fault,” Isla said behind him.
“Ye grew up with a family who loved ye. Ye have no idea what it’s like to accept scraps of anything and try to believe that it was love.
My mother used to dress me up and do my hair and tell me how pretty I was and how I would make ye the perfect wife and I thought that was love. ”
“What?” Lachlan turned around. “Ye wanted to marry me?”
“Heavens, no. Even living in this keep terrifies me. I am much happier in my own little cottage tending a garden, but my mother wanted to have a room here. She wanted the prestige and she blames Sloane because she didna get it, but the truth is that I’d already made my decision and told her so.
That is the day I knew that my mother was never going to love me. ”
She turned to look down the hall toward Sloane’s chambers. “I doona know when Sloane reached her breaking point, but I know that she refused her father. Ye have no idea what kind of courage that takes.”
It was probably nearly as much courage as Isla was possessing right now to stand up to him. “If I discover that yer mother is trying to kill my wife, ’tis a capital offense.”
“I understand,” she said softly.
“The father of yer child…”
“Is not a MacFarlane,” she finished quickly.
“And has no idea that I am pregnant, not that it matters. I made a decision to keep my mother from doing something drastic to throw me in yer arms. I didna intend to get pregnant, but it was my choice and I will take care of my child. I doona regret my decision.”
“What was yer mother planning on doing? I had already decided to wed Kenzy.”
“To get what she wants, my mother would stop at nothing. I doona know if she tried to kill Sloane, but I know that she is capable of murder.”
Was she insinuating that Robina would have killed Kenzy? How could so much deceit be going on in his clan and he not know about it?
“Ye should have reported it.”
Isla put a hand on her belly. “I took care of it.”
“Ye still should have said something.”
“Kenzy is gone. She left when ye married and when all is said and done, she is still my mother. I couldna be the one to send her to her death.”
Life in the Highlands could be violent and brutal, but he had no idea that the women were conspiring to kill the competition. The product of his own ignorance was an innocent woman, pregnant, scared, and alone. If Sloane hadn’t stepped in to help her, what would have become of Isla?
“See to my wife,” Lachlan said finally. “I will speak to yer mother.”
Her eyes flashed in disappointment and he knew that she was upset that he wasn’t the one to care for her, but he needed to make sure that she was safe first. Then he would try and deal with Sloane.
Adair, Blaine, and Jamie were waiting at the edge of the forest when Lachlan joined them. “Well?” he asked shortly.
Silently, Blaine held out a bow. A strip of plaid was tied around the base of the bow and he clenched his jaw. “Am I to believe that Errol would really send someone out to kill his own daughter?”
“I saw someone racing through the woods, but their face and body were completely covered. They wore no colors, but they dropped this in their hurry to get away,” Jamie explained. “The arrows are unmarked, so I believe that they werna planning to leave any sign of their loyalties.”
“Double the patrols. I want to know how he got over the border,” he hissed. “And I want to make sure that he doesna leave. Search every barn, cottage, and storehouse. If he has an ally, they will pay as well.”
Blaine frowned. “Ye think he has an ally?”
“I think there is too much going on in my clan that I have been ignorant of for too long. Blaine, Jamie, see that it gets done. Adair, with me.”
The men parted and Adair fell into step with Lachlan. “Ye have been sullen all day. I suppose ye want to tell me that I am mistreating my wife.”
“She doesna think so,” Adair said shortly. “She thinks she deserves to be punished.”
“And ye think she is wrong?”
“I think she didna have anything to do with what happened to Freya. I think she hasna done anything to betray ye. I think the only thing she is guilty of is trying to figure out how to be a daughter to a man who hates her, mistress of a clan who hates her, and wife of a man who—”
“I have done nothing but love her,” Lachlan interjected. “Doona claim any differently.”
His friend glared at him. “I wasna. Ye treated her well and that is the reason that she chose ye, but she has never been part of a family before.”
