Page 26 of Awoken
“Wine?” she asked, her voice huskier than usual.
“Aye,” he replied, grateful for the offer. The events at noon still unsettled him, perhaps wine would push the images of Father Athol bleeding to death before the altar to the back of his mind.
Drew handed him a goblet before motioning to one of the high-backed chairs before the hearth. “Please … sit down.”
Ross did as bid, although he couldn’t relax. It was highly unusual to be invited into the women’s solar with a woman alone—widow or not.
He’d known Drew MacKinnon a long while. She was nearly a decade his elder, and had wed not long after his arrival at Dunan. Even as a younger woman, she’d been a force to be reckoned with though—blade tongued and sharp-witted. Her much older husband hadn’t known what to do with her. It wasn’t entirely a surprise that she’d remained a widow since his demise.
Drew took the chair opposite. She sat stiff and tense, her fingers wrapped around her goblet, although she didn’t drink from it. Her gaze never left Ross, as if she was silently taking his measure. And when she finally spoke, Drew’s voice was softer than he’d ever known it. “He’s gone too far this time.”
Silence drew out between them then. Ross wasn’t sure how to respond. His first instinct was that this was a trap. MacKinnon was testing his loyalty. Duncan and Drew had always been close, and in the past she’d been as unfailingly faithful to her brother as Ross had been.
He had to be careful around her. She could still be talking to him on her brother’s behalf. Ross had seen the look in the clan-chief’s eye when he’d stared him down earlier. MacKinnon had been challenging him, and perhaps he wasn’t yet done.
Her words were shocking, traitorous. No one in this broch spoke out openly against Duncan MacKinnon. No one.
“How far do we follow him?” Drew asked when Ross didn’t speak. “We both hated it when he raged at Siusan for dying in childbirth, and I’m sure ye heard about how he attempted to rape that nun last year? Aye, we’re both willing to let him wed a woman against her will … but murdering a priest? When do any of us say that he’s crossed a line that can never be uncrossed?”
Once again, Ross wasn’t sure how to respond. He’d spent the last fifteen years serving this family, and being asked to give such a frank opinion unsettled him. Instead, he raised a hand, touching his left cheek as he continued to hold Drew’s gaze. “He did that, I take it?”
Drew’s mouth pursed. “He used to hit me when we were bairns, ye know … but once we grew up, he never lifted a hand to me … until today.” She drew in a deep breath then, her jaw firming. “Todaywill be the last time.”
Ross held her gaze, impressed by her iron will, her strength. He knew that she meant her words, yet he wasn’t sure how she expected him to respond to her admission.
He decided to make light of it. “What are ye saying?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow. “That ye will hold yer tongue around him in future … no matter how he provokes ye?”
Drew’s nostrils flared, her eyes turning flint grey as she stared him down. “Duncan has reasons for being the way he is,” she replied, her tone clipped. “Our parents were … harsh … but I’m done making excuses for my brother.”
Ross caught the bitter edge to her voice. “Why are ye telling me all this?” he asked, frowning.
They continued to watch each other, and Ross’s wariness grew. He’d never trusted Drew MacKinnon, and she’d given him little reason till now.
“I saw the way ye looked at Lady Leanna today in the kirk,” Drew said, her voice softening. “Ye sympathize with her.”
Ross grew still. “Aye,” he admitted reluctantly, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll act on it.”
Drew inclined her head, mouth quirking. “I’ve watched ye over the years, Ross … and must admit there have been times when I’ve thought ye as immoral as my brother. But of late I see ye have a sense of right and wrong after all.”
A man without a conscience … without a moral compass.
Ross’s mouth soured as Leanna’s accusing words rang in his head, mocking him.
“Maybe I’m no better than him,” Ross replied, his tone cooling. “I’ve put up with things others would not.”
“As has Broderick … as have I,” Drew murmured. “But that doesn’t make any of us black-hearted … yet. We are entangled in his web, but there’s still time to untangle ourselves.”
Ross’s fingers clenched around the stem of the goblet he’d not yet touched. A cold, hard stone settled in the pit of his belly. This conversation was now steering itself into dangerous waters indeed. “What do ye want of me, Lady Drew?”
Drew took a dainty sip of wine before swirling the goblet, her expression serious now. “Nothing stays the same,” she began, holding his gaze. “Ye might think yer position is secure at Dunan, but it’s only as safe as the mind of the man who rules these lands. How sane do ye think my brother is? How long before he starts a feud with the MacDonalds or the Frasers? How long before he raises taxes so high that folk rise up against him?”
Ross didn’t answer, although he took her point.
“Change is afoot,” Drew continued, her voice low and determined. “Soon … the balance of power in this broch is going to shift.” Her gaze narrowed then as it snared his once more. “I need to know that when it does, ye will be my ally … not his.”
I need a plan. Unable to sit, or rest, Leanna paced the confines of her bed-chamber.I won’t give up.
After Campbell had locked her inside the chamber, despair had visited Leanna for a spell. She’d thrown herself down upon her narrow bed and wept until she felt sick from it. But after the storm of tears had passed, a strange calm had settled upon her.
