Chapter 27 #2
Domhnall shrugged slightly. “Nay.”
Even half-awake, her gaze was far too perceptive. “Ye are thinking about the attack.”
He did not answer. Margaret pushed herself up slightly, the blanket shifting around her shoulders as she leaned against the headboard beside him.
“I ken that those men came fer me,” she whispered, as if by not saying the words too loudly, she might make them less true.
Domhnall’s silence answered her. For a moment, she said nothing. Then she asked another question.
“I’ve heard the councilmen talk of yer feud with MacGregor,” she chose her words cautiously. “When did this feud begin?”
Domhnall’s gaze darkened slightly.
“Years ago.”
He didn’t want to talk about this. But he wanted her to know.
“Over land?” she asked again.
“Nay.”
Margaret tilted her head. “Then what?”
Domhnall did not answer immediately. The chamber had grown very still in the early gray light. Margaret sat beside him beneath the blankets, watching him with quiet patience and waiting in the way she had learned forced him to speak eventually.
He rubbed a hand slowly over his jaw.
“When I was younger,” he said at last, “the fighting between Campbell and MacGregor was already old. It was nae a feud that began with me, or with Kenneth. The borderlands between our clans have been contested for generations, cattle raids, ambushes along the passes, small battles that flare and die and flare again.”
Margaret said nothing. Domhnall’s gaze had drifted somewhere beyond the walls.
“There was a raid along the western routes,” he continued. “MacGregor men had been crossing the passes, taking cattle from Campbell lands and attacking travelers under our protection. Me faither sent men tae intercept them.”
“Ye led them,” Margaret felt the answer.
Domhnall nodded once. “Aye.”
He paused briefly before continuing.
“We met them near Glen Orchy. It was nae meant tae be a great battle, just a clash between raiding parties. But it turned intae something worse. The fighting lasted for hours. Men fell on both sides.”
Margaret watched him.
“In the end,” Domhnall said slowly, “Kenneth’s faither lay dead.”
The words hung in the air.
“I didnae strike the blow,” he added after a moment. “But a Campbell blade did. That was enough.”
Margaret’s hand rested quietly over the blanket.
“He was nae laird yet,” Domhnall continued. “Kenneth. But he was there that day. He watched his father die on the field.”
He exhaled slowly. “After that, the feud changed.”
Margaret did not interrupt.
“Three years passed,” Domhnall said. “Long enough that some believed the worst of it had cooled. I had married by then.”
It felt strange to talk about her. Then again, he could never pretend that she never existed.
“Me wife wasnae part of the feud,” Domhnall explained quietly. “She had naething tae dae with the fighting between our clans. She had never even seen a battlefield.”
His gaze remained distant.
“But Kenneth remembered.”
The silence in the chamber deepened.
“As ye ken, one night,” Domhnall continued, “MacGregor men came tae me household while I was away with me men along the western road. They… burned the house. They killed everyone who tried tae stop them.” He spoke the words plainly.
“When we reached the ruins the next morning, there was naething left but ash.”
Margaret closed her eyes briefly. Her breath slowed.
Domhnall’s voice had grown colder now. “So aye, that was Kenneth’s answer tae his faither’s death.”
The quiet stretched for several seconds before he continued again.
“The Crown intervened after that, because the feud had grown too dangerous. There were negotiations, threats, agreements meant tae keep the clans from tearing each other apart entirely.”
Margaret looked at him. “And that is where I came in.”
Domhnall nodded slowly. “Yer faither became involved in those negotiations.”
Margaret’s gaze lifted.
“Drummond lands sit between Campbell and MacGregor territory. The Crown believed an alliance through marriage might stabilize the region.”
She nodded faintly.
“The first arrangement proposed,” he said slowly, “was between Drummond and MacGregor.”
Margaret hesitated. “I heard me faither speak of it once. But it was never decided.”
“MacGregor didnae see it that way.”
Margaret looked back up.
“The Crown changed its mind,” Domhnall continued. “They nay longer trusted MacGregor after the attack on me household.”
“The Masquerade. Me faither and MacGregor planned tae make the alliance go ahead anyway. Secretly.” Margaret added, the pieces fully falling into place.
“Aye.”
“And Kenneth…”
Domhnall’s voice hardened. “In his eyes, the Crown took what was already promised tae him and handed it tae his greatest enemy.”
The truth settled heavily in the air.
“He lost his faither tae a Campbell blade,” Domhnall continued quietly. “He answered by killing me wife.”
His gaze held hers.
“And now the woman he believed he would marry sleeps in me bed.”
Margaret did not look away. “He will try again.”
“Let him,” Domhnall replied without a shadow of a doubt.
He watched her for a long moment, with the last of the night’s fear still echoing in his chest. Kenneth MacGregor might come for her again, but next time he would find Domhnall waiting.