Chapter Twenty

The chamber to which Tansy had been conducted looked comfortable and luxurious. Dominated by a huge bed hung with patterned draperies, furnished with several chests, a large carved wardrobe, and a padded bench seat, it surpassed even the rooms at Crag Corvan. A fire burned—no doubt lit by some poor soul of Noreen’s ilk—yet Tansy felt cold to the bones, her hands like ice and her teeth ready to chatter.

This did not bode well, none of it. The instinct to which she could not help but listen, especially in times of trouble, continued to howl at her. She’d been forced to watch Catha walk away from her, in Latham’s company for a private discussion, before being shut away here.

Not what either of them had intended when they hatched their scheme. They’d sworn to stick together. Already Latham had succeeded in separating them.

And Malcolm…

She tried to close her mind to the thought of him. He would have caught them up by now. Had he met Lionel and the other members of Catha’s guard? How angry would he be?

Angry. He would be a different man from the one who’d held her in his arms last night, kissed her so sweetly, and made her feel like a queen. Nay, but ’twas not so—he’d made her feel no paltry queen but rather a conqueror, a claimer of his body and his passion. And his heart? She feared that had worked out far differently. Quite likely he’d claimed hers instead.

And thus she’d sought to protect him from this place where he’d suffered so terribly, and to leave him behind. Indeed, she’d softly kissed the wounds he still bore.

She assured herself, now, she’d rather endure any fate in this place than see him suffer so again. Aye now—there was resolve. She drew a breath and tried to close her mind to the possibility of him following her and Catha inside.

She did not often pray. Indeed, she could not be sure she believed in the kind of deity the Church espoused. She believed rather in the elements that made up her world, the ones she called upon when she wove her magic. The light and the dark. The fire, the water, the air; the earth that had cradled her all her days.

But she whispered a prayer now, that Malcolm would have the sense to stay where he was. If she and Catha were already lost—she for Malcolm’s sake and Catha for Mercien’s—let them then be lost. Malcolm need not throw his life after theirs.

Please, let him see it so.

****

“Forgive me, Sir Malcolm, but I do no’ see the sense in you tossing awa’ your safety and possibly your life.”

Malcolm stopped pacing when Lionel spoke earnestly. With nightfall, they’d withdrawn into the forest and Malcolm could no longer see Dun Ballan even though he still felt its presence. The other two guards remained asleep, but Lionel had risen with the dawn and interrupted Malcolm’s lengthy pacing.

“I suggest you get some rest and await what the day brings.”

It should bring Mercien’s release—if Latham had any honor, which Malcolm scarcely believed. If it happened, if Mercien emerged from the stinking hole in which he’d been held, covered in wounds, what should Malcolm do then? What could he do but conduct his brother safe away? That had been his intention ever since the moment Latham released him.

He’d been willing then to countenance trading the safety of one he loved for that of another he loved. But that had been before Tansy Bellrose Gant entered his life. How he felt about her he could not fairly say. She’d beleaguered him ever since he rode over that rise in the roadway and saw her lashed to the post. A complication he did not need. A responsibility he did not welcome. An invitation he could not bring himself to refuse.

What should he do? Wait here for Mercien? Risk himself, and perhaps Mercien in turn, by following her—them—inside? If he fell once more into Latham’s hands, who would rescue Tansy, or indeed Catha, then?

Mercien must be his first concern. He owed that to his father, and to Mercien also. Catha, he argued with himself as he had from the start, would survive. Latham would not dare harm her too terribly, as his wife—if being compelled to share the monster’s bed could be construed as not being harmed too terribly.

He shivered where he stood. What had he done?

The only thing he could. As for Tansy…

He turned away from Lionel and once more took to pacing.

****

“Are you well, mistress? What said he to you?” Tansy grasped Catha’s hands, which felt cold as her own. Catha had been conducted to the chamber by a servant with a light. The keep now lay quiet; surely they had reached the heart of the night.

“You were gone ever so long.”

“Aye.” Catha’s cheek looked pale, and her hands quivered. “We did speak long together.”

Tansy for once held her tongue, sensing Catha needed time to marshal her thoughts before speaking further. Towing her to the bench, she compelled Catha to sit, still holding her hands.

“I hope,” Catha said at last, “I ha’ no’ given away our intent. ’Tis a difficult thing, holding a conversation wi’ that man. He has a tricky mind and sees far too much. He unsettles me.” Catha’s worried blue gaze met Tansy’s. “I hope he did not see what lies in my heart.”

“Your feelings for Mercien, you mean?” And how would Tansy conduct herself in Catha’s place? If she knew Malcolm languished somewhere in this vast pile, chained and subject to tortures that left the sort of wounds she’d seen? She might well lose her mind with the desperation of it, rant and rail at Latham and completely reveal her weakness.

Catha nodded. “I wanted so badly to bargain and beg for Mercien’s release, to win him free. I could no’ and had to sit there listening to Latham pretend to be welcoming and accommodating. Och, he is welcoming, all right. Accommodating…I am no’ so certain.”

“What said he to you? And what said you o’ your appearance here?”

“Just as you and I discussed. I said Malcolm had come by Castle Gunn and let slip that Mercien is being kept here. I did no’ say ‘imprisoned.’ I did no’ dare. I told Latham that as a good friend and having known Mercien from childhood, I felt compelled to come and inquire for his welfare. I said whatever misunderstanding had led to Latham believing himself injured or insulted by Mercien maun be just that, a misunderstanding. That Mercien is the fairest and sunniest natured of men—”

Catha promptly broke down, drew her hands from Tansy’s and covered her face with them. Not certain what to do, Tansy sat and watched her struggle to control her emotions, while compassion flooded her heart.

The compassion sat strangely enough—in truth, she rarely thought of anyone but herself. Not her Da, working long days to keep them fed, nor Bessie, attempting to maintain peace in the house despite Tansy’s shenanigans. Now, though, she cared—far too much—about Malcolm. And Catha? Och, she could not let herself grow attached to this woman. For if things went wrong, Catha must be sacrificed.

She, Tansy, could not permit things to go wrong.

“There now,” she said meaninglessly. “And how did Latham respond?”

Catha raised a devastated face from her hands. “He said Mercien maun pay the price for his disloyalty. That he had acted against the Crown in France and he, Latham, represented the King’s interest. He is very high in King James’s confidence, you ken.”

“Aye.”

“And can I question the intent o’ the King?”

Tansy could. James’s fierce and unreasoning stance against witchcraft had turned the country on its head and unleashed a spate of persecution that might well have seen her sentenced to an excruciating death.

“I asked, very gently of course, why Mercien had no’ been put to trial if he had committed acts against his king. Latham said he might well be, in due time, did events no’ occur to change the complexion of things.”

“Events?”

Catha’s gaze met Tansy’s. “I believe he will agree to release Mercien—eventually—if he gets what he wants. ’Tis all a ploy, this—Mercien’s imprisonment, Malcolm’s imprisonment and release… He wants for me to wed wi’ him.” Catha drew a ragged breath. “And can I do otherwise if no other persuasion serves?”

Catha seized Tansy’s hands once more and leaned close in the stillness of the night. “There is but one solution; we maun act as we planned and see that monster dead.”