Chapter 6
The council members of Clan Aberfeld were an august lot, gray-haired and balding, with seamed faces.
Many of them had served Edan’s father faithfully for years.
Collectively, they were wise, noble men, clever and respectable.
They were hard men, many of them veterans of fierce battles, a walking repository of valuable experience and knowledge.
Yet, they sat before Edan’s scalding tirade in silence, their heads bowed in shame, like naughty choir boys being reprimanded by the minister for some collective transgression.
He began with a glowering stare around the table, subduing them.
When he was satisfied they looked scared enough, in a voice that shook the rafters, he unleashed a tidal wave of invective upon them which was deeply insulting but exactly described what he thought of them.
After that, he changed gear and hammered them relentlessly for about twenty minutes, letting his pent-up fury flow over them in a steady stream so that they would never forget it and never repeat what they had tried to do behind his back.
“I’ve never had the misfortune to come across such a bunch of ungrateful, back-stabbing, disloyal bastards as ye lot.
I look around this table and I want to puke me guts out.
I feel a fool for trustin’ ye. Me own council.
I went away believin’ I’d left the clan in trustworthy hands. Now, I see how wrong I was.”
Silence, cowed expressions, and guilty glances met his blazing eyes as they swept across the heads of his advisors.
“After risking me life ten times over on the battlefield in support of one of our closest allies, what do I come home to? Treachery, disloyalty of the worst sort. Instead of waitin’ for me return or tryin’ to find out if I was alive, ye cold-bloodedly decided I was dead.
It didnae take ye long to consign me to me grave, did it?
Twelve months, that’s all. One year, and ye had me dead and buried. ”
He paused for breath as well as effect before continuing. “But they say every cloud has a silver lining. I suppose this little escapade of yers has at least shown me I cannae trust a single one of ye.”
His voice rose to a new height of fury. “But do ye ken the worst thing of all yer plottin’ behind me back to replace me?
” He stared at them one by one. As he planned, no one dared reply to the rhetorical question.
“The thing that makes me want to rip yer heads off and stick them out there on the castle gate on pikes?”
The silence was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife and sold at the market for sixpence a pound.
“I’ll tell ye, shall I? Me wife! Lady Aberfeld.
Ye didnae protect me wife.” He slammed his fists on the table, making it shake, and the councilmen jumped.
“In fact, instead of protectin’ her while I was away, as I trusted ye to do, ye tried to use her to carry out yer scheme to replace me by forcin’ her into a marriage she didnae want with yer new favorite laird!
Well, let me remind all of ye, so ye dinnae make the same mistake again. She’s married to me!”
He banged his fists on the table again. “She’s me wife, yer Laird’s wife!” Bang! “She’s nae some bloody bargainin’ chip ye can for yer own convenience.” Bang! Bang! Bang!
He let that sink in.
“When I think of what that lass has been through because of ye, ye treasonous bunch, bringin’ yer snivelin’, wee dog into me castle to propose to her, why, ye’re lucky I didnae bite yer heads off with me teeth.
Ye must have been very disappointed when I turned up alive and kickin’.
Aye, I’m lookin’ at ye, Findlay Pearson. ”
He pinioned his formerly trusted advisor, a kindly, mild-mannered man, with a steely look. “I saw ye in the hall just now, lookin’ to run from me. Well, ye should have run, man.”
Pearson hung his head.
Edan returned his wrathful gaze to the rest. “Well, I have to tell ye that yer wee attempt at matchmakin’ didnae go very well.
I kicked that bastard Nurkirk out of here on his arse, so ye’ll nae be seein’ any more of him.
And now I expect every single one of ye to personally apologize to me wife for the disrespect ye’ve shown her.
“Ye’re lucky that I got here in time to prevent ye from carryin’ out yer plot.
Ye should be grateful I did because I’ve saved yer cowardly skins.
Do ye ken why? Because Nurkirk is a bastard!
Ask any of his clansfolk. They hate him.
I hate him. Ye should all hate him. Christ!
To think that through yer stupidity ye were so close to givin’ me clan away to that vile, sleekit creature, the clan that me family’s ruled for centuries!
Yer perfidy takes me breath away. Thank God me faither’s nae here to see this. ”
Deciding they were sufficiently cowed, he wrapped up his speech.