Lachlan blew out his breath and tried to focus on the task at hand: find Robina and discover just how deep her treachery ran. “I doona want to have to tell her that her father is the one trying to kill her.”
“Elspeth has been raging for days. Isla overheard Sloane and her father and told Elspeth. From what I have managed to glean from my wife, Sloane’s father dropped all pretenses. It doesna surprise me that he would try and kill her. I imagine that he doesna care for people who disobey him.”
They approached the pasture and found Robina staring angrily at the fields. As Lachlan and Adair approached, her eyes lit up with glee, and she met them at the fence.
“Laird, if ye are looking for Sloane, I doona know what to tell ye. She arrived late for her chores and she left before she finished them.”
“And by chores, ye mean changing the water in the trough by herself and rolling out the new hay bales by herself?” Lachlan asked lightly.
Panic washed over her face before she narrowed her eyes. “Is that what she told ye? Well, ye know that she is a traitor. Ye can add liar to that as well when ye find her.”
Lachlan’s hackles rose and he took a step toward her until Adair cleared his throat. “I know where Sloane is,” he told her darkly. “She is recovering from an arrow wound. Tell me, Robina, do ye know of anyone who would want to kill my wife?”
“So, she’s yer wife again? After what she did to poor Freya, I imagine that most of the clan wants her dead, but I didna shoot her and I take offense to ye even asking,” she spat.
“And what if I asked ye if ye were planning on killing Kenzy?” Lachlan lowered his voice dangerously and watched her expression. Next to him, Adair inhaled sharply and put a hand to the hilt of his sword.
Robina stumbled back and nearly tripped. “Is that what my brat of a daughter told ye? She is naught but a liar too!”
“So, ye are claiming that two different women are liars?” Lachlan mused as he stepped toward her.
“I happen to know that my wife is telling the truth. I already spoke to Jean and I know that ye had planned to work my wife to death. Since ye lied about that, I am also inclined to believe that ye would have killed Kenzy had yer daughter not gotten herself with child and ruined yer plan.”
“She is the sister of a warrior,” Adair hissed. “Ye will die for that.”
“I didna do anything and ye cannae prove any plot,” Robina hissed.
“Did ye collude with another to kill my wife?” Lachlan roared. “Did ye?”
“Nay!” Robina cried out. “I didna. ’Tis true that I hate her. She is standing where my daughter should be, but I love to watch her suffer. I would never be foolish enough to try and kill her. I know that carries a death sentence. I wasna here. I didna even know that anything had happened to her!”
The woman was quaking in fear and Lachlan believed that she was telling the truth. No one would dare lie to him now. “Make sure her cottage is checked thoroughly for Fenton’s man,” he told Adair. “Give Robina a chance to pack and escort her to the border.”
“Laird, please!” Robina begged as she fell to her knees.
“I am being kind,” Lachlan said coldly. “If ye step foot on this land again, ye will be executed.”
Adair growled and Lachlan could tell that his friend wanted to take care of the problem right now. He was itching too as well, but Isla was under his protection now and he didn’t want her to have to live with the knowledge that her mother had been executed for treason.
“Finish up here,” he told Adair quietly. “Then help Blaine and Jamie. I willna rest until I discover who shot my wife.”
“What will ye do? Will ye see to yer wife?”
Without answering, Lachlan turned and headed to the keep. He would not apologize to Sloane. She had deceived him, but at the same time, he needed to learn just what was going on in Sloane’s head and find out just where her loyalties and her heart were residing.
“Thank ye,” Sloane told Isla as the woman helped her button up her dress.
She’d entered the chamber while Sloane was bathing and refused to leave until she knew that Sloane was all right.
Now that she was starting to open up, she was a tangled knot of fear and worry.
Sloane was more concerned about Isla than about herself.
“I am sorry about yer mother.”
“She may have been the one trying to kill ye,” Isla muttered as she sat on the bed. “I should be apologizing to ye about my mother.”