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“She carries the mark of the devil’s handmaiden. Her hair is red, her eyes mismatched.”
“Oh, come on.” Aileanna shot to her feet, shaking off Fergus’s restraining hand. “Genetics is what it is. Look around you. What about him, or her?” She pointed out a redheaded man and woman on either side of the hal who were doing their best to duck behind those who stood in front of them. The priest pointed at Mari, trembling with frustrated rage.
“’Tis no’ only the hair. ’Tis the eyes that damn her the most.”
“A condition cal ed heterochromia is what is responsi
ble for Mari’s eyes. It’s because she has either too much pigment or lack of it in her iris.”
Rory didn’t know what she was saying, but he did know it was not her place to say it. His brother was to defend Mari. He skewered Iain with an angry glare. Iain shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “Lady Aileanna, you wil sit!”
“This is a farce, and I can’t believe you’re al owing it.”
“Sit down. Now,” Rory growled from between clenched teeth. The bloody woman would undermine him in front of his clan if he was not careful.
“Harrumph.” She sat back down on the bench, folding her arms across her bountiful chest, and gave him a damn ing look.
The priest sneered at her, and Rory expel ed a sigh of relief when Iain grabbed her before she went after the man. His brother leaned over and quietly spoke to her before rising to his feet. Iain held out his hand to the wee lass. “Mari, come here, please.”
Aileanna urged her to her feet.
Noting the curled fist at his brother’s side, Rory hid a smile of satisfaction behind his hand. Iain turned the girl to face the gathered crowd and looked directly at the priest.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but ’tis my understandin’ that no one who is possessed of the devil would be able to 88
come in contact with a cross, and if it was metal it would surely burn them.”
“Wel , aye, but—” The priest’s eyes widened when Iain re
moved a silver cross from his hand and placed it around the lass’s neck. For added effect, he had her bring it to her lips.
“I would say that’s al the evidence we need. But per
haps we should simply ask Mari.” Rory raised his voice to be heard above the din of voices in the hal . “Are you a witch, lass?”
“Nay.” She shook her head vehemently.
“In league with the devil?”
“Nay, my laird.”
“Thank you, Mari, you may take yer seat.”
Iain guided her back to the bench and Aileanna wrapped Mari in her arms while the lass sobbed quietly. Rory met her gaze above Mari’s head. The smile curving her soft pink lips and the look of gratitude in her sapphire eyes stoked the flame of desire that had simmered inside of him since the moment she’d walked into the hal . Determined to dampen the fire that threatened to engulf him, he tried to draw forth an image of Brianna, but al he managed to conjure of her was an intangible wisp of memory. Guilt ate at him. He was beginning to forget, and al because of her, the woman who sat in front of him. He’d made a promise on Brianna’s deathbed that no other would take her place. He’d meant it then, as he did now. Rory turned his attention from her to the priest. The man was scarlet with pent-up fury. “What of her?”
He pointed a gnarled finger at Aileanna. “I demand she be punished or I shal go to the king.”
Rory leaned forward. “Do you threaten me, Priest?”
“Nay . . . nay, but ye must—”
“What I must do is get at the truth.”
Mrs. Mac relieved Aileanna of the burden of Mari. The woman looked like she prepared for battle. LORD OF THE ISLES
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“She struck me down. There are witnesses.”
“None who have come forward,” Rory commented dryly.
“Surely ye jest.”
“Yer cal in’ me a liar, are you?” Rory kept his voice quiet, dangerously so.
“Nay, but—”
“There’s only one person who is lying and that is you.”
