Page 76 of Sweet Home Highlander
Niall spared Aisla one last lingering glance before following his brother out into the connecting sitting room where his mother sat with several of the women of Maclaren and Tarbendale in tearful vigil. He sucked in a ragged breath and met the duchess’s red-rimmed eyes. She had always loved Aisla from the moment she’d met her at Sorcha and Brandt’s wedding, and she’d been devastated to learn of the estrangement. On more than one occasion, she’d admonished Niall to go after his wife and bring her home, her disappointment obvious when he didn’t. He’d failed her, too.
“Will ye sit with her?” he rasped in a hoarse voice. “So she will see a friendly face if she awakens?”
“Of course, my darling.”
He didn’t say any more, but traced Ronan’s steps to the hall where the Campbell laird was waiting. To Niall’s surprise, the older man was alone and without weapons. Ronan’s soldiers, however, stood guard at the entrance.
“Laird Campbell,” Niall greeted the man, clasping his proffered hand.
“Please, call me Gregor. How fares yer lady?” the laird asked.
“Alive.” He gave the same answer he’d given Ronan, though with much less emotion. Even in his state, showing any weakness to another clan leader wasn’t wise, especially one as wily as Gregor Campbell. “Tell me why yer men took my sister.”
Gregor’s face went ruddy with outrage. “We didnae take Lady Makenna.”
“And the attacks on my mines?” Niall asked, watching him closely. “We found a strip of Campbell tartan after a deliberate collapse. Lives were lost.”
“None of my clan would do such a thing, I swear it to ye. I want an alliance with Maclaren, but no’ one built on deceit and treachery. Ye have my word.”
“Then tell me about Buchanan.”
He met Niall’s eyes, his shrewd brown gaze hiding nothing. “Dougal Buchanan approached me to court my daughter a year ago. She begged me to consider it. Little did I ken that he’d been wooing her in secret for months before coming to my doorstep. But the Buchanan clan is well known, and he claimed his father was interested in an alliance with Clan Campbell.” Gregor blew out a breath. “He also claimed to have childhood ties to Lady Aisla. He said that he could mend the rift between the Maclarens and the Campbells by getting the lady to champion a match with my eldest.”
Niall’s gaze slid to his older brother whose lips had hardened into a flat line at the mention of marriage. It was nearly comical how opposed he was to the idea. In normal circumstances, Niall would have ribbed him ruthlessly. “And ye believed him when Ronan himself had told ye nae?”
“Aye. He was very convincing. And my Rose was taken with his charm. I had nothing to lose. Either way, I would gain an alliance, with the Buchanans or the Maclarens.”
Niall shook his head slowly. “But that’s no’ what he planned. He killed one of my clan, a woman. Shot her in the stomach. Before she died, she said that he had baited her for information about Tarbendale, my sister, and my wife. He was behind the accidents on my lands, and it’s clear now that he planted Campbell colors so it would look like ye were behind it. He wants to cause a feud, and I suspect he’s using my sister to do it.”
“Laird Maclaren,” a breathless voice called as one of Ronan’s men, a wiry soldier named Auley, raced into the hall. “We’ve tracked them to the south border of Maclaren lands where they’ve made camp for the night in a ravine.”
Ronan stood so quickly his chair flew back. “And my sister?”
“Alive and kicking.”
The words brought heavy sighs of relief from both of them. Makenna would not have gone quietly. “Gather the rest of the men. We leave immediately.” Ronan glanced at Niall with a sympathetic look. “If ye wish to stay, I’ll understand.”
Niall scowled. “The only man laying a finger on Dougal Buchanan is me.”
It didn’t take long to assemble the small but fierce company that included the Campbell laird, who had a few questions of his own for Dougal Buchanan, Ronan and a handful of his strongest men, Hamish, Julien, and Niall. He wasn’t too thrilled about the presence of the Frenchman, but the man had proven himself earlier and seemed oddly adamant about finding Makenna.
Under cover of the quickly falling darkness, they followed Auley’s trail to where he’d left Buchanan’s men, and they surrounded the small encampment where a small fire glowed. Niall felt ice enter his veins and a strange sense of calm at the sight of Makenna, tied and gagged next to a tree. Ignoring Ronan’s cautionary look, he unsheathed his claymore and walked as boldly as he pleased into the center of the camp. The look of surprise on Dougal’s face as he leaped to his feet was almost worth it.
“Ye have something of mine, Buchanan.”
The man’s lips peeled away from his teeth in a grimace as he reached for the pistol at his hip, but a quick shout from Ronan and his men stayed his hand. Buchanan’s gaze landed on each of the warriors closing in, his eyes widening at the sight of Laird Campbell in the ranks, and then he shrugged carelessly, even though he could see they outnumbered his men three to one. He held Niall’s stare while his men were disarmed, and Makenna retrieved and untied.
“Are ye hurt? Did any of them touch ye?” Ronan asked. She shook her head. It didn’t miss either brother’s notice that she went straight to Leclerc, allowing him to gather her into an embrace that under normal circumstances would have earned him a thrashing. “Take her back to Maclaren,” Ronan said. “Some of my men will go with ye.”
After they had gone and Makenna was safely out of reach, Niall strode forward until he was nearly nose to nose with the man who had murdered Fenella and nearly killed Aisla. He was barely containing the rage that burned through him.
Buchanan grinned as if sensing his desire to slit his throat then and there. “I left someaught of yers in a shaft. Did ye find her yet?”
“The fact that she’s alive is the only reason I didnae put a bullet in yer head.” Something crazed flickered across the man’s face, a mix of desperation and jealous loathing. “Aye, she’s alive, Buchanan, and ye left her to die, like the coward ye are.”
“Why did ye do it?” That question came from Laird Campbell. “Seduce my Rose if ye wanted Laird Tarbendale’s woman.”
Dougal’s jaw cinched shut as if he wasn’t going to answer, and then a sigh hissed from his lips. “My father threatened to disown me if I didnae get back the alliance I had lost. He blamed me.” His gaze snapped to Niall. “When it was ye to blame for eloping with what was no’ yers to take. She was never meant for ye. She wasmine.”
