Page 270 of The Valiant Knight
It was the one that had appeared from the storage room against the table where Ceit’s bones had been laid out.
She began reading, trying to dig deeper.
‘Ciarán Begbie, the loyal attendant to Lord Duncan Granndach, was killed when someone tried to make a move on Duncan’s castle. While sleeping, Ciarán heard a noise and put his body over Duncan to spare him from being murdered.’
She stared at it.
“Oh, wow,” she whispered.
Needless to say, she kept reading. Now, she was learning some things.
‘When Duncan awoke, he heard the screams of Ciarán that they were under attack, and he was able to defend himself to push back the attack on his castle. In the process, Ciarán Begbie died.’
She looked at the date, and it was twenty years after Duncan had returned from the war when Ceit had written to him.
Gabby kept scanning, and didn’t see anything else of importance, but one last thing.
‘Ciarán Begbie’s body was removed from the crypt in the castle, and instead he was interred in a secret location that was handpicked by Duncan Granndach. It was to show honor for the sacrifice that Ciarán had made to save his life. Historians believe that the only reason he wasn’t buried in the official crypt was because it was considered taboo.’
Holy shit.
Taboo?
She did another search, and found that the punishment for being gay in the sixteen hundreds in Scotland was pretty simple.
It was death.
Sitting there, she considered it.
The extra crypt in the castle could very well be for Duncan’s son, but she didn’t believe it was.
“You were in love with him, and when he saved you and you had to move him, you put him somewhere safe where the church couldn’t destroy his body, didn’t you, Duncan?” she asked, talking to herself. “But you left that crypt empty because he loved you and you loved him. In your heart, he was your soulmate and husband.”
Gabby believed she’d solved another piece of the puzzle.
Only, she wanted more. So, she kept researching Ciarán.
She felt like there was still information that could be found, and if anything, she was thorough.
Since she knew how he died, Gabby wanted to know how they met. Was it a mere coincidence, or was there more?
It was time to find out.
She spent the next ten minutes going through anything she could find with his name.
That’s when she located the mother lode.
What she found was he was sold to the Lord to be a soldier to defend their lands. He was purchased when Duncan was eighteen, and Ciarán was sixteen. Then, the castle was built.
The dates lined up.
She knew Ceit’s notes began in fifteen ninety-three, but the castle was constructed in fifteen eighty-three.
Duncan was twice her age, but Ciarán wasn’t. He was two years younger than Duncan.
Ciarán had been with Duncan six years before the castle was ever built.
It wasn’t built for her.
