Page 78 of Kilted Hate

Once inside, Katherine saw evidence of their last stay. There were water skins sitting on a table with chairs around it. A pile of newly collected logs sat beside the large fire in the living room, and bones from the animals they had clearly caught and eaten were strewn in one corner of the floor.

“Take her upstairs,” Reginald ordered one of his men. “I don’t want her causing any more trouble.”

“Yes, my lord,” the guard replied.

“No. Wait,” Katherine cried as the guard grabbed her by the arm.

“You will obey me, Katherine, or so help me, you will never see the light of another day.”

Katherine gasped at her brother’s words, and feeling suddenly stunned, she stared at Reginald in utter astonishment, even as the guard pulled her from out of his sight.

Once upstairs, he shoved her roughly into the room, stepped back into the corridor beyond, and slammed the door shut. Katherine’s eyes darted about her, taking in her new living quarters. The floor was filthy, covered in dust and leaves that had blown in through the holes in the wall where windows might once have been. Against the far wall was a wooden dresser, and on the opposite wall, a mattress lay on the floor. Other than that, the room was empty.

Exhausted from the journey, Katherine dropped onto the mattress. It was laden with only a blanket, and pulling it round herself, she curled into a ball.

I should warn Domhnall that Reginald is coming for him.

How can you do that when you don’t even know where you are? Besides, Reginald will never be able to get into the castle. It is now too well guarded after Domhnall discovered your betrayal.

Both of those points were valid, and thus, Katherine could not argue with them, even though she sensed her brother was far sneakier than she had ever thought possible. Even if she wanted to warn Domhnall, she would never manage to escape from that house without one of her brother’s men coming after her. And again, even if she did escape, what direction was she supposed to go?

Katherine was still puzzling that conundrum when her eyes began to droop. She just needed to rest a while. Perhaps after a small nap, her mind would work better and she would be able to figure it out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The morning after he and his brothers had talked, Domhnall left the castle alone. Neither Kai nor Magnus were happy about that decision, but with the knowledge that the man who had been trying to kill him was now safely on his way to the coast with an armed guard, Domhnall assured his brothers that there was no longer a threat to his life.

“Besides,” he said, once he was mounted upon his horse, “I can handle Reginald de Beaumont and his men. Ye ken that. I need tae speak tae Katherine, and perhaps, if all goes well, I might nae return alone.”

The truth was, he needed time to think. Not that his thoughts had changed since the night before. Kai and Magnus had helped him to see that he had been so focused on the fact that Katherine was a traitor, that he had not fully and clearly examined the facts.

Admittedly, his heart wanted to believe that, while she wasn’t exactly innocent, she had experienced a change of heart since her arrival at the castle. And that change of heart had something to do with the fact that she had fallen in love with him. But the only way he was going to discover the truth was by asking her outright. Now she knew that he was aware of her brother’s plans, she had nothing left to hide. Or rather, no reason to hide.

For the following few hours, he argued, fought, consoled and contradicted himself. Before Katherine had walked into his life, he had been content. Or at least as content as one could be, knowing they were being forced to marry against their will. The only thing he had known about his future involved an English woman whom he would be joined to, whether he wanted that or not.

He never expected to like her, or for her feistiness to actually impress him, and then, to eventually fall in love with her. Once that happened, however, he was fully committed to loving, protecting, caring and providing for her with no hesitation.

Discovering she was a spy and the depths of her betrayal had nearly destroyed him. Had she just been the English woman he had expected, his heart would not have taken such a beating. But Katherine had been far more than that. She had come to mean so much more to him, everything.

As much as he wanted to believe she still loved him, there was still a large part of him that wondered if, whatever he heard from her when they eventually met, would be tainted by his emotions;that he would not be able to hear anything she said from an objective point of view.

O’ course, ye willnae. Ye ken ‘afore ye even see her, that ye want tae believe she wanted nay part in this.

And that’s what worried him. How could he possibly be detached where she was concerned?

Ye cannae. Ye’re just going tae have tae trust yer gut.

It was hardly the answer he was looking for, but knowing himself as well as he did, he also knew it to be the truth.

Eventually, Drynoch came into view, and Domhnall tried as best as possible to settle his nerves. He had made a decision based on the information he had at the time. At the same time, he had acted impulsively, angrily, and sent her away without truly thinking through all the facts. He needed to take some responsibility for the situation.

But the closer he came to Drynoch, the more he realized that something was terribly wrong, and upon finally arriving in the village, he was swiftly approached by many distraught people.

“Me laird. Me laird,” one man cried. “It is devastating.”

“Thank the god’s ye are here,” a woman cried.

“They were slaughtered.”

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