“I hope ye all realize that after the disloyalty ye’ve shown me and me wife, it’ll take a long time until ye earn me trust back. And be warned, I’ll be watchin’ ye—all of ye. And woe betide anyone who steps out of line. I trust that nothin’ like this will happen again.”
He stopped abruptly and sat down, making sure to keep his mask of fury in place.
He actually felt a lot better for getting it all off his chest, and he hoped it would work and put any idea of future plots out of their minds.
He glanced at Zander, who gave him an almost imperceptible nod of approval.
His rant had been not only to let off steam. It had a purpose. If he was ever going to be able to trust any one of them again, he had to put the fear of God into them. Yet, he needed them.
Clan Aberfeld was relatively small in comparison to some of the bigger, more powerful ones. As a whole, the council as it stood was irreplaceable. Much as it pained him, that meant it would be necessary to forget and forgive the shameful incident if the clan was going to thrive.
One of the councilmen near the head of the table stood up.
It was Carson Smithers, the elected head of the council.
A burly, balding man in his sixties, he was still very active and still trained with the soldiers daily—a tough, old soldier who had seen and done much in his long life.
In the past, Carson had often given sound military advice not only to Edan but also to his father.
He cleared his throat and said humbly, “Me Laird, as head of the council, I ask for yer permission to speak on behalf of all of us here.”
“Ye have me permission, Carson,” Edan told him with a nod, hoping for abject apologies.
“We want to offer ye and Lady Aberfeld our sincerest apologies for what has happened. We take full responsibility for our decisions, which we now realize were made in grave error and a gross misunderstanding of the situation. We sincerely believed we were doin’ the right thing for the future of our clan.
We stand corrected and beg yer forgiveness and understandin’ for any offense and distress we have caused ye and yer wife.
We will, of course, obey yer wishes and apologize to her personally over the comin’ days. Thank ye, Me Laird.” Carson sat down.
“Does everyone here agree with what Carson has just said?” Edan asked, scanning the faces around the table closely.
To his satisfaction and relief, subdued “ayes” came from all seated there. Edan’s eyes were drawn to Findlay, who seemed quite on edge and fidgety.
Good. That means he’s got the message.
Edan stood up and dismissed the meeting, glad it was over and he could get back to the normal business of running his clan. He and Zander waited until the chamber was empty before finally leaving themselves. They went immediately to Edan’s study, where he poured each of them a stiff dram of whisky.
“Christ, I need a drink. Me throat’s dry after all that shoutin’.” He swallowed the whisky gratefully in one gulp, relishing its warmth as it went down his throat.
“Slàinte mhath,” Zander said, raising his glass before drinking.
“Aye, slàinte mhath.” Edan repeated the old Gaelic toast to health, feeling he needed it at that moment. He collapsed into an armchair. “Well, I’m glad to have got that out of the way. How did ye think it went?”
Zander sat down opposite him. “I thought it went very well. Ye certainly had those back-stabbin’ bastards terrified for a while there. It was quite amusin’ to watch, I must admit. Though I ken ’tis nay laughin’ matter.”
“Laugh away, me friend. That was me aim—to frighten them into submission,” Edan admitted. “It had to be done. Do ye think they’ll learn their lesson after that?”
“Christ, aye, I do. I have never done anythin’ wrong, and I was practically pissin’ me pants. Ye were so terrifyin’ at times. I need nay reminder nae to cross ye in the future,” Zander joked.
Edan let out a long breath, suddenly feeling very tired.
“I meant it when I said it would take a long time for me to trust them again. It does somethin’ to a man when he finds out that folks he trusted wanted to declare him dead and buried when he’s still alive.
But ’tis Olivia I really feel bad for. Can ye imagine what she must have felt like, with them tryin’ to push her into marryin’ that dog Nurkirk?
She says she meant to refuse him, but if I hadnae come home just in time, I’m certain they would have forced her.
She had nay way of defendin’ herself against them, and I wasnae here to do it for her as I should have. ”
“I ken ye’re blamin’ yerself, Edan, but there’s nay way ye could have kenned the danger she was in.”
“I should have made sure she was better protected. I shouldnae have left her at all.”
“Ye had nay choice. Ye had to answer the call to arms.”
“Aye, well, somehow that doesnae make me feel any better. She doesnae even ken me, Zander. I’m a stranger to her. It wasnae fair to bring her here. She’s a bonny, wee lass with lots of spirit. Do ye ken, she didnae even shy away from me scars?”